Opinion Piece

Has Indonesian music industry downslope?
Agung Rino Prasetyo
Wednesday, 2 September 2009

There are many discussions about Indonesia music not meeting the quality standard of that 10 years ago. The style of music has become mainstream towards pop. New bands are rising and taking control of the music charts with mediocre quality music and lyrics. The ‘old’ bands that were used to rule the charts are slowly fading. There are still a few left coming with new albums annualy.
Ipang, one of Indonesia’s best rock singer was interviewed by Rolling Stones Magazine Indonesia. The interview talked about why he has not released a new album for several years. Ipang stated that he wanted to challenge a new area and that is filling for film soundtracks.

Since the end of 2007, new bands are emerging from many record companies. They represent the mainstream pop music. The sales of music albums has decrased over the last decade, it has kept decreasing by a huge number. In 1997 it was selling 55 million copies, 2002 50 million copies, and by 2007 it was only selling 34 million copies.

The lack of respect for musicians has been a problem since the pop era. Many Indonesian youth are still tied up in the ‘Rock N Roll’ way of life. In many offices, people are listening to this mainstream music. The record companies promotes their bands in a very aggresive method. The media is playing an important role in this promotion, as radio, television, internet, and magazines carry the content of the music. Indonesians are surprised by the rise of mellow pop music, and it triggers the confusion of the new era.

New artists such as Afgan, has been thriving to success with the love lyrics and mellow rhythm. Many radio stations play hit songs over and over again every day. The number of people requesting for a particular popular song is also increasing. Radio air time should be limited for a song that has been in the chart for two weeks.

The radio companies are relying on commercials for revenue. Some radio stations are pulling away from the mainstream market. The changes need to be made soon or the industry will fall deeper. Indonesian music does not attract the interest of western countries, yet so many western bands are being idolized. Some singers are leaving their idealism to chase the market.

Many bands use the famous artist’s name in front of the bands (Andra and The Backbone, Steven and The coconut Trees, and Yovie and The Nuno). This view has been seen by many people as a way to sell. Not all of the recent bands use this format; there is Jagostu, with Erros from Sheila On 7 working as a side project.
The government should make broadcasting regulations that will increase the level of music quality. This will help young generation to be able to appreciate music. There should be a lesson on the history of music in school as well. The more people that understand music the better and starting from a young age is even better. There’s many comment about how the bands are progressing, and some of these comments are way out of line. The study of music will improve the quality of the industry itself.

Government regulations will not work because there’s a chance that the extra money might decrease. Indonesia has too many bureaucracies that need to be controlled. Education would seem to be incompetent because it would add more expenses. The current education ministry has got many programs running and is not doing very well. Minimum of nine years of study was implemented by the government from some time ago, but the result was not acceptable.