Modern ghazal (or 'popular ghazal') is the 1970s-80s wave in which Mehdi Hassan (Pakistan), Ghulam Ali (Pakistan) and Jagjit Singh (India) translated the older classical ghazal (Begum Akhtar's thumri-adjacent tradition) into a cassette-ready 3-5 minute format. Instrumentation stayed traditional — harmonium, tabla, sarangi, occasionally santoor and flute — but the singer's personality moved to the front, and long alap introductions were shortened. Lyrics come from the Urdu classical canon (Mir Taqi Mir, Ghalib, Faiz Ahmed Faiz) and 20th-century poets (Ahmad Faraz, Nasir Kazmi, Kaifi Azmi).

Mehdi Hassan (1927-2012, born in Rajasthan, migrated to Pakistan at Partition) established the reference style. His 1976 'Ranjish Hi Sahi' on Ahmad Faraz's poetry has been the vocal-teaching template ever since. Ghulam Ali (1940-, Lahore, Patiala Gharana) followed with 'Chupke Chupke' (1980). Jagjit Singh (1941-2011, from Jalandhar) built the Indian side with 1976's The Unforgettables (with wife Chitra Singh), and later moved into 1980s Doordarshan TV and Bollywood soundtracks (Arth 1983, Saath Saath 1982). The cassette era of the 1980s carried these recordings into households across the region. Farida Khanum (1935-, Amritsar-born) ran parallel to them, with 'Aaj Jaane Ki Zid Na Karo' as her signature.

Mehdi Hassan spends the first minute in unmetered alap on the opening line, decorating it repeatedly before the tabla enters in Dadra (6/8). That structural choice — long alap, short body — defined the modern-ghazal template. Ghulam Ali specialises in meend, the microtonal slides between notes, especially on the second-line high point of a couplet. Jagjit Singh went in the opposite direction, favoring clean diction so the poem's meaning stayed foregrounded.

Mehdi Hassan 'Ranjish Hi Sahi' (1976), Ghulam Ali 'Chupke Chupke' (1980), Jagjit Singh 'Tum Itna Jo Muskura Rahe Ho' (1990), Farida Khanum 'Aaj Jaane Ki Zid Na Karo' (1973).

Jagjit Singh lost his only son Vivek in a road accident in 1990; his wife Chitra Singh effectively retired from music after. Mehdi Hassan died in Karachi in June 2012 after years of declining health. Ghulam Ali's Mumbai concerts have repeatedly been cancelled by the Shiv Sena party during periods of India-Pakistan tension — most recently in 2015.