ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON THE MIAMI MEDIA BLOG
The music industry of Pakistan has relied on the collaboration between music producers and commercial businesses to promote musicians, organised live concerts, release albums and songs. In recent history, we can trace back the growth of audiences for Pakistani music that expanded globally through digital platforms such as Coke Studio. Even though the lockdown has halted performing live for the unforeseeable future, the future of music demands that we create innovative tech solutions to explore live streaming as a sustainable and safer music listening environment. With Spotify coming to Pakistan this year, there is a revolution on the horizon that can be understood if we reflect back to the beginning of the music industry in Pakistan.
During the 1980s owning a colour television was becoming popular in major cities of the country. Now the demand for localised TV programs was growing and musicians were the first to respond with fun and joyful pop songs. The dedicated programs to music were Rang Taran, Music 89, Pepsi Top Of The Pops and MMC that regularly featured music videos and young talent on their platform. This shaped and defined Pakistani Pop and Rock for over three decades! Before the launch of TV, the historical All Pakistan Music Conference was a purely volunteer-based organization established in 1959 that annually held a classical and folk music and dance festivals for audiences in Lahore. But its reach was still limited to Lahore, with the wave of television driven content musicians could now amass a national following overnight!
In the following list, we will count down some of the most iconic music projects, TV programs, musical careers, albums, record labels and the invention of the digital music platform that has gained immense popularity right now in sponsored music. When the music finally started to make its way back to television the most memorable collaboration was between Sufi-Pop & Sufi Rock that had Muhammad Ali Shehki, and legendary Sindhi Sufi folk singer, Allan Faqeer perform together for Rang Tarang in 1986.
Soon followed by the first pop/rock anthem sponsored by Pepsi Dil Dil Pakistan for 14 August 1987 by Vital Signs. Their performance on the hit TV Show "Music 89" that started January 1989 on PTV was directed by Shoaib Mansoor. The live performances on Music 89 by Vital Signs, Nazia Hassan and Zohaib Hassan marked the fresh wave of pop music into the country. These memorable moments between Jahngir Khan & Nazia Hassan are important events in the shaping of the music industry as we know it now. The enthusiasm and passion of the Hassan siblings inspired audiences to open up to listening to young rock bands like the Jupitars - Yaro Yehi Dosthi Hay.
The 1990s:
Shalimar Television Network (STN) 1990 Pepsi Top of the Pops frequently played Baqi sab theek hai - Jupitars and Woh Kon Hai - Yatagaan that became youth anthems of the time. The Music Channel Charts (MCC) show was another popular muisc program that promoted Junoon, Collage, Nadeem Abbasi, Arid Zone, Milestones, Sequencers, Awaz, Saleem Javed, Hassan Jahangir and Fringe Benefits: Episode 1 Episode 2 Episode 3
Record labels like EMI-Pakistan became famous for releasing legends like Noor Jehan. Their extensive collection of Ghazal and Qawalli helped archive important heritage music of Pakistan. They also issued in the new wave of pop-rock to audiences with releasing albums by Vital Signs, Ali Haider and The Strings, Sajjad Ali and Fakhar-e-Alam. According to Nadeem F. Paracha “EMI-Pakistan, it sold over 7 million cassettes and CDs of pop acts in 1993”. The rise of official record labels like Sound Master released the major blockbuster hit Abrar Ul Haq’s album The Unstoppables in 1990.
Seeing the favourable popularity of young musicians, Pakola the icecream soda brand decided to sponsor the album ‘Qarar’ by Ali Haider that sold over a million copies within the first few weeks. In 1996 the TV channel NTM introduced a music program by the name of VJ that was hosted by comedians Faisal Qureshi, Ahmed Parvez, Ahsan Rahim and then an emerging female pop star, Hadiqa Kiani. The VJ era celebrated music by Abrar ul Haq, Sharique Rumi, Ali Zafar, Javad Ahmed and Dr Aur Billa creating space for underground and aspiring musicians to bring their talent to national TV.
The 2000’s
The memorable album titled Supreme Ishq was conceptualised by Director by Shoaib Mansoor that had folk music legends including Hazrat Baba Bulleh Shah and Rehmatullah Alaih Raza Ali Qadri. The project lasted between the years 2001 to 2003 with incredible music video productions. The album marked the revitalisation of poetry and Sufi kalam into the mainstream spotlight. The songs of Supreme Ishq are timeless classics that have been covered by generations of artists. With hits like Gharoli by Abida Parveen, Dum Dum by Abrar-ul-Haq and
Yar Dadhi Ishq by Muhammad Juman. It presented audiences with an entire spectrum of genres. The timeless classic Peera Ho by Khalid Anam was also released in the album along with Meda Ishq by Pathanay Khan. Other artists included Adnan Sami who at the time was settled in Pakistan.
During this time Rohail Hayat founded the first Pepsi Battle of the Bands in 2001. This was the beginning of bringing back bands to the concert stage. The popular Fire Records (Pakistan) was launched by AAG TV. The platform managed many artists between the years 2006 to 2013. Television had always played an important part in shaping Pakistani music and musicians creating programs to promote all kinds of music for children and adults. The two major music channels were ARY Musik which currently has 730K subscribers on their Youtube channel and Indus Music that focused on creating events like the IM Style Awards and IM Jazz Awards with the support of sponsorships. Indus Music gave us live performances by Meekal Hassan Band and became the launching pad for many musical and acting careers.
The beginning of Coke Studio started in Brazil, 2007 adopted by Pakistan a year later as a revolutionary step in creating a semi-autonomous platform for musicians. Rohail Hayat brought musicians from folk, classical, rock and pop all onto one platform. It has 9.73M subscribers currently with a global presence and countrywide chapters in Kenya, India and the Middle East.
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