GENRE SELECTION

SUFI ROCK Sufi rock is a subgenre of rock music that combines rock with classical sufi music traditions. It emerged in the early 1990s and became widely popular in the late 1990s in Pakistan and India. The term "sufi rock" was coined in 1993 by writer Nadeem F. Paracha to define the Pakistani band Junoon, who pioneered the process of fusing conventional rock music with sufi music and imagery.[1][2][3] Rabbi Shergill's Bullah Ki Jaana was one of the best examples of Sufi music admired in both India and Pakistan.

It is mostly based on the poetry of famous sufi poets such as Rumi, Hafez, Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai, Bulleh Shah, Waris Shah and even Kabir and is mostly sung in languages such as Urdu, Hindi, Punjabi, Sindhi, Persian and Turkish.[citation needed]

A few artists such as Junoon,*Fuzon and Mekaal Hasan Band have achieved commercial success as well as mainstream critical recognition while some veteran sufi folk singers such as Arif Lohar and Saeen Zahoor have also dabbled in this genre

ARTISTS

QURAT UL AIN BALOCH  Quratulain Balouch is a Pakistani singer, musician, composer, and a song-writer. Shes a popular singer for the genre sufi rock.

ZEB AND HANIAZeb and Haniya (Pashto:  حانیا او -pronounced as "Zayb ao Haa-nee ,زیبya") was a Pakistani music group of two cousins from Kohat. It was active from 2007 to 2014. The duo's songs were mostly in Urdu, but some lyrics were also in Pashto, Dari and Turkish. Their music was described at various times as alternative, art folk, ethnic blues and easy listening by international reviewer's and critics.While their family is originally from Kohat, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, much of the band's work took place in Lahore. Haniya is a native of Islamabad, and the act spend time working in Karachi too. Their itinerary for their global tour was set in 2009. They have performed mostly in the Dubai, and in some parts of Sindh and Punjab.The band was a project started by two musicians, who are cousins, Zebunnisa Bangash and Haniya Aslam. Both are ethnicPashtuns. They began writing music together when studying as undergraduates at Smith College and Mount HolyokCollege in the United States, although have stated that music was always a part of their life at home.

KAILASH KHERKailash Kher is an Indian pop-rock and bollywood playback singer with a music style influenced by Indian folk music and Sufi music. He is a prominent singer in Hindi, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Urdu and Rajasthani languages. Though his professional prowess encompasses most of the Indian languages, his contribution to Indian music lies way beyond that. He is a prime candidate amongst the contemporary Sufi singers. His work has enchanted young generation to take interest in Sufi music. He has sung more than 70 songs for Bollywood.He was inspired by the classical musician Pandit Kumar Gandharva Pandit Hridaynath Mangeshkar,Pandit Bhimsen Joshi, and the Qawwali singer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan.