Singer Machine: Still a better Singer than Tahir Shah
Let me confess with a heavy sense of guilt that I had never heard of Tahir Shah until my editor assigned me to write about this Pakistani music legend, who has stirred a storm on twitter. Yet, he has made me believe the power of social media. He made me believe that angels land on the planet as Twitteratti. He also made me believe the conspiracy theorists who claim that trending on the Facebook and Twitter is fixed.
His success story strengthened my belief that there exist trending kingmakers. Everyone is nonplussed. Washington Post calls him bizarre, weird and his Urdu medium English a mirth. BBC world calls the song 'a parody for amusement'. Yet he has been made a face of Pakistani music industry that we cannot deny.
He also strengthened my belief on infiltrators to demonize a specific community. Pakistan has always been famous in the world for its quality music. Our singers and musicians have made niche everywhere in the world. Even Bollywood had to succumb the public demands for Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and Rahat Fateh Ali Khan. Be it classical singers like Madam Noor Jehan, Ghulam Ali, disco musicians of 80's, all time famous Nazia Hasan and Zohaib, or the legendary Mahdi Hasan, Pakistan has produced world class singers but now like it or not, Tahir Shah has been made the face of Pakistani music. This is the same as ISIS and ALQaeda being made the face of Muslims without their consent on the international media. And only Jannat on Twitter can do that.
Believe me, nobody in Pakistan would know him except the jannati social media cult of 45,000 followers, which sprang from nowhere. The Dawn reporter who interviewed the celebrity was flabbergasted on the weird usage of adjectives that Shah made during the interview. But what made me laugh hysterically after a long time, was a picture of singer machine on the BBC article with a caption, "Still a better singer than #Tahir Shah"
Media Bites Editorial - Tazeen Hasan
published on Octobar 08, 2016
Let me confess with a heavy sense of guilt that I had never heard of Tahir Shah until my editor assigned me to write about this Pakistani music legend, who has stirred a storm on twitter. Yet, he has made me believe the power of social media. He made me believe that angels land on the planet as Twitteratti. He also made me believe the conspiracy theorists who claim that trending on the Facebook and Twitter is fixed.
His success story strengthened my belief that there exist trending kingmakers. Everyone is nonplussed. Washington Post calls him bizarre, weird and his Urdu medium English a mirth. BBC world calls the song 'a parody for amusement'. Yet he has been made a face of Pakistani music industry that we cannot deny.
He also strengthened my belief on infiltrators to demonize a specific community. Pakistan has always been famous in the world for its quality music. Our singers and musicians have made niche everywhere in the world. Even Bollywood had to succumb the public demands for Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and Rahat Fateh Ali Khan. Be it classical singers like Madam Noor Jehan, Ghulam Ali, disco musicians of 80's, all time famous Nazia Hasan and Zohaib, or the legendary Mahdi Hasan, Pakistan has produced world class singers but now like it or not, Tahir Shah has been made the face of Pakistani music. This is the same as ISIS and ALQaeda being made the face of Muslims without their consent on the international media. And only Jannat on Twitter can do that.
Believe me, nobody in Pakistan would know him except the jannati social media cult of 45,000 followers, which sprang from nowhere. The Dawn reporter who interviewed the celebrity was flabbergasted on the weird usage of adjectives that Shah made during the interview. But what made me laugh hysterically after a long time, was a picture of singer machine on the BBC article with a caption, "Still a better singer than #Tahir Shah"
Media Bites Editorial - Tazeen Hasan
published on Octobar 08, 2016
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