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1970 - 2017

Oriental Star Agencies

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Art & Culture

Author:

Afzalkhan
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Mohammed Ayub founded the iconic record label Oriental Star Agencies in 1970 and it remained at the Balsall Heath sight until 2017. The record label brought the best of South Asia to the Western world, with artists such as Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, the Sabri Brothers, Bally Sagoo etc.

The label is also responsible for the introduction of the iconic Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan to Western audiences as his performance at the World of Music, Arts and Dance festival was facilitated by Muhammad Ayub. The influence of Nusrat's music is unparalleled to any South Asian musician in the Western world as he was one of the first and most important artists to popularize qawwali, then considered an "arcane religious tradition", to Western audiences.

It was the first record label of its kind in the Western world, also distributing vinyl and cassettes from Brazil to Japan. The label provided the sound of South Asia for the diaspora communities in the West and beyond so that they could retain a connection to their artistic and cultural heritage as many people who grew up in the 1970s and beyond speak fondly of the OSA tapes they bought and their parents played for them. Ayub is credited for keeping an entire generation of South Asians connected to their musical and artistic heritage as he says he is most proud of this accomplishment.

Ayub's influence is transcendent and continues today through the work of True Form Projects who have archived vinyls and cassettes from that era in order to pass them on to future generations so they can appreciate the immense effort put in by Mohammed Ayub and his team.

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Sources and Attribution

Oral history - Mohammed Ayub - https://asianyouthculture.co.uk/oral-histories/mohammed-ayub/

Archived vinyls of OSA - https://vinylarchive.trueformprojects.com/

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