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Coke Studio

Authors: Ben K. <benk@tilde.team>

Date: 2021-04-30

Since lately we were talking about music on Gemspace, I thought it would be cool to pull up an example of some of the music I like to listen to, particularly Coke Studio, which I am fond of mentioning and sharing with others.

Coke Studio was a brilliant project that tapped into the very deep musical traditions of Pakistan and the surrounding region, and I'm sure that music aficionados worldwide are at least aware of the significance of South Asian music. Coke Studio has now been running for many years, but I think it probably began to peak at around season 5 or 6, which is when I fell in love with it while living in Southern California. Prior to that I had long been listening to South Asian music anyway.

Not every song it produces is a hit, but it has produced so many that I find it unusual. So often the project does everything right, from the featured artists' talents, the songwriting and musical arrangement, high quality production, very tight and professional house band, genuinely talented back-up singers, and more. More than that, like much music worldwide, it has its deep roots in spiritual tradition, so there is an element of the divine in there as well.

A part of me is surprised that Coke Studio is still running after it seemed to falter a few years ago, but I'm glad it is since I continued to enjoy it. 2020 was probably the weakest recent season (but hey, it was 2020), whereas I enjoyed 2019 much more. In fact, 2019 probably deserves its own review since picking one or even two favorite doesn't seem possible.

In 2020, however, there was one song I enjoyed in particular, which was "Gal Sunn". It was also recognized by other top artists in the Punjabi music scene:

gemini://pon.ix.tc/youtube/video/HF__XxIvGlA

Ali Pervez Mehdi really does a top-notch job with this song, but it's Meesha Shafi that steals the show two-thirds into the song. She's always bewitching, but this was a particularly stand-out performance, especially for the season. Too bad it's so short!

The audio is also available on their website with this short link:

https://cokeurl.com/Gal-Sunn-mp3

Their main site is:

https://www.cokestudio.com.pk/

Also, unrelated to Coke Studio, but since the music discussion was started with discourse about metal, I thought I'd throw this in as well, which is a decent metal tune I came across a while back featuring the sitar:

gemini://pon.ix.tc/youtube/video/qFXhGeAODBA

The connection between metal and classical music is usually mentioned. For thoses who are familiar with sitar music, you should be able to recognize the classical foundation. What he's playing is real Indian classical music, but it's just been transferred into a metal framework. Other than that, the structure seems to be that of a medley. Great creative effort!