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Pakistani popular music or shortly Pak-pop music refers to popular music forms in Pakistan. Pakistani pop is a mixture of traditional Pakistani classical music and western influences of jazz, rock and roll, hip hop and disco sung in various languages of Pakistan, including Urdu. 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 the Pakistani diaspora, especially in the Middle East, Europe and North America.
Pakistani pop music is attributed to have given birth to the genre in the South Asian region with Ahmed Rushdi's song "Ko Ko Korina" in 1966.[1] Pakistani pop is thus closely related to Indian pop music, as well as Bollywood music and Bangladeshi rock. Subgenres of Pakistani pop music include Qawwali (a form of Sufi music), Pakistani rock (including Sufi rock), Pakistani hip hop, and disco (related to Bollywood disco).
Veterans like Runa Laila and Alamgir started the pop industry in Pakistan while the fifteen-years old pop sensation Nazia with her brother Zohaib Hassan ushered the birth of pop music all over South Asia tailing on the success of her British endeavours.[2][3] Other popular Pakistani pop artists that followed include Abrar-ul-Haq, Fakhre Alam, Strings, Aamir Zaki, Awaz, Aamir Saleem, Haroon, Faakhir Mehmood, and Hadiqa Kiyani. The Qawwali singer Nusrat 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 including Junoon, Vital Signs, Jal and Strings, the Pakistani pop industry has steadily spread throughout South 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 on soundtracks of most of the Bollywood 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.