Coke Studio Pakistan: “What Are You Feeding Your Soul?”

At the age of 30, Rohail Hyatt, a Pakistani rock musician and founder of the band Vital Signs, woke up one morning to realize that he could not bear to hear the music he had been making since he had come of age.

- Priya Das

How could it all sound wrong? He could not deny the healing, rejuvenating, soul-replenishing effect that the other kind of music, ethnic music had on him, even the physical effects: he’d stopped needing eyeglasses, hair on his head was growing faster without any extra effort. Even so, how could he accept that his previous identity had nothing to give him anymore?

This conflict was the genesis of what we now know to be the phenomenon of Coke Studio Pakistan, which is currently in its tenth season. It is a music program that presents orchestrated jamming sessions by musically diverse, vernacular and Western, emerging as well as established musicians that had its first season in 2008. Perhaps the most enduring and endearing aspect is that it revitalizes the “other music” that Hyatt had discovered in his own journey—ancient and folksy repertoire—but fashioned into a modern setting while still retaining the authentic sound.

Today, it is an iconic format of music programming that has youth re-engaged into ethnic music and thereby culture. It is a fair guess that youth comprise the majority of the 7.4 million Facebook likes. Coke Studio Pakistan’s impact is far-reaching: Inspired by the compelling pull of this music-discovery-fusion-harmony-universality movement, India, Africa, and Middle East have since launched their own avatars.