BBC News Report on Zeb & Haniya
The BBC’s Syed Shoaib Hasan just published an article on Zeb and Haniya on the BBC News website. And while it’s awesome that Zeb & Haniya are getting this kind of international news coverage, I don’t particularly like the angle that Hasan has taken with this story.
As it stands, the article has the “Ooh, look! Pakistanis aren’t all terrorists – some women are allowed to sing!” tone and that really pisses me off. This despite the fact that political commentary in a story like this was inevitable. The phrase “girl band” in the title, ‘Pakistan girl band creates a stir’, ticks me off as well.
The article then makes a needless reference to Bollywood in its first sub-heading (“Ooh, look! They watch Indian movies…they must be normal people!”) and contains this sentence:
Addicted to their Bollywood movies and Pakistani pop music, many are at ease with privately imitating their idols.
Right. That exactly what all Pakistanis are like.
Hasan also keeps calling the duo “Pakistan’s first all-female music band” which is not accurate.
Worst of all, though, he goes and quotes the eminently patronizing Nadeem Farooq Paracha who is, apparently, “Pakistan’s leading music critic”. I’m not sure why Hasan did that because Paracha’s sole contribution in the article is to put Zeb & Haniya down (in his usual eminently patronizing style) which is particularly irritating as this is supposed to be a news report and not a music review.
I mean, WTF? Why couldn’t this have been a straightforward article about a couple of female musicians who are doing well in Pakistan. Wasn’t that news enough? What was the added benefit of talking about how good or bad their music is? (This is like writing an article about a new female politician in Pakistan who is doing quite well and then getting a quote from a political analyst who says something like “her policies are good, but they are not extraordinary”.)
All those issues aside, though, I’m glad the article was written because at the very least it gives widespread and much-deserved coverage to Zeb & Haniya and their music.
.jpg){kind=avatar}
[...] I mentioned in my previous blog post, I had a few issues with Syed Shoaib Hasan’s recent BBC News article on Zeb & [...]
Way to go! It’s really sad to see the BBC not finding anyone more diligent, just more interesting, than this Syed Shoaib Hasan person to write about the most interesting music event of the second half of 2008. The title for the most interesting event would have to be shared with Shahzad Roy (for me at least!)
Oddly enough I was just listening to Zeb and Haniya and thinking back to our email exchanges back in 2001, so many of which had to do with discovering (or re-discovering) music… I was just bitching to myself that you’ve become too lazy and never write anything anymore… so, good! :D
Exactly right! Shahzad Roy and Z&H were the best things to have happened in the Pakistani music scene this year.
I’ve actually become a lot more active in discovering and re-discovering music this year. I’ve done that mostly though the Internet, though in the case of Western classical music, through FM radio as well (specifically ABC Classic FM here in Australia). There some really good stuff out there and plenty of good stuff I’ve missed over the years that I am only now catching up to. Life is good :)
A humble request; People like you need to get a lesson in basic grammar and writing skills before you create a so called “blog” and start criticizing and commenting on well respected journalist.
@Zulqurnain I can’t really tell what you’re referring to in your comment so, unless you explain your point in a little more detail (preferably with examples from my post), I’m going to have to assume that you’re a troll.
A GIRL BAND having the sort of exposure these guys have had is a “BIG DEAL” in our country, especially since they’re from the troubled part of the country. Not for them, but for other aspiring female musicians from that region this is a big deal. So when you say the comments “Ooh, look! Pakistanis aren’t all terrorists – some women are allowed to sing!” and ‘Pakistan girl band creates a stir’, ticks you off, you are being an ignorant person who is unaware of his surroundings AND your horizon is at best a feet from you.
Talking about Nadeem Farooq Paracha’s comments, you’re being overly sensitive there bro, fame and criticism go hand in hand, be it a report or a review.
“I mean, WTF? Why couldn’t this have been a straightforward article about a couple of female musicians who are doing well in Pakistan.” This part really sums up your hollow approach, you like the band I understand that but wanting everything pink and rosy written about a band YOU like is not going to happen.
@Zulqurnain I don’t like the term “girl band” being applied to Zeb and Haniya because, to musicians like myself, the terms “boy band” and “girl band” have negative connotations. These terms generally imply that the band is made up of only vocalists who harmonize together and sing the light, catchy, mostly inconsequential pop songs that others have written for them. Most of the time, members of these bands don’t know how to play a musical instrument and only one of them is a really good vocalist. Often, these groups are created by record producers and the songs these bands end up singing are simple, formulaic, and designed for easy airplay so they quickly get popular and make the record company lots of money. Examples of popular girl bands include the Spice Girls, Sugababes, and Pussy Cat Dolls. Zeb and Haniya are NOT a girl band and I think it was disingenuous of Hasan to suggest this.
I agree that “fame and criticism go hand in hand” but calling what Nadeem Farooq Paracha said about Zeb and Haniya as genuine criticism is just silly. He is quoted as saying “I think they can produce better music than this.” How is that any real criticism? If I said “I think Faiz can write better poetry than this” would you consider that valid criticism of his work as well? :)
Did I say that all articles written about Zeb and Haniya had to be “pink and rosy”? No. What I said was that this article didn’t have to be vapid, sensationalist, and misogynistic. Which is why I think it’s funny that you think my “approach” was “hollow”. You seem to have missed the point of what I wrote entirely.