coke studio sessions
September 16, 2022 5:52 PM Subscribe
The Coke Studio sessions "Welcome to the sweetest corner of the internet in the Indian subcontinent - the YouTube comment section of Coke Studio Pakistan. Coke Studio - Pakistan's longest-running music show, produced by beverage giant Coca-Cola - features studio-recorded performances by some of the country's most famous artists. The music ranges from quirky pop and soul-stirring qawwali to rap - all of which draw heavily from folk traditions and classical poetry." Some recent favourites from the Season 14 show. Pasoori, Go, Tu Jhoom
Tu Jhoom is beautiful and thrilling. Can’t wait to explore more — thanks dhruva!
posted by Turtles all the way down at 6:53 PM on September 16, 2022
posted by Turtles all the way down at 6:53 PM on September 16, 2022
Nitin Sawhney's set from Season 2 with Nicki Wells and Ashwin Srinivasan is one of my absolute all-time favorites.
Especially "Nadia". Though really everything in the set is fantastic.
posted by Hairy Lobster at 7:56 PM on September 16, 2022 [3 favorites]
Especially "Nadia". Though really everything in the set is fantastic.
posted by Hairy Lobster at 7:56 PM on September 16, 2022 [3 favorites]
I love this series, also it's a never-fail background music choice in Pakistani restaurants I've been to here.
A recent favourite is this one: Bol Hu. tbh i discovered it through a Bollywood movie (Malang) but it was such a sonically different track than the rest of the movie I got curious enough to look it up. (And also because the Netflix subtitles gave a different impression of the song than what I could get).
posted by cendawanita at 8:52 PM on September 16, 2022 [7 favorites]
A recent favourite is this one: Bol Hu. tbh i discovered it through a Bollywood movie (Malang) but it was such a sonically different track than the rest of the movie I got curious enough to look it up. (And also because the Netflix subtitles gave a different impression of the song than what I could get).
posted by cendawanita at 8:52 PM on September 16, 2022 [7 favorites]
Was coming here to recommend Bol Hu - just remarkable. Also really caught by Haiderium and Madari from seasons past.
posted by leslies at 12:43 PM on September 17, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by leslies at 12:43 PM on September 17, 2022 [1 favorite]
Bol Hu was amazing! Looking around, the young soloist, Hadiya Hashmi, is referred to as a "sufi" singer -- is this just a nickname for the style in India, or a religious tradition?
posted by tavella at 1:55 PM on September 17, 2022
posted by tavella at 1:55 PM on September 17, 2022
Well, firstly they're all Pakistani, but of course a terminology used and recognised in the other South Asian countries, and secondly it's mainly and originally religious devotional music so sufi music is both a style and religious tradition. Not everyone who shows up on Coke Studio is from that style of course but they do make a large portion of the performers. With Bol Hu for example, that's why I got curious after watching Malang - the Netflix subtitles gave a somewhat desecularized reading, but from what I could catch I could tell it kept referring to a divine power, and certain concepts.
posted by cendawanita at 7:15 PM on September 17, 2022
posted by cendawanita at 7:15 PM on September 17, 2022
AHHHHHHHHHHH
posted by rrrrrrrrrt at 10:36 AM on September 18, 2022
posted by rrrrrrrrrt at 10:36 AM on September 18, 2022
Such beautiful songs! I’ve already got tears streaming down my face. Thank you, dhruva.
posted by rrrrrrrrrt at 10:53 AM on September 18, 2022
posted by rrrrrrrrrt at 10:53 AM on September 18, 2022
firstly they're all Pakistani
Ah, yes, sorry. For some reason the "Indian" in the introduction stuck in my head and not the Pakistan I should have seen!
posted by tavella at 1:01 PM on September 18, 2022 [1 favorite]
Ah, yes, sorry. For some reason the "Indian" in the introduction stuck in my head and not the Pakistan I should have seen!
posted by tavella at 1:01 PM on September 18, 2022 [1 favorite]
Yooooo I love this post so much! Coke Studio is Pakistan's best kept secret. I discovered so many incredible singers through this show that I never would have known because I'm Indian and I'm not really exposed to desi music outside of Bollywood stuff. All of them legends in their own right, with enormous fan followings and stupendous bodies of work. And here's me, just now discovering a few of them.
I will limit myself to naming just one jaw-dropper, Abeeda Parveen singing a Sufi hymn.
I wish I could find a proper translation of what she's singing. It's such lyrical Urdu that I only understand about 40% of it, as a Hindi speaker and as someone illiterate in Sufi lyricism. What I do understand of it is, in the refrain, the singer is boasting that she's renowned for her skill at games/gauntlets/gambles of love, and this skill allows her to scoff at pain and sorrow. In the "verses" she sings a few clever couplets with witty rejoinders that I only half-understand, and she chants "Maula" (Lord) often so we know her love, her games, her witty rejoinders are all about or directed at her God.
An interesting tradition in Sufism (and some other religious traditions in the northern part of the subcontinent) is to speak of God in extremely intimate terms. In Sufism, especially, they speak of God as synonymous with love, passion, desire, bliss, entrancement, physical surrender, etc. Usually it sounds weirdly romantic to outside ears? This is even more cheeky, in this song it's like the singer is boasting about her exploits, like, that's the tone, and it's so freaking cool to me to hear God spoken of like this.
The sheer power and poetry of her voice, though - like Janis Joplin meets gospel singers, but also something more, something that almost literally gives my heathen heart religion. Oof.
posted by MiraK at 6:23 PM on September 18, 2022 [2 favorites]
I will limit myself to naming just one jaw-dropper, Abeeda Parveen singing a Sufi hymn.
I wish I could find a proper translation of what she's singing. It's such lyrical Urdu that I only understand about 40% of it, as a Hindi speaker and as someone illiterate in Sufi lyricism. What I do understand of it is, in the refrain, the singer is boasting that she's renowned for her skill at games/gauntlets/gambles of love, and this skill allows her to scoff at pain and sorrow. In the "verses" she sings a few clever couplets with witty rejoinders that I only half-understand, and she chants "Maula" (Lord) often so we know her love, her games, her witty rejoinders are all about or directed at her God.
An interesting tradition in Sufism (and some other religious traditions in the northern part of the subcontinent) is to speak of God in extremely intimate terms. In Sufism, especially, they speak of God as synonymous with love, passion, desire, bliss, entrancement, physical surrender, etc. Usually it sounds weirdly romantic to outside ears? This is even more cheeky, in this song it's like the singer is boasting about her exploits, like, that's the tone, and it's so freaking cool to me to hear God spoken of like this.
The sheer power and poetry of her voice, though - like Janis Joplin meets gospel singers, but also something more, something that almost literally gives my heathen heart religion. Oof.
posted by MiraK at 6:23 PM on September 18, 2022 [2 favorites]
Usually it sounds weirdly romantic to outside ears?
Aye, that's why the most well-known English translation of Rumi is rubbish upon trash.
posted by cendawanita at 7:32 PM on September 18, 2022 [1 favorite]
Aye, that's why the most well-known English translation of Rumi is rubbish upon trash.
posted by cendawanita at 7:32 PM on September 18, 2022 [1 favorite]
A lot of what both Coke studio and Nescafe basement showcase is qawalli singing. The reach for an ecstatic state is part of what makes this so compelling to me and it has really transformed to a popular genre in many of these performances.
posted by leslies at 6:56 AM on September 19, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by leslies at 6:56 AM on September 19, 2022 [1 favorite]
« Older RAAAIIIID? (explosion) | HA-HA Newer »
This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments
posted by mollymillions at 6:21 PM on September 16, 2022