Cynics would say that he was the product of the media machine that finally consumed, but if truth be told, it was machine that made Michael Jackson the force that he was. One can clearly see that at his peak Jackson was a phenomenon riding masterfully on the wave of an industry that in turn rode on him. Yes, he let it spiral out of control, but that's missing the point. If you don't get the game, you become easy game - end of the sob story.

One can see similarities between the American system that hurls massive stars out into the stratosphere - for whom the concert circuit extends from New York to London to Dubai to Delhi, to Sydney and umpteen places in between - and India which is getting there. They may not have the musicians but they have Amitabh Bachchan and Shahrukh Khan who have a global fan base in their own right and sell out shows around the world on a scale that gets bigger every time.

We have sparks of brilliance like like the late and great Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan who garnered respect around the world. He was recommended to Peter Gabriel by another Pakistani legend Imran Khan, who scaled heights not just on basis of his talent but also his savvy. Coming back to Nusrat, he was pure talent and no vision. He had no idea that a song he recorded with A.R. Rahman would land up on an album titled Vande Mataram, just like Atif Aslam had no idea that 'Pehli Nazar', a song he recorded for the for the Indian film Race, and that became a raging hit on both sides of the border, will be used to advertise a condom called Manforce in India.  No one looks out for our stars. There is no representation perhaps because so far the system (whatever there is of it here) is too busy figuring itself out to create icons.

But we have flashes of brilliance alright. Music right now is riding the marvelous high of Coke Studio (the show is heavy on content with a capital 'C'). Rohail Hyatt hasn't just put together musicians and make them belt out their songs, he's crafted songs with them, given a new sound, involved umpteen instrumentalists with the finesse of a producer looking for greatness, not one directing ten shows in one month. No wonder the show is a success. I haven't seen a Pakistani program so heavily traded online before. Coke Studio is groundbreaking, which is what we need and that it is more about the collective than one man makes it so necessary in the greater scheme of things. 

A flash of brilliance and then we go down. The music industry is trying to band together under one banner with the Union for Pop. Previously, they also  formed the Association for Music Professionals of Pakistan (AMPP) so one sees no need for a newer platform. There also seems to some confusion as to whether they are one and the same organization.