Perhaps one of the biggest blows to our music industry has been the rise of the ‘cover culture’ that seems to be making it difficult for our mainstream musicians to make new, original music that’s memorable. Thankfully, it seems as though Pepsi Battle of the Bands is all set to change that, as the show is not only grooming upcoming talent and giving them a platform but also forcing everyone on stage to sing an original song at least once.
Now on its fourth episode, BoB’s format is such that a mainstream artist first takes the stage to set the pace, and they are all performing original songs. So far, Farooq Ahmed with his band Aaroh, sang ‘Raag Neela’, Atif Aslam has performed a new track, ‘Yaad Tehai’, and in the latest episode, Sara Haider took the stage to sing her song, ‘Zindagi’.
Not only are mainstream musicians performing original music, the bands were also asked to sing an original song to qualify for the next round. Kashmir introduced us to their original track ‘Buddha Baba’. Bilal, the vocalist, shared that the song is about fear of the dark. Unsurprisingly, all the judges on the panel were very impressed with the song’s subject matter.
Atif Aslam, Meesha Shafi, Shahi Hasan and Fawad Khan deliberate after Kashmir’s performance.
Jasim and the Pindi Boys sang their track called ‘Korina’ and while one would immediately think of the legendary ‘Ko Ko Korina’ by Ahmed Rushdi, the Pindi boys made their song so unique that there was no resemblance between the two songs at all.
Jasim and the Pindi Boys always wear sunglasses while performing.
Badnaam’s song ‘Khwaja Ki Dewaani’ was extremely memorable because the Sufi-rock band showed true command over their craft by experimenting with an unconventional song structure. Even Roots performed a song ‘Khirkiyaan’ which wasn’t strong lyrically but the judges agreed that the band tried a complicated song structure and it worked out well for them.
Two bands were eliminated, Darvesh and Madlock but both bands put up a good fight and we’re hoping to see more from them soon.
We also hope that the show’s finale between the top 2 bands also requires the bands to sing an original song and not a cover. Regardless of whether that happens or not, Pepsi has already gotten the ball rolling with the show’s format.
