Facing the music: Pakistan’s pop-music journey: Tracing the shifting trends in Pakistan's pop-music industry over the last three decades

Abstract

Pakistan's popular music industry has remained a colossal source of entertainment for the nation's music-loving population. However, as the dawn of the technological age transformed the manner in which local music was produced, distributed and consumed, Pakistan's popular music industry underwent a shift. This research study attempts to trace the changing trends in Pakistan's pop-music industry over the past three decades, and aims to explore the technological, economic, socio-political and cultural factors that may have contributed towards this shift. The research found out that there is no pop-music 'industry' in Pakistan, pop-music suffered a plunge during 2006-2010. The study also found that the pop-music industry was greatly affected by the digitial revolution in the mid 2000s, and has also historically been influenced by Bollywood music. The research also underlines the role of corporate brands in the pop-music industry. The research procedure employed comprised of qualitative methods that will help tease out the major findings in order to propose suitable recommendations to augment the collective improvement of all industry components at a national level.