Since the 1980s, Afghanistan has been involved in near constant violence. As such, music has been suppressed and recording for outsiders minimal. During the 1990s, the Taliban government banned instrumental music and much public music-making. In spite of arrests and destruction of musical instruments, Afghan musicians have continued to ply their trade into the present. The capital of Kabul has long been the regional cultural capital, but outsiders have tended to focus on the city of Herat, which is more closely related to Iranian music. Lyrics across the country are typically in Persian or Pashto.
The classical musical form of Afghanistan is called klasik, which includes both instrumental (ragas, naghmehs) and vocal forms (ghazals). Many ustad, or professional musicians, are descended from Indian artists who emigrated to the royal court in Kabul in the 1860s. These ustad use Hindustani terminology and structures. Afghan ragas, in contrast to Indian ones, tend to be more focused on rhythm, and are usually played with the zirbaghali, daireh or dohol, all percussive instruments. The rubab is a common lute-like instrument in Afghanistan, and is the forerunner of the Indian sarod. The rubab is sometimes considered the national instrument of Afghanistan, and is popular elsewhere; one reviewers claims it sounds like "a Middle Eastern predecessor to the blues that popped up in the Piedmont 100 years ago"  Other Afghan instruments include dutar, sorna, sitar, dilruba, tambur and ghichak.
Afghan popular music arose in the 1950s when radio broadcasting became commonplace in the country. Ahmad Zahir, Parwin, Biltun and Mahwash, especially the latter's "O Bacheh", were important early pop musicians.
Afghan folk music is traditionally played at weddings and other celebrations, and is rare for mourning. Wedding parties are usually segregated. Men are usually entertained by a male singer with a dhol or tabla drum, while accompaniment was typically a rubab or tanbur. Women usually sing and dance all night, but mostly to male entertainers as the profession is considered dishonorable for a woman. At home, women often play the daireh, a drum which is supposedly sanctioned by the Koran.
A traveling people known as Jat (related to Gypsies) sell instruments door-to-door and play their own variety of folk music, using a shawm and dohol, which are considered untouchable by non-Jats. The Jats frequently play for weddings, circumcisions and other celebrations as well.
Famous rubab players
                Mohammad Omar
                Essa Kassemi
                Mohammed Rahim Khushnawaz
 

Attan One of the great delights of Afghans, both male and female is to dance the Attan. From ten to twenty men or women stand in a circle. One or two persons stand within the circle and sing or play on the instrument. When the beginning of the dance is announced by drums (dhols), the dancers more and begins circling the group of drummers. Speed builds up gradually, and a stage comes sounds of the instruments merge into one fiery mass of sound and movement. The dancers go trough a member of attitudes and figures, sometimes singing sometimes shouting, while at other times clapping their hands and snapping their fingers. Every now and then they join hands and more slowly and then fast, forward and backward, sometimes making a full circle round one leg according to the music and all joining in chorus. The wave of excitement passes from dancers to the drummers and also to the spectators, who more often than not join in the dancing. The dance gradually gathers speed and after reaching the climax it comes to a sudden stop with a thud.
The dancers often carry handkerchiefs in their hands .Quick spinning and whirling movements of the body are generally involved, though in some tribes the movement of the head is more prominent that the movement of the hands and the body.

Qarsak

Huma qarsak bezanim lab labe darya berawim
Soye panjsher humagi ba saile gulha berawim

Tamaashaye rukhat dil ra kunad shaad
Bowad aanja makaane nek o bonyaad
Sari chat taa ba bazaare dil angez
Tabiyat baa chi zawqe gashta abaad
Huma qarsak bezanim lab labe darya berawim
Soye panjsher humagi ba saile gulha berawim

Ba Panjsher raftan az qaam warzidan
Mutayem az bazaaresh kharidan
Zyarat kardan borim Khwaja Safa farz
Ze baghestan bozjghor mewa chindaan

Huma qarsak bezanim lab labe darya berawim
Soye panjsher humagi ba saile gulha berawim