‍

Music remains utopian in its refusal to participate fully in a violent society where an unambiguous communication means only the raw ascent of the powerless to the dictates of those who happen to be in power today. And yet, this very refusal of music to assent disarms its listeners as a mere image of hope, while music itself becomes an ideological arm of the cynic its ideology condemns.

                                                                                                         —Nick Nesbitt

Introduction

Coke Studio Pakistan, sponsored by Coca Cola is a music series, which began in the year 2008. It was produced by the founder of the first Pakistani pop band called Vital Signs, Rohail Hyatt which was later passed on to be produced by the band Strings from Season Seven onwards. Pakistani pop music started developing from the year 1966 onwards when a Pakistani playback singer called Ahmed Rushdi sang the song Ko-Ko Korina for the movie Armaan. Pakistani pop music can be seen as a blend of traditional and classical forms of music with Western musical traditions such as Jazz, pop, rock and roll, etc. Pakistani pop music has grown widely ever since.

‍

The Rise of Resistance

Pakistani music faced quite the turbulence over the later years when under the regime of Zia-Ul-Haq, during the 1980’s, a ban was imposed on music albums and music studios. Pakistani pop band Junoon had also created quite the stir with their very popular number called Sayonni which had featured in Anand Patwardhan’s movie War and Peace, 2002. This movie aimed at spreading peace and creating friendly relations in between India and Pakistan. Due to the uproar that it had created, the then Prime Minister, Nawaz Sharif, banned the people of Pakistan from wearing jeans and having long hair on television.

Coke Studio Pakistan can be seen as a revivalism and popularisation of Sufi Music by diminishing the tag of the classical and inculcating all forms of music to create a fusion and cater to various parts of the world as a musical creation of Pakistan. The founders of Sufi tradition came from various various mixed populations and they developed and preached ideals of toleration towards all faiths, although Sufism has emerged from Islam. Sufism was spread across religions and Sufi compositions exist in various languages such as Hindi, Bengali, Punjabi, etc. Bulleh Shah, a famous 17^th century Sufi saint has stated:

“Somewhere he is called Ramdas and elsewhere Fateh Muhammed

This dispute is from eternity

Once the quarrel between them was settled

Something else came out of it.”

A famous Sufi mystic of the 12^th century called Ibn-I-Arabi had introduced the concept of Wahdat-ul-Wajud which means “Unity of the Being” whereas the famous 14^th century mystic poet had suggested the amalgamation of various languages in Sufi poetry and had also quoted that he exists beyond all religion. Also, there have always been tones of religious secularism in the Sufi compositions where there is reference to a singular God and Sufi spiritualism as such, aims at shedding all social markers such as religion, gender, class caste, etc. As it is seen in Amir Khuraw’s famous composition called Chaap Tilak which has been re-created and sung by Rahat Fateh Ali Khan and Abida Parveen in  Coke Studio Season Season 7. The lyrics of which goes as:

Chaāp tilak sab chhīnī re mose nainā milāike
Bāt agam keh dīnī re mose nainā milāike
Prem bhaṭī kā madhvā pilāike
Matvālī kar līnhī re mose nainā milāike
Gorī gorī baīyān, harī harī chuṛiyān
baīyān pakaṛ har līnhī re mose nainā milāike
Bal bal jāūn main tore rang rajvā
Apnī sī rang dinhī re mose nainā milāike
Khusro nijaam ke bal bal jaiye
Mohe suhāgan kīnhī re mose nainā milāike
Bāt ajab keh dīnī re mose nainā milāike

Which can be translated as:

You have taken away my looks, my identity, by just by a single glance towards me.
You have spoken the unknown, just by looking into my eyes.
Through the wine of your devotion,
You have intoxicated me just by your eyes.
My fair and delicate wrists with green bangles,
Have been fluttered off by you just by looking into my eyes.
I offer my life to you, Oh my dress-dyer,
You have coloured me in yourself, by just a glance.
I offer my whole life to you Oh, Nizam,
You have made me your bride, just by looking into my eyes
You have said the wonder, just by looking into my eyes.

Sufi music, which had always existed as an open form art form, first saw it recording in the year 1902 by the Gramophone Company. But it was only in the 1930’s that recorded music could be fully distributed through local establishments and All India Radio in the geographical location of now India, Pakistan and Bangladesh (Babb and Wadley 145). Two kinds of music were recorded by the Gramophone Company: one of which was classical and semi-classical which was meant for the elite classes whereas the other was popular music. The music recorded by the Gramophone Company was segregated on the basis of languages and different advertisements were created to cater to different section linguistically. The popular music was meant for the less sophisticated Muslim population and did very well with Muslim population in general. There was a categorisation such as “Muslim Devotional” music which sold very well at Mumbai and other urban regions (Babb and Wadley 145).

Later in the 1950’s, with the emergence of films in Pakistan, there came to being a new genre of Sufi music called filmi music, which is popular in Bollywood till date. These songs were created to suit a romantic hero which were in stark difference to the qawwali form of Sufi music, but remained influenced by the Sufi form anyway. Urdu was used as a standard language to record the Sufi numbers and towards the 1960’s it got highly popularised due to the betterment of technology and with better recording studios. Eventually, highly Persianised Urdu and lower Hindized Urdu was used in the Qawwali numbers that were recorded (Babb and Wadley 155). So, eventually Sufi and qawwali took the popular form and started being distributed in its short abridged version.

However, the music scene in Pakistan started facing challenges where music albums and studio recordings were banned. The Sufi pop band Junoon which started in the year 1990, began promoting peace in between India and Pakistan, which led to western clothes being banned on TV shows.  Junoon as a band, though had re-created Sufi music, still preached and abided by the Sufi notions of peace and equality as it is seen in the documentary called War and Peace made in the year 2011, created by Anand Patwardhan, the lead song-writer says,

“According to the message of the Sufis never be a traitor to humankind,

All humans come first and borders are man-made.” (Patwardhan, War and Peace).

Coke Studio Defines a New Era

Then in the year 2008, emerged Coke Studio Pakistan, where the classical, folk, pop, hip-hop, jazz, Sufi, etc were amalgamated. Coke Studio maintained the authenticity of Sufi music in terms of lyrics and rhythm, with only the time-period of the performance reduced. It is Rohail Hyatt , the music producer, who brought together the team of Coke Studio from various nooks and corners of the country and offered them a platform to spread their form of music by making them comfortable and allowing them to retain the essence of their music. His attempt at doing so is visible in his conversations with artists such as Saieen Zahoor where he asks him about the kind of ‘mahool’ (atmosphere) he wishes to be in while performing, and asking some Serbian musicians to change their scales to suit the mood of the Eastern music. All the songs, no matter which genre it arrived from, was reduced to the basic structure of a raaga and then was blended to give it a new form, while maintaining the essence of Sufi music.

Although many music fanatics were against this as two hour long recitations were reduced to three minute songs. Also, the doctrine of Sufism thrived on music for the people where if a monarch wished to view a Sufi performance, he would have to walk down from his throne instead of the Sufi artists entertaining him for his position or other worldly pleasures. Thus, with the recording culture, and the generation of revenue, Sufism was seen to lose the essence of its spiritual endeavours. However, when it comes to the songs of Coke Studio Pakistan, there has been the initiation of a revolutionary movement where it is distributed across 30-40 channels across various time periods over the day, is broadcasted in across 20 radio stations so as to reach out to every nook and corner of the country and across classes too. It is also available for free download on the Coke Studio Facebook Page and on Youtube so as to reach out globally. While this can be seen as an effective marketing strategy by Coca Cola, it at the same town reaches out to the greatest of populace, not only in Pakistan and its neighbouring countries but also in various other countries globally. So, here we can see the manner in which Sufi Music, although in a fusion form, still reaches out to the people and remains the music of the people.

Music as a Marker for Identity

Coke Studio Pakistan can also be seen as adding to the new identity formation for the people of Pakistan.  A wide range of people of Pakistani origin or lineage are concentrated across India, Nepal, Bangladesh and Coke Studio Pakistan is seen to cater to these populations and it becomes an identity marker for them (Dhanwani 9). In an attempt to understand this technological shift and the desire of the Diaspora to reengage with a culture not entirely familiar, we may draw upon the theory of ‘social imaginary’ and how people largely unknown to one another, come to share a sense of affiliation.

This social imaginary can be imagined as a set of a loose, fluid, contour less and frequently shifting landscape of imaginations titled scape (ethnoscape, finanscape,technoscape, mediascape and ideoscape) to stress different streams or flows along with which cultural material may be seen to be moving across national boundaries . With a 34-million Diaspora spread across all over the world, the canvas for an imagined homeland and ‘reclamation’ of this heritage assumes colossal proportions, especially if one uses the ethnoscape and mediascape. In this case, Coca Cola’s unique multi-pronged marketing strategy further breaks down the concept of boundary-confined heritage (Dhanwani 11).

Therefore, Coke Studio Pakistan can be seen to have to a great extent, replaced the negative media and has overcome the negative associations with the nation of Pakistan for the people of Pakistan within the geographical location of Pakistan and outside the geographical location of Pakistan also. It has successfully created a genre of its own and has spread Sufi music globally at a great pace.

Commodification for Reach

Coca-Cola funds Coke Studio as a noteworthy advertisement crusade each year, to what must be colossal expenses. The Billboards across Pakistan display posters of Coke Studio and the various artists who would be featuring at the show. A social networking site is made to drive the music out and add force to a national and worldwide gathering of people. When the songs of Coke Studio release, over three dozen of the country’s television channels and ten radio stations are paid by Coca Cola to showcase the show that audiences traditionally be the ones paying to see (Zeerak). So, the show is available at all parts of the country across all channels and all cable operators which is quite unlike how television shows work. Usually, a television show is bought by a single channel who pays the highest bid for the show. In this case, it is forecast across around 40 channels, which means a great amount of revenue is invested by Coca Cola to keep the show on air and to reach out to maximum populace.

Here’s just a small glimpse into the cost of running Coke Studio: according to one estimate, TV channels in Pakistan charge about three-and-a-half million rupees (about thirty-three thousand US dollars) an hour for paid programming. For a season that lasts five episodes, each about an hour long, that’s aired on forty channels simultaneously that totals to about seven hundred million rupees (over six and a half million dollars). This is aside of the cost of building and managing a world-class studio and staff (Zeerak).

As we can see above, Coke Studio Pakistan invests an incredible amount on of money on the show. With the commodification of music, it is sometimes believed that the corporations look towards making their own profit instead of serving to fulfil the motives behind certain musical movements. However in this situation, we can see a win-win situation where Coca Cola has made the profit and assured itself a place in the market as it has wished to while on the other hand, Rohail Hyatt’s dream of creating a new identity of Pakistan through this musical movement is also seen to be coming true through its popularity and global reach.

PepsiCo Inc. used cricket to entrench its brand in Pakistan. Coke is fighting back with music. Another part of its strategy has been to chip away at Pepsi's dominance of marketing to Pakistan's youth by sponsoring "Coke Studio," a local version of "MTV Unplugged" that has become wildly popular this year, even across the border in India. Appealing to young people is crucial: More than half of Pakistan's population is under 19 years old. In Pakistan, per-capita consumption of eight-ounce Coca-Cola products tripled over the past decade, according to Coke's 2009 annual report (Wright).

Coke Studio Pakistan has 7,208,576 likes on its official Facebook channel and has seen 1,438,426 subscriptions till the year 2017. The music of Coke Studio does not release in the form of albums, instead it is freely distributed on their YouTube channel and is available for free download both on YouTube and Facebook all across the world. This can be seen as a monumental move and quite utopian in nature, because music since recording came into being, has not been available for free. With free distribution of its music, there arises the problem of copyright violations but despite this, all the nine seasons have been subsequently available on the internet for free distribution over the years. This however, represents a collective authorship in the form of community heritage, a category under which various folk and Sufi songs would fall, some of whose heritage cannot be trained and others which had been composed centuries ago. All of these are blended together and re-created in the voices of the contemporary artists to add a new taste to it, without them taking over the ownership of the song.

Thinkers such as Fernand Braudel and Manuel Delanda argue that capitalism always works at least partly through the creation of monopoly anti-markets; situations in which capitalists aim at shutting down the free circulation of commodities (Jeremy).  In the case of Coke Studio Pakistan, it has made the exemplary move of continuing with free distribution of music, despite being sponsored by a capitalist corporation. This raises an important question with respect to the production and distribution of music: What is the co-relation between the creation of music, through  revolutionary means such as Coke Studio Pakistan and the capitalism’s endless quest for profit?  With the rise of television and sponsorship for all large scale music shows and channels and the most basic of all, that is, for the production of music and get it advertised and distributed, the members of the music scene have to invariably involve themselves in various forms of labour which will lead to the production of value both by capitalism and the music industry. . Maurizio Lazzarato famously refers to this kind of work as ‘immaterial labour’ while the American and Italian political theorists Michael Hardt & Antonio Negri refer to is as biopolitical labour (Jeremy). However, we also need to ask the question: “Would Coke Studio Pakistan, a musical movement which not only gave the world a new form of Sufi music but also saved the livelihoods of many Sufi saints and folk artists, be existent ever without a Capitalist corporation funding it? Could contemporary music culture function without Capitalism? Also, for the artists, this becomes, not only a way of making money, but also a way for them to create a new identity and spread their art forms to as many as possible. This is what can be referred to as “biopolitical” and “immaterial” labour. So, we can see the manner in which the dystopian setting of Capitalism brings forth a utopian outcome such as Coke Studio and free distribution of music.

Coke Studio Pakistan, as a music series can be seen a platform which reaches out globally, reviving the age old Sufi traditions and providing the diasporas of Pakistan with a new identity to associate with.