The Origins Of Dangdut Music And The Notion Of “The People”
During the last few decades, Indonesia has faced complex and dynamic transformations in both the politics of governance and culture of its people. These radical shifts in leadership and economic policymaking of modern Indonesia has curiously contributed to the rise of the popular music scene in the country. Dangdut – a unique hybrid mixture of the Western, Indian, and Malay musical elements became popular throughout Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, and other Malay-speaking lands. Modified from the Malay Deli music in North Sumatera, Dangdut grew rapidly to other regions in Indonesia until it becomes the hallmark of Indonesian popular music scene.
In a seminal article about Dangdut, historian William Frederick stated that Dangdut represents a “sensitive and useful prism through which to view Indonesian society”. It becomes a way to show the society in which cultural and social groups they belong to. In this case, people who listened to Dangdut has always been associated as those who were in the lower strata of the economic and political structure in the country – it signifies the juxtaposition of class and gender that distinguishes Dangdut from other music genres in Indonesia.
Since the 1970s, the development of Dangdut has been influenced by the social, economic, and political conditions in Indonesia. Besides its role to unite the nation, Dangdut also brought controversies. Until the present day, Dangdut was often seen as a highly-sexualized entertainment since the original meanings and functions of Dangdut have been distorted.
The development of popular music in Indonesia began at the turn of the 20th century when Malay Orchestra played by itinerant troupes in the local theatres and transformed into Dangdut, a genre that became identified as the music of Indonesia. Dangdut itself was an encounter between the local musical creativity, Indian film songs, Western rock instruments, and touches of Malay musical elements. The early instruments in Dangdut consisted of Indian flutes, acoustic guitar, mandolin, tambourine, and most notably – the Indian tabla drum that expressed onomatopoetically as “Dang-Dhut“. The Western instruments such as electric guitars, pianos, and organs soon complemented the early instruments – this is where the acculturation process thus becomes very significant and yielded a distinctly Indonesian form of music. In the 1970s, the notion of Dangdut emerged as the music of “the people. ” It has been constructed as the reflection of the Indonesians, in contrast to other genres which do not have any historical or cultural roots. Rhoma Irama, a musician who was in large part responsible for the development of Dangdut in Indonesia, stated that “Dangdut has become popular because it was associated with the soul of indigenous people”. The lyrics deal with the everyday realities and struggles of “the people” – representing their feelings, tastes, and aspirations.
However, people who listened to Dangdut became continually associated with the lower classes who were economically unprivileged and often suffering from the injustice that was caused by the rich and powerful. This notion of Dangdut as the music of “the people” – in this case, the lower classes – became a persistence theme ever since, in which the middle classes and elites often regarded Dangdut as cheap and backward.
The Historical and Cultural Conditions in Indonesia Since the 1970s, Rhoma Irama used Dangdut to shape the people’s attitude by addressing social and political issues such as human rights, government corruption, poverty, and class inequality. He constructed Dangdut to be music that is not only to entertain, but also to motivate and educate people. For example, the song “Hak Asasi” (Human Rights) exposes the social problems that happened during the New Order regime, and “Bujangan” (Bachelorhood) states the virtues of being a bachelor until it suggests that it is better to be married. When the monetary crisis happened in Indonesia in the late 1990s, the lifestyle of the people has changed and affected the development of Dangdut. People got bored with the original Dangdut – they wanted an exciting yet cheap entertainment that can be reached by the lower classes. Therefore, a new sub-genre of Dangdut emerged and brought controversies because of the practices that were contradicting to the genre’s inception. The lyrics were diverted, the performance became more vulgar and led to the sexual objectification. However, this new sub-genre instead has developed rapidly among the mass majority of the Indonesians. The practices of Dangdut was quickly widespread; it became a tool for the political campaign, inserted in the military celebrations, as well as the state’s events.
In these past few years, the Indonesian government has also initiated an effort to bring Dangdut to the world music industry through Badan Ekonomi Kreatif (Bekraf) Indonesia. Dangdut was considered to have the potentials to attract the International markets, thus it will be featured in some of the major festivals such as South by Southwest (SXSW) in the United States and the Europalia Arts Festival in the Netherlands.
Cultural Narratives in Dangdut Music
The value of narratives in cultural understanding is widely recognized. The importance of narrative is apparent in varieties of everyday storytelling to provide a partial list indicative of the range and help to produce meanings over something. Even though the narrative approach has rarely been applied to the study of popular music, the application of narrative theory to popular music is essential as narratives make connections between events and thus allow people to give meanings into a particular subject.
Dangdut has the narrative aspects as the songs themselves constitute stories. In the historical transition from Malay Orchestra to Dangdut, Indonesian composers changed the texts composed in four-line verses called “pantun” that based on metaphor into a narrative style that were common in Indian film songs. They began adopting the cinematic quality of Indian film music to create some characters and situations in songs, as well as visualized themselves in these songs.
Along with its development, people speak about multiple narrative conventions regarding how the changing context of Dangdut shapes their perception of the music. These narratives range from personal memories, like experiences with particular songs, into practical practices and widely shared cultural narratives.
