NOSTALGIA hit me a couple of days ago when my cable guy out of the blue started broadcasting old Pakistani songs. No, I’m not talking about the oldies from the Waheed Murad era, which are also exceptionally good if you have a corny bone in your body.

Here I’m talking about the soundtrack of my childhood. The pop and rock anthems ’90s kids grew up to. I’m glad to have witnessed the Pakistan music industry at its peak. Yes, there was a time when our music industry was well aloft unlike today.

In the 1960’s and 1970’s people saw the prime of Pakistani cinema, as well as of the music industry, which our parents would gladly remember if you ask. This was the golden era of Mehdi Hassan, Ahmed Rushdi, Allan Fakeer, Iqbal Bano and Noor Jehan. Flash forward to the 80’s with Hassan Jahangir, Alamgir, the Benjamin sisters, Nazia Hassan and others. Mayaybe if Bollywood had never interfered and if we never stopped making hits like we made in the early days, things would’ve been different. Here, of course, Coke Studio comes to save the day. But then again most of their songs are recreations.

Also most of our A-listed singers have either gone into hiatus or gone to Bollywood. Whatever fresh material is being released by new Pakistani artists is being ignored because either it’s not up to the mark or our people are busy with Indian hits. Hence, the reign of the Pakistani music industry came to a tragic end.

Hareem Sajjad

Karachi

Published in Dawn, December 15th, 2017