While conducting a poll on the top ten Pakistani bands/soloists, I realized how ignorant of the pakistani music scene our expatriates are. For instance, the only bands they would know of were Junoon, Strings or EP…beyond that, most of them still thought that Awaz was making waves…ok, I’m exaggerating, come to think of it, our music scene has finally started making its presence felt…a far cry from just a year or two back when we were all still hooked on to the ‘I love junoon’ phase. Now, at least we have a number of bands to choose from…when you ask non-Pakistanis about which Pakistani band they like, at least some of them add strings or Ali Zafar to the necessary bout of Junoon mania. It’ll take time to get our selves established, but heck! We’ve started haven’t we? Ample proof of that is Strings contribution to the spider man movie!
Sure, 99% of the new bands that come out are sad impressions of the 1% of good music already existing as well as the necessary Linkin park-copying dudes. Many people happened to know of Ali Zaffer..sadly it was not because of his music but for his ‘banyan’ clad appearance at the ‘Dubai Rain 2004 concert’…along with big names like Richi Rich and Punjabi MC. I think most of the female population forgave him for any grudge held against him after that. Jal’s addat was a BIG craze for the longest time.. and still is…but most people are now confused between the whole Atif Aslam and Jal break-up. What was all that about anyway?? Ahmed Jahanzeb held public interest for some time as well, most of his songs are really quite nice actually…but many were left wondering about the middle of his latest song where he goes of singing in some foreign language or something .. arabic .. english? no clue…I tried…I just couldn’t make it out yaar. (on a personal note-loved that lip gloss)
Now for the actual poll on
TOP TEN BANDS/SOLOISTS
1. Strings
2. Junoon
3. EP
4. Jal
5. Fuzon
6. Noori
7. Atif Aslam
8. Ali Zafar
9. Abrar Ul Haq
10. Arif Lohar
Ok, the 10th one is actually Aaroh…so sue me for wanting beloved Arif Lohar with his gorgeous hair to be in the list…classic music I tell you..
While we’re on the topic of the developing music scene, I would really like to mention the most apparent change bringer-abouter (I couldn’t think of another word)…Rahim Shah…just compare and contrast his latest song and video with the ‘jhoola’ song will you…fascinating.. all spikey hair and retro guy girl dancing in rain in bar atmosphere… everyone I know refused to believe it was him until the name actually came in print and even then some were doubtful .We salute him for his brave act.
The whole bhangra/punjabi scene might be hitting it off internationally now but for us, it never actually left… think about it.. For most Pakistanis, bhangra is part of our culture.. we seem to be born with a natural affinity to it. When u want good music, blab something out and add bhangra music to it.. and voila ,instant success.. I’m not talking about everyone but I am taking the layman’s point of view over here…if I had carried out a nation wide poll in pakistan right now, bands like junoon or EP wouldn’t even have been on the list…just a thought. Oh and as for EP…isn’t their Hamesha video fab?? though what is it with Fawad and the i-hav-the-load-of-the-world-on-my-shoulders attitude?? How can he manage to cry so heart-breakingly in every one of his videos? Why is he such a tortured soul? Does he not have horlicks to give him strength? Am I ever going to stop being prejudiced against people who have ability to be serious in life? Time will tell…until then.. Whoever finds out what shampoo Arif Lohar uses and who his tailor is, Please contact me.
