Decandence Of Pakistani Music

There was a time to wear baggy T-shirts, flapper jeans, watching Ainak Wala Jin, play Sega drive and Ataari, to feel lucky of having dish antenna, to listen Vital Signs and Junoon and many such things. It happened to be the time in history when  Pakistan music industry has been assorted as recognized and efficacious across the borders. The music produced here has always been out of the ordinary. It was us who gave the world the most amazing and outclass voices like Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Madam Noor Jahan, Mehedi Hassan, Abida Parveen and many more. There was a time when our pop industry was considered as a trend-setter, not only Pakistani but also people all around the world loved to hear these melodious voices.  Our singers like Nazia Hassan, Vital signs, Jawwad Ali and others were broadly followed by people from all over the world. By mid 90’s Ali Haider, Sajjad Ali, FAkhr-e-Alam, Awaz, Strings were the most famous. These people came forward because of their own hardwork and talent. At that time radio FM boom had also played a great role in giving birth to aspiring bands.

But now, in this modern era of 21^st century where we are introducing new technologies and developments, sadly there our music industry is suffering from a great downfall. We have lost many golden voices but it does’nt mean that talent has been fade away from our country. Undoubtedly still there are melodious voices with us which are unfortunately stay unrecognized. This is because our people are busy in listening music produced by west and other countries. There is no doubt that Indian singers have great voices but why we are neglecting our talent?

Our young talent stays struggling to receive a little share of recognition but they fail and stay underground. This is because a talented person cannot come forward unless he has any powerful source. On other side where our Pakistani industry do not support our deserved ones, they get that fame from India, then Pakistani industry recognize the as a Pakistani singer.

In older days singers had a platform of different Tv Stations to launch their music there were many channel where we used to listen our pop music like Oxygen, MTV Pakistan, VH1 Pakistan etc but now many channels have been closed and the open ones show Indian contents, in this case how could people hear our voices.Our radio stations are not listened much so that they could introduce new voices as like they did before.

Moreover, due to our terrible law and order conditions of our prominent cities like Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad, concerts are not failed to maintain rolling like before. As concerts too play a vital role in the growth of the music industry of a country but we Pakistani are deprived of this benefit as well.

I have personally met some people having great voices with excellent pieces already crafted by them but the conditions of the industry do not let them to come forward. A great singer Azeem Khan who recently launched his music Album “ Tum Laut Ao Na” with his melodious voice, but he does not get that fame he deserves. Other than him our singers like Asim Azhar, Rafay Israr, Zain Ali, Jimmy Sanam, Basit Ghori and many others are struggling to show their talent. We are not only destroying our heritage and culture but also our literature and music. What should we do to bring our new talent at a platform like before?

By Laiba Babar