| Welcome to Global Village Space

Thursday, March 14, 2024

The coke mix-tape: Rewinding Coca Cola’s journey into music

News Desk |

Coca-cola is organizing the much-hyped coke fest in Islamabad and other cities throughout January. The coke fest Islamabad chapter was postponed from 13th January to 19th January due to heavy rainfall on the former date. The highly anticipated carnival will feature performances by various mainstream artists and food stalls among other recreations.

Coca Cola’s brand has now completely morphed itself in a music-affiliation. Over the years, aggressively since the inception of coke studio, coca cola’s branding element transitioned from being a beverage manufacturer to a stakeholder in Pakistan’s music industry.

Coke Studio’s 14th August compositions have now become another reason to wait eagerly for the national Independence Day besides fireworks.

Mapping the journey is a daunting task; In 1986, Madam Noor Jehan, Malika e Tarannum (The Queen of Melody) endorsed Pakistan’s favorite drink in an evergreen composition “Zalima Coca Cola Pila de”. Ever since her track hit tape-recorders, Coca Cola brought itself on the music map. The baby boomer generation lived through an era where coca cola was morphing into a musical icon; Pepsi was becoming the Cricket brand and Shezan had mellow domestic vibes. Through the ’90s, Coca Cola had become Pakistan’s most favorite soft drink in terms of sales.

In November 2004, when the Karachi operation had already robbed the city of its concerts, parties and public gatherings, Coca Cola partnered with Pakistan Air Force to organize the largest concert in the city’s history with an attendance of up to 50,000. Shan Foods took over the food court and Hum TV launched itself from the event.

Read more: Coca Cola partners with Rotary club against Polio and waterborne diseases

While the event was Coca Cola’s rebranding event to Coca Cola: Mazay Ki Leher; Karachi saw a lineup of the country’s musical elite: Atif Aslam, Junoon, Abrar Ul Haq, Jawad Ahmed, Ahmed Jahanzaib, and Fareeha Pervez entranced thousands. The concert was covered as one of the greatest events in the city’s history by the press and it set a precedent; Karachi could sway to tunes in public again.

It is a tough choice to ascertain if Coke Studio music revolutionized Coca Cola or Coca Cola revolutionized music with Coke Studio; whatever the case may be, Coke Studio is now a culture ambassador for Pakistan. Over the past decade, Coke Studio has produced eleven seasons of new tracks, renditions, and mixes of popular Pakistani music, revitalizing tracks by iconic musicians, raising a platform for new talent and being an overall delight in terms of well-composed music.

The baby boomer generation lived through an era where coca cola was morphing into a musical icon; Pepsi was becoming the Cricket brand and Shezan had mellow domestic vibes.

Coke Studio’s 14th August compositions have now become another reason to wait eagerly for the national Independence Day besides fireworks. Coke Studio explorer made massive noise when it set out to unearth new talent from remote areas of Pakistan last year. The winning moment, however, was setting up a special effects music studio for hearing impaired individuals.

The heartwarming video of the whole set up being engineered to give a life-like musical experience to a group of hearing impaired people took the internet by storm and stands as evidence of the larger than life musical stakeholder that Coke Studio is today.

Read more: “Tajdar Haram” is the first Pakistani video to bag 100 million…

With the fall of insurgency and restoration of peace in all of Pakistan owing to the rigorous efforts of the security agencies, Coca Cola and the rest of the corporate sector have a great opportunity to revitalize the music scene in Pakistan and tap into events like Coke Fest. Junoon has reunited; that means that battle-worn Pakistan is ready to heal with music.