Music is alive and well, but the genre has changed. Pop and rock music have been replaced by rap and hip-hop, with electronic music as its base. Suggesting that it is not music is cruel and unusual.
According to the Pew Research Center, generations can be divided into following categories: Baby boomers (born between the years 1946 and 1964), Generation X (born between 1965 and 1980), Millennials (also known as Gen Y, born between 1981 and 1996), Gen Z, (born between 1997 and 2012), and the upcoming Generation Alpha (born around 2010 and after).
Since we seem to be fixated on two generations in particular, further research suggests that Millennials refers to those born between 1981 and 1996, and Generation Z refers to those born between 1997 and 2010. Depending on which website you choose, the years might change slightly, but not by much. Why does it matter? When it comes to the subject matter, these distinctions are very important.
Young Desi
Musicians will tell you themselves that music is dead—at least those who were not born during the Millennial generation but belong to the past. To them, the new age of music represents the death of music. To confirm this viewpoint, all anyone has to do is go online and spend an entire day sifting through a series of podcasts to hear them say it. I have been through so many podcasts that it is hard to remember which ones you should track.
However, despite this view, music is not dead; it has simply evolved, like everything else in life. At present, Pakistan’s big urban shift in music has gone from purely pop to electronic rap and hip-hop. It is not a phenomenon that cannot be understood. In the United States, apart from Taylor Swift, the most popular and groundbreaking artist is Kendrick Lamar, the multiple Grammy-winning artist, a top-tier lyricist with a Pulitzer Prize to his name, who is set to perform at the 2025 Super Bowl LIX as a solo artist.
In Pakistan, the perception is skewed. If music groups or pop artists are not at the forefront, it means something is wrong. But that is simply evolution. From the last two seasons of Coke Studio to artists who have made the top five list of Spotify’s most popular artists in the country, to foreign interest and record label deals with hip-hop icons, it is pretty much rap and hip-hop that are dictating the terms. But the bigger question is, why is it such a problematic issue for others within the industry? Music changes and evolves. For example, there was a time when Junoon was the biggest band (artist) in Pakistan. Now, Atif Aslam is the biggest artist in the country. Change is inevitable. The universe is infinite, and nothing is singular—not even music.
You can have a favorite song or songs, but to expect the entire industry to stay the same is hogwash.
Artists like Talha Anjum, UMAIR, Talhah Yunus, Faris Shafi, Blal Bloch, Young Stunners, Hasan Raheem, and Maanu are among the top-tier names. What they release is talked about and makes the urban rap list. When American rapper Nas, a Grammy Award-winning artist, decided to sign Pakistani artists through his label, Mas Appeal Records, this year, he went with some of the popular names from the rap music scene, including Talha Anjum, Umair, Maanu, JANI, and Blal Bloch.
However, a cursory look suggests that rap and hip-hop are the fastest-growing music communities. The artists mentioned above, as well as those picked by Nas, are very popular, but they’re not the only artists who exist and have a following.
Among them are other names like Eva B, Adil Omar, Taha G, Sunny Khan Durrani, Lyari Underground, Rap Demon, Pindi Boyz, OCL, Fadi, Zeeru, aleemrk, Hashim Nawaz, Xpolymer Dar, Hamzee, Khawar Malik, Shuja Shah, GVL Khan, Nauman Yakub, Jj47, Young Desi, Savage, and Taimour Baig. If you go online and really look for hip-hop artists from the country, you will find more artists.
In between, there are artists who dabble in R&B as well as hip-hop, like Maanu and Hasan Raheem. Others can produce hip-hop/rap music in a sonic fashion, but their own style of singing is closer to R&B.
There is another important thing to note. With the growth of rap and hip-hop, collaborations between rappers and producers have grown by leaps and bounds. Some of these producers also double as artists, while others stick to music production. In both cases, the sound they produce has gone from bass, guitar, and drums to the vast world of electronic music, which can include samples of all these instruments or sound so opposite that you will listen to the audio again and again to figure out what has gone into the sonic structure and the many possibilities that electronic sound can create.
When it comes to the producers, there is such a long list that talking about all of them in one piece feels impossible. There are well-established names like Abdullah Kasumbi, Talal Qureshi, Abdullah Siddiqui, Rovalio, Jokhay, UMAIR, GHAURI, Mrkle, dotxb, Sunny Khan Durrani, and the lesser-known producers within the context of hip-hop, who are too many to mention. But the collaboration between artist-producers, pure producers-artists, hip-hop and R&B, or any combination, is what has made this age of music so exciting for so many fans. Even more impressive is that it didn’t need a mammoth platform like Coke Studio. The music platform simply shone a light on what was already taking place. In fact, during the last season of Coke Studio, a rapper like Star Shah was introduced, and though impressive, he was entering a music scene that had been established years ago.
What does it mean?
In the end, South Asian and inter-national recognition has finally come for some of them, and that is brilliant. But it is always encouraging when peers and predecessors give due credit rather than discussing how music is dead. Because let’s face it, if it were dead, why on earth would Nas make an effort to sign them, or why would Coke Studio or other major music platforms care? Many of them have been diligently working for at least a decade. It is time to appreciate them and not suggest that “music is dead.”
