Essay: Coke Studio vs Nescafe Basement

All went well with all the heavy advertisement and that people realizing after the first season of its uniqueness, the show boasts of something that was missing in the field of music, it pioneered a change and it is continuing till now but the problem now is that it has competition In the form of Nescafe Basement which was released in 2012, while coke studio has been credited for bringing a change that the music industry so required it has now been labelled as repeating. Nescafe on the other hand has been a breath of fresh air, both of them being similar and both of them being different as well, similar because they promote music and fusion, coke studio on one hand makes use of its brand value and superior star cast, Nescafe Basement on the other hand promotes raw talent, under the supervision of Xulfi, the underground bands and artists perform songs that have cult following. The motive of Nescafe Basement is to fuse music and promote talent, while coke studio does fusion at its best but doesn’t promote talent.
We have big names in coke studio like Sajjad Ali, Atif Aslam, Ali Zafar while the Nescafe basement has unknown names that we haven’t heard but in terms of quality the coke studio may be a little better because of the resources that they can arrange, but when they have made a name for themselves. We can compare the best songs in coke studio to the song ‘Tere Ishq Main Jo bhi’ In Nescafe Basement. The views on You Tube are a proof of it. The singer was new yet his vocal quality could be compared with the stars of the society.
It is more commercial compared to Nescafe Basement. As to who is better it cannot be said, the coke studio has been said to be repeating the music over the years which they have took notice of because this year it has come out a little fresher but the Nescafe basement scores more in this regard, its fresh, its raw and it is appealing, yet it cannot reach the commercial level that coke studio has achieved. The final verdict being that the coke studio is accessible to all and on all the channels while people have less awareness of Nescafe Basement it is making a name for itself in the field of music and the diehard promoters and fans of music rate it above Coke studio but there cannot be a clear winner. Coke studio has a global appeal while Nescafe Basement is a favourite among the music lovers, although most of the music lovers also follow Coke Studio because of Legends such as Abida Parveen, which is the reason that we cannot give a clear verdict as to who is better. Both are serving the field of music and doing a good job at it.
As Nescafe Basement played its part in bringing out new talent in music industry, India in comparison find Pakistani singers like Rahat Fateh Ali khan, Atif Aslam, Ali Zafar, Momina Mustehsan, etc., for Bollywood industry despite the stated fact that India itself has a very poor history of music which is neither classical nor pop as compared to how big their industry is known throughout the world, there is no as such contribution of singers and bands, also their pop bands are hardly known as compared to how Pakistani pop bands are famous around the globe. And in Pakistani music industry, the pop bands brought originality and a new fresh sound in an innovative way. In Indian music industry there are only a few names which are dominant and come to our mind first like, Lata, Rafi, Kishor and Asha. And then for the modern time Sonu Nigham. Whereas for Pakistan the thing is different, because the wide music industry of Pakistan keep on growing and there is no limitations for the new talent.
Due to the development of social media the western music has started to create an impact to the Pakistan music industry. If we talk about instruments, we can see how coke studio is using western instruments for classical music. Like the use of guitar, keyboard, drums etc. and also
Now I would like to conclude that Pakistan has many influences on its music from the world but Pakistan has created its own music, we can’t compare Pakistani music to any other type of music because it includes classic, folk, qawali, pop, rock and what not. Every type has its own importance in Pakistan. And especially qawali and ghazals play the most important role in our industry. I think both of these are toughest genre because they both need passion and love for the religion. And Pakistani qawals are so good at it that when we hear them we always get Goosebumps to how they recite them with passion and how they feel each and every word and let the listener feel that too by their energetic voice. Apart from this if we talk about how Pakistani music is creating an impact on the society so yes it does create an impact on us because music is something what people listen to relax and for their entertainment and also to provide them with a soothing environment so everybody has their own choice of music. So I personally like mostly classic and soft music so i used to love coke studio for that but now since one year I think coke studio is somewhat losing its identity because they were known to create their own music but now as we can see that they are hiring different music directors so now those songs seem more like they are from a movie rather than of coke studio. I used to like it a lot because it made me listen to old songs in a new way but now I think I am moving away from this coke studio fever. And by looking at different people thoughts on the social media, I can clearly say that now coke studio is slowly losing its fans and it is no longer heard by a mainstream audience. So I think they should go back to their original way.