celebrating weirdos
South Asian Representation in Alternative Subcultures
Text by Naz Toorabally | 22.03.2022
My introduction to alternative subcultures was through music thanks to my dad. He’d play bands like Metallica, Nirvana and Papa Roach on car journeys when I was a kid, which had a lasting impact on me. By my second year of secondary school, I was a fully-fledged Emo and listening to bands like My Chemical Romance, Fall Out Boy and Paramore. But always at the back of my mind was a feeling like I didn’t quite belong because I never saw people who looked like me represented across the alternative scene.
Black and people of colour have long felt underrepresented and excluded from alternative subcultures, despite being members of these communities. Take the history of Black and people of colour in British Punk, it’s poorly documented with the exception of Poly Styrene and Don Letts. And even today, few Black and people of colour are featured on the covers of alternative music magazines, headline festival line-ups or selected to model for alternative fashion brands. The lack of historical documentation and representation is partially responsible for why we are still met with surprise for being into alternative music and continue to experience racism in the scene. In response, collectives and projects have emerged to provide empowerment and opportunities by and for Black and people of colour in alternative subcultures.
Decolonise Fest, a three-day DIY punk festival of music, art and workshops in London, organised by and for punks of colour launched in 2017. The festival was created partly in response to the founders sharing similar experiences of racism in the London punk scene and being met with hostility and reluctance from the community to address it. Other ways people are bringing attention to the rich history of Black and people of colour in alternative subcultures is through social media, such as the popular account @bipoc_punk on Instagram. Zines have also made a comeback and have a long history of giving underrepresented and marginalised people a voice and a platform to forge communities of likeminded people, with zines for alternative people of colour including Decolonise Fest and Tear It Down.
"Many of us have felt like we’re the only ones from the South Asian community in the alternative scene, and I realised this was partly because our presence in these scenes was not being documented."
This work is essential to uplifting and remembering Black and people of colour whose contributions have been forgotten and who continue to be made to feel unwelcome. However, being grouped as “people of colour” inevitably means not everyone is represented and highlights the need for culturally-specific collectives and platforms alongside. As a person of South Asian descent, I wanted to learn more about South Asian people – people whose heritage is from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and/or Sri Lanka – in these subcultures from the past and connect with South Asian people in the UK scene today, but I struggled to find people and more information. Little information is available about South Asian people in alternative subcultures in the UK, with the exception of punk band Alien Kulture from the Rock Against Racism movement of the late 70s to early 80s and more recently Nadia Javed from pop-punk trio The Tuts. And while South Asian people from the diaspora are stereotyped as only being interested in bhangra, hip hop, R’n’B and club culture, there are thriving punk, hardcore and metal scenes in South Asia and across Asia which is documented via music news site Unite Asia founded by Riz Farooqi. Many of us have felt like we’re the only ones from the South Asian community in the alternative scene, and I realised this was partly because our presence in these scenes was not being documented.
Inspired by zines, I decided to create a website and an annual print zine called WEIRDO dedicated to documenting and celebrating the experiences, perspectives and contributions of South Asian people in alternative subcultures. Our first zine was published in March 2020 and explored identity and community in British subculture with 14 contributors submitting essays, interviews, photography, art and poetry. In 2021, we released our second zine which was a collection of interviews with 15 South Asian people across the globe working in alternative music industry and part of the DIY scene. Since publishing these two zines, South Asian people from around the world have reached out to tell me how much it means to them to finally see something like this in existence. My hope is that we will continue to build the community of alternative South Asian people online and offline, connecting people, supporting each other and learning from each other through our shared experiences.
Naz Toorabally (she/her) is a musician and the founder of WEIRDO, a zine and platform that documents and celebrates the experiences, perspectives and contributions of South Asian people in alternative subcultures.
From Friday March 25th - Sunday March 27th WEIRDO will be taking over the Museum's basement gallery space for a celebration of their two year anniversary. Join us for the launch party on Friday night - more information here
