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Abstract
This essay is an ideological critique of popular print media about dangdut, a genre of Indonesian popular music. The audience for dangdut has been imagined, represented, and mobilized in various ways to support the ideological interests of commercial, government, and critical institutions. In popular print publications, representations of dangdut as the music of ‘the people’ (rakyat)—the majority of society—have been produced with great frequency and in a variety of popular print media. I describe the ways in which popular print media ‘speaks for’ people, and the relations of power that define those discourses. Using an historical approach, I construct an interpretation of these representational practices, taking into account shifts in the social meaning and function of dangdut's audience. Formerly associated with the disenfranchised and depoliticized underclass, the music was marketed to appeal to middle class and elite audiences in the 1980s. While dangdut's audience has certainly grown, dangdut has not been thoroughly incorporated into the national culture of Indonesia, as claimed by government and military officials in popular print media. By taking this approach, I seek to provide a critical understanding of Indonesian media and its construction of popular music audiences within the changing social and historical conditions of modern Indonesia.
Acknowledgments
For comments on earlier drafts I am grateful to Richard Fox, Andreas Harsono, Mark Hobart, Philip Kitley, Jennifer Lindsay, Goenawan Mohamad, R. Anderson Sutton and Philip Yampolsky. Due to space limitations, I was not able to include the original Indonesian-language quotes, but I would be happy to send them to anyone who is interested ([email protected]).
Notes
1. A ‘kampung’ is a cramped neighborhood that can be located in either a village, town, or city. However, ‘kampungan’ does not simply describe a person's living space, but it connotes inferiority, backwardness, nonrefinement, lack of formal education, and a low position in a hierarchical ordering of social classes.
2. This essay is part of a larger research project I am conducting on the social and musical history of dangdut in Indonesia. The number of English-language scholarly articles, theses and dissertations, and working papers about the genre is surprisingly low, scattered across the disciplines of history (Frederick, 1982), music (Hatch, 1985; Yampolsky, 1991), anthropology (Simatupang, 1996; Wallach, 2002) and Asian studies (Pioquinto, 1995 and 1998; Sen and Hill, 2000; Browne, 2000).
3. Both polls excluded Global TV, which broadcasts numerous music programs (including MTV Asia) that are not specific to genre, as well as the dangdut program Salam Dangdut. I conducted the first informal poll based on the weekly schedule, 5–11 June 2006. The second poll was reported in Agus Irkham (Citation2005).
4. My findings are based on a review of over 400 articles about dangdut, representing 45 different publications, written between 1972 and 2006.
5. During the revolutionary period (1945–1949), the rakyat referred to the followers of a leader, in this case, Sukarno, who was the voice of the people (literally an ‘extension of the tongue of the people’, ‘penyambung lidah rakyat Indonesia’) (Anderson, Citation1990, p. 62). According to James Siegel, the rakyat ceased to exist in the New Order because Suharto did not speak for or to them (Siegel, Citation1998, p. 4). Nevertheless, popular understandings of the rakyat still exist as ‘the innocent, morally superior, economically unprivileged but politically sovereign figures who often suffer from injustice inflicted by the rich and powerful’ (Heryanto, Citation1999, p. 162).
6. Sociologists prefer the plural form ‘middle classes’ in order to reflect the different and contradictory elements that constitute members of this socioeconomic grouping (see Dick, Citation1985; Gerke, Citation2000; Heryanto, Citation1999, Citation2003; Lev, Citation1990; Robison, Citation1996).
7. In a classic formulation, Raymond Williams (Citation1961) writes that there are no masses, only ways of seeing people as masses (p. 289).
8. Its ‘nasal, ornamented vocal style, the proletarian character of its mass audience, and its association with sinful and otherwise disreputable activities’ suggest comparisons with Algerian rai and Turkish Arabesque (Wallach, Citation2002). Other elements of these comparisons include hybrid musical style, Islamic associations, and primarily male fan base in live concert settings.
9. Gender in dangdut has been discussed in Pioquinto (Citation1995); Browne (Citation2000); and Wallach (Citation2002).
10. The origin of the term ‘dangdut’ is discussed further in the following section.
11. See Pioquinto (Citation1998) for a good discussion of the rock-irama melayu conflict and the cultural politics of labeling genres (pp. 79–84).
12. Managing editor Remy Sylado claimed that the word ‘dangdut’ first appeared in print in Aktuil in 1972 (Pioquinto, Citation1998, p. 77). But, after reviewing all of the issues for that year, I was not able to find the citation. The first written reference that I have found is in ‘Dunia Ellya Khadam’ (Citation1972, p. 36). It was around this time that rock musician Benny Subardja, a member of the band Giant Step, characterized dangdut as ‘musik tai anjing’ (‘dog shit music’; Frederick, Citation1982, pp. 60, 124).
13. An example of cengeng lyrics in a dangdut song is ‘Bunuh aku dengan cintamu’ (‘Kill me with your love’). ‘Porno’ lyrics can be seen in songs including ‘Salome’, ‘Judul-Judulan’, and ‘Minta Ajimat’. Lyrics for the latter are: ‘I'm bored/singing in the bathroom/grinning/grimacing alone, laughing alone, ejaculating alone’ (‘Bosan-bosan begini/Nyanyi di kamar mandi/Meringis sendiri, tertawa sendiri, keluar sendiri’).
14. Dangdut had played a role in elections since at least 1977, when artists were involved in government campaigning. I would like to thank Philip Kitley for alerting me to a newspaper photo with the caption ‘Artists from the kampung’ showing media personalities H. Oma Irama (Rhoma Irama), Harry Roesli, Benyamin, Iskak, Kris Biantoro, and Ateng (Kompas, 1977, 7 April, p. 1). Both Golkar and the PPP used dangdut to mobilize the populace in various election campaigns in 1982 (Frederick, Citation1982).