The Pakistani Musician’s Struggle: Passion vs. Profit

Writer | Rida Majid

The late 1980s and mid 2000s were the time period of birth and growth of rock bands in Pakistan. This band culture included the famous pop groups Vital Signs, Junoon and Strings. At the time, traditional media like TV and radio, and record labels were the main source of distributing the music. Since the past decade, the music industry of Pakistan has been in a continuous decline mainly because of the dramatic shift from traditional to digital media. The record labels around the world have adapted to digital/online platforms for distribution of music but the ones in Pakistan for some reason chose not to. This has made the artists go into self-publishing or force them to give out their music for free. So a musician has to go through a constant dilemma of passion versus profit in the music industry of Pakistan.

“We are facing challenges on a different level. If we release anything, TV channels are not willing to run our videos because they want to use that as an arm-twisting measure against us since we’re asking for royalties,” says Zeeshan Chaudhry, general manager of EMI Records. He continues:

“Similar is the case with radio stations. To this day, 8XM is violating Pemra regulations by playing foreign music. They do play a little Pakistani music but they’re also asking for Rs20,000 per airing of any video.”

To understand the barriers a Pakistani musician has to face in the current day, our team interviewed the famous and talented rock band based in Islamabad, Aarish. The band talked about their journey from playing music as a hobby to reaching the finals of Pepsi Battle of the Bands in 2019. Speaking to us, Nosherwan, the vocalist of Aarish, pointed out that the music industry of Pakistan over the years has weakened in some areas such as the process of post-production and distribution of music.

(Source: Image 1 - Aarish | Image 2 - Medianaama)

“Pakistan Music industry lacks music promoters and record labels which is very essential to promote and express talent.” he elaborated. “Many external factors contributed to the decline of concerts including security reasons but now we do see a revival in the music industry.”

(Source: OrangeInk)

Haziq, the guitarist of Aarish, shared a very important point regarding the mass media coverage of music.

“Mass media coverage is lacking in Pakistan because of a disrupted creative economy. Media needs to represent the music talent for the entire Pakistan to see”

“Due to Pepsi we had our faces on television for 6 months constant which was epic and that is why people know us. If music does not receive mass coverage it would not reach the masses, it’s very plain and simple.”, he adds.

(Source: Image 1 - OrangeInk | Image 2 - Medianaama)

The band further talked about how there is no local music channel which plays Pakistani music, 8xm being the top music channel of the country prefers to air foreign music. The local radio channels are always reluctant to play Pakistani music when in fact they should be the one demanding artists for their music.

For a more in depth understanding of the issue and to learn about Aarish’s journey of passion and music, watch the full interview here:

Content in the Digital Space

Writer | Fatima Moin

If the internet is to be believed, any conceivable idea under the sun can be content, or even news, as long as it is documented and posted online. Medianaama sat down with affluent businessman and Chief Brand Officer at ProPakistani, Shayan Mahmud, to gain some insight into news media and content in the digital age to understand the current landscape better.

With digital penetration in Pakistan rapidly increasing, the ways news and information media has changed and adapted as a result is worth observation. Now, news publishers and content creators need to vie for the audience's attention on multiple digital platforms. On top of that, they have to stand out in the saturated landscape.

With the culture of passive scrolling, users do not always pay attention to the accounts they get information and entertainment from.

So, publishers and creators have to ensure that their brand name is retained and associated with their content.

Digital content has also been getting shorter in length with the rise of Tik Tok, with platforms like Instagram introducing 'Reels' and YouTube introducing 'Shorts' to compete. For digital news media, this presents a unique challenge.

News stories have to be effectively adapted to the shorter video format without cutting out any vital information.

However, this does not mean the death of long form content just yet. Users who prefer to read and watch deep dives into their niche interests still exist and publishers and content creators have to cater to them as well.

Another challenge that arises with content in the digital space, especially with news, is trustworthiness. Anyone with access to a smartphone and WiFi can post YouTube videos claiming to speak the truth.

The ability to post content does not make that content factual.

So, legitimate publishers have to wade through the lies. They have to ensure their work remains untouched by any information parading around as fact-based, ethical journalism when, in fact, it is not.

Ultimately, in the digital age, it is largely the audience and the technology that shapes the narrative around content consumption. The bottom line is, publishers and content creators always have to be ready to adapt to the ever changing landscape.

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Watch the full interview here:

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For a super fun game segment with Shayan, click here:

The TikTok Switch

Urooj Mansab | Writer

The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has announced restoration of Tiktok services in Pakistan for the fourth time in the span of a year. The popular social media application allows users to create original content or make short lip syncing videos to famous dialogues and songs. The length of a video ranges from 15 seconds to three minutes – the same time it took for you to get to the end of this sentence.

Sualeha, a public relations professional and an avid tiktok user, says she came across the app as part of her work in 2019. Big corporates and celebrities cited an interest in jumping the bandwagon of TikTok popularity to market their brands.

“When I got on the app I realised two things; firstly, its incredibly smart algorithm – only within two days of use, my For You page showed exactly the kind of content that would make me want to keep opening the app; and, its short length of videos that perfectly caters to my attention span.”, says Sualeha.

Her use of the app, now, is personal and mostly for entertainment.

Considered the youngest of popular social media apps, TikTok did not have a smooth ride since its launch. The ‘Big Tech’ has a strong monopoly over social media. For a Chinese app to globally emerge with an entirely new format of entertainment, it was crucial for ByteDance, TikTok’s developer, to make their brand click – and that, they did. As of September 2021, TikTok has a billion monthly active users and is increasingly considered a direct competition to Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta. Its simple and user-friendly interface allows users to access content as soon as the app opens, and create videos with a single click. TikTok found its calling amongst communities that may not have advanced linguistic or technological knowledge required to operate smartphones. Unlike its competitors, TikTok only demands its users to be able to click and swipe.

Pakistan’s Overburdened TikTok Switch

In November 2021, Pakistan completed its fourth cycle of banning and unbanning TikTok. One can imagine a switch somewhere in a temple of purity that is turned off and on as per the likings of the gods of morality. Nadeem Sarwar, a lawyer from Lahore filed a petition in Lahore High Court calling for a ban on TikTok. In an interview to Dawn, he said,

“There’s little difference between some of these videos and pornography. Even if you watch these videos alone at home, you feel so ashamed.”

He added, “In India, there may not be restrictions on dancing or wearing revealing clothes, but even they are calling for a ban. This is an Islamic society and we’re allowing it? We need greater controls and standards so we can monitor what people are doing on TikTok”

The first ban, lifted within ten days, was followed by rampant criticism directed to the PTA from users, creators and digital rights activists for violating the fundamental human rights of the citizens of Pakistan and for exercising abuse of power.

On grounds that the content of the app was “not acceptable for Pakistani society”, the Peshawar High Court ordered another ban on the app. After the “appointment of a focal person for content policy who will monitor all objectionable and illegal content on the platform”, the ban was lifted.

The third and the shortest ban came on the Sindh High Court’s order, for “spreading immorality and obscenity”, lasting for only three days,

Mockingly referred to as the fourth wave, the most recent and the longest period of ban lasted for over three months, “due to continuous presence of inappropriate content on the platform and its failure to take such content down,” the PTA tweeted.

Morality is a Male Gaze

Unlike the ban on TikTok in India and the US, the ban in Pakistan is largely steered by the state’s need to impose its idea of morality and culture on its citizens. In an interview to the DRM, Shmyla, a digital rights advocate from Lahore, says, “The arbitrary moral codes are a patriarchal construct and have been used everytime to police and discipline bodies that are nonconforming to patriarchal stereotypes.” Another frequent TikTok user, Warda, says,

“Not only is the idea of banning TikTok for promoting ‘immorality’ extremely archaic, but the only people directly facing the repercussions of those decisions are the creators whose livelihood depends on their online viewership.”

A research, in September 2020, found TikTok to be more popular among lower and working class communities. An average TikTok user in Pakistan must have come across many unlikely stars such as two brick kiln labourers from Sind, walking in slow-motion, as a Punjabi song plays in the background; Phoollu lip syncing to the latest EDM hit; Jannat Bebo sewing dresses for her cat and so much more. Indeed, these creators and their world finds no representation on the mainstream media and deprives them of any opportunity to cash their talent – a gap aptly filled by TikTok. Many ‘stars’ on TikTok are from rural areas and have worked overtime to present their talents without compromising on their own charm.

(Tiktok: @naseer_baloch_37)

(TikTok: @phoolllu)

(TikTok: @jannatbebo213)

Nadeem Sarwar called the TikTok creator “farigh [useless]”, but whether he likes it or not, the popularity of those creators shows no signs of fading. In fact, some creators on TikTok have a higher number of online following than the country’s most popular celebrities. Some users consider the app too “awaami [plebeian]” and would agree with Sarwar. However, frequent users of the app are also aware that just one click opens a window into the lives of people that they would not have otherwise come across. The utterly obvious class difference on other popular apps like Instagram and Facebook, is almost non-existent on TikTok. Sualeha and Warda, both, suggest that this may be the reason for the app's soaring popularity.

Like Jannat Bebo, many women, young and old, have found an opportunity to showcase their talent and capitalise on it. However, if you check the comment section of any female TikTok star, there is constant policing about their being, coupled with a colossal wave of abuse.

“Comments about their appearance, outfit, style and content are almost never constructive; yet, those girls have a following in millions.”, says Warda.

The cognitive dissonance between the country’s interests and its moral compass is reflected through the fact that the same people who abuse TikTokers are the ones who follow them. This hypocrisy is rooted in the warped idea of morality embedded in Pakistani society. The citizens and the government both consider it a responsibility to suppress any beliefs that do not align with their own.

You Can’t Beat Technology

“The middle class is making money from this platform by exposing its talent, and blocking it is a violation of constitutional rights.”, said Chief Justice Islamabad High Court (IHC) Athar Minallah, upon hearing a petition against the ban on TikTok.

“What message does the PTA want to send to the world?” – Chief Justice IHC Athar Minallah

The court also probed how the PTA decides on experts and whether any content falls in the moral realm for the authorities.

TikTok has introduced the idea of democratisation of content for communities that are neither fluent in English, nor tech savvy. Content is offered to and from users regardless of how they look, where they are from and whether they are rich or not. On the other hand, mainstream media and other popular social media apps like Instagram and Facebook predominantly cater to an urban aesthetic.

The effortless interface paired with an unparalleled algorithm not only helps creators find the right audience but also sustain an interest within that audience. The architecture of TikTok is based on the user’s intuition. It is not developed merely for people who are comfortable with text, which overrules the idea of gatekeeping. Not only common people consume the content, but they are the ones creating that content as per their sensibilities. This has attracted users from the middle class and the lower income class to fill the space for a middle class aesthetic in popular culture.

“The best part about TikTok is that it does not matter which financial background or social strata you belong to, you can become a TikTok star. You don’t need to have a perfect camera or background, and you don’t need to have the false beauty standards to become an influencer on TikTok. So pretty much anyone can become a TikTok celebrity.” – Laiba Zainab, a journalist and an activist from Punjab.

During the first wave of the pandemic, Governor Punjab Chaudhry Mohammad Sarwar held a meeting with some popular TikTok stars. The objective was to create a wide-reaching awareness campaign regarding COVID-19 that was not possible through the mainstream media. So the question arises, when the state realises the outreach and influence of TikTok stars, why would it not use it in its favour?

Chief Justice Minallah questioned whether “the PTA wants to take the country back 100 years.”

"Why do you want to cut Pakistan off from the world, you can’t beat technology then why are you doing this?” – Chief Justice Minallah

If you can not beat technology, it only seems effective to use it in your favour.

Alishba Hyder, a TikTok creator, said, “In my opinion, the government should really think about (using TikTok to promote a soft image of Pakistan) and the effect it would provoke internationally. They can market tourism for nearly free … and a large audience can be reached in a unique way.”

Warda also says that despite several bans, avid users find ways to access the app, “...with such soaring popularity, why not let our content reach an international audience?”

Platforms like TikTok have fostered an incredible amount of reach over a short span of time. Following the gap created by the TikTon ban, apps like SnackVideo garnered instant popularity in Pakistan. Similarly, jumping the TikTok bandwagon, Instagram also introduced an exactly similar feature called ‘Reels’. The emulation only signifies the soaring popularity of TikTok that, at the moment, stands unparalleled.

Global platforms like TikTok have an immense potential to attract an audience for Pakistani creators. By tapping on to the popularity, the Pakistani government could help create a softer image of Pakistan. Yet, the current government chooses to play with a vicious censorship button that can be turned on and off as per the state’s liking. The steadily constricting space for original creators in Pakistan could make for an unfavourable space for global corporations. It invariably impaires creative freedom and any possibility of bringing investment from the Big Tech to Pakistan.