continental drift pt. 8: pakistan
Welcome to Continental Drift’s voyage to Pakistan. Find the playlist here, and listen back to the show here.
Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia with a population of 242 million, making it the 5th largest country by population. The national languages are Urdu and English, though there are several other regional languages spoken including Punjabi, Pashto, Sindhi, and Saraiki. Ethnically, the country is 44.7% Punjabi and 15.4% Pashtun.
Being such a huge and diverse country, there’s a wealth of traditional music but also a very interesting popular music history I’d like to highlight. Huge props to music critic Nadeem F. Paracha, for his research was integral to this episode.
Pakistan won their independence from British colonialism in 1947. During this time, film became extremely popular. As a result, playback singing also became popular. This is where singers record songs for movies and actors will lip sync during filming. The subsequent genre of music that came from playback, featuring not only popular playback songs but also the pop music stemmed from it, is called filmi pop. Filmi pop is considered to have two pioneers, Ahmed Rushdi and Runa Laila, both of whom were extremely popular in Pakistan in the 60s. After Pakistan’s civil war and subsequent secession of Bangladesh, Runa Laila left for Bangladesh. Ahmed Rushdi stayed in Pakistan and continued making filmi pop, but was soon eclipsed in popularity by Almagir.
Filmi pop segment:
Ko Ko Koreena (from the film Armaan) // Ahmed Rushdi
Some Say I Am a Sweetie // Naheed Akhtar
Do Deewane Shaher Mein // Runa Laila, Bhupinder Singh
Dekha Na Tha // Alamgir (from the film Bobby & Julie)
Filmi pop died around 1979, when disco comes in. Nazia & Zoheb Hasaan were a Pakistani sibling duo credited with the first disco album of the country- Disco Dewanee. After a hugley successful career, Nazia Hasaan would go on to be the UN cultural ambassador. Another Pakistani sibling duo, Feisal Mosleh and Nermin Niazi, also were forerunners in the country’s disco scene.
Disco segment:
Disco Deewane // Nazia and Zoheb Hasaan
Sari Sari Raat // Nermin Niazi and Feisal Mosleh
Dil Mein Tum // Bunny
In 1984, guitarist Aamir Zaki, a very young “guitar wizard” forms the first Pakistani underground rock band, called Scratch, though they never released any original music. Zaki was a member of the Vital Signs briefly, which was a band formed in 1986. Vital Signs soon become the most popular act in the country, and enjoyed international success as well. “Dil Dil Pakistan” was a very popular song after dictatorship ends and democracy returns to the state.
Rock/Pop segment:
Dil Dil Pakistan // Vital Signs
Akhian // Fuzon, Shafqat Armanat Ali
The first rap song in Pakistan, “Bhangra” by Fakhar e Alam, was released in 1993. Pakistani hip hop and rap artists in its early stages were mainly underground English acts and were dismissed by the media and mainstream as “Eminem ki aolad” (Eminem’s children) and “yo-bache” (yo-kids). The first commercially backed Pakistani rapper was Bohemia.
Hip hop segment:
Bhangra // Fakhar e Alam
Kali Denali // Bohemia, Sha One
Thanks for tuning in!