Last updated: April 2024
Asian Tones is a platform that spotlights and champions Asian diaspora in the music industry around the world, based in London (UK) founded in March 2021. The Asian population make up the biggest demographic of the world, yet this isn't reflected in our footprint on the global music industry. Asian Tones is one of a few platforms working towards changing this.
In 2022 Asian Tones started running small live shows in London, with solely Asian diaspora artists. This is to provide our community with more live opportunities and a space for like-minded people to connect in an industry we are currently heavily under-represented in. Asian Tones also serves as a discovery source not just to the Asian community, but for everyone beyond - thank you for joining us on this journey. To date, Asian Tones has hosted 17 events, featuring more than 80 artists of Asian heritage, from those brand new to performing live to those with an emerging following. With focus on creating a strong UK grassroot talent foundation and community that celebrates all parts of what it means to be British-Asian. Our shows have covered many genres, from pop to desi fusion to electro-punk and much in-between, and many of our performers have since gone on to be featured in prominent outlets including BBC Introducing and playing their own headline shows. Asian Tones has previously received sponsorships from PRS for Music and Live Nation Women.
We at Asian Tones believe in the importance of every individual finding and nurturing their own identity in a way they are most comfortable - without putting themselves into boxes based on expectations. Asian Tones aims to shatter stereotypes and bridge the gaps from genre, language and unite all sub regions - to bring the Asian musical community together.
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Starting on Instagram, the platform was created as a personal effort to find and support music artists of a shared background. The initial idea was to share those artists with an already emerging following, however at that time it would have meant that the platform would have run out of posts quite quickly. We started reaching out to newer artist (and they, us) to see if they'd like to be featured. Since 2021, Asian Tones has featured 200+ artists and growing across various stages of their musical journeys (These can all be found via our Instagram, we are aiming to get all posts up here slowly!).
To this day - particularly in the UK, there is a generalized perception that Asian music eludes specifically to South-Asian heritage sounds and languages (Example: Desi, Bollywood). Especially for the generations of the diaspora that were born and/or grew up in the UK, where they have grown up surrounded by 'Western'/English language genres - it shouldn't be a surprising that their music includes and/or resembles these influences also. This perception also erases the diaspora whose backgrounds don't originate from South Asia (which in itself tend to highlight limited specific communities). While we have much love and respect the history and the importance of what these existing communities and platforms have done (and continue to do) for British-Asian music, it is time to evolve the meaning of what British-Asian music encapsulates so we are more inclusive of our whole community.
Many people from the diaspora struggle with their dual identity, especially in a space that doesn't generally include our community. Asian Tones wants to create a music space where the Asian diaspora can come as they are and connect with like minded people - While Asia heritages are vast and there are a lot of nuances between communities, at the roots we share more than we probably realise.
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Photo credits: If not stated on the post. All images/artwork have either been found via Google/artist social media pages or provided by the artist without who to credit. Please message if you would like an image removed/to add credits.
