Pop music
The expression "pop music" comes from the English word "popular". I respectfully submit that the assertion made by Mr. Alwasilah in the Sunday (April 4) edition of The Jakarta Post: Reforming music education in Indonesia, that Indonesia's youth is familiar with certain foreign musicians because of "bombardment by music programs from overseas" ignores the fact that there are many sociological and musical reasons why certain pieces of music become popular.
Most international pop hits have very sound musical qualities such as intonation (being "in tune"), unity of rhythm and of originality in melody, lyrics and accompaniment. Further, the rhythm grips young people with its sensuality. In other words, there is no international conspiracy keeping certain kinds of music in front of the public. Citizens of certain European countries are bombarded with classical music and opera, yet the youth still give it a rather low amount of attention, compared to "pop".
Mr. Alwasilah's complaint in his interesting article is typical of that of academic people and "serious" music devotees (like me) in the U.S., who are not happy that our own classical music, jazz, is not popular in the U.S. (except for, to a lesser extent, the watered-down "cool jazz"), and that European classical music is not popular. U.S. children are exposed to jazz and classical music, but only a small percentage of them, generally coming from the more intelligent part of the population, listen to it. The U.S. academics are not proud of American popular music, and are no more happy than Mr. Alwasilah seems to be about the music that children choose to listen to.
Even if Indonesia decides to spend billions of rupiah on educating its youth in traditional Indonesian music, I wouldn't expect to see groups of teenagers sitting around in gamelans on a Friday night. Just as jazz is listened to much more frequently in Europe than in the U.S., gamelan music will be much more respected by contemporary international composers like Steve Reich and Phillip Glass than by young Indonesian musicians. And gamelan performances will be attended by more middle-aged Western tourists in Bali than by young adults in Jakarta. That is just the way the world works, and those of us who consider ourselves to be "high brow" should learn to "deal with it".
I wonder if a good approach to teaching musical concepts in the U.S. or Indonesia would be to start by using the music that young people like, which, after all, is very simple, and, therefore, well suited to analysis by beginners. Once young people understand the theory behind the music they listen to, they will be better equipped to appreciate more ephemeral types of music. When Mozart's music was first played in the drawing rooms of Vienna, it was new and popular music, and the musicians were considered to be rather low class and entered the house by the kitchen door. "Popular" does not necessarily mean that it is without value.
JAMES C. SCHNEIDER
Jakarta