Pakistani Music Directors

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The political and social upheaval in the subcontinent could not break the basic structure and indigenous identity of South Asian music.

The musical heritage of the subcontinent spans more than 5000 years during which it came to be exposed to a host of influences, both positive and negative. With every political, religious and sociological change brought on by countless military invasions the music of the subcontinent also underwent radical changes. Even so it always succeeded in retaining most of its basic structure and indigenous identity.

At the time of independence in August 1947, Pakistan inherited a highly developed system of music spawned by a long process of transnational melodic pollination and cross-cultural fertilization during the 1,000 years of Muslim ascendancy over the Indian Subcontinent. Pakistan inherited a large number of major classical and popular musicians at the time of independence.

Besides classical and folk, fusion and film music were the other areas in which music had undergone visible changes in the subcontinent. In the pre-independence period, film music drew its existence from the theatre music which later changed in content and form. While in India, music directors such as Master Ghulam Haider, Naushad, Anil Biswas, Khemchand Parkash, Master Sajjad and O.P. Nayyar produced some of the memorable tunes; in Pakistan Khurshid Anwar, G.A. Chishti, A. Hameed, Tasadduq Hussain, Robin Ghosh, Sohail Rana and Nisar Bazmi made outstanding contribution in the field of film music. Some of their compositions were even copied by Indian musicians. And of course, the melody queen, Noor Jehan dominated the scene for decades.

The western influence on film has been overly visible on film music in both India and Pakistan. During the 1950s, rock-n-roll, African and Latin American music was evident in compositions. Film directors used to make a conscious effort to create a situation wherein they could add at least one club song or dance for accommodating western tunes. This fusion tendency found instant popularity which continued for quite some years till in the 1980s it was overshadowed by another western influence - the pop.