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.
Description:
This thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MA in English Language and Literature of East West University, Dhaka, Bangladesh