I live in an apartment complex in Karachi, which increases the possibility of being among the lucky few, the chosen ones, who have access to cable TV. Yes, not for us the necessity of investing in a satellite decoder if we want to watch something entertaining. We just shell out a mere Rs. 200 a month to open our minds to sheer "self-destructive, mind-blowing fun!" as StarTV proudly proclaims.

But all is not well in paradise. Turn the TV on at any hour or night and day and you find scantily clad Indian film actresses gyrating on at least 12 out of the 20 channels I get. These music videos (you understand that I use the term "music videos" in its loosest possible sense) are meant to advertise Bollywood's latest product, sell chips, sodas, even televisions themselves. Somewhere, somehow though, I must have lost the plot.

While I certainly have no objections to having Sonali Bandre and Sushmita Sen on my TV screen (hey after all, I'm a guy. It's genetic, we can't help it.), I completely fail to see the link between their flesh and the movie being advertised. The way these videos are produced is not meant to depict the complexities of the plot or the vagaries of the emotion depicted in the film (if there is any, that is). You do not need to focus on cleavage for 15 seconds to communicate that. No, these videos are meant to convey one main message, and that is, "Attention, horny guys. Naked chick inside!" I once saw an interview with our Ms. Bandre (no, contrary to popular opinion, the eyes do not shut completely when the tongue hangs out) in which she said something about how she hoped that her work had been persuasive enough to convince her audience of her worth as an actress.

It's all very sad really if you like Indian music. The great tradition of Indian film music is being destroyed because of this vulgarity, this affront to good taste. Not only are more and more people switching the channel when these come on, the video itself is pushing the woman...for what do I need to go buy the album?

However, the phenomenon in modern music that frightens me the most is the advent of the boy/girl band of the 90s. Teen bands always have been around, but the bands of yesteryears had solid grounding in music. Duran Duran, Spandau Ballet, A-ha might all have been pin-up bands but before they got to that stage, they had to pay their dues. They all went through the same process of playing together as a band before they made it big. They played clubs, searched desperately for record contracts, in short learnt a little bit about what being a musician is all about.

Contrast that with the teen pin-up bands of today. What do Take That, Boyzone, and the Spice Girls all have in common besides the fact that all three of them are shite. Well, they were all formed as a result of advertisements placed in newspapers by managers looking for attractive boys/girls who were looking to be in a band and who could sing and dance a bit (in Boyzone's case, a very little bit). A number of people auditioned, the manager selected the ones he/she thought would look best together, they make a video, its advertised heavily by the record company with a few slick photo shoots, and voila you have the new teen sensation. A special mention must be made here of teen band pioneers New Kids On The Block (later, simply known as NKOTB in a desperate attempt to stay hip) for whom a special place in hell has been reserved.

It's not as if real music is dead. No, there's still great ground-breaking music being made by the likes of Wilco, Fatboy Slim, Mogwai, even R.E.M.; the list is virtually endless. Yet from turning on the TV in this region, you would never know anything else than the commercial stuff ever existed. It's not really the record-buying public's fault. After all, if this is what you have ever heard when you switch on the radio or TV, this is what you'll end up buying. How do you know anything else is out there? No, the blame should be placed at the door of the record companies who, in their all-knowing wisdom, have decided that we are not mature enough to handle music that lyrically and instrumentally pushes the envelope and deals with subjects other than "love" as defined by a 15 year old.

Let's face it, people in teen bands are in the band only because they want to be a star. Everything is directed towards that aim. Music does not remain an art form, but a commercial proposition, a product. Everything is about the "units you shift." There is no commitment here to experiment, to develop as an artist. As long as you realise that this is bubble gum, fluff to occupy an empty space, there is no danger. It's when twenty-somethings begin to actually believe the ideas communicated in the lyrics (My Heart Will Go On being one particularly loathsome example) that we have a problem, because that's entertainment and its not real, and should not be confused with reality.

In marketing terms, that's where the "Unique Selling Proposition" of this music lies… it communicates the 15 year old's idea of love. In our cloistered environment, how many of us are there who have had open, romantic relationships with members of the opposite gender? Not many. To most of us, the 15 year old's notions of love and romance still hold true simply because we have never experienced anything else and all that we ever knew about love we either learnt in the playground at school, or in Mills & Boons (has anyone noticed how the racy parts have gotten really cool over the past few years?) passed down from our predecessors. Having not learnt from their mistakes, we are probably condemned to repeat them. So we have local musicians who continue in the same rut, milking their success for all its monetary value (Vital Signs being one prime example), but who never express the anger, the frustration, the bitterness that is our everyday lot.

Where are our Sex Pistols? Where are our musical saviors?