Daily Times

Sir: Nostalgia hit me a couple of days ago when my cable started broadcasting old Pakistani songs out of the blue. No, I’m not talking about the oldies from the Waheed Murad era, which are also exceptionally good if you can appreciate corny music. Here I’m talking about the soundtrack of my childhood. The pop and rock anthems 90’s kids grew up to. I’m glad to have witnessed the Pakistani music industry at its peak. Yes, there was a time when our music industry was well aloft unlike today.

In the 60’s and 70’s people saw the prime of Pakistani cinema as well as 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 and Nazia Hassan. Then comes the whole 90’s and the early 2000’s era. A lot of bands and singers composed and produced the best pop and rock music in Pakistan’s history. You wouldn’t believe it if I said that they were actually better than Indian or even English songs. Those were the times when we came back from our schools, tuned into PTV, Aag, Ary Musik and MTV Pakistan to sing along with Faakhir, Strings, Sajjad Ali, Junoon, Ali Zafar, Haroon and Vital Signs to name a few. As a 90’s kid ‘Puraani Jeans’and ‘paanion me chal rahay hain’ were my anthems, although at that time I couldn’t possibly decode the depth of their meaning.

As I was growing up I expected the industry to grow with me too, but instead it just vanished into thin air. New albums just stopped coming out and concerts which happened every week were put to a halt. I remember attending a gig almost every weekend. There were at least four or five concerts happening across the country every night. All the channels that telecasted Pakistani music went off air one after another. Then all of a sudden, a new channel came up. It was called G Kaboom. It began airing 100 percent Indian content and its rating just shot through the roof. Maybe if Bollywood had never interfered and if we never stopped making hits like we made in the old 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 are either on a hiatus or have 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 Pakistani music industry has come to a tragic end.

HAREEM SAJJAD

Karachi

Published in Daily Times, December 12^th 2017.