What were the chnages that took place in the music industry?

Pakistan music industry throughout this last decade or we could say that since it was founded has seen a lot of changes. The music that exists in Pakistan now is completely revolutionized after a thousand changes or so.

The first Change that took place was that the music changed from pure pop to and impure form by emerging into new genres or fusion of music. This trend was started by the band called junoon in Pakistan by introducing the genre of Sufi- rock in Pakistan hence creating a benchmark for the music industry in Pakistan. Almost all of the new talent is following their footsteps. Another change that was brought was that the band culture started to initiate and many new bands were formed after vital signs such bands were jupiters, junoon, awaaz and many others. This culture was never practiced in this part of the worlds and became quite famous during those days and even now it is moving at a great speed almost all of the musicians are forming a band and solo singers that once existed are now dying a natural death by the hands of the band members.

Many famous bands were formed in the 90’s but now most of them broke up due to certain reasons the most famous examples would be of vital signs, junoon and awaz breaking up and all of the singers started to sing solo, but they did not managed to make a name for themselves except some so this culture was also one of the changes that took place.

The music now is turned into a full fledged industry. Firstly it was just the singer or a composer or a song writer but in order to succeed now you need to have many more things done to so this field is now an industry. There are a lot of people to support you in this field you can count on a composer, musicians, song writer, and a lot more crew all you need is to speak and even if you are not a great singer your voice can be turned into a great one and you can easily become a renown singer in this industry.

The music produced now is influenced from the west and all of the musicians are trying to produce the music that is being produced in the west instead of following our own culture and produce what was once a name for Pakistan. All the youngster are energetic and try to do something fast and this is their way out of everything to produce, listen to western influenced rock, metal or any other genre of music having a fast beat even if it doesn’t have a rhythm or even if it doesn’t have any lyrics.

The music industry now is given plenty of sponsorship when the media opened up this caused quite a heavy investment in this very field or industry as I can say. There are many companies that are willing to invest their money in the industry some very good examples could be of Cocacola which was sponsoring abrar-ul-haq and many other musicians in launching their albums and Colgate which was giving away free albums of junoon with their product and Pepsi which was sponsoring String in the world cup cricket and many other events. Such a things help to boost up the pace and quality work in this industry so that everyone could be sponsored by the best companies in Pakistan.

Now a days our singers are trying to copy the western style and culture forgetting their own culture of pop music. They just want to get fame in short period of time without any afford. They must be groomed before releasing their album. They are just copying west without any particular reason. There are so many role models present in our music industry from which we can get influence in promoting our pop music. As been told before that we want everything to be fast now with this fast paced life, even the music that we listen to.

Now, another change is ‘Plagiarism’. Plagiarism is considered a crime in all of the countries except for South Asia, where it is practiced every now and then. Those of the music fans that only listen to Pakistani music or those who just listen to lyrics considered many of the songs to be good ones what they don’t know is that the music the Pakistani musicians produce is mostly plagiarized or copied from the western musicians, only the lyrics and a little bit of music is changed because Pakistan do not have that kind of music producing equipment that those western artists have. All the credit is taken by the Pakistani pop musician and being in Pakistan none of the credit is given to the western musician who was the original composer of the music. However these Pakistani songs do not go into the international market so no one except some of the people in the country who listen to both the music, i.e. western and eastern know about this plagiarism. No one can do anything about it because it is not a crime in Pakistan and the cheater gets away with it. Example could be of ‘Call’ which copies entirely from the English band ‘creed’. Another example could be of ‘Atif Aslam’ which copies from very old Malaysian songs only the lyrics are different. An example would be of his new song in the bollywood movie ‘Race’ called ‘pehli nazar main’. And many new singers are also copying from the west and giving it the name of western influencing which in reality is plagiarism.

The technological advancement is also one of the major changes in the music. Now anyone can produce a song while sitting at his/her home. Computers are now doing 10 men job and now there is no need to hire a lot of technical staff. Hire a computer expert and all your worries are finished. We went to the studios or so called studios of some famous artists all they had was a fancy computer with a lot of hardware and that is all, they record, mix and do everything their that one room studio or computer room. Computers can make anyone’s voice sound very sweet and anyone can be singer now. The older artists use to rehearse days if not months to record their sounds as they want them to be perfect, but now as soon as the lyrics and music is ready the sound is recorded and the song is ready and that is the reason that every singer is producing too much songs in a very short period of time as the previous one’s where it would take years to record an albums. It is a matter of hours now to record and album.

Thanks to the wonders of modern technology, Pakistani music is now available at a 24/7 basis on the Net. And if you are looking for a web site on Pakistani music, well there isn’t just one. There aren’t plenty either. But of the few that there are there, hold high Pakistan’s contributions in the world of music.

The change also took place when some of the Pakistani musicians traveled to India to perform and record their albums. These artists became very popular in India as India being a film loving nation these songs went on to hit the silver screens and became hits throughout the world. This made the very famous and because of this every musician has dream of going to India and had is song selected for a movie so he can earn some money and fame.

Another culture is emerging which as far as I m concerned is a positive change; it is of the underground bands. These are those musicians who are amateurs or don’t have enough finances to produce music in the industry produce it in underground where not much funds are needed. The music in composed mostly in houses and are performed at different concerts if the song is good then it gets a sponsorship and it is released as a regular song ‘over ground’. This Underground scene was not here 10 years back and now it is flourishing and has very string roots in Lahore. Most of the youngsters attend these concerts because as per them quality music is produced underground

by (Abu Bakar)