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Music documentaries, in-depth profiles and concerts featuring some of the biggest names

Music documentaries, in-depth profile pieces and concerts recordings featuring some of the biggest names from South Asia and the UK.

Tune into this treasure trove each week for the best in new music documentaries, exclusive interviews, in-depth profile pieces and concert recordings featuring some of the biggest names from South Asia and the UK.

Asian Network Presents: Pakistan Rocks!

Pakistan Rocks!

30/11/2014

BBC Asian Network - Asian Network Presents, Pakistan Rocks!

This one-hour special looks at the unlikely love affair between Pakistan and the guitar.

Presented by Noreen Khan, this one-hour special looks at the unlikely love affair between Pakistan and the guitar.

Asian Network Presents . . . Pakistan Rocks! Presented by Noreen Khan, this one-hour special looks at the unlikely love affair between Pakistan and the guitar.

The early 80's saw the guitar makes it's first mainstream appearance with the advent of Pakistan's first pop and rock band, the Vital Signs. Performing at universities and underground concerts, the band began life under the oppressive regime of General Zia-Al-Huq who denounced 'Western ideas' including jeans and rock music. Despite that, the Signs' seminal track 'Dil Dil Pakistan' became the country's unofficial national anthem and made the band members the country's most famous musicians.

The Vital Signs began a trend for guitar bands that was later filled by groups such as Junoon, Awaz and Jal. Speaking to guitarists and musicians including Salman Ahmed, frontman of Junoon, Rohail Hyatt former member of the Vital Signs and former producer of Coke Studio and Asad Ahmed formerly of Awaz and Karavan, Pakistan Rocks! looks at the complicated relationship between the country, the guitar and it's politics.

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