Sufi rock puts Sufi poetry (from Rumi, Bulleh Shah, Amir Khusrau, Sultan Bahu, Waris Shah) on top of an electric-guitar-plus-bass-plus-drums rock band, sometimes with rabab and tabla added. It emerged from Pakistani rock as a distinct branch in the mid-1990s. The reference lineup is Junoon's Salman Ahmad on guitar, Ali Azmat on vocals and Brian O'Connell on bass; tempo 90-120 BPM, rock 4/4 base with occasional qawwali-derived ghazal meter and 6/8 dadra. Vocals favor a hoarse, powerful male tenor, sometimes joined by qawwali singers (Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Rahat Fateh Ali Khan) as guest voices.

Junoon's 1997 album Azadi carried 'Sayonee' — released as a single in 1996 — with a riff Salman Ahmad wrote around Bulleh Shah's 18th-century Punjabi poetry. The album sold over 100 million estimated units across South Asia. Junoon's May 1998 India tour — a week after both India and Pakistan tested nuclear weapons — cemented their identity as cross-border Sufi-rock diplomats. Salman Ahmad, a nephew of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan's musical circle, collaborated regularly with Rahat Fateh Ali Khan from 1996. Later Sufi-rock projects included Fuzon, Meekal Hasan Band and Alif; by the 2010s the label 'Sufi rock' had partly been absorbed into Coke Studio Pakistan's broader fusion format.

The 'Sayonee' riff (B minor pentatonic, 3-5-1-5-3) is descended from Punjabi folk 'Heer' phrasing. Ali Azmat's vocal blends Springsteen-style rock shouting with the alap-style declamation of qawwali. Once you hear that hybrid, it's the signature of the subgenre.

Junoon 'Sayonee' (1996) is essential. Then 'Bulleya' from the same album, and the 1997 album Azadi as a whole. For the format's later evolution, Sain Zahoor's 'Aik Alif' on Coke Studio Season 1 (2008).

Brian O'Connell, Junoon's bassist, is an American who met Salman Ahmad at SUNY Tarrytown, moved to Lahore, and eventually took Pakistani citizenship. Salman Ahmad serves as a UN goodwill ambassador for HIV/AIDS. Ali Azmat resumed touring with a reunited Junoon lineup for Coke Studio Season 8 in 2015.