Popular music styles have invariably been associated with particular times and places. For example, the early history of Jazz, for many Radio broadcasters and DJs, conjures up the image of New Orleans at the turn of the century; 1950s Rock-and-Roll is linked in our imaginations with Memphis, Tennessee; and Reggae evokes Jamaica in the 1970s. However, the roots of musical styles are often quite complex, going back in time and borrowing freely from geographically distant cultures.
The strength and vitality of popular music has continued to increase in the past century. Within the “global village” of mass communication and the world-wide web (internet), music has become the closest thing to a global cultural language, largely due to its tendency to spread across regions, countries, and continents, and on its way mix with a variety of influences.
The roots and inspiration of Jazz, the most complex and challenging of all popular styles, lay in Africa, Europe, and Latin America and reached North America by following the migration patterns of the many Diasporas, notably those created by the slave trade. Nowadays, radio, recordings and television simulate the same kind of evolution, only much faster.
This paper will attempt to describe 12 of the most popular musical genres of the last century (20th Century), and will add a 13th genre of South Asian dance music. From Hip-hop, Qawwali and Bhangra through Soul, Indie and Jungle – all have played a very influential part in cultural resistance to the mainstream idea of lumping them together under the all-to-easy 'World Music’ banner.
The influential Asian dance music producer and remixer, Bally Sagoo, in an interview with Shirin Housee and Mukhtar Dar, explained,
"…We want our music to stand up as big as your other dance crazes, other dance styles and music scenes. But we want, not one classification, like Bhangra, we want hundreds of classifications. Like Country and rock and Soul and Hip-Hop, because what we are doing is not just Bhangra music, we all know what Bhangra music is, its a different thing, its a traditional thing…” *
It is possible to illustrate the most popular musical genres and the principle of movement and consequent exchange of ideas. This brief account should not be taken as a comprehensive guide to this process but it will illustrate that some kind of cross-fertilization has taken place, which seems to be an important precondition for any truly popular modern style. Advances in modern technology, has made the world into a ‘global jukebox’.
(1) Reggae:
A brilliant Jamaican invention created in Kingston in the 1960s and 1970s, Influenced by Calypso music from Jamaica’s south, and Rhythm-and-Blues, broadcast out of New Orleans to the north. Dominated by the charismatic Bob Marley.
(2) Salsa:
Brassy, high energy dance music that originated in New York in the early 1970s, stemming from a Cuban song/dance form and the Colombian Cumbia. The name is derived from the Spanish word for “sauce”.
(3) Disco:
An intriguing amalgam of folk and art-musical ingredients, disco emerged in gay metropolitan clubs (especially in New York) in the 1970s. It blended soul melodies with the pulsing rhythmic repetitions and technology of European (especially Berlin’s) electronic “systems music”.
(4) Calypso:
Exuberant, often satirical song form from Trinidad that enlivens the ‘Port of Spain Carnival’. It dates from the 18th Century but was shaped chiefly by freed slaves in the mid-19th century from a mixture of traditional West African praise songs and Latin American melodies and rhythms.
(5) Country and Western:
The sound of Nashville, Tennessee. A blend of American Southern Folk music, chiefly the Hillbilly music of the Appalachian Mountains – closely derived from Celtic music, and from Texas swing, with its Jazz and occasional Mexican elements.
(6) Samba:
A swaying Brazilian dance form that draws its movement from the Polka of Eastern Europe, its rhythms from the Cuban Charabancs, and its syncopation from West Africa.
(7) Blues:
Created by black field hands in the American south during the mid-19th century as a melancholy version of West African praise song combined with European harmonic elements. In Chicago, after World War II, the blues were transformed into rhythm-and-blues (R&B).
(8) Flamenco:
Impassioned guitar and vocal dance music associated with Andalusia in southern Spain and featuring many Moorish (North African) influences and a vocal style reminiscent of the Islamic prayer calls of the Muezzin.
(9) Rock:
Born in Memphis in the 1950s, transformed in Liverpool in the early 60s, elaborated in California a few years later, rock has always drawn its strength from an enormous stylistic diversity, Blues, Soul, Country-and-Western, Celtic Folk, and Jazz have all been filtered in at some point.
(10) Soul:
Popularised by the irresistible Aretha Franklin and Ray Charles in the early 1960s, Soul is hybrid of sacred and profane influences, combining the Gospel music of the southern black evangelical churches with the burgeoning rock/pop sensibility of the Northern American cities.
(11) Jazz:
A child of New Orleans at the turn of the last century, the original Dixieland style, greatly influenced by marching-band music, married African improvising techniques with European brass instrumentation. The name may be derived from the French word: jaser (to babble).
(12) Rap:
Established at New York street parties in the 1980s, rap mingled Hispanic (especially salsa) rhythms with a chanted approach to vocals that has its roots in African tradition. The sampling of snippets from other records, dexterously mixed together by DJs, took its cue from disco.
(13) South Asian Dance – Qawwali, Bolly-pop, Bhangra, Hip-hop & Indie/Soul/Jungle:
The major influence for Qawwali music comes from the 11th century onwards from Sufism, (Melvana Rumi), Konya, Turkey and India by Amer Khusro. The Bhangra tradition stems from an Indian village dance linked to Khattak and has influenced modern Bhangra Bands like Alaap, DCS, Achaanak, Golden Star, Malkit Singh etc. Bolly-wood pop is also greatly influenced by the story of lovers Heer & Ranjha.
POPULAR MUSICIANS FROM PAKISTAN IN THE LAST TWO DECADES
Atta Ullah Khan Esa Khelvi (who played in Sheffield in October 2007) is one the most prolific recording artists in Pakistan, where his popularity is currently unrivalled. His lyrics in Punjabi and Urdu are mainly based on tragic love stories such as Sohni Mahiwal and Heer Ranjha, and his presentation of this wealth of poetry in a contemporary style, with a very wide appeal, has given Pakistani Folk music a new lease of life.
Abida Parveen, a Sufi singer from Sind province, was initiated into the singing of Khayal and Thumbri while still a child. Now one of Pakistan’s most eminent vocalists, she has mastered many styles of Folk and Classical song, but perhaps her greatest claim to fame is her rendition of Kafi and other forms of Sufi verse, in which she combines resignation and intensity in performances of great emotional power.
Tahira Syed is probably the most popular singer in Kashmir toady. In her versatility and appeal she approaches the phenomenal success of her mother Malika (“Queen”) Pukhraj, and has attracted an enthusiastic welcome among Kashmiris in Britain. Especially noted for her singing of Mayas, the traditional songs of everyday life in her native mountains, she also sings Ghazals and Punjabi folk songs.
Mussarat Nazir, a contemporary and the only real competitor of the legendary playback singer, the late Noor Jehan, was a household name in the fifties and sixties for both her voice and her looks, and prior to her death she had lost little of either. She performed frequently in Pakistan and on television.
Vital Signs were the most popular electrified band in Pakistan in the last fifteen years.
Adnan Sami Khan is a producer and composer who has made a great impact in the last decade with his east-west fusion music.
Mehdi Hassan, a great Ghazals singer and leading performer on the Shenai, Tabla and Sitar.
Nusrat Fatteh Ali Khan, one of the foremost practitioners of Qawwali music, was born into a long line of Qawwali singers. He brings, to the form, a classical virtousity which has endeared him to western audiences.
© MATLOUB HUSAYN ALI KHAN
(Free-lance Journalist & Broadcaster, Sheffield)
*Dis-orienting Rhythms: Politics of the New Asian Dance Music by S. Sharma; A. Sharma; J. Hutnyk. Zed Books, 1996.