Tag: Pakistan

Out with the Old, in with the New (Music)

As Bollywood is making innovative strides in music, the people who are most affected by the changes are the ones who benefited from mass producing repetitive songs without a hint of creativity in the 1990’s and 2000’s.

Nadeem-Shravan, a popular music duo who were popular in the 90’s to mid 2000’s did produce some music in the past few years, but each soundtrack failed miserably. Their cliche tunes and inability to create music that may sway from songs that were once guaranteed hits have made them incapable of competing with Bollywood’s new string of musicians who have abandoned the old rules and have morphed India’s music scene.

Earlier this week, Shravan (of Nadeem-Shravan) complained that Bollywood music has left behind local sounds, and that Hollywood has been the Hindi movie industry’s biggest influence. Shravan may not have been listening to any Bollywood music these days. In fact, classical sounds, both Muslim and Hindu, have reemerged in Bollywood like never before.

But that may be a part of Shravan’s problem. Along with more classical influences, Pakistan has begun to make a powerful presence in India. He said:

“If a Pakistani artist releases an album or a song with a video, it gets heavy rotation, at the expense of talented Indian artists. We respect artists from every country, but we need to promote our own Hindustani musicians as well.”

First of all, Indian artists are hugely popular in Pakistan, so why not vice-versa? Also, it is sad that Shravan is speaking of competition, rather than unison, especially when speaking from a platform of music, where artists should promote cultural exchange. In a previous post, I wrote that Pakistani artists have stated that they believe their popularity grows when they make it big in Bollywood. Sadly, Shravan frowns on this ground breaking change in Indo-Pak relations.

Shravan, like Nadeem-Shravan’s music, clearly represents sentiments of the past that have evaporated in Bollywood. Not only has Bollywood’s music progressed, but so has the industry’s ideals.

Here’s a song with local flavor that Shravan probably didn’t catch (even though it was one of the most popular songs last year):

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by Swati / April 23, 2010 / Posted in: A.R. Rahman, Bollywood Music, Classical music, Foreign Policy, Hollywood, Pakistan, Pakistan India relations, Progressive Films

Tagged: Kaminey, Pakistan, Shravan

Remembering The Greatest Khan

Hm. Who is The Greatest Khan? Some might think Shahrukh. or Salman. or Aamir. or Saif. or Genghis? All wrong.

The Greatest Khan is the man who made sufi music popular among the masses, who became the most popular Pakistani artists in the world. It’s none other than Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan.

Khan was recently selected as one of the 50 Greatest Voices of All Time by NPR. This made me think of the legacy he left. Not only was he one of the most inspiring performers of all time, he also mastered the technique of bringing various forms of music together and intertwining them in a way that had never been done before.

To imagine monumental classical music singers such as Ghulam Ali, Pandit Jasraj or Farida Khanum collaborate with London based DJ Bally Sagoo, or with Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder is laughable. But Khan did it all. Not only did he bring the east and west together through music, he reunited Hindustani and Sufi music in a way that had never been done before.

In my last post, I wrote about the new wave in contemporary music that is now experimenting with mixing different sounds from all around the world to create global and original pieces. Khan was the pioneer who paved this path for future musicians. The best example of his melody of Hindustani raaga and Sufi music was through his incorporation of sargam in his qawwalis. Sufism is the mythological branch of Islam, and music plays a huge role in the religion. Qawwalis are the best known form of Sufi devotional music.

Sargam, on the other hand, is an innate quality of raagas. The sargam represents the scale in raagas, and consist of seven notes: sa, re, ga, ma, pa, dha, ni, sa. Each sargam has a different sound. They symbolize Hindustani music. Khan incorporated Sargam into his qawwalis.

A Pakistani Singer in an interview recently stated that artists in the country receive more respect when they perform in Bollywood. The very fact that there is a growing relationship between the countries through music (Bollywood films are banned in Pakistan) is because of Khan.

Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan’s influence is boundless. He composed some music for Bollywood films, influenced groups like Pakistan’s Junoon and singers like India’s Kailash Kher. He is not known as the world’s greatest singer purely for his voice and performance, but for his innovation and ability to transcend borders and politics and bring people together through music.

Here is a personal favorite: