“Made in India”

Abstract

The pressing problems and peculiar potential of transculturation in music television can be most profitably addressed by examining the struggles within being waged by local Hindi pop artists such as Alisha Chinai. Through close textual analysis, this article critically examines how and why one of Alishas most popular music videos, titled “Made in India,” has become somewhat of a cultural icon for many Indian women, ranking as the best-selling pop song of all time in the South Asian music market. The authors show how pop constructions of Indiannesson music television have been strategically appropriated by marginalized youth cultures to imagine alternatives to both national and transnational institutions of political and patriarchal power.