Pakistani pop music
Encyclopedia
Pakistani pop music refers to popular music forms in Pakistan
. Pakistani pop is a mixture of traditional Pakistani classical music
and western influences of jazz
, rock and roll
, hip-hop and disco
sung in various languages of Pakistan
, including Urdu language. The popularity of music is based on the individual sales of a single, viewership of its music video or the singer's album chart positions.
Pakistani pop music is attributed to have given birth to the genre
in the South Asia
n region with Ahmed Rushdi
's song ‘Ko-Ko-Korina’ in 1966.
Veterans like Runa Laila
started the pop industry in Pakistan
while the fifteen-years old pop sensation Nazia
with her brother Zohaib Hassan
ushered the birth of pop music all over South Asia
tailing on the success of her British endeavours.
From Rushdi's pop hits to songs sung by the Hassan siblings, to bands including Junoon, Vital Signs
and Strings
, the Pakistani pop industry has steadily spread throughout South Asia
and today is the most popular genre in Pakistan and the neighbouring South Asian countries. Songs sung by Pakistani pop artists are a regular feature on soundtrack
s of most of the Bollywood
movies.
The genre has always been accepted in the mainstream youth culture but hindrances came in the form of changing governments, radical Islamicisation, foreign influences and a stiff competition from neighbouring countries. Still, pop music thrived and survived with a steady growth. In was not until recent times that Pakistani pop music was to be admired throughout South Asia and the rest of the world.
, the most popular form of entertainment in the newly created Pakistan was the medium of film. Cinemas sprouted up in various corners of the nation, especially in Lahore
, Karachi
and Dacca
in East Pakistan
and playback singing became popular. People that tended to move into the genre had to be trained in classical music
, usually trained by ustads who mastered its various forms and styles.
In 1966, a talented young playback singer
Ahmed Rushdi
(now considered as one of the greatest singers of south asia) sang the first South Asian pop song “Ko-Ko-Korina” for the film Armaan
. Composed by Sohail Rana
, the song was a blend of 60s bubblegum pop
, rock and roll
twist music
and Pakistani film music. This genre would later be termed as ‘filmi pop
’. Paired with Runa Laila
, the singer is considered the pioneering father of pop music
, mostly hip-hop and disco
, in South Asia
.
Following Rushdi's success, Christian
bands specialising in jazz
started performing
at various night clubs and hotel lobbies in Karachi
, Hyderabad
and Lahore
. They would usually sing either famous American jazz hits or cover Rushdi's songs. Rushdi sang playback hits along with Laila until the Bangladesh Liberation War
when East Pakistan was declared an independent state. Laila, being a Bengali, decided to leave for the new-found Bangladesh
.
The 1970s saw a nose-dive in the progress of cinema in Pakistan as the nation was left in the state of turmoil over the changes in the government administration and Pakistani cinema
lost its Dhaka leg. Number of cinemas decreased rapidly and people preferred watching television over going to a cinema. Playback singing that once was popular now struggled to exist and the singers needed a new medium to start afresh.
was gaining in strength in film content and quality. People began admiring the Indian playback counterparts. And when it seemed that music in Pakistan
had no hopes of surviving this foreign influence, Anwar Maqsood
and Shoaib Mansoor
launched the career of Nerissa, Beena and Shabana Benjamin (collectively known as the Benjamin Sisters
) in 1972. The sisters filled television screens with their melodious charms and tabloids started calling it the Benjamin Sisters Phenomenon.
A few years later came Alamgir
. Like all people from his generation, Alamgir was raised listening to songs by bands like ABBA
and Boney M
. He would do renditions of popular New Wave
songs in Urdu. In 1973, influenced by disco
and funk
, Alamgir sang Albela Rahi, an Urdu song literally translated from a famous Cuban hit originally in Spanish. Alamgir brought a new form of music to Pakistan, one that blended the classical forms with a tint of modern Western music. Hit after another, he proved to be the most successful singer and musician of his time. Alongside Alamgir, Muhammad Ali Shehki also rose to fame with his renditions of the Hindustani classical forms with mediums like jazz
and rock
. Patriotic songs sung by the singer are still the nation's favourites. Pop music
was growing a snail's pace until the appearance of the most unlikely entrant in the music scene.
, a fifteen-years old Pakistani girl residing in the United Kingdom
was approached by Indian actor and director Feroz Khan
along with Biddu Appaiah
, an Indian music
producer who asked her to sing the song Aap Jaisa Koi for the film Qurbani
. She was selected for the nasal quality of the song's delivery. The song became an instant hit in the UK and the Indian sub-continent. Influenced primarily by disco
beats and hip-hop, Nazia along with her brother Zohaib Hassan
produced successive hits. Their songs Disco Deewane and Tere Qadmon Ko became the rage all over Asia
to the extent that their very first album was declared the best selling album of the time in Asia.
The hype did not last for long as with Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq
's regime came drastic decisions to Islamicise the nation. Almost all music videos were banned to air on local television. The religious leaders found the two Hassan siblings dancing together on the stage most un-Islamic. When shown the videos would feature Nazia waist-up to hide her dancing feet. Hence came another blow to the music industry.
as President, measures were put in place to limit the distribution of music and the only source of entertainment was the government-owned television network
Pakistan Television Corporation
(PTV). While music video
s were banned in the country, veterans released albums elsewhere throughout the world. The siblings, Nazia and Zohaib, teamed up to produce more albums, but in the turmoil that Pakistan was headed through, the duo lost viewership and sales in their own country. They managed to reach UK Top 40 with the English version of their song “Disco Deewane
” titled “Dreamer Deewane”. The album sold over 14 million records, not only in Asia, but as far as South America
, South Africa
and Russia
.
Indian artists including the likes of Alisha Chinai
, Shweta Shetty
and Lucky Ali
followed in Nazia's footsteps giving birth to the Indian pop
industry, formed out of the void that the Pakistani industry had left. It is reported that the song “Made in India” was initially written and composed by Biddu for Nazia but was later given out to Alisha to perform. Satellite television
broadcast from across the border became more popular in Pakistan and the people lost track of the local music scene.
In 1988, Zia-ul-Haq's regime ended abruptly with his death and the music industry started recovering. In a time when there was no hope for the industry to survive, the first privately-owned television station, the Network Television Marketing
(NTM) opened up introducing shows aimed at the younger generation. In 1989, Shoaib Mansoor produced a show for PTV called Music '89
and took the Hassan siblings as the show's host. This show is responsible for single-handedly creating legends out of bands like Vital Signs
, Junoon, Ali Haider
, Sajjad Ali
and Jupiters
also including underground alternative rock
bands like Final Cut and The Barbarians.
days, the primetime reception on NTM in Lahore
, Karachi
and Islamabad
was handled by the Shalimar Television Network (STN) which broadcast a show titled Music Channel Charts (MCC). An hour-length show that showcased music videos for various artists in a countdown
format. When people started getting acquainted to the show's format, amateur bands and singers taped their own videos and sent them to be aired. Artists never heard of before began appearing on the show, fighting for a place in the countdown charts. With competition rising and only a few minutes dedicated to a single video, musicians from all over the country were being recognised for their work. The show made upcoming artists like Fakhre Alam, Danish Rahi
, Fringe Benefit (the debut album 'TANHAI' was recorded and mixed by Tahir Gul Hasan at his SOUND ON SOUND recording studios in Karachi), Strings
, Aamir Zaki
, and Haroon Rashid
and Faakhir Mehmood
from Awaz
household names. The show lasted for a few more years but was later overshadowed by quality content and newer television channels being broadcast from India.
With the advent of MTV India
and Channel V
in mid-1990s, the Indian music industry started to blossom and overshadow every effort the Pakistani counterpart would make to highlight the talents within. Music industry in Pakistan lingered on as India gained in strength. It was during this time that record companies like EMI
and Sound Master started taking note of the new and rising stars. They started signing contracts with bands like Strings and Awaz who would later become iconic pop bands. The early 90s Nawaz Sharif
government didn't help much either but the genre thrived nevertheless.
In 1994, the Indian government privatised a large number of television channels which received viewership in Pakistan. Quality music videos for Indian artists began airing on the channels and gathered a following in Pakistan. Music Channel Charts had to be taken off air as it could not compete with the Indian productions in terms of quality and content, and as a result musicians and singers started journeying to India and the UK to release their videos.
sang in Adnan Sami
's musical Sargam. She would continue to host the show for three years after taking a break out to pursue her career as a solo pop artist. She would later be crowned as the second most popular pop singer after Nazia.
In the very last years before its closure, MCC introduced a Punjabi
pop song “Billo De Ghar” in its line-up which instantly became a hit. The chart-topping success was most unexpected for the singer, a Pakistan Studies
teacher at the esteemed Aitchison College
. Abrar-ul-Haq
became a celebrity overnight and decided to leave his teaching career to enter show business in 1997. His Punjabi pop songs with bhangra beats introduced ‘Punjabi pop’ to the masses later followed by Indian singer Daler Mehndi
.
Where the local industry was dry, the band Junoon had established a name as the pioneers of Sufi rock
in Europe
and the Americas
, although people believe the genre started with Alamgir's “Jugni”. In an effort to revive the Qawwali
/Ghazal
genre, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan was invited to join music directors in India and produced the first ever Qawwali/Ghazal pop song “Afreen Afreen
”, with Javed Akhtar
.
, all Indian channel broadcasts were limited or banned in Pakistan and after Pervaiz Musharraf's coup d'état
, the media was privatised. To cater to the needs of thousands who watched the Indian channels with regularity, programmes were broadcast to match the Indian content. Seeing this as an opportunity, bands returned on the music scene and started producing videos with a much richer content. In 2001, Ghazanfar Ali, producer and CEO of the Indus Media Group
started his very first venture into the music industry with Indus Music, a channel dedicated to music following the formats used by MTV India, Channel V and B4U Music
. The channel started as a part of the Indus Vision channel and was later started as separate channel in 2003. With nothing much to watch than a few Pakistani channels, the youngsters in the country would settle in for Indus Music and would become interested in music once again.
Once the ban was fully lifted in 2002, the music industry in Pakistan had fully recovered and with local concerts in full swing, Pakistan music had taken the country by storm yet again. Websites opened up discussing, distributing and satirising music. Perhaps, the only reason music began so popular in so short a span of time can be attributed to piracy. Instead of fighting against piracy, musicians embraced it and released their musical content not through a record label but through the Internet on their own website and personally collaborating with fans.
as more singers enter the genre. The Pakistani music industry is still dominated by Pakistani pop singers and their popularity has spilled over into neighbouring countries such as India
, Afghanistan
, Iran
, Bangladesh
, Nepal
and other countries in South Asia
and Central Asia
.
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
. Pakistani pop is a mixture of traditional Pakistani classical music
Hindustani classical music
Hindustani classical music is the Hindustani or North Indian style of Indian classical music found throughout the northern Indian subcontinent. The style is sometimes called North Indian Classical Music or Shāstriya Sangeet...
and western influences of jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
, rock and roll
Rock and roll
Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...
, hip-hop and disco
Disco
Disco is a genre of dance music. Disco acts charted high during the mid-1970s, and the genre's popularity peaked during the late 1970s. It had its roots in clubs that catered to African American, gay, psychedelic, and other communities in New York City and Philadelphia during the late 1960s and...
sung in various languages of Pakistan
Languages of Pakistan
Languages of Pakistan include two official languages: Urdu, which is also Pakistan's national language and lingua franca, and English. Additionally, Pakistan has four major provincial languages: Punjabi, Pashto, Sindhi, Farsi and Balochi, as well as three major regional languages: Saraiki, Hindko...
, including Urdu language. The popularity of music is based on the individual sales of a single, viewership of its music video or the singer's album chart positions.
Pakistani pop music is attributed to have given birth to the genre
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
in the South Asia
South Asia
South Asia, also known as Southern Asia, is the southern region of the Asian continent, which comprises the sub-Himalayan countries and, for some authorities , also includes the adjoining countries to the west and the east...
n region with Ahmed Rushdi
Ahmed Rushdi
Ahmed Rushdi, SI, PP was a versatile Pakistani playback singer who worked in film music and was "an important contributor to the Golden Age of Pakistani film music." Rushdi is acclaimed as one of the greatest singers ever lived in south asia and was a natural baritone, yet could sing high tenor...
's song ‘Ko-Ko-Korina’ in 1966.
Veterans like Runa Laila
Runa Laila
Runa Laila is a singer of the Indian subcontinent who is from Bangladesh. She started her career from Pakistan film industry and is effective in Ghazals also. She made a hit pair with famous singer Ahmed Rushdi after replacing Mala. She also has done numerous playbacks for movies in Bangladesh,...
started the pop industry in Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
while the fifteen-years old pop sensation Nazia
Nazia Hassan
Nazia Hassan was an iconic Pakistani pop singer. Her song "Aap Jaisa Koi" from the Indian film Qurbani made her a legend and pop icon in Pakistan and all of South Asia in the 1980s, where she is admired and loved even today, years after her death...
with her brother Zohaib Hassan
Zohaib Hassan
Zoheb Hassan is a self retired Pakistani pop icon, who left the music industry after the sad demise of his sister and sub-continental pop legend, Nazia Hassan.-Career:Zoheb Hassan was born on November 18, 1966....
ushered the birth of pop music all over South Asia
South Asia
South Asia, also known as Southern Asia, is the southern region of the Asian continent, which comprises the sub-Himalayan countries and, for some authorities , also includes the adjoining countries to the west and the east...
tailing on the success of her British endeavours.
From Rushdi's pop hits to songs sung by the Hassan siblings, to bands including Junoon, Vital Signs
Vital Signs (band)
Vital Signs were a Pakistani Pop rock band that formed in Rawalpindi in 1986. The group was formed by Rohail Hyatt and Shahzad Hasan , who were soon joined by Nusrat Hussain and Junaid Jamshed...
and Strings
Strings (band)
Strings are an internationally acclaimed pop rock band comprising two members from Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan. The band was initially formed by four college students, Bilal Maqsood , Faisal Kapadia , Rafiq Wazir Ali and Kareem Bashir Bhoy in 1988...
, the Pakistani pop industry has steadily spread throughout South Asia
South Asia
South Asia, also known as Southern Asia, is the southern region of the Asian continent, which comprises the sub-Himalayan countries and, for some authorities , also includes the adjoining countries to the west and the east...
and today is the most popular genre in Pakistan and the neighbouring South Asian countries. Songs sung by Pakistani pop artists are a regular feature on soundtrack
Soundtrack
A soundtrack can be recorded music accompanying and synchronized to the images of a motion picture, book, television program or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack of a film or TV show; or the physical area of a film that contains the...
s of most of the Bollywood
Bollywood
Bollywood is the informal term popularly used for the Hindi-language film industry based in Mumbai , Maharashtra, India. The term is often incorrectly used to refer to the whole of Indian cinema; it is only a part of the total Indian film industry, which includes other production centers producing...
movies.
The genre has always been accepted in the mainstream youth culture but hindrances came in the form of changing governments, radical Islamicisation, foreign influences and a stiff competition from neighbouring countries. Still, pop music thrived and survived with a steady growth. In was not until recent times that Pakistani pop music was to be admired throughout South Asia and the rest of the world.
Rise and fall of playback (1960 – early 1980s)-Ahmed Rushdi; The Master Of stage
After the partition of IndiaPartition of India
The Partition of India was the partition of British India on the basis of religious demographics that led to the creation of the sovereign states of the Dominion of Pakistan and the Union of India on 14 and 15...
, the most popular form of entertainment in the newly created Pakistan was the medium of film. Cinemas sprouted up in various corners of the nation, especially in Lahore
Lahore
Lahore is the capital of the Pakistani province of Punjab and the second largest city in the country. With a rich and fabulous history dating back to over a thousand years ago, Lahore is no doubt Pakistan's cultural capital. One of the most densely populated cities in the world, Lahore remains a...
, Karachi
Karachi
Karachi is the largest city, main seaport and the main financial centre of Pakistan, as well as the capital of the province of Sindh. The city has an estimated population of 13 to 15 million, while the total metropolitan area has a population of over 18 million...
and Dacca
Dhaka
Dhaka is the capital of Bangladesh and the principal city of Dhaka Division. Dhaka is a megacity and one of the major cities of South Asia. Located on the banks of the Buriganga River, Dhaka, along with its metropolitan area, had a population of over 15 million in 2010, making it the largest city...
in East Pakistan
East Pakistan
East Pakistan was a provincial state of Pakistan established in 14 August 1947. The provincial state existed until its declaration of independence on 26 March 1971 as the independent nation of Bangladesh. Pakistan recognized the new nation on 16 December 1971. East Pakistan was created from Bengal...
and playback singing became popular. People that tended to move into the genre had to be trained in classical music
Hindustani classical music
Hindustani classical music is the Hindustani or North Indian style of Indian classical music found throughout the northern Indian subcontinent. The style is sometimes called North Indian Classical Music or Shāstriya Sangeet...
, usually trained by ustads who mastered its various forms and styles.
In 1966, a talented young playback singer
Playback singer
A playback singer is a singer whose singing is prerecorded for use in movies. Playback singers record songs for soundtracks, and actors or actresses lip-sync the songs for cameras, while the actual singer does not appear on screen.-South Asia:...
Ahmed Rushdi
Ahmed Rushdi
Ahmed Rushdi, SI, PP was a versatile Pakistani playback singer who worked in film music and was "an important contributor to the Golden Age of Pakistani film music." Rushdi is acclaimed as one of the greatest singers ever lived in south asia and was a natural baritone, yet could sing high tenor...
(now considered as one of the greatest singers of south asia) sang the first South Asian pop song “Ko-Ko-Korina” for the film Armaan
Armaan (1966 film)
Armaan is a Pakistani black-and-white film produced by Waheed Murad and directed by Pervaiz Malik. It was the first Pakistani film to complete 75 weeks in cinemas and, thus, became the first Pakistani "Platinum Jubilee" film...
. Composed by Sohail Rana
Sohail Rana
Sohail Rana is a Pakistani music composer for films. He was introduced by actor Waheed Murad in Pakistan film industry and gained popularity when singer Ahmed Rushdi sang his compositions in such films like Arman and Doraha. He is now based in Canada.-Early Life and career:Sohail Rana was born in...
, the song was a blend of 60s bubblegum pop
Bubblegum pop
Bubblegum pop is a genre of pop music with an upbeat sound contrived and marketed to appeal to pre-teens and teenagers, produced in an assembly-line process, driven by producers, often using unknown singers.Bubblegum's classic period ran from 1967 to 1972...
, rock and roll
Rock and roll
Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...
twist music
Twist (dance)
The Twist was a dance inspired by rock and roll music. It became the first worldwide dance craze in the early 1960s, enjoying immense popularity among young people and drawing fire from critics who felt it was too provocative. It inspired dances such as the Jerk, the Pony, the Watusi, the Mashed...
and Pakistani film music. This genre would later be termed as ‘filmi pop
Filmi pop
Filmi pop is a term first coined by Pakistani music journalist, M Ali Tim in 1990 but made famous by the country's most influential pop critic, Nadeem F. Paracha...
’. Paired with Runa Laila
Runa Laila
Runa Laila is a singer of the Indian subcontinent who is from Bangladesh. She started her career from Pakistan film industry and is effective in Ghazals also. She made a hit pair with famous singer Ahmed Rushdi after replacing Mala. She also has done numerous playbacks for movies in Bangladesh,...
, the singer is considered the pioneering father of pop music
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
, mostly hip-hop and disco
Disco
Disco is a genre of dance music. Disco acts charted high during the mid-1970s, and the genre's popularity peaked during the late 1970s. It had its roots in clubs that catered to African American, gay, psychedelic, and other communities in New York City and Philadelphia during the late 1960s and...
, in South Asia
South Asia
South Asia, also known as Southern Asia, is the southern region of the Asian continent, which comprises the sub-Himalayan countries and, for some authorities , also includes the adjoining countries to the west and the east...
.
Following Rushdi's success, Christian
Christianity in Pakistan
Christianity is the largest religious minority in Pakistan. The total number of Christians in Pakistan is approximately 2,800,000 in 2008, or 1.6% of the population. Of these, approximately half are Roman Catholic and half Protestant...
bands specialising in jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
started performing
Gig (musical performance)
Gig is slang for a musical engagement in which musicians are hired. Originally coined in the 1920s by jazz musicians, the term, short for the word "engagement", now refers to any aspect of performing such as assisting with performance and attending musical performance...
at various night clubs and hotel lobbies in Karachi
Karachi
Karachi is the largest city, main seaport and the main financial centre of Pakistan, as well as the capital of the province of Sindh. The city has an estimated population of 13 to 15 million, while the total metropolitan area has a population of over 18 million...
, Hyderabad
Hyderabad, Sindh
is the second largest city in the Sindh province of Pakistan. It is the seventh largest city in the country. The city was founded in 1768 by Mian Ghulam Shah Kalhoro upon the ruins of a Mauryan fishing village along the bank of the Indus known as Neroon Kot...
and Lahore
Lahore
Lahore is the capital of the Pakistani province of Punjab and the second largest city in the country. With a rich and fabulous history dating back to over a thousand years ago, Lahore is no doubt Pakistan's cultural capital. One of the most densely populated cities in the world, Lahore remains a...
. They would usually sing either famous American jazz hits or cover Rushdi's songs. Rushdi sang playback hits along with Laila until the Bangladesh Liberation War
Bangladesh Liberation War
The Bangladesh Liberation War was an armed conflict pitting East Pakistan and India against West Pakistan. The war resulted in the secession of East Pakistan, which became the independent nation of Bangladesh....
when East Pakistan was declared an independent state. Laila, being a Bengali, decided to leave for the new-found Bangladesh
Bangladesh
Bangladesh , officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh is a sovereign state located in South Asia. It is bordered by India on all sides except for a small border with Burma to the far southeast and by the Bay of Bengal to the south...
.
The 1970s saw a nose-dive in the progress of cinema in Pakistan as the nation was left in the state of turmoil over the changes in the government administration and Pakistani cinema
Cinema of Pakistan
The cinema of Pakistan refers to Pakistan's film industry. Most of the feature films shot in Pakistan are in Urdu language but may also include films in English, Punjabi, Pashto, Balochi or Sindhi languages....
lost its Dhaka leg. Number of cinemas decreased rapidly and people preferred watching television over going to a cinema. Playback singing that once was popular now struggled to exist and the singers needed a new medium to start afresh.
Alamgir Everlast King of Pakistani Pop - New Wave music (1972-1981)
While the cinema in Pakistan was declining, the neighbouring IndiaIndia
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
was gaining in strength in film content and quality. People began admiring the Indian playback counterparts. And when it seemed that music in Pakistan
Music of Pakistan
The music of Pakistan includes diverse elements ranging from music from various parts of South Asia as well as Central Asian, Persian, Turkish, Arabic and modern day Western popular music influences...
had no hopes of surviving this foreign influence, Anwar Maqsood
Anwar Maqsood
Anwar Maqsood Hameedi commonly known as Anwar Maqsood Urdu: انور مقصود) is a Pakistani playwright, poet, television host, satirist, humorist, infrequent actor and painter. He has worked in the entertainment industry for over 35 years.-Life and career:Anwar Maqsood studied at the Gulbarga trust...
and Shoaib Mansoor
Shoaib Mansoor
Shoaib Mansoor , PP, SI, is an acclaimed Pakistani film and television producer, director, writer, lyricist and composer.-Career:...
launched the career of Nerissa, Beena and Shabana Benjamin (collectively known as the Benjamin Sisters
Benjamin Sisters
The Benjamin Sisters were a Pakistani singing group of three sisters, Nerissa, Beena and Shabana Benjamin. Usually chorus-singing together in appearances on Pakistan Television in the late 1970s and early 1980s, they achieved immense popularity in both Pakistan and neighboring regions of North...
) in 1972. The sisters filled television screens with their melodious charms and tabloids started calling it the Benjamin Sisters Phenomenon.
A few years later came Alamgir
Alamgir (pop singer)
Alamgir is a Pakistani pop singer of the 1970s, who is in fact one of the pioneers of the Urdu pop music in Pakistan. His style of singing is inspired by legendary playback singer Ahmed Rushdi.-Life & career:...
. Like all people from his generation, Alamgir was raised listening to songs by bands like ABBA
ABBA
ABBA was a Swedish pop group formed in Stockholm in 1970 which consisted of Anni-Frid Lyngstad, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson and Agnetha Fältskog...
and Boney M
Boney M
Boney M. is a Eurodisco group created by German record producer Frank Farian. Originally based in Germany, the four original members of the group's official line-up were Jamaicans Liz Mitchell and Marcia Barrett, Maizie Williams from Montserrat and Bobby Farrell from Aruba...
. He would do renditions of popular New Wave
New Wave music
New Wave is a subgenre of :rock music that emerged in the mid to late 1970s alongside punk rock. The term at first generally was synonymous with punk rock before being considered a genre in its own right that incorporated aspects of electronic and experimental music, mod subculture, disco and 1960s...
songs in Urdu. In 1973, influenced by disco
Disco
Disco is a genre of dance music. Disco acts charted high during the mid-1970s, and the genre's popularity peaked during the late 1970s. It had its roots in clubs that catered to African American, gay, psychedelic, and other communities in New York City and Philadelphia during the late 1960s and...
and funk
Funk
Funk is a music genre that originated in the mid-late 1960s when African American musicians blended soul music, jazz and R&B into a rhythmic, danceable new form of music. Funk de-emphasizes melody and harmony and brings a strong rhythmic groove of electric bass and drums to the foreground...
, Alamgir sang Albela Rahi, an Urdu song literally translated from a famous Cuban hit originally in Spanish. Alamgir brought a new form of music to Pakistan, one that blended the classical forms with a tint of modern Western music. Hit after another, he proved to be the most successful singer and musician of his time. Alongside Alamgir, Muhammad Ali Shehki also rose to fame with his renditions of the Hindustani classical forms with mediums like jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
and rock
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
. Patriotic songs sung by the singer are still the nation's favourites. Pop music
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
was growing a snail's pace until the appearance of the most unlikely entrant in the music scene.
Nazia Hassan - Pakistan's Queen of Disco Pop
In 1980, Nazia HassanNazia Hassan
Nazia Hassan was an iconic Pakistani pop singer. Her song "Aap Jaisa Koi" from the Indian film Qurbani made her a legend and pop icon in Pakistan and all of South Asia in the 1980s, where she is admired and loved even today, years after her death...
, a fifteen-years old Pakistani girl residing in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
was approached by Indian actor and director Feroz Khan
Feroz Khan
Feroz Khan was an Indian actor, film editor, producer and director in the Hindi film industry...
along with Biddu Appaiah
Biddu
Biddu or Biddu Appaiah is an Indian-British music producer, composer, song-writer and singer who produced and composed many hit records worldwide during a career spanning five decades...
, an Indian music
Music of India
The music of India includes multiple varieties of folk, popular, pop, classical music and R&B. India's classical music tradition, including Carnatic and Hindustani music, has a history spanning millennia and developed over several eras. It remains fundamental to the lives of Indians today as...
producer who asked her to sing the song Aap Jaisa Koi for the film Qurbani
Qurbani (1980 film)
Qurbani is a 1980 Indian Bollywood movie. The word "qurbani" means "sacrifice" in English. Produced and directed by Feroz Khan . The film stars Feroz Khan, Vinod Khanna, Zeenat Aman, Amjad Khan, Shakti Kapoor, Aruna Irani, Amrish Puri and Kadar Khan...
. She was selected for the nasal quality of the song's delivery. The song became an instant hit in the UK and the Indian sub-continent. Influenced primarily by disco
Disco
Disco is a genre of dance music. Disco acts charted high during the mid-1970s, and the genre's popularity peaked during the late 1970s. It had its roots in clubs that catered to African American, gay, psychedelic, and other communities in New York City and Philadelphia during the late 1960s and...
beats and hip-hop, Nazia along with her brother Zohaib Hassan
Zohaib Hassan
Zoheb Hassan is a self retired Pakistani pop icon, who left the music industry after the sad demise of his sister and sub-continental pop legend, Nazia Hassan.-Career:Zoheb Hassan was born on November 18, 1966....
produced successive hits. Their songs Disco Deewane and Tere Qadmon Ko became the rage all over Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
to the extent that their very first album was declared the best selling album of the time in Asia.
The hype did not last for long as with Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq
Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq
General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq , was the 4th Chief Martial Law Administrator and the sixth President of Pakistan from July 1977 to his death in August 1988...
's regime came drastic decisions to Islamicise the nation. Almost all music videos were banned to air on local television. The religious leaders found the two Hassan siblings dancing together on the stage most un-Islamic. When shown the videos would feature Nazia waist-up to hide her dancing feet. Hence came another blow to the music industry.
Zia-ul-Haq years (1981 – 1989)
Immediately following the military installation of Muhammad Zia-ul-HaqMuhammad Zia-ul-Haq
General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq , was the 4th Chief Martial Law Administrator and the sixth President of Pakistan from July 1977 to his death in August 1988...
as President, measures were put in place to limit the distribution of music and the only source of entertainment was the government-owned television network
Television network
A television network is a telecommunications network for distribution of television program content, whereby a central operation provides programming to many television stations or pay TV providers. Until the mid-1980s, television programming in most countries of the world was dominated by a small...
Pakistan Television Corporation
Pakistan Television Corporation
The Pakistan Television Corporation is Pakistan's national television broadcaster. The first live transmission of PTV began on November 26, 1964, in Lahore...
(PTV). While music video
Music video
A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...
s were banned in the country, veterans released albums elsewhere throughout the world. The siblings, Nazia and Zohaib, teamed up to produce more albums, but in the turmoil that Pakistan was headed through, the duo lost viewership and sales in their own country. They managed to reach UK Top 40 with the English version of their song “Disco Deewane
Disco Deewane
Disco Deewane is a Pakistani pop album, performed by Pakistani singer Nazia Hassan and produced by the famous Indian producer Biddu, that was released in 1981. It charted in fourteen countries worldwide and became the best-selling Asian pop record up until that time...
” titled “Dreamer Deewane”. The album sold over 14 million records, not only in Asia, but as far as South America
South America
South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...
, South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
and Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
.
Indian artists including the likes of Alisha Chinai
Alisha Chinai
Alisha Chinai in Gujarati family and an Indian pop singer known for her several albums as well as playback singing in Hindi cinema.-Career:...
, Shweta Shetty
Shweta Shetty
Shweta Shetty is an Indian pop singer known for her albums and for her contributions to Bollywood film soundtracks. She currently lives in Hamburg. She is married to a German, Christian Brandt.Her song johnny joker was a famous one....
and Lucky Ali
Lucky Ali
Lucky Ali , born as Maqsood Mehmood Ali , is an Indian singer songwriter, composer and actor. Lucky is best known for his soulful but strikingly simple ballad-style singing and melodious voice.-Biography:...
followed in Nazia's footsteps giving birth to the Indian pop
Indian pop
Indian pop music , often known as Indian-Pop, Hindi Pop, Indipop or Indi-pop, refers to pop music in India. Pop music really started in the South Asian region with the famous playback singer Ahmed Rushdi's song ‘Ko-Ko-Korina’ in 1966...
industry, formed out of the void that the Pakistani industry had left. It is reported that the song “Made in India” was initially written and composed by Biddu for Nazia but was later given out to Alisha to perform. Satellite television
Satellite television
Satellite television is television programming delivered by the means of communications satellite and received by an outdoor antenna, usually a parabolic mirror generally referred to as a satellite dish, and as far as household usage is concerned, a satellite receiver either in the form of an...
broadcast from across the border became more popular in Pakistan and the people lost track of the local music scene.
In 1988, Zia-ul-Haq's regime ended abruptly with his death and the music industry started recovering. In a time when there was no hope for the industry to survive, the first privately-owned television station, the Network Television Marketing
Network Television Marketing
NTM - A former Shalimar Television Network ChannelThe Network Television Marketing was Pakistan's first ever private sector Television Channel. NTM had started its transmission in 1990 under a 3-year agreement with Shalimar Recording & Broadcasting Company . NTM succeeded in acquiring much...
(NTM) opened up introducing shows aimed at the younger generation. In 1989, Shoaib Mansoor produced a show for PTV called Music '89
Music '89
Music '89 was the first ever all pop music stage-show to be aired on Pakistan TV. It was aired in January 1989, on PTV . The show was directed by Shoaib Mansoor and hosted by the famous singer Nazia Hassan and her brother, Zohaib Hassan. It was a revolutionary show that introduced a new breed of...
and took the Hassan siblings as the show's host. This show is responsible for single-handedly creating legends out of bands like Vital Signs
Vital Signs (band)
Vital Signs were a Pakistani Pop rock band that formed in Rawalpindi in 1986. The group was formed by Rohail Hyatt and Shahzad Hasan , who were soon joined by Nusrat Hussain and Junaid Jamshed...
, Junoon, Ali Haider
Ali Haider
Ali Haider is a former Pakistani singer and actor. He has had numerous hits in the early 90s such as Poorani Jeans. He also had a big hit later in the 1990s with Chand Sa Mukhra. Besides singing, he has acted in numerous TV serials on PTV. Among the successful dramas was Chand Sa Mukhra, which...
, Sajjad Ali
Sajjad Ali
Sajjad Ali is a Pakistani semi-classical, pop singer, film actor, director and producer. He is trained in classical singing.- Early life and education :...
and Jupiters
Jupiters
Jupiters were a band based in Lahore, Pakistan, famous for being a breeding ground for many famous Pakistani singers. The band itself gained attention as the most wanted party band in Lahore in the early 90s and later released their hit song 'Chala dey ja nishani'...
also including underground alternative rock
Alternative rock
Alternative rock is a genre of rock music and a term used to describe a diverse musical movement that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1980s and became widely popular by the 1990s...
bands like Final Cut and The Barbarians.
Music Channel Charts (late 1980s – 1994)
In the late 80s pre-MTVMTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
days, the primetime reception on NTM in Lahore
Lahore
Lahore is the capital of the Pakistani province of Punjab and the second largest city in the country. With a rich and fabulous history dating back to over a thousand years ago, Lahore is no doubt Pakistan's cultural capital. One of the most densely populated cities in the world, Lahore remains a...
, Karachi
Karachi
Karachi is the largest city, main seaport and the main financial centre of Pakistan, as well as the capital of the province of Sindh. The city has an estimated population of 13 to 15 million, while the total metropolitan area has a population of over 18 million...
and Islamabad
Islamabad
Islamabad is the capital of Pakistan and the tenth largest city in the country. Located within the Islamabad Capital Territory , the population of the city has grown from 100,000 in 1951 to 1.7 million in 2011...
was handled by the Shalimar Television Network (STN) which broadcast a show titled Music Channel Charts (MCC). An hour-length show that showcased music videos for various artists in a countdown
Countdown
A countdown is a sequence of counting backward to indicate the seconds, days, or other time units remaining before an event occurs or a deadline expires. Typical events for which a countdown is used include the launch of a rocket or spacecraft, the detonation of a bomb, the start of a race, and the...
format. When people started getting acquainted to the show's format, amateur bands and singers taped their own videos and sent them to be aired. Artists never heard of before began appearing on the show, fighting for a place in the countdown charts. With competition rising and only a few minutes dedicated to a single video, musicians from all over the country were being recognised for their work. The show made upcoming artists like Fakhre Alam, Danish Rahi
Danish Rahi
Danish Rahi is a designer thinker, philosopher, visionary, creative strategist, director, music producer, and humanitarian from Pakistan. Danish Rahi is also the author of the book "The Pakish Identity." A book on the brand and identity of Pakistan...
, Fringe Benefit (the debut album 'TANHAI' was recorded and mixed by Tahir Gul Hasan at his SOUND ON SOUND recording studios in Karachi), Strings
Strings (band)
Strings are an internationally acclaimed pop rock band comprising two members from Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan. The band was initially formed by four college students, Bilal Maqsood , Faisal Kapadia , Rafiq Wazir Ali and Kareem Bashir Bhoy in 1988...
, Aamir Zaki
Aamir Zaki
Aamir Zaki is a notable Pakistani prolific guitar player, playing jazz, blues, classical, rock and alternative rock.Beginnings...
, and Haroon Rashid
Haroon (singer)
Haroon Rashid , popularly known as Haroon is a British-Pakistani pop singer, composer, musician and producer...
and Faakhir Mehmood
Faakhir Mehmood
Faakhir Mehmood is a Pakistani singer and music composer. He started out his career in a Pakistani musical group called Awaz. However to conflicts of interest the band split and they all went to become solo artists. The band Awaz also consisted of well known musician Haroon.Faakhir has produced...
from Awaz
Awaz
Awaz were a Pakistani pop band that formed in Karachi in 1992. The group was formed by Haroon Rashid, lead vocalist, who was soon joined by keyboardist Faakhir Mehmood and lead guitarist Asad Ahmed...
household names. The show lasted for a few more years but was later overshadowed by quality content and newer television channels being broadcast from India.
With the advent of MTV India
MTV India
MTV India is the Indian version of MTV , a channel specialising in music and youth culture programming. It was launched in 1996 and is now part of the Viacom 18 Media Pvt. Ltd based in Mumbai. . "MTV India" is one of the oldest Music Television Networks in Asia...
and Channel V
Channel V
Channel [V] is the brand name for multiple international music television networks owned by STAR TV and Fox International Channels, fully owned subsidiaries of News Corporation.-Channel [V] International:...
in mid-1990s, the Indian music industry started to blossom and overshadow every effort the Pakistani counterpart would make to highlight the talents within. Music industry in Pakistan lingered on as India gained in strength. It was during this time that record companies like EMI
EMI
The EMI Group, also known as EMI Music or simply EMI, is a multinational music company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the fourth-largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry and one of the "big four" record companies. EMI Group also has a major...
and Sound Master started taking note of the new and rising stars. They started signing contracts with bands like Strings and Awaz who would later become iconic pop bands. The early 90s Nawaz Sharif
Nawaz Sharif
Mian Mohammad Nawaz Sharif is a Pakistani conservative politician and steel magnate who served as 12th Prime Minister of Pakistan in two non-consecutive terms from November 1990 to July 1993, and from February 1997 to October 12, 1999...
government didn't help much either but the genre thrived nevertheless.
In 1994, the Indian government privatised a large number of television channels which received viewership in Pakistan. Quality music videos for Indian artists began airing on the channels and gathered a following in Pakistan. Music Channel Charts had to be taken off air as it could not compete with the Indian productions in terms of quality and content, and as a result musicians and singers started journeying to India and the UK to release their videos.
Filling the void (1994 – 1998)
As Indian media became popular in Pakistan, pop singers were limited to performing gigs only at select parties and events. At the PTV Lahore centre in 1994, host of the children's musical show Sohail Rana's Angan Angan Taray, Hadiqa KiyaniHadiqa Kiyani
Hadiqa Kiani is a Pakistani singer-songwriter, and philanthropist.Kiani rose to fame in 1995 with her debut album Raaz. Kiani received instant fame and was nominated and won numerous awards in Pakistan as well as International awards. Since her debut, she has released five albums, all receiving...
sang in Adnan Sami
Adnan Sami
Adnan Sami is a British-born Pakistani-Indian- Canadian singer, musician, pianist, actor and composer of Pakistani origin. He currently holds Canadian citizenship and works and lives in Mumbai, India...
's musical Sargam. She would continue to host the show for three years after taking a break out to pursue her career as a solo pop artist. She would later be crowned as the second most popular pop singer after Nazia.
In the very last years before its closure, MCC introduced a Punjabi
Punjab (Pakistan)
Punjab is the most populous province of Pakistan, with approximately 45% of the country's total population. Forming most of the Punjab region, the province is bordered by Kashmir to the north-east, the Indian states of Punjab and Rajasthan to the east, the Pakistani province of Sindh to the...
pop song “Billo De Ghar” in its line-up which instantly became a hit. The chart-topping success was most unexpected for the singer, a Pakistan Studies
Pakistan Studies
Pakistan studies curriculum is the name of a curriculum of academic research and study that encompasses the culture, demographics, geography, history, and politics of Pakistan. The subject is widely researched in and outside the country...
teacher at the esteemed Aitchison College
Aitchison College
Aitchison College, Lahore, is one of the most prestigious educational institutions of its kind in South Asia. Established in 1886, it has retained its character over the years, maintaining the public school tradition of providing an education that uses academics, sports and co-curricular activities...
. Abrar-ul-Haq
Abrar-ul-Haq
Abrar-ul-Haq is a Pakistani pop, bhangra and folk singer. On his first album "Billo De Ghar" his name appears as simply "Abrar". Before becoming a singer, he was a geography teacher at the Aitchison College in Lahore.- Life :Abrar has kept the year of his birth a secret, so as to not reveal his age...
became a celebrity overnight and decided to leave his teaching career to enter show business in 1997. His Punjabi pop songs with bhangra beats introduced ‘Punjabi pop’ to the masses later followed by Indian singer Daler Mehndi
Daler Mehndi
Daler Mehndi , born August 18, 1967, is an Indian Bhangra pop singer.Mehndi was a student of traditional Punjabi music and his first album broke sales records in India. Since 1995 he has recorded several highly successful albums in India, and also sung as a playback singer for several Hindi movies...
.
Where the local industry was dry, the band Junoon had established a name as the pioneers of Sufi rock
Sufi rock
Sufi rock is a subgenre of rock music that combines rock with classical sufi music traditions. It emerged in the early 1990s and became widely popular in the late 1990s in Pakistan. The term "sufi rock" was coined in 1993 by writer Nadeem F...
in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
and the Americas
Americas
The Americas, or America , are lands in the Western hemisphere, also known as the New World. In English, the plural form the Americas is often used to refer to the landmasses of North America and South America with their associated islands and regions, while the singular form America is primarily...
, although people believe the genre started with Alamgir's “Jugni”. In an effort to revive the Qawwali
Qawwali
Qawwali is a form of Sufi devotional music popular in South Asia, particularly in the Punjab and Sindh regions of Pakistan, Hyderabad, Delhi, and other parts of northern India...
/Ghazal
Ghazal
The ghazal is a poetic form consisting of rhyming couplets and a refrain, with each line sharing the same meter. A ghazal may be understood as a poetic expression of both the pain of loss or separation and the beauty of love in spite of that pain. The form is ancient, originating in 6th century...
genre, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan was invited to join music directors in India and produced the first ever Qawwali/Ghazal pop song “Afreen Afreen
Afreen Afreen
"Afreen Afreen" is a popular ghazal, especially in the renditions by Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. It is written by Javed Akhtar. A music video for the song starred Lisa Ray....
”, with Javed Akhtar
Javed Akhtar
Javed Akhtar is a poet, lyricist and scriptwriter from India. Some of his most successful work was done in the late 1970s and 1980s with Salim Khan as half of the script-writing duo credited as Salim-Javed...
.
Cross-border rift (1999 – 2002)
In 1999, following the Kargil WarKargil War
The Kargil War ,, also known as the Kargil conflict, was an armed conflict between India and Pakistan that took place between May and July 1999 in the Kargil district of Kashmir and elsewhere along the Line of Control...
, all Indian channel broadcasts were limited or banned in Pakistan and after Pervaiz Musharraf's coup d'état
Coup d'état
A coup d'état state, literally: strike/blow of state)—also known as a coup, putsch, and overthrow—is the sudden, extrajudicial deposition of a government, usually by a small group of the existing state establishment—typically the military—to replace the deposed government with another body; either...
, the media was privatised. To cater to the needs of thousands who watched the Indian channels with regularity, programmes were broadcast to match the Indian content. Seeing this as an opportunity, bands returned on the music scene and started producing videos with a much richer content. In 2001, Ghazanfar Ali, producer and CEO of the Indus Media Group
Indus Media Group
Indus Media Group is Pakistani company broadcasting a mix of free-to-air news and entertainment channels via satellite.IMG owns and operates the INDUS brand of television channels in various global markets.-Company:...
started his very first venture into the music industry with Indus Music, a channel dedicated to music following the formats used by MTV India, Channel V and B4U Music
B4U Music
B4U Music is a music-themed digital TV channel available on more than 8 different satellites, in more than 100 countries including the USA, UK, Europe, Middle East, Africa, Mauritius, Canada and India...
. The channel started as a part of the Indus Vision channel and was later started as separate channel in 2003. With nothing much to watch than a few Pakistani channels, the youngsters in the country would settle in for Indus Music and would become interested in music once again.
Once the ban was fully lifted in 2002, the music industry in Pakistan had fully recovered and with local concerts in full swing, Pakistan music had taken the country by storm yet again. Websites opened up discussing, distributing and satirising music. Perhaps, the only reason music began so popular in so short a span of time can be attributed to piracy. Instead of fighting against piracy, musicians embraced it and released their musical content not through a record label but through the Internet on their own website and personally collaborating with fans.
Recent times
Pakistani pop music in the 21st century continues to grow in popularityPopularity
Popularity is the quality of being well-liked or common, or having a high social status. Popularity figures are an important part of many people's personal value systems and form a vital component of success in people-oriented fields such as management, politics, and entertainment, among...
as more singers enter the genre. The Pakistani music industry is still dominated by Pakistani pop singers and their popularity has spilled over into neighbouring countries such as India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
, Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
, Bangladesh
Bangladesh
Bangladesh , officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh is a sovereign state located in South Asia. It is bordered by India on all sides except for a small border with Burma to the far southeast and by the Bay of Bengal to the south...
, Nepal
Nepal
Nepal , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked sovereign state located in South Asia. It is located in the Himalayas and bordered to the north by the People's Republic of China, and to the south, east, and west by the Republic of India...
and other countries in South Asia
South Asia
South Asia, also known as Southern Asia, is the southern region of the Asian continent, which comprises the sub-Himalayan countries and, for some authorities , also includes the adjoining countries to the west and the east...
and Central Asia
Central Asia
Central Asia is a core region of the Asian continent from the Caspian Sea in the west, China in the east, Afghanistan in the south, and Russia in the north...
.
See also
- Pakistani rockPakistani rockPakistani rock is a form of rock music that is largely produced in Pakistan. It incorporates elements of both American rock and Pakistani classical music. It has its own distinctive elements, such as a homegrown class of sounds and melodies, spanning progressive rock, hard rock, or heavy metal...
- Music of PakistanMusic of PakistanThe music of Pakistan includes diverse elements ranging from music from various parts of South Asia as well as Central Asian, Persian, Turkish, Arabic and modern day Western popular music influences...
- Pop musicPop musicPop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
- List of Pakistani pop singers