Remaining true to rock’s central core, the band courted controversy deliberately and consciously in videos such as Ehtesaab from the album Kashmakash, which included footage of a polo pony dining in a posh restaurant. The powers-that-be were simply not amused and a state ban on television appearances followed swiftly. The band, however, remained undeterred; a fresh album significantly titled Inqilaab followed shortly after in 1997, pioneering the fusion between western classical and eastern sufi music. Though controversy has remained a true and dogged partner in Junoon’s journey from obscurity to stardom, ironically, anti-establishment notoriety metamorphosed swiftly into national fame with the single Jazba-e-Junoon, which went on to become the signature tune for the Cricket World Cup.
However, it was with their fourth album Azaadi that Junoon became a true South Asian phenomenon whose sound reverberated beyond Pakistani borders as it earned platinum sales. Wide ranging international tours followed with Azadi’s debut raking in platinum sales in India in a splendid four-week run. Success was Junoon’s handmaiden and the Asim Raza (of Ho Mann Jahan present fame) video single Sayonee further cemented Junoon’s status as Pakistan’s first rock band.
Though Pakistan is sited literally on the opposite side of the world from where it all began, the sound of its rock music even today can be traced directly back to that explosive moment in music history in the mid-1950s when the world woke up to a music it had never heard before. The western-based movement spawned local versions wherever its impact was felt and, like a huge seismic shift, insured that music would never sound the same again. Sadly, despite being an entirely recognisable, distinct genre, rock is often confused with pop music.
Rock’s specialty lies in its focus on skill and technique strengthened by its insistence on an ideological emphasis that is both original and true. Unlike popular music with its romantic limitations, rock lyrics deal with a wide range of themes that include sex, a constant rebellion against established order bordering on anarchy, social concerns and lifestyle. With deceptively simple diction and repeated refrains, rock’s overarching appeal while articulating the concerns of a predominantly white and largely male audience in the west lends itself readily to globally popular themes of social alienation, confinement and a desire for freedom. Despite having grown extremely diverse, rock continues to be song-based music using a four-by-four time signature, a verse-chorus form and an emphasis on live performance that is centred on the electric guitar.
Today, despite heroic efforts to keep classical training and music alive through annual conferences and sporadic performances, classical music is bemoaned as ‘a dying art’ in Pakistan as the number of old guard maestros in various gharanas slip away into the twilight to be replaced by far lesser gifted protégés. One of the main reasons for the demise is cited as lack of patronage, which translates into a living wage. On the other hand, the commercial success of rock and pop music implies that it is somehow a lesser kind of music as opposed to the venerated forms of classical music practiced in our part of the world, just as jazz is held in great reverence in the US. Beyond ‘purist’ circles, rock and pop music is usually dismissed as infantile, noisy and irrelevant. It is none of these.
As a diehard Bowie and rock fan, it is interesting to note how rock has stubbornly forced its presence onto the local music scene with Junoon’s music, which remains one of only three bands in the country that epitomise the true spirit of rock. Both Noori and Overload are worthy followers with the latter’s Nairay Aa reminiscent of Bowie’s androgynous take on life on a distinctly decadent earth. From Ziggy Stardust to his swansong, Blackstar, with its harrowing Lazarus video, Bowie completed a full circle, ending where he began, on the day, the “man who fell to earth”went home to a galaxy far, far away.
David Bowie’s intelligently crafted exploration of euphoric, musical and apocalyptic fantasies have been called “a myth of the future”. In 1973, Bowie gloomily predicted, “This is a mad planet. It is doomed to madness.” Many of us today would readily agree with him.
(Concluded)
The author is Academic Advisor in Lahore Grammar School. She may be contacted at [email protected]