Music of Pakistan

Music of Pakistan has the flavors of different kind of music, it is a combination of Persian music, Turkish music touched with South Asian music it also has a flavor of Central Asia Folk music. Different musical trends have been adopted by Pakistani music players, which have changed the typical form of Pakistani music. Now days, Pakistani singers and composers are trying to invent some new combinations of Pakistani traditional music with other music types. In the traditional music of Pakistan, Ghazal gaieki and Qawali is very popular, several big names in these fields are from Pakistan. Ghazal gaieki has several types and sub types, which are very popular among people; just like that Qawali also has different, touch of music.

First time to international world Qawali was introduced by Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, he invented new kind of music, which is now known as fusion, it was the fusion of traditional sufi music with western music.

Pakistani Folk music also has a great importance because of its different nature; many great names of Folk music are from Pakistan like Arif Lohar great Punjabi Folk singer, Reshma, Punjabi and Sarieki Folk singer, Pathane Khan, Mai Bhagi, Allan Faqeer, Shazia Khushk, etc. Famous names of Ghazal gaieki are Ustad Amanat and Fateh Ali Khan, Ustad Salamat Ali Khan, Ustad Nazakat Ali Khan, Ustad Mubarak Ali khan and theres a long list of Ghazal gaiek in the history of Pakistan.

In Pakistani Ghazal and Filmi music singers Madam Noor Jahan (Malka-e-Tarranum), Madam Fareeda Banoo, Madam Iqbal Banoo and others are prominent. Thumri and Khayl is the popular most kind of Classical music. Famous names of Qawali are Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Aziz Mian Qawal, Abida Perveen, Sabri Brothers. Founder of Pop music in Pakistan was Nazia Hassan and Zohaib Hassan, Alamgir, Muhammad Ali Shaiki, Junaid Jamshed, now days, pop music with Bhangra mix, rock, jazz and sevearl other kinds of hip hop music are the part of Pakistani young generation music. Top most names of Pakistani pop music includes: Ali azmat, Hadiqa kayani, Atif Aslam, Ali zafar, Strings, Roxen-e-deewar and others are also very popular.

Indian music widely popular in Pakistan but listenership is increasingly shared with Pakistani music: Gallup Survey

Although Indian songs continue to enjoy high popularity in Pakistan, their
exclusive hold on listenership has declined over the past 25 years. These findings have emerged from a recent survey by Gallup Pakistan on Media Habits. The survey revealed that almost one-third (37%) of the Pakistani population prefers to buy cassettes of Indian songs over any other, while less than one-fourth (19%) prefer only Pakistani songs.

However, 38% like to listen to both Pakistani and Indian music.
The same survey was conducted by Gallup Pakistan a number of times since 1980,
revealing that exclusive preference for Indian music was as high as 54% in 1980, which declined to 50% in 2000 before dropping significantly to 37% in 2006, at present.

Exclusive listenership of Pakistani music nearly doubled from 27% to 42% during the
years 1980 – 2000. However, it dropped significantly to 19% in 2006, showing an
increasing trend for listenership of both Pakistani and Indian music. When asked,
analysts at Gallup Pakistan explained this pattern by saying that greater access to Indian music through cable/satellite TV has blurred the distinction between Indian and Pakistani music. Hence creating the trend of listening to both, rather than exclusively preferring either Pakistani or Indian songs.

The survey was conducted by Gallup Pakistan, affiliated with Gallup International, and was based on a sample of over 1200 respondents in the urban areas of all four provinces across Pakistan. This sample was statistically selected to cover all age groups, income and educational levels. The error margin in this kind of survey is estimated to be +5% at a 95% confidence level.

Question: Which of songs, on cassettes (or similar modes), do you listen to more
often?
Percent of Respondents
Sep 2006 Oct 2000 Jan 1980
Pakistani 19 42 27
Indian 37 50 54
Both 38 4 19
No Response 6 3 -

Pakistan Music Industry

It’s a beautiful trend that is setting in the music industry of Pakistan nowadays. No more are the artists releasing their albums through a record label. Instead, what quite a few good names in the music industry have done is what you’d call a proactive viral marketing. But that is a lecture in marketing and not relevant to our write-up. So, let’s just stick to our subject for now and forget the scattered thoughts. Music has become a very serious business now. And the record companies play a major role in promoting the artists. Somehow, the artists have reached out to make a direct connection with their audience, bypassing record labels and their promotion, in the process saving them some percentage of the earnings. Names like Overload, Mekaal Hasan and quite a few others have launched their entire albums on the internet that is available for download. This has its pros and cons, the pros being somewhat more beneficial for the artists. An advertising based approach that targets the consumer – in this case the listener themselves – the direct access of the artist’s music on the internet assures that the entire album reaches the market. So distribution has been made redundant. The internet, which in the urban areas is usually a fast connection access, has taken over homes for entertainment. Music, movies, TV shows etc. all are available to be viewed and if you’re lucky enough to have a large LCD screen its all wireless connections.

So internet is making its way to almost every urban home; it’s much easier for the listener to get interactive with downloading albums, sharing comments and here’s the catch - visiting the artist’s website that would otherwise never be seen or probably would once in a blue moon. As is evident, there are loads of good reasons to jump from record labels to the medium of the internet. After all, it’s not the album sales in our country that make musicians rich. It is the gigs and tours that they take or are sought for to play abroad that have them rolling in wealth. And the internet is the best choice as the artist can well monitor what’s going on and can ask his manager or whoever looks after the business to hook him some great gigs here and abroad. Voila! No catch and a free ride to the touring camp for the artist. And those website hits? Well, it’s a trend and it seems the viable choice for now. Who knows what lies in the future for music as it’s a rigmarole at this moment? So long.
Do check out Overload’s album on their website now that you don’t have to pay a penny for it. Smile and chuckles! Enjoy the music.

Indian Pop Music Stars: Still to find their Groove

Popular music or “pop” music by definition is that kind of music that has mass appeal. It is the music that caters to a large number of people and contrary to what we understand it to be, it is not a genre. According to Wikipedia, Pop music is music charted by the number or sales, plays, etc., that the work receives.

So what’s the deal with this pop culture and why are so many artists drawn towards it? Pop music gives one an opportunity to be individualistic. Since it is not any particular style of music, an artist gets an opportunity to experiment with a wide range of instruments as well as vocals. Pop music traces its root back to WorldWar2 when sound recordings were made accessible to the masses for the first time.

Looking more closely at Western pop, one can easily appreciate the global appeal it has created. From Madonna to Cher, ABBA to Robbie Williams, western pop has produced some of the best and highest paid artists. Western pop music encompasses in it music from various regions such as Latin America, African American, etc. Pop music in America has become one of the most profitable industries since the 19th century.

India, on the other hand, best known for its classical music also has its fair share of pop stars. With pop music being predominantly clustered around Hindi movies, the pop culture movement is far more restricted here than in the west. While the western pop culture has various sub genres such as baroque pop, dance pop, space age pop, etc, the Indian pop music is yet to evolve.

What is common in the two regions, is the audience that is drawn towards it. While we may not have Kylie Minogue or Britney Spears, we have a nation of over a million music lovers who sway to the music of Sonu Nigam and Himesh Reshamiya.

Without doubt, western pop artists have more global appeal than our Indian pop stars. While one can easily recognise Madonna, Kenny Loggins, Mariah Carey, ABBA , the Indian counterparts are yet to leave a mark on the word map.

However, with Indian artists experimenting, and often learning some styles from their western peers, the Indian pop artists have come a long way. A significant shift has been observed, for instance, in some of the Hindi music videos. While the earlier pop videos were unstructured, often boring and low budgeted; several new artists have begun experimenting with new and innovative ways of capturing the audience. However, one has to admit - the Indian pop artist still have a long way to go in terms of style, lyrics and instruments

How youth use music

On average, a youth listens to music and watch music videos four to five hours a day, which is more time than they spend with their friends outside of school or watching television. "Music matters to adolescents, and they cannot be understood without a serious consideration of how it fits into their lives," the study says.
Music alters and intensifies their moods, furnishes much of their slang, dominates their conversations and provides the ambiance at their social gatherings. Music styles define the crowds and cliques they run in. Music personalities provide models for how they act and dress.
Music also appears to alter study habits and damage eardrums.
Such consequences may not spring as quickly to mind as sex and violence, but they may ultimately play just as crucial a role in adolescent development.
Many scholars have viewed television as the central media influence on adolescents, but adolescents devote more time and intensity to music.
They use music most to control mood and enhance emotional states. Music can make a good mood better and allow us to escape or 'work through' a bad one.. But it can also be used to enhance bad moods, which has led some to believe music lyrics about suicide and violence against women have occasionally led troubled youth to commit suicide or violent crimes.
In one study, a heavy metal devotee reported that he loved the music because it put him in a 'good mood,' by which he meant a mood conducive to smashing mailboxes with bricks while another was quoted to have said hardcore metal put him in the mood to 'go beat the crap out of someone.'
Movies and news reports tend to over-emphasize such extreme examples, but the evidence suggests that music is more likely to energize listeners than to de-energize or mellow them out.
Adolescents also use music to gain information about the adult world, to withdraw from social contact (such as using a Walkman as a barrier, not unlike an adult hiding behind a newspaper at the breakfast table), to facilitate friendships and social settings, or to help them create a personal identity.

Under the Influence of…Music?

What’s on your iPod?










Teenagers listen to an average of nearly 2.5 hours of music per day. Guess what they’re hearing about?
One in three popular songs contains explicit references to drug or alcohol use, according to a new reports. That means kids are receiving about 35 references to substance abuse for every hour of music they listen to, the authors determined.
While songs about drugs and excess are nothing new, the issue is getting more attention because so many children now have regular access to music out of the earshot of parents. Nearly 9 out of 10 adolescents and teens have an MP3 player or a compact disc player in their bedrooms.
Studies have long shown that media messages have a pronounced impact on childhood risk behaviors. Exposure to images of smoking in movies influences a child’s risk for picking up the habit. Alcohol use in movies and promotions is also linked to actual alcohol use.
Researchers have studied the 279 most popular songs from 2005, to gauge whether a song contained a reference to drugs or alcohol varied by genre. Only 9 percent of pop songs had lyrics relating to drugs or alcohol. The number jumped to 14 percent for rock songs, 20 percent for R&B and hip-hop songs, 36 percent for country songs and 77 percent for rap songs where as a mere 4 percent of the songs contained “anti” drug and alcohol messages.
The study he showed light upon the fact that music represents a pervasive source of exposure to positive images of substance use. The average adolescent is exposed to approximately 84 references to explicit substance use per day. The average adolescent listening only to pop would be exposed to 5 references per day, whereas the average adolescent who listens just to rap would be exposed to 251 references per day.
Whether any of this matters remains an open question. While the impact of exposure to images of smoking and alcohol in film has been well documented, less is known about the effect of music on childhood risk behaviors.
Although music lacks the visual element of film, adolescent exposure to music is much more frequent. But frequency of exposure is not the only factor. Unlike visual media, music is a powerful social force that also taps into an individual’s personal identity, memories and mood.
“Music is well-known to connect deeply with adolescents and to influence identity development, perhaps more than any other entertainment medium,” said researcher.

Adam Lambert Tried to Defy 'Cliché And Safe' Gay-Male Stereotype With AMA Performance

American Idol' star also admits on 'The Ellen DeGeneres Show' that he was nervous before performance.





During his appearance on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" on Tuesday, Adam Lambert admitted that even on the night of the American Music Awards, when he took the stage and delivered a controversial, performance that dominated headlines for much of last week, he was a bit nervous.
"I get nervous a lot — I just learned how to hide it," he told DeGeneres. "Yeah, here and there. I was nervous the other night ... just a little bit nervous!"
Lambert went on to say that he might have taken things a bit too far with the performance. "I think in hindsight, I look back on it and I go, 'OK, maybe that wasn't the best first impression to make again — the first second impression,' " he said. "I mean, I had fun up there, I had a good time, my dancers had fun and the band had fun."
But he also said that he doesn't feel the need to apologize for the performance, even though his dad said he should. He said he felt that the media coverage was blown out of proportion due to the fact that he's a gay man.
"I think people aren't used to seeing gay man portrayed that way on TV," he said. "The gay-male image in the media tends to be very cliché and safe. ... I think I got up there and put more energy — a little more than I was attempting to — [in interpreting] the lyrics of the song, quite simply," he said.
"I was putting on a character, putting on a persona, being this kind of rock star, kind of dangerous kind of guy," he continued. "After seeing one of my favorites, Lady Gaga, tear it apart onstage — she was incredible. I don't know, something came over me and got caught up in the moment and maybe went a little too far."
Lambert capped off his appearance on the show with a performance of "Whataya Want From Me," from his debut album, For Your Entertainment.

The SUCCESS of coke studio

The music prospect in Pakistan is getting more demanding every day. With music being a global platform, we need something edgy and versatile in order to stand out. An ambitious music project like Coke Studio does just that. After its unprecedented success last year it is back this year, bigger and better with its second season. This show is an awe inspiring collaborative venture of different artists with different genres of music coming together from all over Pakistan and making musical history by creating magic. Hence, Coke studio is not just a regular show; it is an experience that will last a lifetime.

The first episode was aired on the 14th of June with the theme of “Individuality”. The much awaited show surpassed the audience’s expectations and left them craving for more. It included performances by Zeb and Haniya, Noorie, Atif Aslam, Shafqat Amanat Ali, Jawad Bashir and the iconic Sufi maestro Saieen Zahoor.

Zeb and Haniya, popular for their folk inspired music performed a different, much faster version of “Paimona” with Saddiq Sameer on the rubab. I like the slower version better but this one had a radiance of Pushto heritage piercing through, which made it unique and mesmerizing.

Shafqat Amanat Ali performed a slow and beautiful version of the ever so popular “Khamaj”. It was soothing, holding the power to heal anything in this world.

This season also included the youth icon, Atif Aslam known for “Aadat”. His vocals seemed very polished and mature on Coke Studio as he performed “Jal pari” with an essence of “Mere Haniya” by the legendary Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. According to me it was the most innovative performance of the night.

Meekal Hasan band’s Jawad Bashir paid tribute to the late Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan with “Aj Latha Naeeo”. This classical singer was flawless to the extent of perfection. Although he’s not the legend himself but he definitely did justice to his own version of the song.

The last performance was a beautiful rendition of the evergreen Sufi kalaam “Aik Alif” by Noorie and Saieen Zahoor. All I can say is that it was a classic master piece playing beautifully with the fusion of two genres.

To sum it all up, all these individual artists portrayed their individuality to the fullest. They made it a night to be remembered. This show is certainly a breath of fresh air, pulling us out of the regularities of life and creating wonders for all of us to enjoy.

Why OLD is GOLD !?

Have you ever realized that why the term old is gold has been made? The simple answer is that it is made because old really is gold. The songs of past have something about them that the songs of present age no matter how good can compete. You take out and listen to any old track of 60's, 70 or even 80's you will find it really good. One of the reasons that I think have made old songs stand out more is because of their lyrics. In that time song writers really put a lot of effort on the lyrics and it showed in their songs.

My best singer of OLD times is none other than Kishore Kumar and I have selected five of my best songs from the OLD times and I guarantee you that if you would listen to it once you too will realize that old is really gold.

1. Yeh Ratain yeh Mausam (1958)



2. Hum Bewafa herges nay thay (1980)



3. Aik haseena na thy (1986)

Importance of Music in Bollywood Movies

Movies without music mean "food without water". Therefore, it is said that music plays a great role in Bollywood to make a movie success. The role of music in every Bollywood movie is of utmost importance. You won’t find any Bollywood movie without even a single song in it. It is the songs that differentiate Hollywood movies when compared with Bollywood movies.

All Bollywood movies strive hard to have wonderful music as it plays a very important role in generating good revenue. Music of Bollywood communicates a complete blend of emotions, actions, rhythm and music. Anand Bakshi, Harivansh Rai Bachchan, Javed Akhtar, Gulshan Bawra, Gulzaar, Dev Kohli, and Nidi Fazli are some of the noted song writers of Bollywood. These recognized writers have penned down a wide range of remarkable and heart touching Bollywood songs that are the lifeline of the industry.

It is always a well-known fact that Bollywood is a place that produces maximum number of movies in comparison to any other film industry in the world. It makes the Bollywood the most sought after place where cinema breathes like anything. If it has termed that Bollywood creates Movies, music and magic, it should not take as a hyperbolic statement. If we describe Bollywood in bit detail, what we find is an excellent blend of talent, technology and testimony that defines the music at this place.

Since a long time, Bollywood is complementing the arena with its breathtaking contributions in world music industry. In every segment of the music whether Hindustani music, western, classical, pop or rap, Indian music has established the milestones. The sweetness and tender essence that it offers to the listeners is simply incredible. Nowadays, the music of Bollywood goes global with its online presence and with huge song collection across the web.
There are a number of Hindi songs in movies that have left an incredible mark in the hearts of the Bollywood music lovers. Movies such as dilli ka thug, dil waley dulhaneya lejaegey, pardes, dil to pagal hai. In recent times, movies like love ajj kal, Om shanti om and others with good music in it.

U.S. music retailers say they are realizing Susan Boyle dreams, as her album "I Dreamed A Dream" is blowing up way beyond sales expectations.

Label and distribution executives, meanwhile, project that based on early sales returns at the big box stores and pre-orders at direct marketers like Amazon and QVC, Boyle's album is in contention to beat this year's top debut-week seller, Eminem's "Relapse." That title scanned 608,000 units in the week ending May 24, according to Nielsen SoundScan. That week also represents the best overall sales week for an album this year.

Kanye West achieves a new LOW level..

It looks like the VMAs, MTV’s video awards, just had its YouTube moment: Kanye West grabbing the mic as Taylor Swift accepts her award, and instead directing the attention to Beyonce.

Taylor Swift won “Best Female Video” during the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards, beating out Beyonce, Katy Perry, Kelly Clarkson, Lady Gaga and P!nk.
But Kanye West ruined what was supposed to be Taylor’s big night!
When Taylor was giving her acceptance speech on stage, Kanye ran up on stage, grabbed the microphone and said, “Yo Taylor. I’m really happy for you. I’ma let you finish but Beyonce had one of the best videos of all time. One of the best videos of all time!”
Kanye then shrugged his shoulders and walked off stage.Cameras panned for a reaction shot from Beyonce, who looked shocked.
Taylor stood there, stunned and speechless. The audience stared to boo Kanye as he left the stage and started to cheer for Taylor.
How rude, Kanye!!!