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Bhangra Songs
Bhangra took large steps toward mainstream credibility in the early 1990s, especially among youths. Gen X bands like The new pardesi music machine, Sahotas, Achanak, and Anamika were moving away from the older gen staples of performing in weddings and community events. Their attempts at bringing bhangra music to the western audiences were bearing fruition as they were playing some of the top venues.

At the mid nineties, however, many artists returned to the original, traditional folk beats away from bhangra music, often incorporating more dhol drum beats and tumbi. This time also saw the rise of several young Punjabi folk singers as a backlash to bhangra music. They were aided by Djs who mixed hip hop samples with folk singing to create folk's answer to bhangra.

Beginning around 1994, there was a trend towards the use of samples (often sampled from mainstream hip hop) mixed with traditional folk rhythm instruments, such as the tumbi and dhol. Using folk instruments, hip-hop samples, along with relatively inexpensive folk vocals imported from Punjab, Punjabi folk music was able to abolish bhangra music.

Pioneering DJs instrumental in the destruction of bhangra were Bally Sagoo and Punjabi MC. As Djs who were initially hired by bhangra labels to remix the original recordings on the label's roster (OSA and Nachural respectively), they along with the record labels quickly found that remixing folk singers from India was much cheaper than working with bhangra bands (outsourced).

Other influential folk artists include Surinder Shinda - famous for his "Putt Jattan De" - Harbhajan Mann, Manmohan Waris, Meshi Eshara, Sarbjit Cheema, Hans Raj Hans, Sardool Sikander, Anakhi, Sat Rang, XLNC, B21, Shaktee, Sahara, Paaras, PDM[disambiguation needed], Amar Group, Sangeet Group, and Bombay Talkie. A DJ to rise to stardom with many successful hits was Panjabi MC.

In 2010, the story of how bhangra arrived and developed in the UK was told in the stage musical Britain's Got Bhangra, produced by Rifco Arts. The show was the first ever bhangra musical, with much of the show in Punjabi, making use of the live dhol, dholak and tabla throughout, and has traditional folk melodies as well as an original score by Sumeet Chopra with crossovers into pop, rap and R&B. The production had its world premiere at Theatre Royal Stratford East in May 2010 and went on a UK Tour[citation needed]. Another major tour is expected in 2011.