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A Soundtrack for Reimagining Pakistan? Coke Studio, memory, and the music video

Williams, Richard David; Mahmood, Rafay

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Authors

Rafay Mahmood



Abstract

Since 2007, Coke Studio has rapidly become one of the most influential platforms in televisual, digital and musical media, and has assumed a significant role in generating new narratives about Pakistani modernity. The musical pieces in Coke Studio’s videos re-work a range of genres and performing arts, encompassing popular and familiar songs, as well as resuscitating classical poetry and the musical traditions of marginalised communities. This re-working of the creative arts of South Asia represents an innovative approach to sound, language, and form, but also poses larger questions about how cultural memory and national narratives can be reimagined through musical media, and then further reworked by media consumers and digital audiences.

This article considers how Coke Studio’s music videos have been both celebrated and criticised, and explores the online conversations that compared new covers to the originals, be they much loved or long forgotten. The ways in which the videos are viewed, shared, and dissected online sheds light on new modes of media consumption and self-reflection. Following specific examples, we examine the larger implications of the hybrid text–video–audio object in the digital age, and how the consumers of Coke Studio actively participate in developing new narratives about South Asian history and Pakistani modernity.

Citation

Williams, R. D., & Mahmood, R. (2019). A Soundtrack for Reimagining Pakistan? Coke Studio, memory, and the music video. BioScope: South Asian Screen Studies, 10(2), 111-128. https://doi.org/10.1177/0974927619896771

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Nov 16, 2019
Online Publication Date Jun 16, 2020
Publication Date Dec 1, 2019
Deposit Date Nov 22, 2019
Publicly Available Date Nov 22, 2019
Journal BioScope: South Asian Screen Studies
Print ISSN 0974-9276
Electronic ISSN 0976-352X
Publisher SAGE Publications
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 10
Issue 2
Pages 111-128
DOI https://doi.org/10.1177/0974927619896771

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