Pop music on its way out

Date: 26 Feb 2003 20:16:14 -0800
Newsgroups: soc.culture.punjab,soc.culture.tamil,soc.culture.indian,soc.culture.bengali,soc.culture.pakistan
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Pop music on its way out
By Saeed Malik No art form ever remains static. By its very nature, it continues to
absorb political, social, economic and even scientific influences
spawned by the latest developments. The emergence of pop music in
Pakistan is the necessary corollary of this phenomenon.
Since the uproarious popularity of Nazia Hasan's songs Aap jaisa koi
and Disco Deewane, and the ripples created by Hasan Jehangir's Hawa
Hawa, as well as Vital Signs' Dil Dil Pakistan, Western-style pop
songs rendered by guitar-wielding Pakistani crooners have made deep
inroads in our melodic culture.
However, in recent years, the repertoire of pop singers seems to have
exhausted itself and the popularity of pop songs has shrunk. Pop music
in Pakistan, claim cultivated listeners and knowledgeable
connoisseurs, has already touched the apogee of its tether. This can
be substantiated by the ever-increasing reliance of pop singers on the
folk varieties of Pakistani music, originating from various regions of
the country, specially Punjab. A large number of songs recorded in the
voices of second-generation pop singers currently aired by different
TV channels and radio stations are more folk than pop in their melodic
content.
Almost all hit songs of Pakistani (and Indian) pop singers currently
in circulation can be cited as examples to substantiate the point.
Included in these songs are Ali Haider's re-created Noor Jehan's film
number Main thaan marjaniyaan, Abrarul Haq's Asaan te jaanaan Billo de
ghar and Aaja tu baija cycle te, Jawwad Ahmed's Uchiyaan majajan wali
and Saajana door they aa, Junoon's Sayonee, Hadiqa Kiyani's
Buh-i-Bariyaan, Mun de mauj and Yaad sajan di ayee, and Fakhir's
Sohniye. A majority of our front-line pop singers are looking for
inspiration to bolster their "creative" compositional skills.
Before carrying the discussion any further, it will be useful to state
that no manifestation of a culture should be regarded as inferior, if
it satisfies the aspirations and needs of its people. Music, an
ineluctable component of our culture, deals with the organization of
tones into patterns. Considered the finest of fine arts, music bases
its appeal on the sensuous beauty of pleasing sounds and their ability
to convey significant emotional meanings. The folk varieties of our
melodic culture are pegged to human experiences and have ebullient
expressive content. Otherwise, how could they have remained in
circulation for many millennia, and as a moving force in the lives of
the people?
A good composition or a tumultuously popular song embodies a view of
real life. It conveys personal interpretations of the composer and the
poet, the essence of their experiences as creative persons as well as
ordinary human beings. Tolstoy has rightly said: "Art is a human
activity having for its purpose the transmission to others of the
highest and best feelings to which man has risen." After listening to
a love song, one realizes how compellingly a melody may capture the
accent of tenderness and longing, which the composer, after using the
talent and mellifluous voice of the singer, has conveyed so feelingly
and with much dexterity.
The question as to how modern pop varieties of music affected our
youth has been explained in the following paragraphs.
Disappointed and frustrated by a lack of creative ingenuity and
inability of the practitioners of classical music to reflect the
contemporary realities of life, our young generation started looking
beyond their own cultural boundaries for another melodic mode to vent
their creative yearnings. The dearth and ever-plummeting standards of
extra-curricular cultural activities in our educational institutions,
as compared to what was available to them in the not-too-distant past,
also contributed to the alienation, creating a void in their cultural
activities.
Worldwide, genuine art is considered a mirror of civilization, that is
created to reflect the cultural yearnings, spiritual aspirations,
political hopes, social and political goals of the people. Different
forms, shades and aspects of the arts and the creative outpourings of
the artists act as cathartic agents, causing a purgation of the
pent-up feelings mostly of the oppressed people hailing from all
segments of a society. When an art form stagnates or atrophies, as has
been the case with our classical music (based on an elaborate theory
of intervals, consonance, modes, melodic and rhythmic patterns), its
practitioners look outwards for different genres to satisfy their
creative urges. In such situations, alien art forms make inroads in
other cultures, temporarily lifting the moods and spirit of a
culturally frustrated people.
Western varieties of pop music invaded Pakistan's cultural ethos in a
similar manner. They were greeted by exuberant young Pakistani singers
who willingly opted for new modes of melodic expression. Further
confounding the confusion in the minds of the youth was the role of an
inept cultural bureaucracy in the country that showed no concern for
the promotion or preservation of our rich melodic heritage. Those
dealing with cultural affairs displayed a sheer lack of understanding
for the aspirations of the artists and people of Pakistan.
Adding fuel to the fire was the surgical bifurcation of Pakistan by
naked Indian aggression in 1971, that further accentuated the feelings
of dejection among young Pakistanis, who became disillusioned of the
unfulfilled promised and also misdeeds of the politicians. They also
resented the manner in which the country's cultural affairs were
managed. The revolt among the youth against the iniquitous political,
economic and social systems and the cultural alienation caused by it
was thus reflected in their aversion to indigenous arts, including
classical and semi-classical music.
On the other side of the spectrum, unabated cloying of our moral
values adversely affected the quality of our film music, that only a
few years ago had celebrated its golden era. Our film music, that had
created a number of landmarks and successfully competed with Indian
film songs, also nose-dived in quality. Additionally, and as a sequel
to the shrinkage of market for Pakistani movies, producers became
averse to sustaining the previous level of their investments in the
production of new films. They preferred to finance low-budget
formula-type movies, a vast majority of which flopped at the
box-office. Once extremely popular among the masses, the quality of
our film music has suffered much. Senior and original composers were
forced to go into self-exile, as they could not compromise creativity
with the whims and fancies of uneducated financiers, often accused of
using their position to sate their lascivious desires and motives.
From the cultural standpoint, the country remained barren for a
considerable period of time. No new experiments were made in the
domain of the creative arts, specially the traditional music of
Pakistan. The close-to-the-chest attitude of professional gharana
musicians about imparting theoretical knowledge and performing skills
to new aspirants further alienated the youth, causing a deep dip in
the popularity of the indigenous varieties of our rich music.
In the backdrop of this discouraging scenario, Pakistani youth drifted
towards alien pop music, enamoured by its sonic enchantment that
relies on swinging beats, electronic instruments. The fast tempo of
the strongly rhythm-accented pop songs, reflecting the pace of life at
the fag end of the 20th century, sucked into its maelstrom the
culturally-alienated youth, groping in the dark to discover new modes
for creative self-expression. Thus, the modern fad of pop music was
allowed to penetrate the cultural ethos of Pakistan.
As is common with other fads, the impact of modern pop music began to
dissipate after about three decades of its infiltration in our
cultural environment. Devoid of a strong melodic base and meaningful
lyrical content, the songs "composed" by pop singers no more find a
large clientele, except the songs that are clearly pegged to Pakistani
folk themes and motifs.A large number of "pop" songs recently
"composed" and rendered by well-known singers are inextricably linked
with popular folk melodies, more from Punjab than other regions of
Pakistan, starkly point to the fact that the repertoire of pop singers
has hit rock bottom. In an effort to remain in circulation and
stalling a full eclipse, the pragmatic among pop singers quickly
shifted their emphasis by borrowing heavily from the inexhaustible
treasure-trove of folk melodies of Pakistan. The shot-in-the-arm given
to pop music by local folk varieties has given it a new lease of life,
albeit for a short duration.
The neo-classical ghazal-singing style evolved and practised by senior
Pakistani vocalists has also helped the indigenous melodic culture in
braving the onslaught of Western pop music. The fact that the more
attractive mode of ghazal singing has taken roots in local soil and
has converted many a young and serious singer to its cause provides
incontestable testimony to the resilience and vitality of Pakistani
folk music.
Like a fad that fizzles out of vogue after a couple of decades, pop
music is also slowly losing its sonic charm due to a glaring lack of
melodic content. For some, the change is still somewhat imperceptible,
but for those who have acquired the art of perceptive listening, the
impact of change will become profound in the not-too-distant future.
It took dhrupad about 400 years to slip into historical oblivion. The
classical style of khayal vocalization remained in vogue for over 300
years, before it slowly went into hibernation, and the pervasive
appeal of thumri and dadra lingered on until a few years after the
creation of Pakistan. These modes of melodic expression remained the
vogue for so many centuries only because these were woven with
indigenous musical fibres.
As against this, modern pop music, brimming with loud syncopation in
contrast with the serenity of classical music, is not rooted in native
soil. It is tied with an alien system of music that is heavily
rhythm-accented. Its foreign content seems to have lost dynamism
within a period of 20 years, after first surfacing on our melodic
scene in Pakistan. In the Western context, Rock 'n' Roll music and
other varieties practised by the Beatles and other groups caused
hysterical obsession among the youth, albeit for a short period of
time. These are now almost totally forgotten genres.