The music of Pakistan includes diverse elements ranging from music from various parts of South Asia as well as Central Asian, Persian, Turkish, Arabic and modern day Western popular music influences. With these multiple influences, a distinctive Pakistani sound has been formed.

In poetry, the ghazal (Persian: غزل‎; Turkish: gazel) is a poetic form consisting of couplets which share a rhyme and a refrain. Each line must share the same meter. Etymologically, the word literally refers to "the mortal cry of a gazelle". The animal is called Ghizaal, from which the English word gazelles stems, or Kastori haran (where haran refers to deer) in Urdu. Ghazals are traditionally expressions of love, separation and loneliness, for which the gazelle is an appropriate image. A ghazal can thus be understood as a poetic expression of both the pain of loss or separation of the lover and the beauty of love in spite of that pain. The form is ancient, originating in 10th century Persian verse. It is derived from the Persian qasida. The structural requirements of the ghazal are more stringent than those of most poetic forms traditionally written in English. In its style and content it is a genre which has proved capable of an extraordinary variety of expression around its central theme of love and separation. It is considered by many to be one of the principal poetic forms the Persian civilization offered to the eastern Islamic world.

Pakistan (ⁱ/ˈpækɨstæn/ or ⁱ/pɑːkiˈstɑːn/; Urdu: پاکستان) (Urdu pronunciation: [paːkɪˈst̪aːn] ( listen)), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan (Urdu: اسلامی جمہوریۂ پاکستان), is a sovereign country in South Asia. It sits at the crossroads of the strategically important regions of South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. It has a 1,046-kilometre (650 mi) coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by India to the east, Afghanistan to the west and north, Iran to the southwest and China in the far northeast. It is separated from Tajikistan by Afghanistan's narrow Wakhan Corridor in the north, and it shares a marine border with Oman.

The territory of modern Pakistan was the site of several ancient cultures, including the Neolithic Mehrgarh and the Bronze Age Indus Valley Civilisation, and has undergone invasions or settlements by Hindu, Persian, Indo-Greek, Islamic, Turco-Mongol, Afghan and Sikh cultures. Thus the area has been ruled by numerous empires and dynasties, including the Indian Mauryan Empire, the Persian Achaemenid Empire, the Arab Umayyad Caliphate, the Mongol Empire, the Mughal Empire, the Durrani Empire, the Sikh Empire and the British Empire. As a result of the Pakistan Movement led by Muhammad Ali Jinnah and India's struggle for independence, Pakistan was created in 1947 as an independent nation for Muslims from the regions in the east and west of India where there was a Muslim majority. Initially a dominion, Pakistan adopted a new constitution in 1956, becoming an Islamic republic. A civil war in 1971 resulted in the secession of East Pakistan as the new country of Bangladesh.

Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan (Punjabi: نصرت فتح علی خان (Shahmukhī)) (October 13, 1948 – August 16, 1997), a world-renowned Pakistani musician, was primarily a singer of Qawwali, the devotional music of the Sufis (a mystical tradition within Islam). Considered one of the greatest singers ever recorded, he possessed a six-octave vocal range^{[citation needed]} and could perform at a high level of intensity for several hours. Extending the 600-year old Qawwali tradition of his family, Khan is widely credited with introducing Sufi music to international audiences. He was popularly known as "Shahenshah-e-Qawwali", meaning "The King of Kings of Qawwali".

Born in Faisalabad, Pakistan, Khan had his first public performance at age of 16, at his father's chelum. He officially became the head of the family qawwali party in 1971, and was signed by Oriental Star Agencies (OSA), Birmingham, U.K., in the early 1980s. In subsequent years, Khan released movie scores and albums for various labels in Pakistan, Europe, Japan and the U.S. He engaged in collaborations and experiments with Western artists, becoming a well-known world music artist in the process. He toured extensively, performing in over 40 countries.

Arif Lohar (Punjabi, Urdu: عارف لوہار) (born 1966) is a Punjabi folk singer. He usually sings with native musical instrument resembling tongs (called a 'chimta'). His folk music is representative of traditional folk heritage of the Punjab. He is the son of folk singer Alam Lohar.

Born in a small village called Aach Goch in Gujrat District, Punjab, Pakistan, arif Lohar started singing to explore the folk singing of Punjab, and to keep the tradition of his father alive.

In 2005, he was awarded Pride of Performance Award from Government of Pakistan-the highest civil award in Pakistan. Son of Alam Lohar (another icon of Punjabi music) he started his singing career at an early age. To-date he has more than 150 albums to his credit and has recorded more than 3000 mostly Punjabi language songs. He is without doubt the number one living Punjabi Folk Singer in Pakistan. Worldwide he is among the Top Five Punjabi Folk and Pop Singers. In 2006 he made headlines in the Punjabi music world by his super hit album '21st Century Jugni', music produced, arranged and mastered by Mukhtar Sahota in Wolverhampton, UK, and was released by Internalmusic UK. Recently in June 2010 COKE STUDIO released his album Jugni COKE STUDIO which became a smash hit in Pakistan and over the Punjabi music world. Arif Lohar has made more than 50 foreign tours around the world during the last 20 years including UK, US and UAE. Further to this he is the only south Asian artist to perform in North Korea as part of a international delegation of peace and goodwill, performing in front of the present president.

Sanam Marvi (Urdu: صنم ماروی) (born 1986) is a Sindhi folk and sufi singer. She sings in Urdu, Sindhi and Saraiki languages.

Sanam Marvi was born in Hyderabad, Sindh, Pakistan in a Sindhi family. Her father's name is Faqeer Ghulam Rasool, a sufi singer. She had eight siblings. She started training at the age of seven and used to accompany her father to his performances at various shrines of sufis in Pakistan, including Sindh and Punjab. She later trained under Ustad Fateh Ali Khan of Gwalior gharana.

Sanam Marvi debuted at ‘Virsa Heritage’, a programme on PTV. She became popular after her performance at Coke Studio, a Pakistani television series featuring live music performances. She has since appeared in two seasons of the Coke studio.

She perform sufi concerts around the world. She is among the finest performers in the Sufi, ghazal and folk genres She sings compositions of Allama Iqbal, Baba Bulleh Shah, Baba Sheikh Farid, Alam Lohar, Sachal Sarmast, the Sufi mystic from Sindh, Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai.