Around the World in 80 Songs: Indonesia

At the beginning of this year, I had a grand ambition to explore world music and write about it. I got off to a pretty good start and then my year took a turn. For me, music is a happy experience and I haven’t had a particularly happy year. As a results, I’ve had almost zero interest in listening even to my favorites, let alone exploring new musical styles.

But 2009 is ending on a bit of a high note. I’m about to make a big change and in honor of that change, I’m resurrecting the world music series with a post in honor of my soon-to-be new home: Jakarta.

The Wikipedia article on Indonesian music states that all of the 17,000 plus island have their own cultural and artistic heritage, resulting in hundreds of different musical styles. That’s a lot. I’m not going to visit 17,000 islands and I’m pretty sure I’m not going to explore hundreds of styles of music. But I did manage to find some interesting stuff. So let’s just jump right in.

The video above is of a group of percussionists calling themselves Samba Sunda (Sundanese being Indonesia’s second largest ethic group). Samba Sunda uses traditional Gamelan instruments to find a fusion of Sundanese Gamelan with the rhythm of the Brazilian samba. I confess I prefer Samba Brasileira to Samba Sundanese, but something strange happened while I was listening to this piece.

Years ago, I couldn’t eat Indian food. I grew up in the Midwest with a grandmother that didn’t even put chili powder into the chili, instead putting it on the table in case any of us were adventurous enough to want to add a little spice. So, although I was liberal with the chili powder, when I tried Indian food, I was overwhelmed with the mélange of spices and flavors. The food was confusing and, therefore, not enjoyable. But my friends enjoyed frequenting Indian restaurants, so I kept trying. I experimented with Indian recipes at home and was a good sport about going with my friends to their favorite Indian places. Then, one day, I loved Indian food. Just like that. When I stopped trying to figure out what I was tasting, I realized it was delicious.

While I won’t go so far as to say I find Sunda Samba delicious, I did start out feeling like this piece was too busy and I struggled to pick out different strains to find something recognizable. At some point, I stopped trying so hard and by the end I was at least more relaxed.

Music has not escaped globalization so it shouldn’t be that surprising that Indonesia has its own hip hop style. One of the first and most popular hip hop artists is Iwa K. I listened to a few songs by Iwa K that can be found on youtube and they were just ok. Of course I can’t understand the language (yet), but the music seems to me to be less edgy and more melodic than hip hop that came out of North American cities. Not being the biggest fan of North American hip hop, I’ve always preferred hip hop in languages that I do not understand. So, here’s a piece that is a little more traditional hip hop by a group called Boyz Got No Brain. The song is meh, but the name pretty much sums it up.

Another style, called Kroncong, uses European instruments first brought to Indonesia by the Portuguese. The most famous Kroncong song was written in 1940 and is called Bengawan Solo. It reminded me of my grandmother’s Don Ho album. Langgam Jawa is a type of Kroncong out of Surakarta in central Java. And let me just say in advance, I’m sorry.

Qasidah modern is yet another unique style that sets Islamic poetry to music. I much prefer the all female group Nasida Ria to the woman in the previous video. Their music has a Middle Eastern aesthetic and their clothes are cool.

One final Indonesia popular music genre, Dangdut, sounds a bit Middle Eastern and a bit Indian. I like the instrumentation but it didn’t make me want to get up and shake my thang which, as anyone knows, is the true measure of any music. Still, it didn’t make me shake my head in despair either, so that’s something. Here’s a song called Gali Lobang by Dangdut supergroup Rhoma Irama.

I’m thrilled to be moving to Jakarta. I’m excited to experience the culture, to taste the food, to learn the language and especially to bask in temperatures that consistently top out in the low 90s. But, as of now, I’m glad I’ll be taking Pandora along.