Pakistani popular music or shortlyPak-pop music refers topopular music forms inPakistan. Pakistani pop is a mixture of traditional Pakistaniclassical music and western influences ofjazz,rock and roll,hip hop anddisco sung in variouslanguages of Pakistan, includingUrdu. The popularity of music is based on the individual sales of a single, viewership of its music video or the singer's album chart positions. Apart from within Pakistan, Pakistani pop music has also achieved an influential following and popularity in neighboring countries and is listened by members of thePakistani diaspora, especially in theMiddle East,Europe andNorth America.

Pakistani pop music is attributed to have given birth to thegenre in theSouth Asian region withAhmed Rushdi's song "Ko Ko Korina" in 1966.^[1] Pakistani pop is thus closely related toIndian pop music, as well asBollywood music andBangladeshi rock. Subgenres of Pakistani pop music includeQawwali (a form ofSufi music),Pakistani rock (includingSufi rock),Pakistani hip hop, anddisco (related toBollywood disco).

Veterans likeRuna Laila andAlamgir started the pop industry inPakistan while the fifteen-years old pop sensationNazia with her brotherZohaib Hassan ushered the birth of pop music all overSouth Asia tailing on the success of her British endeavours.^[2][3] Other popular Pakistani pop artists that followed includeAbrar-ul-Haq,Fakhre Alam,Strings,Aamir Zaki,Awaz,Aamir Saleem,Haroon,Faakhir Mehmood, andHadiqa Kiyani. TheQawwali singerNusrat Fateh Ali Khan was also a prominent influence on Pakistani pop music.

From Rushdi's pop hits to songs sung by the Hassan siblings, to bands includingJunoon,Vital Signs,Jal andStrings, the Pakistani pop industry has steadily spread throughoutSouth Asia and today is the most popular genre in Pakistan and the neighbouring South Asian countries.^[4] Songs sung by Pakistani pop artists are a regular feature onsoundtracks of most of theBollywood movies.^[5]

The genre has always been accepted in the mainstream youth culture but hindrances came in the form of changing governments, cultural conservatism, foreign influences and a stiff competition from neighbouring countries.^[1] Still, pop music thrived and survived with a steady growth. It was not until recent times that Pakistani pop music was to be admired throughout South Asia^[4] and the rest of the world.

After theindependence ofPakistan in 1947, the most popular form of entertainment in the newly created Pakistan was the medium of film. Cinemas sprouted up in various corners of the nation, especially inLahore,Karachi andDacca inEast Pakistan andplayback singing became popular. People that tended to move into the genre had to be trained inclassical music, usually trained byustads who mastered its various forms and styles.In 1966, a talented youngplayback singerAhmed Rushdi (now considered as one of the greatest singers of South Asia) sang the firstSouth Asian pop song "Ko-Ko-Korina" for the filmArmaan. Composed bySohail Rana, the song was a blend of 60sbubblegum pop,rock and rolltwist music and Pakistani film music. This genre would later be termed as ‘filmi pop’.^[1] Paired withRuna Laila, the singer is considered the pioneering father ofpop music, mostlyhip hop anddisco, inSouth Asia.

Following Rushdi's success,Christian bands specialising injazz started performing at various night clubs and hotel lobbies^[1] inKarachi,Hyderabad andLahore. They would usually sing either famous American jazz hits or cover Rushdi's songs. Rushdi sang playback hits along with Laila until theBangladesh Liberation War when East Pakistan was declared an independent state. Laila, being a Bengali, decided to leave for the new-foundBangladesh.^[1]

The 1980s saw a nose-dive in the progress of cinema in Pakistan as the nation was left in a state of turmoil over the changes in the government administration. The number of cinemas decreased rapidly and people preferred watching television over going to a cinema.^[6]

While the cinema in Pakistan was declining, the neighboringIndia was gaining in strength in film content and quality. People began admiring the Indian playback counterparts. And when it seemed thatmusic in Pakistan had no hopes of surviving this foreign influence,Anwar Maqsood andShoaib Mansoor launched the career of Nerissa, Beena and Shabana Benjamin (collectively known as theBenjamin Sisters) in 1985. The sisters filled television screens with their melodious charms and tabloids started calling it theBenjamin Sisters Phenomenon.^[7]

A few years later came Bengali singerAlamgir. Like all people from his generation, Alamgir was raised listening to songs by bands likeABBA andBoney M. He would do renditions of popularnew wave songs in Urdu. In 1973, influenced bydisco andfunk, Alamgir sangAlbela Rahi, an Urdu song literally translated from a famous Cuban hit originally in Spanish. Alamgir brought a new form of music to Pakistan, one that blended the classical forms with a tint of modern Western music. Hit after another, he proved to be the most successful singer and musician of his time. Alongside Alamgir,Muhammad Ali Shehki also rose to fame with his renditions of the Hindustani classical forms with mediums likejazz androck.

Hassan Jahangir (اردو:حسن جہانگیر) is a Pakistani Pop singer. He gained fame in the '80s with hit singles such as "Hawa Hawa", "Hato Bacho", and "Shadi Na Karna Yaron". He released his first single "Imran Khan is a Superman" in 1982 and went on to release his one and only internationally famous album Hawa Hawa. It sold approximately 15 million copies in India.

In 1980,Nazia Hassan, a fifteen-years-oldPakistani girl residing in theUnited Kingdom was approached by Indian actor and directorFeroz Khan along withBiddu Appaiah, anIndian music producer who asked her to sing the song "Aap Jaisa Koi" for the filmQurbani.^[8] She was selected for the nasal quality of the song's delivery. The song became an instant hit in the UK and theIndian sub-continent. Influenced primarily bydisco beats andhip hop, Nazia along with her brotherZohaib Hassan produced successive hits. Their songsDisco Deewane andTere Qadmon Ko became the rage all overAsia to the extent that their very first album was declared the best selling album of the time in Asia.

The hype did not last for long as withMuhammad Zia-ul-Haq's regime came drastic decisions to Islamicise the nation. Almost all music videos were banned to air on local television.^[8] The religious leaders found the two Hassan siblings dancing together on the stage most un-Islamic. When shown the videos would feature Nazia waist-up to hide her dancing feet.^[8] Hence, this came as another blow to the music industry.

Despite Zia's tough rhetoric against the Western music, the 1980s era is the widely regarded times of birth and rise of Pakistan's homegrown and ingenious rock music. Immediately following themilitary installation ofMuhammad Zia-ul-Haq as president, measures were taken to put in place to limit the distribution of music and the only source of entertainment was the government-ownedtelevision networkPakistan Television Corporation (PTV).^[9] A state of the union speech to the public in 1979, President Zia denounced theWestern culture andWestern music and banned all the music videos in the country.^[9]

Despite the hardship and problems faced by the music industry, the siblings,Nazia and her younger brotherZohaib Hassan, teamed up to produce more pop albums, but in the turmoil that Pakistan was headed through, the duo lostviewership and sales in their own country. They managed to reachUK Top 40 with the English version of their song "Disco Deewane" titled "Dreamer Deewane". The album sold over 14 million records, not only in Asia but as far asSouth America,South Africa andSoviet Union. Nazia Zoheb later produced many other albums in the 1980s e.g., Boom Boom (1982), Young Tarang (1984), Hotline (1987), and Camera Camera (1992) and completely dominated the Pop music scene of Asia during the 1980s.

A new rage of Pop/rock music, began to rise during the regime of President Zia-ul-Haq. Throughout the 1980s, there was a popular wave of cultural change and the80's fashion hair styles and clothing was beginning to be noticed by the public.^[10] The homegrown rock music bands, out of ordinary to theculture, came to be perceived by many Pakistani fans and country's cultural observers as a "promising new era of cultural revival".^[10] Their enormous popularity significantly opened anew wave ofmusic and amodern chapter in thehistory of Pakistan.^[10] The public generally welcomed the new hair styles and fashion wear (popular among university female and male students).^[10]

During the peak and end times of Zia's conservative regime, there was a popular wave of cultural change, and the Western fashion style and music stormed the country.^[9] In the 1980s, various music arrangers held underground rock music concerts in the five-star hotels and university campuses.^[9] Ironically, it was the conservative regime of President Zia-ul-Haq when therock music exploded and underground rock music concerts were held all over the country, including Islamabad and near the residence of Zia-ul-Haq.^[9] In 1986, the pop band,Vital Signs, released its very first singles Dil Dil Pakistan and,Do Pal Ka Jeevan, which became an ultimate success in the country.^[11]

The success of Vital Signs helped others to follow their suit, and the rock music in the country skyrocketed for the first time in thehistory of the country. In a time when there was no hope for the industry to survive, rock/pop music bands notably and much quickly filled the gap that the pop music industry had left.^[12] According to the Western observers and cultural critics, the rock music bands in the country brought the significant shift of country's transformation into modernism during the 1990s.^[13] With the rise of Vital Signs and later,Junoon and others, the rock music, exploded in the 1980s and 1990s, became a vehicle for expressing patriotic nationalist spirit in Pakistan.^[12]

In 1990, the first privately owned television station, theNetwork Television Marketing (NTM) opened up introducing shows aimed at the younger generation. Prior to that, in 1989, Shoaib Mansoor produced a show for PTV calledMusic '89 and took the Hassan siblings as the show's host. This show is responsible for single-handedly creating legends out of bands likeVital Signs,Junoon,Ali Haider,Sajjad Ali andJupiters also including undergroundalternative rock bands like Final Cut and The Barbarians.^[14] According to the editorial written inThe Express Tribune in 2011, the "Vital Signs and Pakistan's ingenious rock music was the only "arsenal" the country had against India's encroachingentertainment industry."^[15] It was during the midst of Zia times, whenDil Dil Pakistan was released on television and on a short time period, it became a huge success in the country.

With the success of Vital Signs and other bands, pop/rock music significantly helped to list pop music as well. Theprimetime reception onNTM inLahore,Karachi andIslamabad as NTM broadcast a show titledMusic Channel Charts. The rock music continued to be appreciated by the public and an hour-length show that showcased music videos for various artists in acountdown format. When people started getting acquainted with the show's format, amateur bands and singers taped their own videos and sent them to be aired. With competition rising and only a few minutes dedicated to a single video, pop and rock musicians from all over the country were being recognised for their work.

The show made upcoming artists such as rapperFakhre Alam,Danish Rahi, Fringe Benefit (the debut albumTanhai was recorded and mixed by Tahir Gul Hasan at his recording studios in Karachi),Strings, Junoon,Aamir Saleem,Aamir Zaki, andHaroon Rashid andFaakhir Mehmood fromAwaz household names. The show became the trailblazer and many followed its footstep. Video Countdown (which later became Video Count Down Zabardast Zabar Duss/10) started on PTV and Video Junction (VJ) was one of its kind on NTM which started after the closure of MCC. As PTV became international in 1992 with the launch of PTV2, it opened the international arena for Pakistani Pop artists. More and More International TV channels (especially from across the borders) became visible in Pakistan through satellite. Pakistani artists started making their ways toMTV India andChannel V in the late 1990s.^[16] and overshadow every effort the Pakistani counterpart would make to highlight the talents within.

The beginning of FM radio in the mid-90s made Pakistani pop more available. People started enjoying the shades of Paki Pop n rock in their cars.

Recording companies likeEMI Pakistan,Pepsi Pakistan Inc. and Sound Master started taking note of the new and rising stars. They started signing contracts with bands including Strings, Vital Signs, Junoon, Benjamin Sister, and Awaz who would later become iconic pop-rock bands. At this time, various rock/pop bands earned a lot of recognition abroad after Vital Signs made its debut international concert in the United States in 1993.

Abrar-ul-Haq, since his debut withBillo De Ghar (1995), became known as the "King of Pakistani Pop",^[17] having sold over 40.3 million albums worldwide.^[18]

Hadiqa Kiani made her debut in Adnan Sami & Zeba Bakhtiar starrer "Sargam" in 1995 which became a phenomenal hit and the music album of the movie was a chartbuster in Lollywood Top 10 (PTV), Yeh Hai Filmi Dunya (NTM) and FM channels. But Hadiqa continued her music career more as a pop artist instead of a playback. Her albums "Raaz, Rung and Roshni" sold millions and made her an ultimate female pop star after Nazia Hassan. In 1997, Hadiqa became the second international female singer in the world to be signed by Pepsi Pakistan.

In 1999, following theKargil War, all Indian channel broadcasts were limited or banned in Pakistan and afterPervaiz Musharraf'scoup d'état, the media was privatised. To cater to the needs of thousands who watched the Indian channels with regularity, programmes were broadcast to match the Indian content. Seeing this as an opportunity, bands returned on the music scene and started producing videos with much richer content. In 2002–03,Ghazanfar Ali, producer and CEO of the Indus Media Group started his very first venture into the music industry with Indus Music, a channel dedicated to music following the formats used by Western Music Channels. The channel started as a part of the Indus Vision channel and was later started as a separate channel in 2003.^[14] With nothing much to watch than a few Pakistani channels, the youngsters in the country would settle in for Indus Music and would become interested in music once again. In 2006 Indus TV Network in an agreement with MTV Intn;l converted Indus Music into MTV Pakistan which continued till 2011 to again become Indus Music.

Rock music continued to gather popularity in the country, as more singers and bands enter the genre. But the law and order situation in Pakistan had limited the number of concerts and artists are not heavily promoting their albums. New musical talent emerged in Pakistan in the decade of 2000. Entity Paradigm, Aaroh, Mizraab, Mizmaar, Fuzon, Raeth, Noori, Mechal Hassan Band, Jal, Roxen, etc. made their name by producing quality music. With the disbanding of Junoon, Ali Azmat launched his solo career, and his first solo albumSocial Circus became a success and gave him an iconic image. New female singers like Ainee Khalid, Abresham, and Abeer kept the music scene alive. After Indus Music, ARY Musik (The Musik) Aag (now off-air), Play, and many other music channels were launched which kept the music scene going on. Aag TV was the first-ever Youth Music Channel of Pakistan which presented many thought-provoking programmes as well on youth issues

The bandJal formed in 2003, withAtif Aslam,Goher Mumtaz and others brought in a new wave of Pakistani pop music with hits like Adaat, Woh Lamhe, and their respective albums. Atif went one to become one of the best Pakistani playback singers till date and Jal went on to become the biggest names in Pakistani band music scene. Moreover, the new wave of cinema in Pakistan supported the pop/rock music scene, as most of the background scores and OSTs of new movies are generally produced by pop/rock artists. Pop/rock artists likeAtif Aslam,Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, andAli Zafar are equally popular in India in the Bollywood music industry.

Coke Studio, a popular Pakistani music television series, became Pakistan's first official venture into the collaboration of Pakistani pop music artists. Coke Studio has become phenomenal hit which has given 14 successful seasons up till now. The first 7 seasons have been produced byRohail Hyatt a member of the veteran former Pop band of PakistanVital Signs. It is one of a kind which involves the fusion of oldies and news and is telecast on all the TV channels and some radio channels of Pakistan making it available for everyone at home and abroad. The platform brought forth the talents of folk and modern artists such asArif Lohar andMeesha Shafi. The season 8Coke Studio got immense popularity and many of its songs topped charts of most of the online music streaming websites popular in south Asia such asTaazi,SoundCloud andPatari.pk.^[19][20]

Following success in Pakistan after its first launch,Coke Studio has become an international franchise. The Pakistani show has amassed a large fan following in neighboring India.^[21] The success of the show promptedCoca-Cola to launch the Indian versionCoke Studio @ MTV, with a similar format, which has proven to be both critically acclaimed and commercially successful.^[22] The Indian version has been produced byMTV India.^[23] In April 2012, an Arab version of the show,Coke Studio بالعربي was launched in theMiddle East featuring performances by various Arabic and international music artists, produced by the songwriterMichel Elefteriades.

TheIdol franchise was launched in Pakistan in 2013 with thePakistan Idol series, which was telecast byGeo TV. The anthem for the show wasAwaaz Mein Teri, composed and sang byAli Zafar. The show was judged byBushra Ansari,Ali Azmat, andHadiqa Kiani. The winner of the first season was Zamad Baig.

Pepsi Battle of the Bands is television show based on the concept ofBattle of the Bands, first aired in 2002 onPTV Home. The show was revived in 2017. This season featured judgesAtif Aslam,Meesha Shafi and Fawad Khan who performed Vital Signs' "Do Pal Ka Jeevan" andAlamgir's "Dekha Na Tha" as a tribute;^[24]

Kashan Admani released Pakistan's first music web series, Acoustic Station in 2019. The series was based on unplugged music and featured popular musicians in the likes ofNatasha Baig,Kashmir (Pakistani band),Kami Paul, Natasha Khan (Pakistani singer),Shallum Asher Xavier, and more.^[25]

The PakistaniQawwali musicianNusrat Fateh Ali Khan had a big impact onBollywood music, inspiring numerous Indian musicians working inBollywood, especially during the 1990s. However, there were many instances of Indian music directors plagiarising Khan's music to produce hitfilmi songs.^[26][27]Viju Shah's hit song "Tu Cheez Badi Hai Mast Mast" inMohra (1994) was plagiarised from Khan's popular Qawwali song "Dam Mast Qalandar".^[26] Pop/rock artists likeAtif Aslam,Rahat Fateh Ali Khan andAli Zafar are equally popular in India in Bollywood music industry.

• Pakistani rock
• Music of Pakistan
• Indian pop
• Pop music
• List of Pakistani pop singers

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• Pakistani pop
• Popular music by country

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