Indie and Inul reign in 2003 music scene
Indie and Inul reign in 2003 music scene
Hera Diani, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
After a blah 2002, weighed down by a lack of creativity and
variety, the popular music scene yielded some refreshing
surprises in 2003, with indie acts coming into their own.
They were not groundbreaking in any sense, but the indie
artists gave some life to an otherwise dull scene dominated by
indistinguishable rip-off acts.
The burgeoning local indie rock music scene and its clout was
the subject of a one-page report in the Asian edition of Time
magazine.
One of the most popular names was Bandung-based band Mocca,
offering a cutesy-wutesy concept in their all-English debut album
My Diary, with swing and bossanova inflected soft pop, fairy
taleish lyrics and the breathy, girlie voice of the lead
vocalist.
Released by indie label Fast Forward Records (Ffwd), the album
sold 65,000 copies, remarkable for a debut album, which usually
sell from 10,000 to 30,000 copies at most, and even more
noteworthy because promotion was kept to a minimum.
The band's low-budget, montage-style video for its title track
also earned Video of the Year from MTV Indonesia.
Also notable was Lain band, whose Djakarta Goodbye had
initially been distributed in several record stores in Seattle,
when some band members were studying there.
Vocalist Zeke's Thom Yorke-ish crooning and their samples-
drenched music are intriguing, yet still far from being a blatant
rip-off despite the similarities to Radiohead.
With their own label called Our Coffee Records, Lain also
rocked MTV Indonesia with the innovative Train Song video, taking
the best director award from the 24-hour music channel.
Several other indie bands making a name for themselves in the
mainstream were The Milo, with moody and melancholy pop a la My
Bloody Valentine on Let Me Begin (M4AI); Seurieus band who mixes
rock with humor on the album Rocks Bang-Get (Geus Rieut); and
garage rock band The Brandals, whose singles have been enjoying
wide radio airplay.
The success was noted by major labels, which wasted no time in
signing them up or distributing their music.
Sony Music Entertainment Indonesia recruited Balinese punk
band Superman Is Dead (SID), as well as establishing PRS Records
to distribute albums from noted indie progressive rock bands like
Discus and In Memoriam.
Dubbed the next-big-thing but sounding like a bad Green Day
imitator, SID still managed to land high airplay and grab a
platinum award for selling over 150,000 copies of Kuta Rock City.
Aside from Sony, local record company Musica Studio earned
even more, with former indie band Peterpan selling more than
400,000 copies, thanks to the catchy pop/rock tunes of debut
album Taman Langit (Garden of Sky).
There is no disputing that indie rules, at least for now, but
other artists also made inroads.
Former jazz whizzkid Indra Lesmana put jazz back on the map,
with a swing and big band formatted soundtrack album for the
local romantic comedy Rumah Ketujuh (The Seventh House).
Comedy group Project Pop, meanwhile, received a warm reception
from critics and fans with their fourth album PopOK, particularly
its witty, clever and catchy hit single Dangdut is the Music of
My Country.
Asian hero Iwan Fals also scored with In Collaboration With..,
teaming with up-and-coming songwriters. Although the result does
not measure up to Iwan's previous works, sounding lame and sappy,
the album went triple platinum by selling over 450,000 copies.
Other standouts were Didiaho, a world-beat inflected album
from North Sumatran Viky Sianipar, pop singer Ari Lasso, who
showed progress on his second solo album Keseimbangan (Balance),
and newcomer Audy, whose light pop debut album 18 was
surprisingly enjoyable.
Dangdut, the popular local music that is a hybrid of Malay,
Arab and Indian influences, showed no sign of improvement in its
sound and sales (although it is the undisputed king of variety TV
show ratings), with the exception of singer Iyeth Bustami who
draws on the Malay Zapin beat.
But it did spawn the phenomenon that is Inul Daratisa, whose
gyrating "drill" dance angered religious groups and legendary
singer Rhoma Irama, but worked in her favor by making this small-
town-girl-made-good a popular hero. Her vocal range may not be
that outstanding, but her public appeal was unrelenting.
That was that: The rest of 2003's releases were nothing
special, paving the way for the ascension of the indie acts.
Some have put it down to market saturation, with record
companies unwilling to take risks and sticking to formulas for
success.
The push for the indies might also have to do with the efforts
of the record companies, looking for a money-spinner after the
three-year international sales slump.
The president director of Sony Music Entertainment Indonesia,
Jan Djuhana, said that total industry sales in 2003 dropped to
about 30 percent compared to last year.
Padi, a Sony client, conly achieve sales of over 600,000 with
their third album Save My Soul, a major disappointment
considering their previous albums always sold in excess of 1
million.
It may have something to do with the material, which is not as
catchy and unpretentious than its forerunners, and sounds too
much like Radiohead.
Jan blamed the worsening market condition, claiming that Padi
was still the number one seller in the market.
A worldwide blight on the industry, piracy is still a main
cause of the sales slump.
Last year's data shows piracy is 650 percent greater than the
legal sales of three million copies each month. Financial losses
caused by piracy to musicians and record companies is estimated
at Rp 11 trillion (US$1.375 billion) annually.
With piracy still pretty much unchecked, the local music
industry is facing a gloomy outlook for the year ahead, with Jan
predicting that sales would remain down.
If there is any increase, he added, it would only be around 10
percent the highest.
As they say, there is no business like show business, so
anything is possible. Hopefully, by some miracle, there will be a
revolution in creativity, which ultimately is needed to boost
sales.