Michael Jackson, Vanilla Ice, & Bhangra

Every once in awhile I like to just put up something fun. Saeed's brother (thanks Masud!) forwarded me a clip from "Britain's Got Talent." The fellows made it to the finals (ultimately got second place) but what I like about it is how the music they used is a combination of three different pieces of music: Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean", Vanilla Ice's "Ice Ice Baby", and some Indian bhangra music ("Nachna Onda Nei" sung by Kaka Bhania). I've always enjoyed it when composers create separate melodic lines that when played simultaneously sound even better. One that comes to my mind is Bizet's "L'Arlésienne Suite 2 - Farandole". The result is fantastic: you can hear each melody on it's own but together it becomes something spectacular.

The two fellows in the BGT piece are Suleman Mirza (Muslim, London-born of Pakistani origin) and Madhu Singh (a Sikh, also British.) The music starts off with the beat from "Billie Jean", stops briefly to introduce the beat from "Ice Ice Baby", then plays them together as Suleman dances like Michael Jackson. When Madhu comes out he introduces the bhangra music which is then played on top of the other music. It's very creative:



Here's the actual soundtrack the guys used, by Tigerstyle.