Radio Pakistan archive on YouTube
Like every Qawwali session Musab hosts, the one in April introduced me to a wealth of old Pakistani music. But the real highlight came when he told us that Radio Pakistan has started putting its archived recordings on streaming platforms, even if they are a bit haphazardly categorized right now. Original broadcasts that I had missed, simply on account of not being born yet, were suddenly available. It’s one of the few times lately that I’ve genuinely appreciated technology. My favorite find was Rasheeda Begum’s Mere Dil Ko Shouq e Fughaan Nahi, which was on loop that month. To help you dive in, here is an excerpt from his blog post, which includes his top 5 picks and some great tips on how to navigate this growing catalogue.
Radio Pakistan especially, has remained the repository of Pakistan’s sonic heritage for the last eight decades, broadcasting music from all parts (and before 1971, both wings) of Pakistan. Through its Transcription Service - later christened the ‘Central Productions Unit’, Radio Pakistan also preserved recordings of a significant proportion of its broadcasts on tape and occasionally released selections from its archives in collaboration with EMI Pakistan. The vast majority of the Radio Pakistan archives however, remained stored in its vaults, often in very precarious conditions. A few years ago, thanks to the efforts of an enterprising producer, Radio Pakistan launched a YouTube channel where they began uploading some of the music from their archives, and we were treated to such gems as Aniqa Bano singing a Mus’hafi ghazal to the tune of a Pahari folk song and Ali Bakhsh Zahoor singing an actual folk song my grandmother used to sing to me.
Editor’s note: Musab’s next session is this Saturday.