When it comes to the amount of music produced in Pakistan this year, some may say automatically say "Nil." I would have said something of the same sort.. until now. I've actually made an effort to get to know the latest and greatest in Pakistani Music. And let me tell you.. there was only one HUGE disappointment.. ;)
Yep. I honestly don't get that woman. According to me, the only attractive thing in that video were the pair of silver sequinned headphones she was stroking her hair with. After seeing this, I was.. disturbed. And then some months later I saw another video, and believe me, if it hadn't been for the extremely familiar piano notes keeping my hand steady, I would have changed the channel then and there. I failed to understand how the lyrics did justice to the song, and I failed to understand why on earth this song was called an 'adaptation' of "Someone Like You", so I wouldn't blame you if you were extremely confused right now.
Moving onto bigger and better things, the major platforms in Pakistan for promoting music are either Coke Studio and Uth Records (which, by the way, was also introduced this year), or the Internet and YouTube. Coke Studio has been churning out alot of good songs for quite some time now and this year was an equally successful year. It may have been because of the fresh talent that Coke Studio was avidly followed by the younger lot as well as the classical-loving adult party, this year. Fresh talent, namely Bilal Khan, The Sketches, Mole, and Kaavish. These were instant hits with me. Bilal Khan, obviously, got his fame from his debut single "Bachana", which was a fantastic song to jumpstart one's career as well as boost Pakistani Music to a bit of a higher, more evolutionised level. "Bachana"'s success was amazingly fast and widespread.
Bilal's successful streak didn't end there. He went onto make appearances in this year's Coke Studio. The originals he performed there were just.. too good. My favorite was "To Kia Hua". Must have listened to this song about 20 times everyday for a month!
Bilal was also roped in by Levis, along with Zoe Viccaji, an extremely talented backing vocalist from Coke Studio, to do covers of classic Strings songs. Now we all know Strings are a legend. They are probably one of those bands that have contributed alot to the music scene over the years. Levis launched the campaign, "The Originals - Inspire" as (as I understood it to be) a sort of tribute to the Strings; them being the "orginals". I thought the campaign was a very good way to show our appreciation of the great work Bilal Maqsood and Faisal Kapadia have done. With posters of Zoe, Faisal and both Bilals gracing the interiors of Park Towers and Levis outlets, the whole affair was very nicely handled, and made aware about. As for the songs, I thought Bilal and Zoe formed a great duo, as their covers were really good and fresh.
Strings also released a nice, motivational song this year, which had a alot of weight in the lyrics. Now if only all this could happen.. That would really make my New Year's Eve special. Here's to hoping 2012 has alot of good in store for our dear, young country.
Happy New Year, everybody! :-)
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