It was the summer of 2014 when the Lahore-based band Bayaan decided to go on stage and play well-known cover songs in the hope that this would draw attention to the one song of theirs they had released. These young 20-somethings had serious decisions to make. Were they going to do covers for EP (Entity Paradigm) or Call? Or was it time to carve out an identity of their own? In those days, being able to go on stage and pretend they knew exactly what they were doing was a big deal. Fast forward to 2024, and Bayaan has just wrapped up a Pakistan tour that sold approximately 8,000 tickets per venue – selling out every city they performed in. “We did more shows in November last year than we did between 2014 and 2022 combined,” says Shahrukh Aslam, Bayaan’s lead guitarist. “The number of people who want to see us perform live has increased.”

For Bayaan things have changed drastically since the days they were five boys sharing equipment on a stage. Today, they are a rock band with their own visual and audio identity – and all it took was a Gen Z social media user in 2022 to include one of their songs in a reel. This one act made the band go viral after being in existence for a decade. The Instagram user who made the reel received more than six million views, which led to Bayaan’s watershed moment.

The song in question was Nahi Milta (released in 2015) – and desi Gen Z was surprised to have discovered it only in 2022. “We always assumed that people in their late 20s would be our core demographic,” says Aslam. “We were surprised that today’s undergrad kids are also into our music. We played at a Lahore Grammar School event, and young teenage girls were into our music. In terms of the age demographic, we were pretty surprised. We always assumed there was a particular age bracket that was into our stuff.” Going viral gave Bayaan renewed motivation to find a manager and start booking live concerts.

Here it is important to mention that in 2018-2019, Bayaan took part in Pepsi’s Battle of the Bands (season three) and won. In the show, Bayaan performed a cover of Junoon’s classic Azadi – and recently Aslam noticed that Gen Z was actually uploading Bayaan’s cover of the song. “It was like, wow. For some people, their introduction to Azadi might literally have been us and not Junoon. Maybe because Junoon is too old.”

In Aslam’s view, Gen Z concert-goers are more open to exploring new music compared to Millennials when they were in their teens. He says Millennials were rigid about their interests and more judgemental about what they liked. “If people don’t like what I like, they lack culture, and they are just stupid,” is how he describes what Millennials were like growing up. “A decade ago people were not coming to shows to have a good time. They were going to shows to either demonstrate how much better they were or as some sort of weird status thing. Now I feel like people come to concerts because they want to have a good time.”

Realising there was a growing demand for their music over the last couple of years, Bayaan kicked off ‘The Safar Tour’ at the end of 2024. It was a multi-city event and organising it was a community effort. The band’s manager worked with a team of young volunteers in each city to make the event a happy and safe experience for all involved.

“We get to play in front of audiences who know our music. They jump, they groove, they dance; they cry and laugh with you, and it’s amazing,” says Aslam, adding that what made this tour a success was the fact that Gen Z and younger audiences are fans of Bayaan’s music.

Clearly, in Pakistan’s entertainment industry, success is measured by whether or not Gen Z is interested in what you are doing. Aslam says, “The only indicator that a band or an artist is ‘relevant’ is whether people in their late teens and early 20s are listening to you. Are they being moved by you? Are they coming to your shows?”

Karachi started 2025 off with Dialled In Karachi (an artist-led South Asian music programming platform), arguably one of the most successful raves the city has ever seen since ‘Boiler Room’. It featured local music producers and DJs known for their relentless work in arranging private concerts, along with Pakistanis based in the UK and US who came to Karachi to perform. The show was a community effort and a collaboration between several organisations, such as Dialled In, Oscillations (a Pakistani event series featuring eclectic musicians, live electronic acts and DJs), Re:introduction (a group known for curating musical experiences) and Karachi Community Radio (KCR) – a collective cataloguing Karachi’s audio-visual musical culture. Together, they gave Karachi’s rave-lovers an unforgettable night of audio-visual revelry, bringing together 800 music lovers in a warehouse.

If you are a dedicated concertgoer in Karachi, you may be familiar with Daniel Arthur Panjwaneey, who spent decades cultivating Karachi’s live music scene; he has also been an active musician since the late nineties/early 2000s. During his career, he has explored all sorts of genres and at the moment it’s techno. He co-founded Oscillations in 2017 and it has since made a name for itself in Karachi in electronic music and live DJ sets.

The most interesting part is that despite the fact that Dialled In Karachi was a private event, the team managed to sell 700 tickets – the stipulation being one could only buy a ticket through a reference. According to Panjwaneey, they could have easily sold 2,000-3,000 tickets, but the idea was to provide exclusivity within a safe space. Referring to Gen Z, he says, “They are a lot more mindful. They actually come for the music.”

Referring to the recent EP (extended play) release party for singer Natasha Noorani’s Club Sandwich in December 2024, Panjwaneey says the concert took place just days after the album’s release, and people were already singing along to the songs and knew the lyrics.

Pakistan’s young people are also discovering music differently. Gone are the days of going to record stores to listen to albums. This generation is exposed to music through algorithms. In Panjwaneey’s experience, what keeps live music going are the people who put in the effort to keep nurturing the concert ecosystem. “People are a lot more willing to take risks and show up and take a chance on the music.”

Zahra Salah Uddin is a multimedia journalist with a decade of experience in international newsrooms and the non-profit sector.

Photos: Hira Munir Abro and KCR Studio.