Who would deny the fact that pop music has taken the young generation of Pakistan by storm? Over the years, a number of musical bands have emerged, hinting at the immense popularity of the genre; but not all of them have acquired critical or commercial acclaim. Those who achieve instant success owe a lot to one or two of their super hit songs, known among avid music listeners as “numbers”. Once they prove successful and their albums start selling like hot cakes, their confidence receives a boost, which enables them to come up with more hit numbers. This grants them a prominent place in the local music world. Recently mushroomed TV music channels further enhance their popularity by running their songs over and over again.
Apart from the known musical bands such as Junoon, Fuzon, Noori and Strings, there are individual pop singers like Abrarul Haq, Jawad Ahmad, Ali Zafar and Fakhir who have achieved tremendous success due to their hit numbers. In the recent years, Punjabi pop songs have gained immense fame not only in the subcontinent, but also in the Western countries. This trend was set by some Sikh citizens in the UK like Daler Mehdi, Sukhbir and Stereo Nation, who became internationally known due to their lilting Punjabi songs.
Our own singers have not lagged behind in promoting this trend. These pop singers are particularly liked by students, who sing and dance to their popular songs in live concerts. This is one genre of art in which the generation gap is very obvious. Middle-aged persons or a little older people are not usually fond of this type of music. They are critical of the quality of lyrics used in pop songs as well as their tunes which unlike the old songs can hardly be termed as immortal. They believe that since pop music is largely inspired by Western music, it does not suit the temperament of our people. They opine that due to fast beats, pop numbers generate excitement amongst the listeners only when they are played or sung before live audiences. The old generation believes that the impact of pop songs is short-lived. However, those amongst them who have a balanced view don’t oppose pop music openly, but suggest that the singers must have some knowledge of classical music and their compositions should be melodious enough, which is the hallmark of subcontinental music. A lot of old-timers express their liking for Sajjad Ali and Shafqat Amanat Ali of Fuzon, who are classically trained.
What is praiseworthy of this new generation of musicians is that they are highly talented individuals as they not only compose their own music but write the lyrics to their songs too. A lot of them have the ability to keep the audiences spell-bound for hours. Regardless of the criticism, we should acknowledge the fact that pop music provides good fun to the younger generation of Pakistan. Therefore, it wouldn’t be a good idea to just look down upon it just like that.
At the same time we cannot blame the old generation for not flowing with the tide. They belong to an era when while listening to a song people took into consideration all ingredients of a song. Be it the lyrics, composition or its rendering, everything had to be of a high quality. That was the reason why established film producers hired the best of poets, music directors and singers to be a part of their films as only they could create the type of songs which people liked to listen and had a lasting value.
Since the songs and music of commercial films have to cater to everyone’s taste, there has not been a marked change in our film music in the last six decades. The few noticeable changes have been the deteriorating quality of lyrics and abundance of dance numbers. This has deprived film compositions of melody, which is the essential ingredient of such kind of music.
To gauge how things in the past would function, one look at the ghazal singers would suffice. For example, ghazal singers like Ustad Amanat All Khan, Farida Khanum, Habib Wali Muhammad, Mehdi Hassan, Ghulam Ali and Jagjit Singh would carefully select the ghazals for compositions. In doing so, they would keep in mind the quality of the couplets and the metre of the ghazal. The tunes composed by them for such ghazals would further highlight the feelings or sentiments which the poet wanted to convey in his verse.
The present ghazal singers continue to follow this tradition and are popular with the old generation too. Pop and ghazal singing exist in the subcontinent side by side, but for different classes of audience having their own ideas of enjoyment. And that’s not a bad thing.
Who would deny the fact that pop music has taken the young generation of Pakistan by storm? Over the years, a number of musical bands have emerged, hinting at the immense popularity of the genre; but not all of them have acquired critical or commercial acclaim. Those who achieve instant success owe a lot to one or two of their super hit songs, known among avid music listeners as “numbers”. Once they prove successful and their albums start selling like hot cakes, their confidence receives a boost, which enables them to come up with more hit numbers. This grants them a prominent place in the local music world. Recently mushroomed TV music channels further enhance their popularity by running their songs over and over again.
