Music magazines: Coming up short with local readers

Hera Diani , The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

At a bookstore in Kemang, South Jakarta, Pri searched for a copy of Rolling Stone music magazine, the so-called "immortal" edition about 50 legendary musicians.

Describing the edition as a must-have item for him as a music fan, he said he often bought the magazine for its great content.

"The writing is excellent, funny, often sarcastic but analytical and critical," said the 30-year-old PR company worker.

"It's something I've never found in local magazine."

While Americans browse through Rolling Stone, Spin or Maxim Blender, and British music aficionados scan-read Q magazine and nme tabloid, Indonesians have to keep up with a merry-go-round of poor quality music magazines folding after a splashy debut.

Music publications, including Newsmusik magazine, Mumu tabloid and Tabloid Rock, were shortlived, suffering from poor music knowledge, a lack of basic journalism and from being slanted to the editors' personal tastes.

Left on newsstands now are teenage magazines with little music coverage compared to fashion and lifestyle articles. The few music pieces are cute, funky and superficial.

Several publications -- like MTV Trax, Popcity, Poster and Hai -- try to give more extensive and deeper music coverage, but the scope of knowledge and writing quality are still spotty.

Reviews do not provide critical feedback for musicians, but merely consist of a synopsis and background information, written seemingly in a reciprocal relationship with record companies and promoters.

Even the music section of the country's largest daily, Kompas, mostly conforms to the formulaic review.

The current state of music publications is particularly disappointing because there was once an excellent music magazine, Aktuil, first published in 1967.

Based in the music hub of Bandung, West Java, it presented not only music news and features, but also analytical pieces on pop culture, both local and international.

Backed by noted figures in the music and literature scenes, like novelist Remy Silado and the late talent scout Denny Sabri Gandanegara, the magazine never failed to come up with new and daring ideas.

Remy's articles inspired a number of musicians to fight against capitalism and the mainstream, and his provocative poems served as the young writers' credo in the 1970s, criticizing the established literature scene dominated by the Jakarta-based literati.

Aktuil reached its pinnacle in 1975 when it succeeded in bringing rock group Deep Purple to perform here.

It was downhill from there: Plagued by internal conflicts, mismanagement and aging editors stuck in a rut, Aktuil closed in 1986.

No serious contender has emerged to take its place.

Akmal Basral, former chief editor of MTV Trax, said the potential market for music publication was high, because almost everyone was interested in the subject.

"The content is one thing and marketing is another. The problem is that local publications fail to come up with strong format and content," he said.

Although there was a lack of competition at the time, Aktuil was a huge success because the people behind it had strong knowledge of music, becoming pioneers in their respective fields.

"Now, editors often lack even the basic technical terms. Song titles, for instance, are often written incorrectly. Readers are often smarter, so no wonder they no longer trust the publications," said Akmal.

Some music aficionados have taken to publishing their own independent media, such as Ripple and Trolley. Of course, the publications are inevitably segmented and lack a marketing strategy.

The Internet changes everything, Akmal added, so that unless editors can come up with focused and new angles of writing, people would turn to website sources.

Akmal faced the problem of finding good human resources when he landed the position at the MTV Trax in 2002. "We then picked people with a deep musical background rather than journalists."

Feeling "too old and not crazy enough", Akmal was replaced by Hagi Hagoromo, former editor at celebrity tabloid Bintang Milenia.

There has been some improvement in the magazine since, with better reviews and coverage of the indie scene. Still, the superficiality remains, and at times it often comes across as pretentious and sensational, trying too hard to be cutting edge.

Hagi said it was difficult to juggle the idealism of presenting quality music content with finding advertisements to support operations.

"Advertisers want the hard sell, while the competition with other magazines is stiff," he said, adding its 30,000 circulation was quite good for a new publication.

He admitted that human resources were still a problem, even though there were many people with music knowledge and the abundant sources to be found on the Internet.

"But those who have references and can funnel the ideas and concepts through their writing are still few."

Experienced freelance music journalist Denny Sakrie said music reporters often lacked a love for music and merely entered the field to earn a living.

"Some are real journalists, but they were transferred from other desks so they have no knowledge. All they do then is just rewrite the press release," he said.

It comes down to a lack of a good grounding in music and the appreciation of musical knowledge as consisting of more than knowing the current Top 10.

It inevitably affects the quality of the music scene because of the lack of real critics.

"It results in half-baked musicians, and copycat acts in the music industry. Songs now sound the same because of that, and because there is no constructive criticism from music critics," Denny said.

Is there still hope for the appearance of a quality music publication?

Both Denny and Akmal believe there is, as long as there are efforts to improve the quality of human resources.

"Local publications have yet to dare to innovate. Music coverage and angles are still standard, as reviews or profiles. The entry point can be music, but it can be so wide," Akmal said, referring to U.S. magazine Maxim Blender that consistently comes up with good human interest stories about musicians, and provides interactive columns with readers.

"On the level of managing editors and above, they are still unable to catch up with the fast lane of fashion and trends."

There is a long-standing rumor about a local investor looking to secure the franchise license for Rolling Stone. With what they would have to work with, it's little wonder the rumor has come to nothing.