In today’s fast-paced world, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is transforming almost every field, including music. The growing use of AI-generated music raises concerns about the preservation of traditional cultural music and, with it, our cultural identity.
Balochi music carries our traditions, stories, emotions and history. Instruments such as the dhol, dambora, sadood, benjo and tamburag, along with folk musicians such as Ustaad Noor Bakhsh, are part of our heritage. Ustaad Noor Bakhsh, particularly renowned for playing the Balochi banjo, is a celebrated musician from the Makran coast of Balochistan. Other traditional instruments, including the rabab and tamburag, have also carried Balochi music to wider audiences.
Traditional Balochi music is part of our identity and history. If we replace these songs and musicians with AI-generated music, we risk losing more than music; we risk losing a part of ourselves. Our traditional musicians, instruments, and cultural roots deserve to be respected, protected, and passed on to future generations.
The tamburag, in particular, has long been a voice for the people. In parts of Balochistan where writing and books were once limited, music helped preserve stories and emotions. Famous singers and poets used the tamburag to perform Zahirok, Nazenk, and epic stories such as Hani and Sheh Mureed. This is why people say the tamburag has carried generations of pain.
The voices of Balochi singers carry the echoes of our deserts and mountains. When I hear authentic traditional songs, I feel the heartbeat of who we are. AI may be able to reproduce rhythms, but it cannot replace the lived experience, emotion, and cultural memory behind them.
We must not allow technology to push our real artists aside. AI can imitate a rhythm, but it cannot feel the history behind a song. A tamburag learned from a grandfather carries something that an AI-generated composition cannot.
Support our local artists and communities. Protect our traditional instruments. Most importantly, keep our true music alive.
SAMEERA SHABEER,
Turbat.
