Addicted to Coke

Veenu Sandhu on how Coke Studio has become a platform for fusion music in Pakistan

Korangi in eastern Karachi is one of Pakistan’s largest industrial estates. Pharmaceutical and chemical units, steel plants, textile mills and automobile facilities are housed here. In the last two-and-a-half years, this industrial hub has become the nerve centre of another industry of a sublime nature. This is where Pakistani musicians from across the country, and abroad, meet to create a phenomenon that goes by the name of Coke Studio.

Ever since Coke Studio Season One premiered on Pakistani television channels in June 2008, it’s had a cult following even in India. It’s a platform for fusion music which draws from every possible source — traditional Pakistani folk, regional, western, Sufism and more. But the sound that is finally created is distinctly Pakistani. So it comes as a bit of a surprise when the Coca-Cola India spokesperson says that the brand’s flagship music property was launched first not in Pakistan but in Brazil. Somehow that doesn’t seem to matter anymore. For it’s Pakistan and Pakistani music that Coke Studio has become synonymous with.

The music spans across genres and the artists include both the well-known and the little-known. There is the 23-year-old Amanat Ali Khan who was one of the finalists in the Sa Re Ga Ma Pa contest in India and also sang “Khabar Nahi” in Dostana. There’s Arieb Azhar, who went off to Croatia when he was just 19, and along with musicians from Croatia, Bosnia, Bolivia and Ireland performed on streets, pubs and at concerts. On Coke Studio, he lends his voice to the words of poets like Khawaja Ghulam Farid and Bulle Shah. There’s also Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, Junoon’s vocalist Ali Azmat and Ali Zafar, the Pakistani actor-musician-painter who played the lead role in Tere Bin Ladin. Season Three also had Abida Parveen, a stalwart in Sufiana kalaam, making an entry at Studio 146, the Korangi address where the recording sessions are held and aired live.

“Even the youngest pop artist here is trained in classical music and has a good understanding of Pakistani folk. They have succeeded in reinventing folk and Sufi music,” says Bani Abidi, a Pakistani visual artist living in Delhi. Abidi, who belongs to Karachi, says there is also a sense of Punjabiness at play. For people like her living away from their country, the huge presence Coke Studio has on the Internet is a blessing. Every episode of Coke Studio can be downloaded from its website (www.cokestudio.com.pk) and every video is accessible on YouTube.

Putting together an episode of this scale requires sound financial backing. Backed by Coca-Cola, Coke Studio has that kind of money. Abidi feels this is the US’s liberal agenda. “The US,” she says, “is very interested in opening up minds to Sufism, the enlightened Islam.” And what better way to achieve this than through music?

The Coca-Cola India spokesperson confirms the “plan to launch Coke Studio in India sometime this year”. But will it become as popular as it is in Pakistan? The Facebook page ‘I want Coke Studio INDIA’ indicates it could. “I would be very excited if something like this comes to India and stands on the might of pure music,” says singer Kailash Kher. “But in a country where film music dominates the entire music industry, this might be more difficult to achieve than in Pakistan where film music is almost non-existent.”

Hitesh Madan, guitarist and vocalist of EKA music band, agrees: “Anything mainstream is still perceived to be film music.” A platform that would break that monotony is really needed, he adds. Coke Studio India could be just that.