The answer is yes and no, it depends on how we look at it.

The discussion took place on Saturday, February 9 at Kios Ojo Keos, a creative collective space located in Lebak Bulus, South Jakarta owned by the band Efek Rumah Kaca. Suited to its title, this book narrates music journalism in Indonesia from its first emergence to recent years. 

But as the discussion got deeper, this book by Idhar Resmadi was only an introduction to reveal the state of music in Indonesia. Be it the media, business, community, to the future condition of music journalism.   

Idhar himself is a lecturer at Telkom University Bandung and former Trax magazine journalist. He uses several theoretical approaches to explain some circumstances or occurrences in the book, “Still academic but popular, popular but academic.” Because his initial intention to write this book was for his students from or outside Telkom who came to interview him. “The point is for people who are desperate to graduate,” he laughed.

Aside from Idhar, there were two other speakers who are experts and no strangers to the music world. The first one was Wendi Putranto, an ex-Rolling Stone Indonesia (RSI) journalist and now the manager of Seringai. The other was Taufiq Rahman, the owner of Elevation Group consists of independent label and book publishing and the writer of 'Lokasi Tidak Ditemukan.' (Out of topic, Taufiq was one of my lecturers back in the university. So it’s actually kind of weird calling him without ‘Pak’). The moderator was also no less important, Nuran Wibisono, author of 'Nice Boys' Write Rock N Roll' and Tirto.id journalist. 

The situation during the discussion

I know it’s been almost two weeks, kind of late to write about this. The thing is I want to convey the crucial aspects of the discussion without diminishing its essence or worse, adding unnecessary opinion so I would sound so smart, claiming that I came up with these notions. So, apologize for the late post.

There were also some prominent figures in music who attended the discussion: Hasief Ardiasyah, an ex- RSI journalist, Che the vocalist of grunge band Cupumanik, and Philips Vermonte (also my lecturer), the founder of jakartabeat.net (R.I.P), and thegrayinghipsters.net. I felt quite inferior and star-struck when I came to the event because it was literally filled with people whom I admire a lot. But I’m glad I did come out of curiosity and eventually learned some new insights. Curiosity doesn’t always kill the cat.    

When I found out that RSI was going to disband, I was kind of shocked and… not really. Shocked because RSI was the biggest music magazine in Indonesia and it had international license, not really shocked because not many people read print magazines in this day and age. But the end of RSI was a turning point, if such giant collapsed, how about the others? How is the future of Indonesian music?

Considering the media, particularly music media in Indonesia, according to Wendi the prospect is not really great. “The future is bleak,” he stated, followed by sad laughs by the audience. He laid that statement based on his experience working at various music media like bisik.com, Tabloid Rock, and musikkita.com, all of them only lasted for not more than a year. The longest was at RSI, for 12.5 years. He thought that the magazine would last longer because usually those that collapsed were local magazines, the most successful one was only Aktuil (once the sales reached almost 120,000 copies). Wendi said if one wants to start music magazine business in Indonesia, that person must be really crazy and rich, a combination of those two traits, just like the owner of RSI.

Rolling Stone Indonesia last issue

But, subsequent to the fall of numerous major music media, turns out there are still many zines that have sprung up from various regions throughout Indonesia. Idhar revealed events such as Bandung Zine Fest, Cimahi Zine Fest, even Sidoarjo Zine Fest. He was once asked how to sell zine to be more saleable and successful. “I have no idea.” He told them. But the point being, the initiative to sell zine among music communities is still alive and well. Although, there are still many obstacles and problems arise surrounding the business.

Sidoarjo Zine Fest 2018

According to Taufiq, referring to the World System Theory, music was controlled by the industry (center) and the target was the fans (periphery). So, music journalism was the extension of the industry to form taste and perception. Now, all of that those concepts aren't applicable. People can be both the center and periphery. For instance, from zines, Spotify, Soundcloud, Youtube, or personal blog. Anyone can search for music according to their own tastes, writings which aimed to influence or persuade the readers to listen to a particular genre of music are no longer necessary. “At the end, what music journalism can do is to tell a story of an event for people who already love and care about music,” said Taufiq.

Indeed, now anyone can spread music news quickly through various platforms, but these days journalists or music writers are still needed in major media to ‘infiltrate’ the newsroom to write stories about music so that the dissemination is more massive. Because actually, according to Taufiq who works at The Jakarta Post, music news makes no money, “It is more of a public service announcement.” For example, if there is a concert, they just barter with free tickets. There is no advertisement and interview opportunity is not even guaranteed. So, these ‘intruders’ are needed in order to keep the music news alive and interesting to read. “I don’t want what is written on my media, is merely 5W+1H. Therefore, every time I assign reporter or editor to write about music, they have to elevate the content. So, there is an added value to the writing.” He stressed.   

When talking about mainstream media, they surely don’t always speak about music. In fact, it has only become a small fragment of media. Music news is losing compared to news about politics or celebrities. Hence, here is where alternative media play the role. But, Idhar expressed alternative media should only talk about something alternative or segmented. Based on his experience of being the editor-in-chief of Ripple Magazine (also R.I.P), an independent magazine started in Bandung. Back in the day, he wanted Ripple to be the Rolling Stone of Indie magazine. “But, the resources weren’t sufficient. Because it was a small magazine, from the business side, 99% of our advertisement was from distro clothing and we were losing to the bigger magazine.” Therefore, he decided to engage the communities, serving news that did not exist on RSI, Trax, or Hai.    

A couple of Ripple Magazine issues

If there are still many music lovers out there, why do music magazines fall and music media business struggle? Nuran, the moderator asked the speakers. Wendi answered: “The ecosystem itself does not really support the media. The ecosystem means record labels and concert promoters, they don’t advertise. The ones who do were cigarette ads. RSI biggest support was from the tobacco industry. They almost had 85% top billing. If it hadn’t for them, the magazine would have died even sooner.” Wendi added, record labels much preferred sending journalists abroad for coverage rather than advertising in magazines. “Let’s say, putting 35 million ad for one page, if you send Hasief to Japan, you can get 8 pages with almost the same amount. So it is way cheaper.” So do with the concert promoters, similar to what Taufiq had talked about, RSI only received free concert tickets and got exclusive interview or press conference. So, they gained no real income. 

Still in tune with the previous question, Nuran asked how the existing music media can survive? Holding on with his earlier statement, Idhar conveyed staying small with the available resources. “There is this term called ‘heritage market’, it is better to have 100 masses or readers but well-maintained with niche or segmented content.” It is somewhat different if one wants to build a start-up media, they have to expand to other businesses. Idhar found that in Bandung, some of his friends who own media they extend to consultant agency, design agency, event organizer, to owning coffee shop. Taufiq said people now are turning back into analog, in the sense of something 'real' and not digital, like vinyl or cassette. He said that Ucok ‘Homicide’ book entitled ‘Flip da Skrip’ published through Elevation Books is appreciated by many people because of its good design even though the pages are quite thick. So the key is in the content, analog, and packaging. Wendi suggested no to think about the business side, again just focus on the content. “Just look around us. Plenty of bands that probably just messing around, turn out to be great. Like Rich Chigga (now Rich Brian), he just stayed at home making music. A kid who lived in Kelapa Gading. Was he in music journalist radar? No. But he has penetrated the international industry and now is within the center of the music world (referring to the United States).”

To answer the question of whether or not music journalism is dead, the answer came from Idhar which he also wrote in his book: yes. But, music journalism as in the process of spreading information when it comes to music will still be around. During the discussion, there was this figure named Felix Dass who wrote White Shoes and The Couples Company’s ‘Going South to the North’, shared his point of view. With 20 years of experience, he gave his insights of being a music writer. He pointed out that the demand to 'record' and document music will still exist, but there comes a time when financial demand gets in the way, so having a strong grip and foundation is crucial (what I get from this is probably corporate support?). Other than that, writers must develop selling skill by, say, writing a book. This also must be accompanied by the reasoning of what writers can offer to readers. “Writers must think: ‘why people should read my writing?’ If we write the same thing over and over again, it’s bullshit. Because as beginners, we’ll lose to these ‘dinosaurs’ (pointing at the people in the front).” He is now an editor at siasatpartikelir.com (funded by cigarette company A Mild), a website reporting about art, culture, and lifestyle covering various cities in Indonesia from Boyolali, Padang, Lombok, to Palu.   

There was this one funny story from Wendi when he was still working for RSI, he witnessed the emergence of Kangen Band. He likened the Kangen Band phenomenon to Sex Pistols and was greeted with boisterous laughter from the room. “They defied all rules about music. They weren’t good-looking, they couldn’t play musical instruments well, but the sales they made were insane.” He proceeded on telling the story about the time Kangen Band first introduced to the public. It was Warner Music Indonesia’s managing editor farewell party in Kemang and attended by the label artists, from Krisdayanti, Anang, Jikustik, to the Upstairs. “During his speech, the new (Warner) managing editor said: ‘I would like to introduce the newest Warner artist. They are nobody that you know before, not from Jakarta, Bandung, or Jogjakarta. Please give it up for Kangen Band!’ Then they came out shyly. The people there whispered ‘Who the hell are Kangen Band? What kind of name is that?” Wendi said, even though their credibility and skill were initially questioned, in fact, Kangen Band were the best-selling artist from Warner. They supported other label’s artists financially for some time, including Krisdayanti, Jikustik, to MALIQ & D’Essentials with physical album sales reaching millions. “Millions of copies are around 100 container trucks,” he said while still looking amazed by his own experience.

There are several keywords I can conclude from the discussion, such as: content, substance, and staying small. Writing music has to focus on the content while at the same time giving special mark on it. There is no need to copy other writers’ style, instead, offer something different so the readers are interested to read the writing. Staying small means the content or substance discussed includes things that are segmented. For example, if writing about hip hop, just stay writing about it. One more thing is the passion for writing music, if there is no will, the writing tends to just stay on the surface, not profound, and not based on strong data or facts. The result is probably just average.

One more thing emphasized by the speakers is the fact that Indonesian music is the richest and most interesting in Southeast Asia. This might be a reminder for myself, that in my own country there are still many great musicians in each genre. They also mentioned the recently most talked about music bill, if this is passed, it might kill the creative souls of Indonesian musicians.

From left to right: Nuran, Wendi, Idhar, and Taufiq

All and all it was a very eye-opening discussion. While I was there, most of the people who came stayed the whole night even though the discussion went on for more than 2.5 hours, the room got more crowded as the night was getting late. Kios Ojo Keos which is not very spacious felt a little stuffy. Unfortunately, I did not buy the book for one reason or another (please do not bully me, I will buy one later he..he..), but I strongly support new music journalism in Indonesia and want to dig more of Indonesian music. Since honestly, not many local bands or new musicians creep up on me lately. Because in my opinion, the ultimate period when cool new bands appeared was around the early to mid-2000s when I was in elementary school and junior high school. I was an avid listener of MTV Sky (now Trax FM). From that radio station only, I knew bands like Sajama Cut, The Brandals, La Luna, The Adams, and many others. I hope that more discussions similar to this one will be held frequently. Or maybe they are already being held often but I'm just not aware? Anyway, I hope this long-ass post is useful somehow and long live Indonesian music!

Image Source(s):

1. Poster
2. My Own
3. Rolling Stone Last Issue
4. Sidoarjo Zine Fest
5. Ripple Magazine
6. The Speakers