"Qataghan"(also spelled Kataghan or Katagan) refers to both a tribe of people and the geographic place in which they settled. First, Qataghan are a Mongol tribe who came to Central Asia during the early Mongolian Empire (c. 1220). They settled in parts of present-day southern Tajikistan, southern Uzbekistan, and northern Afghanistan, and still make up a significant part of the population in these areas today. In Afghanistan, Qataghan was once a single province in the north of the country that was made up of the present-day Badakshan, Baghlan, Kunduz, and Takhar provinces. Qataghan is populated by a diversity of ethnic groups, Tajiks and Uzbeks especially, and as a result, Qataghani music shares attributes of both of these culture's music styles.

Qataghani music is most commonly associated with a style of upbeat dance, and can include instruments such as the dambura, a fretless two-stringed lute, ghichek, a bowed spike fiddle, daf, a frame drum, or zerbaghali, a goblet-shaped drum. These songs are referred to simply as "qataghani", which is also the name of the characteristic drumming pattern that accompanies the music. Falak, meaning "sky", is another important regional style of music played in Qataghan and areas of Badakhshan. Falak can also mean "verse" in a general sense, and such poetry is often connected to feelings of sadness or the pain of loss and separation.