From “Help!” to “Helping out a Friend”: Imagining South Asia through the Beatles and the Concert for Bangladesh

Abstract

This article examines two points of engagement between audiences in the United States and images of South Asia through the lens of popular culture and music: first, the Beatles’ trip to India, and, second, George Harrison’s Concert for Bangladesh. In both instances, South Asian culture was reduced for popular consumption and reflected stereotypes of exoticism and victimization and resulted in rock and roll serving as an avenue to communicate notions of Western superiority. Acknowledging that the Orientalist depictions were not the intended message on the part of producers, these examples highlight the unclear boundaries of cultural appreciation and appropriation.

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