Code Switching in Bangladeshi Pop Songs

Abstract

CS is commonly seen as more typical of the spoken language but now a days CS is occurring in contemporary Bangladeshi pop songs as well. Bangladeshi pop singers are not only CS between BangIa and EnglishlHindi/Arabic; but are also adopting the western clothes, movements, norms even accents. The language of the contemporary pop songs and movements seem to be very vulgar, and the vulgarity is expressed through the CS. Our younger generation is influenced by CS and the western styles in these songs. As a result, they are failing to recognize own tradition and culture. This study looks at the functions, attitudes and impacts of CS in Bangladeshi pop songs. It also looks at the effects of these pop songs on the younger generation. The data was collected in three steps: 25 songs lyrics and video clips of Bangladeshi pop songs from 5 artists were selected. 5 songs from each artist which had code switching and available Video clips of the songs were collected from internet and VCDs which has performed for TV· audiences. Data has collected from two groups of people by distributing semi structured questionnaire, to the younger generation (YG) and parents (P). Five experts were interviewed have been conducted. The experts comprised of selecting two media persons. One is a top composer of Bangladesh and other is a guru of Bangladeshi pop songs. The other experts comprise of three academic scholars; who has a background on cultural studies. The findings seem to suggesting that; in the contemporary Bangladeshi pop songs, two types of CS (inter-sentential and intra-sentential) are employed, where four languages (BangIa, English, Hindi and Arabic) have been used. CS between BangIa and English seem to be used more than other languages. We can see that most of the songs talk about love and physical relations. Some songs are very much vulgar in their use of foreign language to CS, especially English; and sometimes BangIa is more vulgar than English. From the video clips it seems that the attires and the movements of the singers are very much western, and this seems to appeal to our younger generation. From the findings we see that there are many differences among the opinions of younger generation, parents and experts. Young people like the Bangladeshi pop songs where as parents do not. The younger generation thinks that using foreign languages in songs especially English is a part of modernity, but parent's group does not support them. Our new generation seems to be following the western style and they think that our culture is back-dated. The experts said that these trends (i.e. use of CS and western styles) will last for a short time and they will dis appear again. But one thing is common, that is all the groups (younger generation, parents and experts) agreed that the Bangladeshi contemporary pop songs are not projecting our culture.