Music in Indonesia Research Paper

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Considering the famous composers in Indonesia, there are several musicians and writers who developed the music and updated. For example, Lou Harrison's who is a well-known American composer who revealed in a mixture of an ‘exotic' sound with the most traditional classical sound world and inspires a feeling of vibrancy and interplay between cultures. In his work of art for ‘Piano and Javanese gamelan', he re-tuned the piano to the intonation or pitch of the gamelan, creating an eerie and alien effect. He was exclusively inspired by the "untempered" scale which came from the natural harmonic overtones that every sound has but was mainly present in metallic sounds played by gamelan instruments. This was a big contrast to the "tempered" western scale which he and most of the people are used to. In this way, he invented the music and developed the foundations of music itself. Moreover, there are other famous composers in Indonesia, such as R.L. Martopangrawit and Sukerta. In Indonesia, there are two Music institutes for teaching music which is the “ISI-Institute Seni Indonesia-the Institute of Performing Art in Yogyakarta” and “the STSI-Sekolah Tinggo Seni Indonesia-the Academy of Performing Arts in Solo.”

In addition to Gamelan music, there is other famous traditional music which is Dangdut music. Dangdut music is the second most popular music in Indonesia and widely used in political campaigns. Only Dangdut music combines the traditional Indonesian instruments with the foreign one as western and Mediterranean instruments. They are combined in an inspiring and unique way. The traditional instruments are of three types: gamelan instruments, the ones used to play gamelan music, the traditional "seruling" the flute, and the "gendang" drums from the island of Java. For the western music instruments, they are used for a large scale and used in all dangdut music productions. Such as electric guitars and base, full western drum sets, organs. Other instruments as accordions, violins, and tambourine which are a Mediterranean instrument are in certain types of Dangdut scales used. Some professional players switch between the two different instruments traditional and western ones and vice versa live on stage smoothly to inspire the audience. This combination and switch between instruments back and forth are difficult, but the musicians perform and play in a professional way, making the impossible possible to play the coolest and energetic music in Indonesia. Thus, this coolest and energetic Dangdut music is used in political campaigns to energize the people. There are several Dangdut styles, the main eight styles are Dangdut that originated from Java Island, Dangdut Koplo that originated from east Java Island, Dangdut Sunda that originated from Sunda in Indonesia, Dangdut Rock was influenced by Rock style, Dangdut Pop style, Dangdut Disco style, Dangdut Jaipong which is the most traditional Dangdut style, and finally Dangdut style that mix the studio and computer edit with special effects.

The Dangdut performers are hyper, crazy, energetic, and professional dancers. They are the well-known artist in Indonesia and other countries. Not only do they play music, they perform extraordinary shows that other music styles miss. One of the greatest stars is Rhoma Irma, who added rock music, political commentary, Islamic references to the dangdut music, has reached his peak in the 1970s and his popularity continued till today. Rhoma Irma has produced dangdut films and performed special lives show that none of the watchers will forget. Other classic dangdut stars were Elvy Sukasih, Dettu Kurnia, Maryam and Camelia Malik. Those four singers were well-known artists in the dangdut disco style. Moreover, there were other artists who were popular in 1990 as Ade Ima, Sendak Oriel, and Evie Tamala. Inul Daratista was the most famous pop musician in Indonesia in the early 2000s and was the queen of dangdut; she was known for her hip-shaking dance moves. However, she was hated by the conservative Muslim groups and was described as "devil dancer." A Muslim organization issued a fatwa against her, but she has not taken the criticism as a weapon that will stop her; she deafened herself. Although that the Fatwa affected her career negatively, she continued and reached her peak after that; that politicians begged her to perform at their rallies.

Keroncong is another famous music style in Indonesia began in the sixteenth century in Tugu village, its history is unknown, all what is known that it originated in Portugal and it transferred to Indonesia in the seventeenth century. It began in Java, and transferred as fast as wind to all the cities in Indonesia.

Indonesia music was influenced by the pop, rock and the jazz fusion music from the west. Pop music was influenced from America, Britain, Japan, and Korea, and this music was simply called pop Indonesia. It was different from the America, British, or Asian pop styles. Koes Bersaudra created “Koes plus” as a pop Indonesia style in the 1960s and 1970s that was the main development in the pop and rock music style. The legend singers of this style were Iwan Fals, Chrisye, and Agnes Monica. The main bands were not only famous in Indonesia, they travelled Singapore, and Malaysia as Peterpan, Nidji, Gigi, Radja, and Dewa 19 bands. The last development to the style was influenced by the J-pop and K-pop that originate from Japan and Korea. This style led to the present of new girl bands in Indonesia. Additionally, Indonesia was influenced the rock American music, it was first introduced in Indonesia in 1970s and 1980s by Panbers band. Also, there were women artist in this style as Nicky Astria and Anggun, were called by “Lady Rockers,” and were famous in France as well. Moreover, Jazz Fusion Indonesian style, this style influenced the ethnic group’s traditional music in Indonesia of Krakatau and SambaDunda groups. The famous band was from west Java, and they were called Sundanese Kacapi. Along with bands there are big annual Jazz festival called Jakarta International Java Jazz Festival.

In general Indonesia was the mother country for famous music styles as gamelan and dangdut music. Also, it developed other music that was originally developed outside Indonesia as Keroncong that was introduced in Portugal, pop, rock and jazz fusion music that originated in America but also transferred to Indonesia and developed there. They have not copied the styles identically, but they developed it and added the Indonesian instruments as gamelan instruments to the western instruments and produced their own styles. The gamelan music for me was strange and undefined but describes Indonesia for me, no surprise that this is their traditional music. The dangdut was hyper and energetic not