He should at least sing
Weekly piece for Daily Times (that got lost in editing)
Determined I was to write on the ever-going political
engineering experiment by the powers-that-be to install the leadership of their
will. But then I have not fully learnt avoiding useless arguments. And I
indulged in one such with a few friends on Atif Aslam’s much talked about
Tajdar-e-Haram for a popular fizzy drink sponsored music show that gets a lot
of limelight on media, both regular and social. My disdain for the show is pretty
well-known among my friends and when a friend was all praises for Atif for the
song, I could not help but point out that Atif’s singing lacked the basic
understanding of melody and does not adhere to basic rules of singing. That, of
course, did upset a few there and we went into a long argument. In the singing
sensation’s defense, the best my friends could muster was that yes he lacks
basics of music but one should look at the devotion with which he sang. To this
lousy argument, my response has always been for devotion he should just read it
out loud rather than singing it, for if and when he has chosen the medium of
singing, one will judge him on singing, first and foremost.
Then one of my friends blamed Amjad Sabri, the son of late
Ghulam Farid Sabri, for it for according to him, it was his incompetence that
had led to others, not so skilled, try their hands at the master piece of late
Sabri brothers. My friends were unaware that we have an Amjad Sabri version of
Tajdar-e-haram as well and when I pointed out the fact, they blamed it on him
again for not promoting it enough. That highlights the limited universe of
media exposure we all live in, even when it comes to basic forms of
entertainment including music.
The fact that in the era of media ratings and glitter and
glaze of MNC sponsored cultural activities, it requires being pushed by a fizzy
drink MNC sponsored show to register your version of classic, highlights the
intellectual constraints most of us unwittingly choose to settle for. For those
of you who have not, Amjad Sabri’s version of Tajdar-e-haram is much superior
in terms of melody and basics of singing than the youth’s singing sensations’
is. It is far from perfect. Nowhere close to what the great elder Sabris had to
offer but definitely a good listening experience. Agreed that Amjad Sabri (and
for that matter many more singers from traditional singing families) choose not
to focus a lot on main stream media but rather on their private shows charging
millions. Agreed that most of traditional singing families are not willing to
share their craft with outsiders and have guarded it as a secret family fiefdom
out of insecurity and greed. But none of this takes away from them the fact
that their adherence to the basics of singing and melody and music is superior
to a lot of stuff that has been shoved down our throats through MNC sponsored,
media-driven music bonanza. And this is precisely the reason the glittery,
fizzy stuff does not last longer. If you would recall, one such boom of
MNC-sponsored, media-driven music came two decades or so ago as well. An d its
impact on the cultural scene, barring maestro Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan’s sufi
music, can be seen only in some self- proclaimed Sufi or half-baked religious
scholar cum fashion designer. The era created no new maestro with lasting
impact that could take the cultural tradition of Pakistani music forward
precisely because it was based on “singers” and “musicians” who were not
equipped with basic understanding of singing and music. And even in five decades
into it, even when it comes to national songs, we still had to dig Shehnaz
Begum for Sohni Dharti.
I have no qualms with sponsors or producers of such shows. I
believe, most of them are acting with good intentions to promote the music in
Pakistan, barring a few marketing managers at MNCs or in media-entities who may
have a financial vested interest in this. Most of the exercise may be with good
intentions to discover and promote musicians in the country and should
continue. And I indeed am yearning for new singers and music maestros outside traditional music families who would institutionalize and document his craft
for generations to come and make music more inclusive. But the next time you
try to shove a “musician” down our throats as the “singing sensation” or “music
maestro”, he should at least sing.
I am a layman when it comes to music and am rural enough to
have any basic sense of culture and finesse. But my problem is I heard the
definition of melody and song from none other than Madam Noor Jehan. And I have
seen over the years that lasting musician has been the one who adhered to that
simple definition by arguably the greatest musician this country has
produced. And so, despite the glitter
and glaze of media and MNC sponsorships and all, the audience, though tricked
temporarily by over-exposure, ultimately picks who can sing and who cannot. For
a singer’s main job is not to devote or reform or to do social work, it is to
sing and it is on this basic criterion he gets judged. And so the next time you
try to shove a “musician” down our throats as the “singing sensation” or “music
maestro”, make sure, he should at least sing.
Determined I was to write on the ever-going political
engineering experiment by the powers-that-be to install the leadership of their
will. But then I have not fully learnt avoiding useless arguments.
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