B. Barendregt The sound of longing for homeRedefining a sense of community through Minang popular music

In: Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde 158 (2002), no: 3, Leiden, 411-450

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Downloaded from Brill.com09/23/2021 02:24:12PM via free access BART BARENDREGT The Sound of 'Longing for Home' Redefining a Sense of Community through Minang Popular Music

Why, yes why, sir, am I singing? Oh, because I am longing, Longing for those who went abroad, Oh rabab, yes rabab, please spread the message To the people far away, so they'll come home quickly (From the popular Minangkabau traditional song 'Rabab'.)

1. Introduction: Changing mediascapes and emerging regional metaphors

Traditionally each village federation in Minangkabau had its own repertoire of musical genres, tunes, and melodies, in which local historiography and songs of origin blended and the meta-landscape of alam Minangkabau (the Minangkabau universe) was depicted.1 Today, with the ever-increasing disper- sion of Minangkabau migrants all over Southeast Asia, the conception of the Minangkabau world is no longer restricted to the province of West Sumatra.

1 Earlier versions of this article were presented at the 34th Conference of the International Council of Traditional Music, Nitra, Slovakia, August 1996, and the VA/AVMI (Leiden Uni- versity) symposium on Media Cultures in Indonesia, 2-7 April 2001. Its present form owes much to critical comments received from audiences there. I would like to sincerely thank also my colleagues Suryadi, for his suggestions regarding the translations from the Minangkabau, and Robert Wessing, for his critical scrutiny of my English.

BART BARENDREGT (1968) is currently a lecturer at the Institute of Social and Cultural Studies of Leiden University. He is working on a PhD dissertation entitled From the Realm of Many Rivers; People, places and spatial practices among two South Sumatran Highland communities, which focuses on the concepts of pilgrimage, ancestral cults and place lore. Specializing in Minangkabau dance and theatre and the sung poetry of the South Sumatran Highlands, he is the author of 'Architecture on the move; Processes of migration and mobility in the South Sumatran High- lands', in: Reimar Schefold, Peter J.M. Nas, and Gaudenz Domenig (eds), Indonesian houses; Tradition and transformation in vernacular architecture, Leiden: KITLV Press, and the maker, togeth- er with Dr. Wim van Zanten, of the documentary Told in heaven to become stories on earth; A study of change in Randal theatre of the Minangkabau in West Sumatra, 2000. Mr. Barendregt can be contacted at the Institute of Social and Cultural studies, Leiden University, PO Box 9555, 2300 RB Leiden, the Netherlands.

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The question arises, therefore, what 'homeland' Minangkabau communities in Indonesia's large cities and second- or third-generation Minangkabau migrants in the diaspora now share. In this article I take a closer look at some of the more popular venues in which an overall Minang feeling is evoked and questions of Minang-ness, authenticity and globalization are contemplated. In present-day Indonesia, the question of local identities and their collec- tive representation is omnipresent and seems to be addressed increasingly in the domain of popular culture. For this reason, this domain is explainable largely in terms of the interaction of two simultaneous processes. These are the increasing possibilities presented by new technologies and the many new performing practices implicit in these, and the political transition from the Orde Baru to the post-Suharto era, with its accompanying relaxation of restrictions on the media. In Southeast Asia, technological innovations have led to the launching of prestigious projects like Cyberjaya, the Malaysian equivalent of Silicon Valley, and Nusantara 21, the Indonesian nation-wide electronic network aimed at familiarizing Indonesian citizens with the information superhighway, as well as to Singapore's status as a nation with one of the highest computer densities in the world. New technologies have enabled the use of formats like the laserdisc and video CD (VCD), streaming media, and mp3/DivX2, while new listservers and regional news portals are appearing daily. Although this growing diversity of media is worldwide, the Southeast Asian region is facing challenges (economic, religious and cultural) which are unique to it (see Ang 2001), in particular Indonesia, primarily as a result of recent efforts to achieve more openness (reformasi) and to democra- tize both the national and local media. The complex processes triggered by these developments are evident from, for example, the riots on the Glodok VCD market on 13 May 2000.3 At present, music in Indonesia is increasingly being reproduced in VCD format, so that international hits are now even more easy to pirate. Under international pressure to protect copyrights, the Jakarta police recently took action against peddlers selling pirated record- ings, ironically ignoring the more systematic sale of pirated VCDs and soft- ware in huge shopping malls like Pasar Senin and Mangga Dua. Old frustra- tions were revived and unequal power balances in the record industry cited, as poor peddlers and representatives of record companies alike complained that it was not so much pribumi as citizens of East Asian descent who had the technology to make these illegal products. Another development that is having a significant impact on the far from

2 An illegal version ('crack') of the Mpeg4 format, which is becoming increasingly popular as a medium for the illegal distribution of movies on the Internet. 3 See 'Pasar Terbesar VCD Bajakan' and 'Kerusuhan Mei 1998 Nyaris Terulang', Kompas online, 14 May 2000.

Downloaded from Brill.com09/23/2021 02:24:12PM via free access The Sound of Longing for Home' 413 transparent Indonesian record industry is the emergence of numerous e- zines - online record shops making international distribution easier than ever before - and the steady rise in online charts. These developments have introduced new mechanisms in what can be characterized as a 'highly lucra- tive commodity industry' (Wong and Lysloff 1998:101).4 Of special interest, however, is the circumstance that in the wake of these developments, as reformasi sentiments are slowly ebbing away, public discussions are offering possible loci for the construction of alternative realities and, more especially, tend to shed light on the debate about nationhood versus regional identities.5 While for the past three decades the social sciences have focused on issues like ethnicity, nationalism and invented versus authentic traditions, relatively little is known as yet about the actual processes by which newly emerging communal identities develop (Levine 1999:169). As was pointed out above, the uncertainties of a nation in transition are emphasized as the means of communication are changing with considerable speed. These uncertainties then become manifest through contradictory representations and the ways in which alternatives are discussed. 'In the minds of individual agents they become the instruments of change' (Goody 1997:238). One of the most obvi- ous tendencies seems to be for the notion of an Indonesian nation and its glorified struggle for independence to slowly become de-Indonesianized. Especially the more popular media are increasingly producing new, primarily regional, metaphors that often work at a highly conceptual level. Emotional attachment to the nation, articulated in such metaphors as tanah airku and ibu pertiwi6, and the idea of an Indonesian bangsa (identity) are coining under considerable pressure and often being replaced by regional equivalents that serve to define new communities or demarcate old ones anew. Centre-periphery tensions and the regional metaphors to which they give

4 According to recent data supplied by the Asosiasi Industri Rekaman Indonesia (Asiri, the Indonesian Association of Sound-Recording Industries), the Indonesian record business is flour- ishing again, with cassette sales rising from 2.3 million a month in 2000 to 2.8 million a month in 2001. Sales of Indonesian pop music cassettes are far higher than those of foreign music, which seems to be generally more popular on CD. Also in the year 2001, the Indonesian record industry is estimated to have lost about 5 trillion rupiah due to pirating, mostly of cassettes (200 million copies), but also of VCDs (120 million copies). An estimated fifty thousand pirated copies of for- eign albums were sold in that year ('Musik Indonesia Bergairah, Pembajak Tetap Mejarela', Media Indonesia online, 23 December 2001). With these figures, Indonesia is on the 'priority watch list' of the Unite States Trade Representative (USTR) and thus is facing serious economic sanctions (Media Indonesia online, 20 November 2001). For more recent information and articles, see the Indonesian-language forum on piracy at URL http: / / www.stopiracy.com. 5 For an overview of nationalist and patriotic student songs, especially the protest song genre that was soon popularly labelled lagu reformasi, which commented directly on this transitional stage in Indonesian politics, see Van Dijk 1999. 6 Tanah air (literally 'land and water') is best translated as 'motherland', a notion that is also reflected in the phrase ibu pertiwi, which denotes motherhood (ibu) as well as earth (pertiwi).

Downloaded from Brill.com09/23/2021 02:24:12PM via free access 414 Bart Barendregt rise are not recent phenomena. Where many people tend to view the world as a 'global village', these metaphors are used more persistently than ever in pop- ular discourse in a claim to an identity of one's own. Elsewhere (Barendregt forthcoming) I describe how in the South Sumatra region the historical meta- phor 'The Realm of Many Rivers' (batang hari sembilan) is still often used, even though historically this is a continually changing political entity. This usage has given rise to, among other things, an exclusive cassette-recorded genre of batang hari sembilan songs that enable people to accommodate to changes in the South Sumatran landscape and in the ethnically highly diverse population of the region, but which ultimately refer to an overarching South Sumatran framework. To cite another example, in the recent attempts to make Banten a new Indonesian province, a public bulletin board, www.bantenonline.com, served to foreground the new community by differentiating between the tra- ditional metaphors Pasundan, for the Sundanese region, and Wong Banten, for the people of Banten. In this article I will focus on another representative of a regional culture, pop Minang. This is a popular music genre named after the inhabitants of what today 'still is' the province of West Sumatra.

2. Popular music in Indonesia

In a groundbreaking study, Peter Manuel (1988:2) denned popular music not so much in terms of its entertainment value as by its association with and dissemination through the mass media. These media texts are bound up with, and often complicated by, mechanisms of reproduction and com- moditization that distinguish them, but do not entirely set them apart, from more traditional genres. Unfortunately, many studies of non-western popu- lar music thus far have focused primarily on the production and content of these media texts, paying less attention to their circulation, consumption and every-day use.7 Also, the musical logic and inherent cultural aesthetics of these non-western pop genres are rarely dealt with, as they are basically considered a western import, a by-product of the globalization process, and a threat to indigenous genres as well a possible cause of their degeneration. A few outstanding studies8 focusing on the principles by which imported genres are further vernacularized and hybridized show, however, that the study of these genres offers nuanced insights into the cultural mechanisms of selection and adaptation following upon cultural encounters.

7 See Spitulnik 1993 for a more general critique of the anthropological study of media. 8 See, for example, Waterman 1990 on the hybridization of the guitar music of Juju, Arnold 1992 on the Hindi film song, Keil 1984 on the karaoke phenomenon, and Erlmann 1999, which gives some examples of African involvement in the international music industry.

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Recent studies of specific genres of popular music in Indonesia have focused on a variety of aspects9, but this field is rapidly changing, as popular music continues to reflect changes in society itself. The topography of Indonesian popular music has yet to be mapped in its entirety, although certain areas have been sketched with more precision than others. Indonesia's music industry, centred in Jakarta, defines Indonesian popular music as either 'national' or 'regional.' National popular music genres, including rock, hardcore, rap, country, jazz, disco, house, Hawaiian, pop Indonesia, kroncong, da435

ngdut, qasidah, generally feature lyrics in Indonesian (though sometimes in English) and are marketed primarily in urban regions throughout the archipelago in both audiocassette and compact disk forms. (Van Zanten et al. 1999.)

By contrast, the 'target consumers' of regional popular music 'are the resi- dents of specific regions, or the members of specific ethnic groups, rather than Indonesians in general' (Yampolsky 1989:12-3).10 In most Indonesian regions a local pop industry has sprung up in the past few decades, although these have not all been equally successful. Aside from pop Minang, the best-known variants of this pop daerah (regional pop music) are pop Jawa, pop Sunda, pop Batak and pop Ambon. Pop Batak is widely appre- ciated outside the Batak region and has even been broadcast successfully on national television and radio, while, for example, pop Sumsel, centred on the South Sumatran provincial capital Palembang, seems far more obscure and not really popular elsewhere. Generally, West Javanese pop Sunda is taken to be more authentic than other regional pop genres, since it uniquely continues to use traditional tunings and instruments (Williams 1989:107). The other pop daerah genres seem to have more difficulty in developing a 'regional' or 'eth- nic' mode. 'Traditional' or ethnic elements are tolerated in so far as they seem to be compatible with concepts of functional harmony that are so dominant in western pop music. 'Pop Minang' is a cover term for various popular music genres from the West Sumatran region that utilize songs, melodies and tunings from a huge reservoir of older genres. The origins of popular Minang music probably lie

9 These include mediaization (Arps 1996), the impact of specific formats like cassettes and television (Sutton 1985, 2000), the application of media technologies (Lysloff 1997), syncretic indigenous forms (Kartomi 1987; Heins 1975), power balances, cultural policies and the impact of competition and stardom (Lockard 1996,1998; Yampolsky 1989; Williams 2000), gender roles and stardom (Frederick 1982), and the post-colonial negotiation of new identities (Jurriens 1999). 10 In an earlier publication Yampolsky (1987:5) defined national music as 'music that is intend- ed to appeal to Indonesians as Indonesians, across regional and ethnic boundaries and [which] is not identified with a specific region or group'.

Downloaded from Brill.com09/23/2021 02:24:12PM via free access 416 Bart Barendregt in nineteenth-century popular theatre (see below). It became more precisely defined through the efforts of the national radio service RRI to develop a hiburan daerah (regional entertainment) genre for each of Indonesia's prov- inces (see Yampolsky 1987). Today pop Minang is especially appreciated as a genre that makes the typically Minangkabau verbal art form available to performers and consumers alike. It places a strong emphasis on lyrics, but the musical component, which is likewise said to be typically Minang, is even more important. Here I will consider the musical form and contents, as well as the prevailing aesthetics of pop Minang, focusing on the discourse style in which Minang music has been defined over the years, and in this way will highlight the continuity in the values that are apparent in both the older and the newer traditions. Thus pop Minang will be seen to both represent and serve as a vehicle for Minang culture. It evokes an over-all Minang atmos- phere by depicting a recognizable landscape through the use of metaphors like ranah bundo (the motherland), merantau (to go abroad), and longing for the kampung halaman (native hamlet). This way pop Minang serves as a popu- lar platform for the discussion of concepts like 'Minangness', authenticity, and globalization, whereby a new conception of the motherland is consti- tuted at the dawning of the 21st century.

3. Minangkabau reconfigured: The motherland and diaspora and their representation

According to the most recent statistics the Minangkabau number about 6,500,000 (Moussay 1981), the majority of whom live in the province of West Sumatra. However, almost 30 percent live outside the supposed Minang heart- land (Kato 1982:163), in large cities in Indonesia like Medan or Palembang, with half a million Minangkabau living in Jakarta alone. Traditionally a large group of Minang has also lived in Negri Sembilan in Malaysia. Due to increased social mobility and better transport, other parts of Southeast Asia, and the world in general, have increasingly become migration destinations. Minangkabau social organization was traditionally predominantly matrifocal, and young men were encouraged to seek their fortune abroad. This has given rise to the phenomenon of merantau, a popular theme in Minang folklore. The Minang diaspora and the phenomenon of merantau have demon- strably changed over the past decades as a result of what has been called rantau Cino. This term refers to the custom of Southeast Asian Chinese to remain abroad for life. Increasingly, Minang are staying in the rantau because of the better opportunities there. As a result of the increased dispersion of Minangkabau migrants all over Southeast Asia, the Minangkabau universe is no longer restricted to the province of West Sumatra. The often second- or third-generation Minang migrants do remain involved with their homeland,

Downloaded from Brill.com09/23/2021 02:24:12PM via free access The Sound of Longing for Home' 417 however, sending regular financial contributions to their native villages and to local cultural foundations, thus maintaining their Minang identity. These developments give rise to the question as to who may still be regarded as Minang and how Minang-ness should be defined. A key concept in Minangkabau thinking and customary law is that of alam Minang, denoting the cultural heartland, but in this case probably better rendered with 'mother- land' (ranah bundo). Rather than an exclusively spatially defined geographical area, alam Minang represents an emotional attachment to a recognizable land- scape and a community sharing the same moral values, 'our people' {urang awak), which is often idealized in songs and poetry. Over time, the notion of alam has widened. While the cradle of Minang culture continues to be the darek, the highland area of origin, the area known as rantau is more and more coming to span the whole world. According to a popular Minang proverb the alam terkembang, or 'unfolding environment', serves one as teacher.

Minangkabau, in their homeland as well as abroad, are businessmen of repute. In spite of the recent economic crisis in Asia, the Minang commu- nity remains a wealthy one. Minang in the rantau use various strategies for remaining in touch with their homeland. Minangkabau-ness is increas- ingly shaped by and experienced through the magazine Lembago, distributed throughout the archipelago via rumah makan Padang (Padang restaurants). In addition there are Minang cultural festivals, radio stations, fashion shows, and entrepreneurial networks throughout Southeast Asia. Since the early 1990s the international Minang community has also been exchanging news and information about the homeland via the Internet, creating a 'virtual alam Minang'. For some time the West Sumatran newspapers Singgalang and Hainan were also distributed in online versions, and at present a number of so-called user groups and portals such as Mimbar Minang, KopiTime.com, MegaNet Padang, and the recently founded MinangNet are addressing the Minang community.11 The oldest of these is the user group RantauNet, rep- resenting one of the earliest Indonesian attempts to communicate by elec- tronic media. The language is primarily Minangkabau and the items include information on a variety of cultural topics, religious discussions, and clip-

11 MinangNet was founded on the initiative of Gebu (Gerakan Seribu Rupiah, or Thousand- Rupiah Movement') Minang, which is based in Jakarta but has branches in every West Sumatran district and larger city, as well as in East and West Java and East Timor. The organization, whose board is made up of Minang public figures like the composer Asbon Majid and industrial, mili- tary, intellectual, and religious leaders, basically aims at providing low-interest loans for starting Minang companies (Bank Perkreditan Rakyat). Since its foundation in 1982, it has launched vari- ous cultural events and it tries to maintain a network of commercial and social or cultural organi- zations. The MinangNet portal presents both national and local news and provides a forum for a variety of cultural interests and a chatting list, as well as conducting opinion polls.

Downloaded from Brill.com09/23/2021 02:24:12PM via free access 418 Bart Barendregt pings from national and local newspapers. In many respects RantauNet is an intriguing reflection of a displaced community constructing an 'imagined homeland' (Gupta and Fergusson 1992:11) through new electronic media, while at the same time it is embedded in the real, off-line world through its focus on material reality. Most important in shaping the cultural experience of Minangkabau abroad, however, are the cultural associations - often by their very nature involved in the above-mentioned activities - which are sometimes organized according to area of origin. Representative examples of these migrant associ- ations are Badan Musyawarah Masyarakat Minang (BM3) in North Sumatra and the Jakarta-based Gebu Minang. The extent to which these associations bring Minang migrants together is remarkable, as is the degree to which the migrants continue to cherish their indigenous artistic traditions. In cities like Medan, Palembang and Jakarta, Minang regularly gather for an evening of traditional sung poetry (saluangjo dendang), ritual speeches (pidato), or popu- lar randai theatre.

4. Minang local musics: Origin songs

Something that continues to be widely appreciated in Minang society, espe- cially among migrants, is the so-called malam bagurau (evening of jollity), at which traditional sung poetry (saluang jo dendang) plays a prominent part. This poetry can be roughly divided into two categories, both called dendang: non-narrative, metrical songs (lagu) and epic stories (kaba). While almost every Minangkabau village (nagari) or region has its own variant of these catego- ries, dendang refers collectively to the singing of songs. The word is probably derived from 'den indang', denoting a lullaby or a song sung, for example, dur- ing the harvesting of the rice (Suwondo 1977:5). This sung poetry is usually accompanied by either the long bamboo flute (saluang) or the one-stringed violin (rabab). These instruments are seldom played as solo instruments, but are used to support and provide ornamentation (bungo) for the vocals. In addition to these general features, each local genre has its own vocabu- lary and idiom, giving rise to a wide variety of local oral traditions, such as tombay, sijobang or dendang pauah, which up to now have hardly been inves- tigated.12 The subjects of especially the more epic of these oral traditions are local histories (tambo). Focusing on the fate of ordinary villagers, these histories are generally transmitted through songs, dances, or plays. These

12 Exceptions are the regular surveys by the Ministry of Education (P dan K) and, more par- ticularly, Suwondo 1977 and Nurana 1993. On sijobang see Phillips 1981, on dendang pauah and rabab Pariaman Suryadi 1993 and 1996.

Downloaded from Brill.com09/23/2021 02:24:12PM via free access The Sound of 'Longing for Home' 419 traditional songs thus are origin stories {lagu asal), while at the same time they give accounts of the local history. Origin songs are still sung on festive occasions, such as marriages or the inauguration of a new building. After the evening prayer, the commu- nity gathers to listen to a flute player accompanying one or two vocalists (pedendang). The singers are often male, although female vocalists are slowly gaining acceptance. Originally a popular spectacle in which everybody was supposed to participate (Firman 1992:14), this genre at present is assuming a more professional character, whereby a patron can have a favourite song performed on request at a fee. Other listeners may then offer more money to have their songs performed or to have particular friends ridiculed by the singer. For various reasons the lyrics of these songs, which both evoke the atmosphere of village life and serve as a vehicle for teaching morals, are highly popular with the Minang. The lyrics are judged by their 'moral quality' and the 'beauty of their language' (nan baik budi, nan indah bahasa) - qualities held in high esteem in Minang culture. The songs often refer to the norms and rules of conduct (raso-raso) that comprise Minang customary law. However, especially the setting of these songs in a particular landscape and their glorification of traditional village life and naming of particular villages of origin arouse specific emotions and provoke a nostalgic mood among the audience. The reality presented in them is that of a landscape - mountains, rivers and villages - that is familiar even to the younger members of the audience, who may never have visited the homeland. In this connection 'The singer changes the lyrics and the meanings according to the place of the per- formance or the audience' (Shigeki 1997:13). Thus the sense of community is strengthened during these performances. A sense of belonging to a particu- lar, though unspecified, place is created, without necessarily referring to a particular landscape existing in physical reality. In this way the songs are one possible means for the Minang to deal with their yearning for dear ones who have gone abroad or with their longing for their village of origin.

5. A short history of popular musics in Minangkabau

Through the use of either a local dialect of Bahasa Minang or local imagery, the community addressed in more traditional genres was generally quite restricted, both in time and place. With the rise of radio broadcasting, 78-rpm recordings of music from local genres, and ultimately the cassette industry of the 1970s, cheap means of reproduction became available. Some of the above-mentioned genres then were adapted to the new formats, so that they were no longer restricted to single performances or a single geographic com- munity. For example, rabab Pariaman, a local genre of sung poetry with fid-

Downloaded from Brill.com09/23/2021 02:24:12PM via free access 420 Bart Barendregt die accompaniment, nowadays is successfully distributed on cassette and is very popular with immigrants from Pariaman living in Jakarta or other large Indonesian cities (Suryadi 1996:88). However, it is the pop Minang genre that appealed to the Minang com- munity as a whole. Through it, no longer a particular village of origin was referred to, to the exclusion of other villages, but increasingly an overall regional or ethnic group, including Minang in both the homeland and the ran- tau. Today pop Minang is an established genre, whose songs are performed by well-known national and non-Minang artists like Bing Slamet, Yuni Shara, or Malaysia's Aishah.13 Where, however, should we look for its historical roots? Hybrid indigenous forms go back to Sufi-influenced Arabic genres like salawat (sung in the same way as the praises of the Prophet) and indang (fea- turing a row of singer-dancers sitting cross-legged, slapping their bodies, and varying their posture), which are still an important component of what the Minang themselves call pasisia culture, designating the Islamic coastal culture. Furthermore, there is the kapri dance and musical genre, mentioned by Kartomi (1987), which allegedly dates back to early sixteenth- and sev- enteenth-century Portuguese contacts. In this, lagu Malayu (Malay songs) were performed on violin, oboe and frame drums to accompany dances for two people such as the tari kain (cloth dance), tari payung (umbrella dance), and tari saputangang (handkerchief dance). It is to a certain extent hard to say when or where a particular genre originated. However, if we regard pop Minang primarily as an enormous collection of songs and melodies that have become known as a result of their dissemination through the mass media, we can probably take the early 1880's as their time of origin. In this period Dutch theatre (tonil), performed in the theatres and clubs of Padang, indirectly influenced indigenous art forms. In some of the resultant, hybrid art forms, Malay syair (verses) were set to music so they could be sung (Van Kerckhoff 1886:304). These lagu (songs), which often seem to have incorporated western march and dance music, were accompanied by the violin, kacapi (zither), a few rabana (frame drums), and drums and cymbals.

A good example of how these hybrid forms became popular outside the western-dominated theatres is provided by the local Minang genre known as randai. Local intellectuals believe the rise of the randai theatre to have been stimulated largely by a Dutch theatrical performance of the ancient story Cinduo Mato at the kweekschool (teachers' training school) in Bukittinggi (then Fort de Kock) some time in the 1930s (Navis 1984:276). More likely,

13 Aishah recorded, for example, Masroel Mamudja's 'Ubekkan Denai', while the song 'Bangau oh! Bangau' from the album Aishah III includes fragments of a Minang traditional song. The album Mengapa tiada maaf by Yuni Shara includes a cover version of Bing Slamet's 'Sansaro'.

Downloaded from Brill.com09/23/2021 02:24:12PM via free access The Sound of 'Longing for Home' 421 however, the genre combined local and imported elements, primarily dia- logues and theatrical gestures, at a much earlier stage and contributed to the popularizing of lagu and melodies that previously had been confined to a particular area. Since the 1880s, however, there has also been considerable influence from neighbouring Malacca, as Malaysian bangsawan theatre groups started visit- ing the coastal city of Padang. According to Chopyak (1986:130) bangsawan gave rise to the first popular Malaysian songs, although the so-called 'folk songs' (lagu rakyat), which are mostly diatonic, were greatly influenced by western popular songs. The enormous popularity of these lagu soon led to the formation of so-called orkes Melayu (Malay orchestras) throughout Sumatra. Distributors, and later the international record companies, appar- ently regarded Malaya and Sumatra as a single market, and orkes Melayu music, distributed under various names, was aimed at Melayu on both sides of the Straits of Malacca.14 Today its best-known representative is probably Melayu Deli, a genre that is popular in both Malaysia and Indonesia. In the more cosmopolitan centres of Sumatra's west coast, western musical styles also influenced orkes Melayu music, featuring 'vocalists, several gambus (lutes), a biola, a harmonium and frame-drums, which performed harmo- nised songs with romantic Malay quatrain texts [...] the Minangkabau coastal style of the Malay ensemble became known as orkes gamad ("cheerful ensem- ble")' (Kartomi 1999:142). This gamad Melayu, locally probably better known as gamaik, seems to have been introduced mainly by Indian migrants from Malaysia, though it is also said to include Portuguese elements. Its music was especially popular at weddings, where it provided the accompaniment for couple dances like the tari selendang (scarf dance) and tori payung (umbrella dance). Such couple dances had previously been taboo, and both the male and the female part had long been played exclusively by men. While the hey- day of gamad lasted till the mid-twentieth century, when it was appropriated by the Minang Asli (Autochthonous Minangkabau) movement, this music is still enjoyed by large numbers of listeners today. At present most Minang regard gamad as the historical starting-point for what later became known as pop Minang.15 Until the 1930s, before the phonograph became popular, one of the few

14 For a good overview of the early recording industry in West Sumatra, especially for record- ings of music in some Minangkabau genres by the Beka, Odeon and Tjap Angsa companies in the 1930s, see Suryadi in press. 15 The gamad genre has to some degree been modernized and adapted to modern tastes. Well- known pop Minang artists like the late Tiar Ramon (Bunga tanjung) and Yan Yuneid and Rosnida ('Gamad perak') have actually made recordings in both idioms, also in the popular Minang-lan- guage Melayu Deli genre. This shows that we have here something that is seen as a single broad tradition rather than a number of closed circles.

Downloaded from Brill.com09/23/2021 02:24:12PM via free access 422 Bart Barendregt venues for enjoying popular songs was the pasar malam (evening market or fair). Popular throughout the Dutch East Indies, pasar malam were also regularly held in the city of Padang. This was probably one of the few cul- tural events in which all ethnic groups in the Dutch East Indies participated (Colombijn 1994:73). The musicians performing here were usually affiliated with particular theatrical troupes. They played what was called musik hiburan (entertainment music), musik populer (popular music), and kroncong (a popular Portuguese-influenced genre of songs with violin, banjo and guitar accompa- niment, which was immensely popular with Europeans). Western and indig- enous music was also performed at the regular kermis (fair) and the annual Oranjebal, held on (the Dutch) queen's birthday (De Padang Bode, 28 August 1946). Other Europeans also had an influence on music in the Indies. Russian and Italian musicians in particular are known to have formed their own orches- tras in the late 1920s, playing a genre of music that soon came to be known as hiburan (entertainment). Hiburan was partly influenced by American enter- tainment genres, in which small combos accompanied dancing. Hawaiian music, combining the ukulele with kroncong, also became popular in these years. One of the most famous exponents of this genre was Tjok Sinsu, who in 1931 formed a band called The Hawaiian Syncopators (Pasaribu 1955:63), while the Minangkabau Asbon Majid, who later joined the Orkes Gumarang, set up The Smiling Hawaiian Player band. Many of these musicians were members of military brass bands, and the dance music they played was aimed particularly at the Indies European community. The European commu- nity in Padang became familiar with this style of dance music through revues, cabaret performances and Hollywood films like Lady Let's Dance (1944) that were shown in the local Cinema and Rex theatres. Padang, with a population of about 52,000 at the time (including 7,200 Chinese) (Gonggryp 1934:1093), had four clubs for civilians and one military one which regularly held dances (see De Padang Bode, 4 June 1946). After World War II, dance music was also played in Chinese restaurants like the recently opened Restaurant Atom in the Pondok area, where, while enjoying dishes like martabak or mie goreng, one could listen to terang boelan muziek ('full-moon music', referring to the name of a popular kroncong song) on Sundays.

Radio had been around for some time, but only in the aftermath of the Second World War, with Indonesian Republicans and the Dutch in serious conflict, did local broadcasting take off. De Padang Bode of July 1946 carries a report about warnings by Radio Resmi Bandung (Bandung Official Radio) and attempts by 'anti-Soekarno' transmitters to undermine Republican broad- casting. In September 1946 Radio Sumatra began broadcasting in Medan, as an initiative of the Army Information Service. Its broadcasts - a mixture of Army Information Service news bulletins, request programmes (Een brief van

Downloaded from Brill.com09/23/2021 02:24:12PM via free access The Sound of 'Longing for Home' 423 u ... een plaat van ons), and music programmes featuring piano medleys and cinema organ music and performers like the Miller Sextet and Bing Crosby - were initially exclusively Dutch-language. Hawaiian music (Aan het strand van Waikiki), kroncong (Tropicana: Krontjong liedjes op de grammofoon) and west- ern music were especially popular in those days. Only at a later stage was the station renamed Radio Padang and relocated to that city and was the Indonesian language introduced in its broadcasts. In those days Padang was famous for its healthy climate and cosmopoli- tan character, but was also known as the home of the illustrious theatrical troupe Ratu Asia (Queen of Asia). This group was well known especially as the mouthpiece of the Divisi III Banteng, which was stationed in Padang just after the Second World War. It was usual then for live music to be mixed with what was referred to as opera but was in fact a kind of revue. Ratu Asia's artistic leader, Sjafei, contracted the famous Singapore-born singer Hasnah Thahar, who contributed to the group's fame in the 1950s, when it toured the whole of Indonesia, performing lagu Melayu (Tambajong 1992:284). She made several records for the nascent local recording industry in these years, includ- ing the best-sellers Yale yale and Khayal penyair. Vinyl never became popular in the archipelago, however.

6. From Latin rhythms to an all-Minanggenre (1950's-1970's)

In contrast to the Philippines (Lockard 1996:169), where a national musical genre seems to have been developed much more as the result of a collective effort by the musicians themselves, in Indonesia the musical scene seems to have been dominated by government policy from the start. Even at the proclamation of the Indonesian Republic, the Soekarno government realized that Indonesia as a nation needed a national culture.16 From the beginning the national broadcasting service, RRI, played a prominent role in the efforts to shape a national music. In the nineteen fifties, regional variants of the above-mentioned hiburan genre became popular. This hiburan daerah (regional entertainment) comprised melodies based on Indonesian regional melodies adapted to a largely western musical idiom. Recordings from this period, made primarily by the state-owned Lokananta Company, are characterized by the use of often emblematic instruments, like the Minangkabau talempong (gong chimes), as though the aim were to create a pseudo-Minang music.17 The hiburan daerah genre was entirely Jakarta-based and was closely associ-

16 See, for example, K.H. Dewantara (1967:74-103, 228) and Yampolsky's (1995) comments on cultural policies in Indonesia. 17 Yampolsky 1987 refers to several Minangkabau recordings from the 1960's, including Orkes Kesenian Gurindam Minang.

Downloaded from Brill.com09/23/2021 02:24:12PM via free access 424 Bart Barendregt ated with RRI. One might even call it Indonesia's first 'radio only' genre. In spite of these efforts, most Indonesian musicians continued to focus on what was happening in Anglo-American popular musical genres, soon producing something that was initially known as pop Melayu, but later more nationalistically renamed pop Indonesia. The lyrics of these songs were in a mixture of Indonesian and American English, leading the left-wing cultural organization LEKRA (Lembaga Kebudayaan Rakyat) to urge Soekarno to forbid this 'western-imitation rock'. In his Independence Day speech to the nation of 1959, Soekarno condemned Indonesian rock and roll, to which he facetiously referred as ngak-ngik-ngok (Tambajong 1992:19, 78). Instead he advocated an all-Indonesian popular culture more in harmony with the national character, along the lines of the North Sumatran serampang 12 dance. From 1962 on, Soekarno regularly sent groups of selected Indonesian artists, euphemistically called missi kebudayaan (cultural missions), around the archi- pelago as examples for the development of a national music.

The confrontation between east and west was 'resolved' in the late 1950s with the advent of the Latin American dance craze, which soon infiltrated popular music worldwide with the rumba, mambo, tango, bossa nova and cha-cha- cha.18 This Latin music was soon also picked up in Indonesia. Strikingly, how- ever, the lyrics to this music were not written primarily in Indonesian or Malay, but rather in regional languages. Examples of the first truly regional bands were Taboneo in Banjar, Lenny Beslar in Makassar, and the West Sumatran Orkes Gumarang, which is often regarded as a pioneer in the genre. Gumarang, which until then had played music of the Minang asli genre, became immensely popular in the fifties, claiming its music to be Minang moderen (modern Minangkabau). The group was formed in Jakarta in 1954 but only became known in 1957, under the guidance of the composer Asbon. Originally it played Minang-language lagu Melayu to the rhythm of rumba, mambo and gamad Melayu music. It especially emphasized the percussive element through the use of maracas, gendang (two-headed drums), and bongo drums, producing what sounded to some like a rather monotonous, less melodious kind music. 'Young people, however, loved to dance to it' (Tambajong 1992:181). Gumarang's most famous song, 'Ayam den lapeh' (My chickens are run- ning away), a hymn to Minang life sung on this occasion by Nurseha, was recorded in 1958 but was released only after Soekarno's 1959 speech. It was soon adopted as the prototype of an Indonesian popular music form that

18 Huge hits in those years were, for example, Harry Belafonte's Banana Boat (Day-o) (1957), Domenico Moduno's Volare, Perez Prado's Patricia and Mambo 8 (all 1958), Marty Robbins' El Paso (1959), and Nat King Cole's Quizas Quizas (1961).

Downloaded from Brill.com09/23/2021 02:24:12PM via free access The Sound of 'Longing for Home' 425 could provide perfect accompaniment for the serampang duabelas dance. Over time, many artists, including Elly Kasim, who started her career with the same Orkes Gumarang, recorded the song. It still regularly features on pop Minang cassettes today.19

The Orkes Gumarang was one of a kind and it is still nostalgically remem- bered by the older generation in Minangkabau. Although its national fame can be regarded as being partly the result of political circumstances, its suc- cess in West Sumatra was due to different factors. The Minang asli move- ment, of which Gumarang had been the most important exponent, had musi- cally raised the question of what it meant to be Minang. The question was formulated at a time, however, when centre-periphery tensions in the new Indonesian state were running deeper than ever. The central government had just suppressed the 1958 PRRI revolt in West Sumatra, the leaders of which had proclaimed an autonomous Islamic state. Seen in this light, the attempt to create an all-Minang genre appears to have been a political effort, espe- cially when one considers that the Orkes Gumarang was actually based in Jakarta. Gumarang aimed to be a representative genre that was at once mod- ern and definitely Minang. Themes dealt with in songs like 'Laruik sanjo, Malin kundang' and 'Ayam den lapeh', depicting life in the countryside, giving atmospheric impressions of the provincial town of Payakumbuh, and referring to traditional clan and family structures, were recognizable to the Minang community. In this specific social context the debate about a regional Minang music was triggered, and-in the next decades the discussion focused on the schism between authenticity and modernity. The basic subjects in this discussion were the choice of language, musical innovation, and the different ways of representing the motherland and its culture.

7. The politics of language

In daily life, language is one of the prime vehicles of Minangkabau culture, in which songs and poetry play a prominent part. For example, at the market the quality of fruit may be extolled in song-like phrases, which, like many musical genres, are referred to as dendang (see Lembago 2, 1996:4). A person offending someone, thus breaking the rules of etiquette, will not be reproved directly, as this would be considered embarrassing, but through sindiran (allu- sion), kato malereang (lateral talk), or pepatah pepitih (aphorisms).20 Sensitive

19 Examples are Efrinon's 1990 version in the album Pop Minang standard, special volume 2, and more recently Yossy den Has1 version on the album Roman cinto. 20 Shigeki (1997:12) calls it a 'song like style of conversation.'

Downloaded from Brill.com09/23/2021 02:24:12PM via free access 426 Bart Barendregt negotiations also demand language skills, being often conducted in the high- ly standardized ceremonial language called pidato. Language is furthermore an important instrument at each of the major points of the life cycle, such as birth, death and marriage. Formerly each village had a so-called cadie pandai (gifted person) or pandai bakato kato (talented speaker) (Van Hasselt 1883:229), who spoke on behalf of his fellows on important occasions. To its speakers Bahasa Minang is more than just a language - it is one of the most important media for the expression of Minang culture. It is a verbal art that should be mastered by everyone who desires to be known as a true Minangkabau.21 Like most Indonesians, the Minang are bilingual, speaking both Bahasa Indonesia and Bahasa Minang. Indonesian is used primarily on formal occasions and is thus associated with the dominant and official dis- course (Keane 1997:40); Bahasa Minang, on the other hand, is considered to be far more intimate and direct. Gumarang's success in the 1950s can be attributed partly to its conscious choice of the more direct and intimate Bahasa Minang, in contrast to, for example, the Minang singer Ernie Djohan, who sang her song 'Teluk Bayur' in Bahasa Indonesia. Accompanied by the Zaenal Combo and likewise dealing with life in the rantau, 'Teluk Bayur' became a national classic at approximate- ly also that time. Being sung in the national language, however, it was con- sumed by an all-Indonesia audience and not an exclusively Minang one.22 The question remains to what extent one can speak of a homogeneous Bahasa Minang. While Bahasa Minang has been taught again for a few years in elementary schools in West Sumatra, there is so far still no standard {bahasa baku) written form of the language, and the term Bahasa Minang continues to cover a wide range of local dialects. Weekly magazines and newspapers as well as Internet listservers shed an intriguing light on the variety of ver- sions of the written language, but also provide opportunities for commenting on it. It should be noted that Orkes Gumarang released its first songs in the Indonesian capital Jakarta, where at the time the music industry was based, far away from the Minang heartland. Here lived Minangkabau from many dif- ferent areas, which made it necessary to develop a Minang language that was comprehensible to Minang in both the rantau and the heartland, in contrast to the esoteric, often highly localized language used in traditional genres. One important question to which this gives rise is what Minang dialect(s)

21 Referred to as urang nan bana urang (Barendregt 1995:126). 22 A similar situation exists today with regard to the 1996 song 'Aduh Buyung' by the Minang group Kumbang Jati and the famous producer Fazal Dath. It was voted the best dangdut (a for- merly rather unsophisticated urban popular music genre) song of 1996. Though also dealing with Teluk Bayur, the port from which many Minang depart for the rantau, and using Minang talempong as a distant echo, the song, like its sequel 'Aduh Upik', was sung in Bahasa Indonesia and aimed at a national audience.

Downloaded from Brill.com09/23/2021 02:24:12PM via free access The Sound of 'Longing for Home' 427 one should sing in. A Minang composer told me a few years ago that, for example, Bahasa Minang darek, the dialects spoken in the Minang highlands, are preferred to the coastal variants, which some consider less refined and less intelligible to a broader audience. One may also note other tendencies, however. As first the Dutch colonial power and then the Indonesian bureau- cracy took a strong hold on the coastal town of Padang and this town devel- oped into the main political centre of the region, the Minangkabau came to be often referred to as orang Padang (Padang people), their food similarly being called masakan Padang. For this reason people increasingly speak of Bahasa Padang, the Minang language as spoken in the big city, which seems to be understandable to everyone. Pop Minang also reflects these tensions, which are locally often designated in the idiom of the ancient opposition between heartland and coastal region (darek-pasisia). Often, for instance, a more Malay version of Bahasa Minang is preferred. Due to its wide scope, pop Minang consequently developed into a prominent platform on which language use is discussed and a general variant is promoted.

8. Evoking the motherland: The alam Minang in the songs of Tiar Ramon and Elly Kasim

The 1970's can be regarded as a turning point in the music industry. Where Gumarang's music was primarily restricted to radio broadcasts and gramo- phone records, for the lucky few who were able to afford a record player, the rise of the cassette recording industry - putting on the market a cheaper product that was also more practical in a tropical climate - ushered in a golden age for regional pop. The various regional genres became so popu- lar that for some years regional stars even outstripped national pop stars in fame (see Tempo, 3 January 1981:40). Apart from prominent artists like Zaenal Arifin and Yan Bastian, Minang popular music in this decade is primarily associated with the two vocalists Elly Kasim and Tiar Ramon. Elly Kasim was the first Indonesian to be contracted by the Philips record company to make recordings abroad. In addition, Kasim, initially accompa- nied by the band Kumbang Tjari, is commonly regarded as a modernizer of pop Minang, ironically re-introducing western rock, at times combined with traditional lagu Minang. A good example of this is the song 'Ratok dagang' (Trader's tune) in an album she recorded for Metropolitan together with

23 The combination of tradisi and pop did not always result in a satisfying blend, however. Especially in melodies based on a pentatonic scale the result could be rather disconcerting, as in the case of the addition of traditional instruments like saluang and talempong. The most remark- able feature of this new-style pop Minang thus is the shift in instruments, emphasized by the introduction of amplified instruments like the guitar and bass. Where accordion parts are still

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The late Tiar Ramon as depicted on the sleeve of one of his first records, the Bisikan hati album (1972). Although most albums at the time were recorded in studios in Singapore and pop Indonesia was often still referred to as pop Melayu, this contains mainly Indonesian-language songs.

Gumarang's Juni Amir. This song features only saluang and vocals, accompa- nied only for the last few seconds by talempong-like guitar playing.23 It also includes the gamad-like 'Bananti di Pusaro'. Several of Kasim's other songs, such as 'Dayuang palinggam' and 'Andam oi', seem to be from the more traditional dendang repertory. Minang pop songs in this period were played predominantly in 4/4 metre, often with a typical counter-beat, while their easy to transcribe for the organ, combinations of other traditional instruments appear to be more difficult and are often restricted to introductions to songs, as if to notify the audience that they are really Minang songs.

Downloaded from Brill.com09/23/2021 02:24:12PM via free access The Sound of 'Longing for Home' 429 melodies were largely adapted melodies from a vast repertory of traditional songs with free improvisations through extra ornamentation (bungo). Kasim's vocal style especially differs hardly from that of the pedendang, with its tradi- tional ornamentation and glissandos.24 Kasim is supported in many duets by the late Tiar Ramon, a vocalist widely known as the talented songwriter of such classics as 'Insan dan bunga' and 'Elo pukek'. Ramon won regional fame after 1961, when he was proclaimed Bintang Radio Jenis Hiburan Padang (Hiburan Padang-Style Radio Star) for three successive years. He subsequently left for Jakarta and became active in the music scene there, recording albums with, among oth- ers, the Comandos (1972), and starring in the film Ranjang Pengantin. He also regularly recorded traditional folk songs and songs in the gamad idiom, as well as what is now officially known as pop Minang. Today, songs by Ramon and Kasim are considered lagu wajib (obligatory songs) for participants in the frequent pop Minang festivals (or Minang song contests). Moreover, as both are now recognized as the first pop Minang stars, they are/were frequently invited to adjudicate at these festivals. Elly Kasim at present has her own Jakarta-based agency for Minang-style fashion shows and performances.25 Kasim thus is constantly referring to her Minang identity. She is portrayed on cassette liners wearing traditional Minang costume and seated on the buf- falo cart (roda pedati) that she so often refers to in her songs. One of her most famous songs, 'Malam bainan' (On the eve of the wedding), recorded in a kroncong idiom, refers to the context of a traditional Minangkabau wedding, which went on for days, with the young bride nervously awaiting her future parents-in-law and her husband. Tiar Ramon initially recorded in Malay, even doing a Malay version of Sinatra's 'My way', entitled 'Melati ku' (My melati flower).H e soon switched to Bahasa Minang as his main medium, however. An example of this is his recording of the song 'Batu batuah' (magic stone), which is based on the legend Malin Kundang, describing the fate of a young Minang man who neglects his mother and as a result is turned into stone with his boat. For the Minang, who are pious Moslems, heaven is beneath the soles of one's mother's feet, so that neglect of one's mother is regarded as one of the gravest sins. Ramon also explicitly refers to his Minang identity in other songs, like 'Rumah makan Padang' (Padang restaurant). Kasim and Ramon, who regu- larly made recordings together, also released the album Baralek gadang (The big party), which imitates the liveliness of an evening of jesting (bagurau). Its fragments of ritual speech (pidato) and mock interaction with a supposed

24 For more comments on the relation between dendang and pop Minang see Hendri (2000: 12). 25 She can be contacted at www.EllyKasim.online.

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Sl£8£

Traditional imagery is often used to underline the Minang identity of artists. Here Kasim is portrayed sitting on a traditional buffalo cart. Cassette samplers like this one, containing well-known hits from the 1960s-1970s, are still best-sellers today.

audience serve as a framework for some of the best-known songs. Most striking, however, are the ways in which this regional pop music presents the cultural phenomenon of merantau as a tragic but unavoidable fact. It thus glorifies the moods of melancholy, nostalgia, and longing for an often distant other person that to a great extent define the Minang identity for themselves and others. Most of these songs hence are predominantly sad and melancholy. Colloquial Minang includes an enormous variety of words that describe these feelings, such as parasaih, risauan and ratok (Phillips 1991: 75; Firman 1992:28; Utama 2000:40). The association of Minangkabau music with melancholy gives instruments like the saluang and the rabab almost magical connotations. An example of the magic of the saluang is provided by pitunang, a kind of magic performed with charms uttered while singing or playing the flute, as a result of which an innocent object, even if miles

Downloaded from Brill.com09/23/2021 02:24:12PM via free access The Sound of 'Longing for Home' 431 away, may be lured hither by the sound of the saluang. Most traditional musicians are said to still use this technique in their performances. In some contexts the sound of the saluang, combined with the appropriate poetry, can be enough to pacify a swarm of bees or even trap a fierce tiger (Van Hasselt 1882:104; Kartomi 1972:26). That such magical music is shaped to a large extent by cultural concepts is testified by the fact that a large variety of melo- dies are associated exclusively with particular regions or villages and are sometimes even named after them. It is especially these melodies, which are commonly adapted to the pop Minang idiom, that seem to trigger emotions among migrants abroad and so are often requested at malam bagurau. For the Minangkabau this music has almost transcendental qualities, by which they are able to express and come to grips with emotions that are otherwise dif- ficult to deal with. The constant longing for distant relations is also expressed in the depic- tion of natural scenes in the motherland. This motherland might be distant, both in time and space, but its evocation gives it an almost tangible pres- ence, so that one is reconciled with one's absence from it through these songs. Gumarang's 'Ayam den lapeh', a song which most traditional musicians are said to include in their performances still today and which is often recorded by EUy Kasim and others, thus primarily sketches the contours of this distant motherland.

Luruihlah jalan Payokumbuah the straight road leading to Payakumbuh Babelok jalan Kayu Jati following the winding roads towards Kayu Jati Ayem den lapeh my chickens are running away

Mandaki jalan Vandal Sikek the ascending path to Pandai Sikek Manurun jalan ka Biaro then coming down from Biaro Awak takicuah ... ai... ai I've been deceived again... ai... ai

Sikua capang sikua capeh all is in vain, it seems no use Saikua tabang saikua lapeh one chicken flies, another is set free Lapehlah juo nan ka rimbo they fly off into the wilderness Oi lah malang juo ... such bad luck ...

Traditionally Minangkabau stories embedded certain events by referring to locally well-known people and places, thereby trying to underpin claims to their own material reality, as well as to the precedence of particular groups and individuals over others and ultimately the rights of these groups to cer- tain plots of land. This 'singing' of landscapes forms part of a well-known Southeast Asian phenomenon, namely that of origin songs. In Malay pantun, the descriptions of scenery are usually restricted to the first two lines, or sampiran (Chadwick 1994:109), in which the story is localized and embed-

Downloaded from Brill.com09/23/2021 02:24:12PM via free access 432 Bart Barendregt ded, while the third and fourth lines are reserved for the actual story and its meaning. Scholars have tended to overlook the sampiran, since it is com- monly supposed to be without any significance, but to a Malay audience it constitutes a crucial component of any kind of sung poetry, as it evokes an intimate setting that is familiar to both singer and audience. The evocation of a landscape through song may even have a different origin, as suggested by Marina Roseman (1998:111), for example. This author, describing how people actually 'sing the landscape', disputes the prevailing notion that hunter-gath- erer societies have no territorial claims. According to her, the relation of the latter to the land is indeed more balanced than that of more complex agri- cultural or peasant societies, where people try to control the land, and they have different modes of expressing concepts of space and place, which sug- gest alternative forms of land use and ownership. So the Malaysian Temiar map and mediate their relationships to the land and each other through song, through a medium that Keil and Feld (1994:128) once labelled 'musecology'. They record and name regions they have traversed or cultivated in songs which they claim to have received from the 'souls of the landscape', its flora and fauna.26 These songs thus are a way of both constituting and experienc- ing a place, and help explain any changes in the landscape. Among the Minangkabau, as in most other Sumatran societies, traditional sung poetry is to a certain extent still regarded as such a vehicle for particular claims. It is one of the principal tasks of traditional authorities here to inter- pret and evaluate these historiographical songs, or tambo. Such 'origin songs', which appear to constitute a prominent element in almost all traditional per- forming arts, thus represent more of a strategy and form a category rather than a distinct genre. Most pop Minang songs also depict landscapes with familiar mountains, rivers and villages that are not restricted to any particu- lar single area, but instead constitute general Minang symbols, such as Lake Singgalang and Mount Marapi.27 By referring to these well-known icons, they contribute to a sense of community, or instant intimacy, with a scope that extends far beyond the single communities referred to in more tradi-

26 James Fox (1997:92) puts forward a similar argument, introducing the concept of 'topogeny', involving the recitation of place names in an ordered sequence. Topogenies can be viewed as 'a distinctive means for the ordering and transmission of social knowledge', while they relate peo- ple, houses and villages to each other, enabling communities to localize themselves in time and space. 27 The song Maminang1, for example, describes the Minang landscape in the words 'Tinggi ting- gi oi Gunung Marapi, Gunung Singgalang banyak manjago' (high is the peak of Mount Marapi, Mount Singgalang watches over many), a common phrase in Minangkabau pop songs. In other songs well-known rivers are referred to, as in 'Malereang tabiang' (Janiah aianyo sungai tanang, Minuman urang Bukik Tinggi: clear is the water of the calm river, drinking-water to the people of Bukittinggi), or famous spots are described, as in 'Kelok sembilan' (Mandaki jalan ka Payakumbuah, Baranti tanang kelok sembilan: the ascending path to Payakumbuh, taking it easy at the nine bends).

Downloaded from Brill.com09/23/2021 02:24:12PM via free access The Sound of'Longing for Home' 433 tional types of song. As a result they are comprehensible to all Minangkabau, both in the motherland and in the diaspora. Even younger people who have never visited the motherland are able to visualize it in this way. While their lyrics are far less esoteric and have nothing to do with specific claims, pop Minang songs possess evocative qualities as strong as those of the old sung poetry. In a sense pop Minang songs can thus be seen as regional-level songs of origin and as one of the principal media through which the Minangkabau universe may be continually reconsidered. The general conceptual landscape depicted in pop songs is referred to as ranah bundo (motherland), ranah Minang (the Minang territory), or indeed alam Minangkabau. The well-known song 'Kambanglah bungo' (unfolding flower) provides an example of the kind of imagery involved:

Di desa susun ranah Minang in the villages in the Minangkabau highlands Bungo kambang Samarak Anjuang blooms the samarak anjuang flower Pusaka Minang ranah Pagarruyung a Minang heirloom in the land of Pagarruyung

These metaphors refer to an emotional attachment to a particular place, rather than to any physical reality, and express a sense of belonging. The landscape evoked in this way becomes a framework, held together by old memories of long-lost spots, in which idealized images of village life28 and other nostalgic images combine to make up a meta-Alam.

9. Pop Minang in the 1990s: Musical innovations and transcultural musics

The 1970s, primarily associated with singers like Tiar Ramon, Elly Kasim and Zaenal Arifin, who along with others assured pop Minang of a place in the national popular culture, were the golden age for pop Minang. As these names were almost synonymous with pop Minang, the younger generation of singers and composers found it quite difficult to gain admission to this regional music scene. In the mid-1990s, when I first started doing research on pop Minang, there were only a few recording companies in West Sumatra, located primarily in Padang and Bukittinggi. The most prominent of these were Minang Records, Sinar Padang, and Tanama, of which only the last had its own studio. They all released exclusively cassettes, most of them containing compilations of 1970s

28 See, for example, Oslan Hussein's 'Kampuang nan jauh di mato' (the far-away hamlet), made famous by Zaenal Arifin, which says that panduduknyo nan elok, nan suko bagotong royong, kok susah samo samo diraso, den takana jo kampuang (its villagers are gentle and cooperative, trou- bles and hard times are shared, what affects one person, affects all).

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classics. Sinar Records, moreover, focused almost exclusively on the tradition- al rabab genre. In the past few years this situation has changed drastically, and we now witness what might be regarded as a renaissance of Minang popular musics. According to Agus Taher, a prominent writer of pop Minang songs and part-time director of Pitunang Records (see below), this change is explained by the desire of young artists and songwriters to release their own products. The studio of the local ASKI conservatorium outside Padang Panjang has provided a sound alternative to the old monopoly and is still proving a great help to promising new artists. In the past five years, moreover, a range of new recording studios has sprung up. At present there are about 50 compa- nies recording popular Minang songs, including Pitunang, Caroline Records, Ganto Minang, Gurindam, Amel, and the reactivated Edo Records. In contrast to the national pop Indonesia companies, which increasingly have to compete with multinationals like Warner and Sony, these companies are mostly local. In spite of the current economic crisis (krismon), pop Minang today is a boom- ing business, offering employment to numerous singers, songwriters, musi- cians and studio engineers.29 Most recording companies have their own network of agents, who distribute their products far into the rantau. Cassettes and, increasingly, VCDs and CDs are regularly distributed to Minangkabau living as far away as Jakarta, Riau, Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei. There is also a huge non-Minang audience for these. The recent popularity of Minang pop songs is testified particularly by the success of the singers Zalmon and Melati, who both won the prestigious Anugerah Musik Indonesia award in the regional pop music (pop daerah) category.30

The various local radio stations naturally have played an important role in the promotion of pop Minang. Especially the mushroom growth of com- mercial radio stations in the 1980s and 1990s, like Susi FM or Harau FM in Padang, did a lot for regional pop music. The language used by these stations switches between Minang and Indonesian, while the programmes of most of them include Minang specials. These so-called acara Minang (Minangkabau programmes) feature both local pop idols and traditional saluang music, and include call-in programmes in which listeners exchange Minang poems of their own composition. For a few years now Padang has had a local branch of the national television broadcasting company, TVRI, which regularly televises pop Minang videos, besides programmes of traditional genres like randai or rabab.

29 Personal communication by Agus Taher (composer and director of Pitunang Records), February 2001. 30 For the album Nan tido manahan hati in 1996 and the Disco Minang remix album (Bugih Lamo) in 1995 respectively. These awards are dependent not so much on sales figures as on a vote by a select panel of representatives of the music industry.

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A particularly popular venue for the past few decades has been provided by festivals like the Festival Pop Minang. Where live pop Minang perform- ances are rare and seem to contribute little to an industry in which songs are the almost exclusive products of the composer and studio musicians, these festivals, which are held regularly, both on the provincial and the national level, are especially important for the cassette industry. They have a long tradition and provide an opportunity for recording companies to promote their products and scout for new talent. Many famous composers owe their success to a high place in such competitions. Nuskan Syarif, who accompa- nied Elly Kasim, for example, in 1955 gained a place in the Radio Star Festival (Festival Bintang Radio), as Tiar Ramon did in 1961. Current favourites, like the group Anroys, the singer Effrinon, and the composer Agus Taher, also broke through thanks to such festivals. There are a number of such festivals, like the Islamic Minang song fes- tivals (Festival Lagu Minang Bernafaskan Islam), a special festival for par- ticipants from Java and Bali (Festival Lagu Minang se-Jawa dan Bali), and special competitions for children. Their enormous popularity is obvious from an initiative by the Jakartan artists' association Partiko31 to organize a national Minang song festival (Festival Penyanyi Minang se-Indonesia) annually at different locations. They also serve various commercial interests, as is testified by their sponsorship by cigarette companies and the like. The exact relation between the recording industry and these other commercial interests remains to be investigated, however. Pop music is also considered important in the promotion both of regional tourism to West Sumatra and of Minang culture in other provinces (Singgalang, 11 November 1996). In short, regional pop music and its performances are slowly providing one of the most popular settings for contemplating an overall Minangkabau identity, drawing together Minangkabau from different nagari and provinces from right across Indonesia. The standardizing effects of these developments have been commented on elsewhere (see, for example, Andaya 2000:37). In pop Minang the rise of a standard folkloristic image is evi- dent from the depictions on cassette and CD liners of traditional symbols such as the characteristic granaries and bansi flutes and the traditional costume more often than not worn by the artists. It is often also apparent from the con- spicuous incorporation of proverbs into the song lyrics. These standardizing effects are also apparent in other musical aspects, however.

31 Persatuan Artis Ibukota (Association of Artists of the Capital). The third Festival Penyanyi Minang se-Indonesia took place in 1996. It drew participants from seven provinces. The initia- tive apparently aroused nationalist sentiments, as may be concluded from the West Sumatran Resistance Song Competition (Lomba Penyanyi Lagu Perjuangan se-Sumbar), which was held at the same time (Kompas online, 12 October 1996).

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Improved communications and the wide spread of inexpensive cassette tech- nology in the 1970s led to a boom in the distribution of mass-mediated music that eventually contributed to an almost universal cultural synchronization and musical experience, described by Malm (1993:343) as 'transcultural music'. This term denotes a combination of stylistic elements from a number of musical genres disseminated cross-nationally through a wide range of media. This has resulted in, for instance, the universal popularity of disco music in the 1970s and the spread of other electronic music genres in the 1980s and 1990s. In the past few years Indonesia too has experienced a number of often very brief crazes like Techno Sunda, Disco Bali-India, Disco Dangdut, Melayu Acid, and Jaipongan House Musik. More recently Betawi hip hop, Ska, and R & B have hit the scene.32 Similar developments can be noted with regard to Minang popular musics. Anyone entering a cassette shop in West Sumatra today will find under pop Minang such varying genres as saluang disco 2001 I saluang dangdut maso kini (contemporary saluang dangdut), gamad 2001, talem- pong goyang (shaking or 'funky' talempong), disco reggae Minang, and Minang house music, performed by the likes of Melati and Upik Malay. Taking Manuel's (1988) claim that popular music is primarily dissemi- nated by the mass media as starting-point, we can distinguish a wide range of musics earmarked by the music industry as pop Minang.33 Rather than get caught up in methodological issues of genre and sub-genre, one would do well to note that the label pop Minang covers a large repertory of songs and melodies that are constantly being recycled, transformed and adapted to dif- ferent idioms.34 As a result of the rise of a regional pop industry the need is

32 See 'Yang sedang naik daun; Kaset keroncong disko-reggae', Kompas online, 16 April 1996. The summer of 1996 saw the appearance of Guruh Sukamoputra's 'Hosmiks' in the album ntXtc and Barakatak's Melayu acid. Disco Dangdut slowly shed its lower-class aura, moving into mid- dle-class discotheques with highly suggestive lyrics like those in 'Cubit tak mau Cubit' and 'Lipstik'. Indonesia finally experienced its big R & B success with Reza's album Keajaiban, which was an enormous best-seller in 1999, while the Alternatif genre as exemplified by the groups Wong and Pad and the JFGF group's ska music were the cool thing in Jakarta in 2000. 33 Sean Williams (1989:128), in her article on pop Sunda, defines pop Sunda as a reper- tory of songs and melodies that can be adapted to different idioms, which she calls 'modes of performance/recording'. Van Zanten (1989:181), writing about a different genre in Sunda, sug- gests that genres are defined primarily by social criteria or by the genres they are based on. In the case of pop Minang, however, which is seldom performed live outside the festival context, it is hardly possible to speak of clearly demarcated audiences for each of the different idioms. Judging from the credits on cassette liners, moreover, the same producers, composers and artists seem to be involved in all the various idioms. Future research may reveal to what extent the dif- ferent idioms have different audiences in terms of age, gender, and social background. 34 One of the advantages of pop Minang to which composers and consumers sometimes point is the vast wealth of local sources by which it is allegedly fed. These sources include dendang darek, dendang pauh (Padang), palayaran (both darek and pasisia), gamad, indang (Pariaman), rabab (Pesisir Selatan), salawat, sampelong (Payakumbuh), and randai.

Downloaded from Brill.com09/23/2021 02:24:12PM via free access The Sound of 'Longing for Home' 437 arising not only to distribute local music by means of the 'new media' but also to create new musics for these media. Many recent developments in pop Minang can thus be better explained by means of a modern consumption analysis. While lagu Minang continue to be presented in live performances, they are simultaneously being re-invented and modernized for distribution on cassette, radio and VCD as pop Minang. 'Mediaization' is a term commonly used to denote the processes by which music is modified as a result of interaction with the media system (Wallis and Malm 1984:278). Live traditional and mediated modern genres, as elsewhere, are mutually related rather than strictly separate domains: singers giving traditional performances also record these in studios. Although adaptation of traditional genres to modern formats has not always proved successful, the outcome of such attempts has to a large extent shaped pop Minang and everything that can be remotely classified as such. An example is the popu- lar randai theatre, actually a mixture of various Minang art forms, of whose several components songs and dialogues are the principal ones, although the martial art movements in it are generally considered the most spectacular.35 It was popular for a while in radio plays as presented by the local station of the national broadcasting service (RRI Padang). In the 1980s it was often adapted to cassette recordings. As the kaba stories featured in randai far exceed the length of a single cassette, however, these cassettes were sold in packets of six or more, of which many consumers tended to buy only the first two.36 The introduction of new media has had other consequences as well. Female vocalists, for example, seem to be considerably better represented in contemporary regional pop musics than in the more traditional Minangkabau genres, in which they seldom figured as soloists. The possibilities for reach- ing stardom here are much less limited than in the more traditional genres, with their strict taboos on women performing in public. In other cases the restrictions and the advantages of these formats have admitted of innovations by which genres have been transformed in often surprising ways. An example is the revival of kalason oto (literally 'car horn') music. This was a widely heard genre in Minangkabau until the 1970s, and there are still many stories of village girls being lured by its sound, never to return home again. It was produced by a kind of organ with pipes fitted in the engines of long-distance buses, played for the passengers' entertainment

35 Because of its many visual aspects, randai seems to lend itself better for the VCD format, but so far there have not appeared many randai adaptations on VCD. I know of one VCD recording of randai excerpts, namely Kesenian tradisi Minang Kabau, Vol. 1, by the Indo Jati Theatre, affiliated with the Padang cultural centre. As the sound quality of traditional performances is generally poor, presentation on VCD seems rather a waste of time. On this particular VCD, significantly, the sound was overdubbed. 36 See Phillips 1992 for similar developments in the traditional sijobang genre.

Downloaded from Brill.com09/23/2021 02:24:12PM via free access 438 Bart Barendregt by means of a keyboard mounted on the dashboard. As this was only possible in the characteristic Chevrolet and Ford buses of the period, kalason oto disap- peared when these makes of bus went out of use around 1975, but was later 'reborn' as a cassette genre bearing this name. On the kalason oto cassettes made popular especially by Melati and Asben, an ordinary Casio organ is used to imitate the sound, and more emphasis is placed on the lyrics, which regularly refer to the long-distance bus of old. In 1996, buses of the Payakumbuh-based Gumarang Company again used the sound of similar Casio organs to attract the attention of potential passengers. This is an illustration of the often com- plicated interaction between live genres and their cassette equivalents. The mediatized kalason oto genre is thus difficult to distinguish from other con- temporary popular Minang musics, and only its name carries an echo of its original context. Where genres are adapted to other media, standardization seems to be an unavoidable outcome, often leading to the use of the same melodies from more traditional contexts again and again. The repertoire of the singer Melati, who brought out several successful albums in the 1990s, offers a good example of the adaptation of traditional melodies to a new popular idiom. After starting out as a traditional singer in the saluang jo dendang genre, Melati's star rose with the release of two cassettes under the Tanama label. These cassettes, sporting the catchy title Disco mix reggae Minang, were instant best-sellers throughout West Sumatra. They could be heard continually on every long-distance bus. They were even nominated for the 1996 Anugerah Music Indonesia (AMI) award in the regional pop category. The songs brought together on these two cas- settes are a subtle mix of new and traditional compositions, as, for example, 'Kutang barendo' and 'Bugih lamo', rendered in a pulsing disco beat with a dominant reggae bass for the occasion. They include a remarkable contribu- tion by MC Hendrik Malik, who also appeared in Junita's Saluang-talempong reggae album, but in this album is praised for his 'rap and beat'. His raps and rhymes strangely enough bear no relation whatever to the contents of the songs in which they figure. His contributions can often be characterized as a modern variant of the 'fillers' (bunyi penyisip) of traditional genres (Suryadi 1996:93). They only serve as an introduction or are made up of mere exple- tives, like oi or onde (Good Lord!), which basically express approval, but contribute greatly to the recreation of the atmosphere of an interactive live performance.37 The MC, substituting for the live audience, here partly com-

37 For instance, MC Malik raps, 'Oh God / Kutang barendo / the title of the song 7 so it says / the rhythm and the rest / I like it and so you are [...] come everybody', which is followed by Melati singing, 'Lai la kutang barendol nan tampuruanu sayak babulu / Alah marandah sarang tampuol elok di caliak lah dahulu' (Oh my God, the bra is decorated all over with lace / a coconut half as a fibrous drinking-cup / a weaverbird nestles on a low branch / something strange is going on, let's go and find out).

Downloaded from Brill.com09/23/2021 02:24:12PM via free access The Sound of 'Longing for Home' 439 pensates for the loss of this atmosphere. The result is a surprising blend of vocal phrases sung by Melati, complete with dendang-like ornamentation, set to what might be called a 'transcultural dance track'. MIDI equipment and samplers enable the inclusion of more traditional instruments like the accor- dion, bansi flute, or talempong gong chimes. Especially the juxtaposition of English and Minangkabau lyrics gives what is otherwise a traditional tune a modern aura, thereby referring to the western values that are idealized by so many young Asians (Lent 1994:2). In Melati's most recent album, Dimabuak cinto (Drunk with love), the mix- ture of traditional and modern trends is taken further, the resultant style being described as Disco Minang House Music. The rhythm is provided largely by instrumental, repetitive gong-chime music (kalenkong) mixed with pentatonic saluang flute and accordion passages. The times are changing and so is the music. Melati seems to be aware of this, as witness the final track of the album, called, not surprisingly Jaman Barubah' (The times they are a-changing).

Iyo kato rang dulu, people used indeed to say Dunia banyak parubahan, there are a lot of changes in the world Galak tasengang dulu raso malu, there used to be a sense of shame Maliek mode bamacam ragam today anything goes

10. Inti Minang' as cultural marker The changing of the times has given rise to the question of what pop Minang should ideally sound like. It would be na ve to think simply, as do some, that western popular music is slowly replacing indigenous musics. Every culture has its own mechanisms for dealing with external change, filtering out imported elements and adapting them to a local context and local tastes, and reconciling them with current notions of 'tradition'. Public debates between intellectuals, performers, and audiences tend to focus on questions of authenticity. It is a fact that some of the best-selling pop Minang record- ings of the past years sound like mere imitations. Some producers and artists regularly use 'instant' melodies borrowed from, for example, pop Indonesia, western and Mandarin songs, or the immensely popular Indian film sound- tracks.38 Pop Minang anak-anak (children's Minangkabau pop), with singers like Chikita Meidy, over the past few years has largely followed the national children's song trend, which, in spite of the recent economic crisis, has been

38 In 2000 the most popular cassette in West Sumatra was Opetra's Kecek kecek amak..e..e.e., a Minang adaptation of the soundtrack of the Bollywood love film Kuch kuch hotta hai that swept the Southeast Asian region in 1999. 39 See 'Generation "O" (bok-obok) knocks on the door' (Yuliawan et al. 1999) and 'Laris manis, penyanyi anak-anak di masa krisis' (Kompas online, 10 May 1998).

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The artist Zalmon is regarded by many as the reviver of pop Minang in the early 1990s. His success was due partly to the appearance of promising new composers and songwriters, including Agus Taher, the part-time director of Pitunang Records, which released this album. extremely successful commercially.39 Minang hip hop and techno, on the other hand, drew serious criticism from songwriters and composers, some of whom felt these idioms to be strictly commercial and totally irreconcilable and incompatible with Minangness. The discussion here focused on tradi- tion, modernity and authenticity. Besides the transcultural trends or national developments, such as in pop anak anak (children's pop), there has been an alternative development, the product of which was labelled pop Minang standard by the industry. It represents a serious attempt to achieve a more 'authentic' kind of regional pop music. Curiously, this pop Minang standard goes to considerable lengths to produce an ultra-Minang sound. Pentatonic instruments like the saluang flute and the rabab, which were neglected in the 1960s or were replaced by

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Yossy Den Has been involved in recent attempts at developing a more 'authentic' regional pop music, labelled on the cover of this cassette as Mega pop Minang. the piano, organ and guitar, have been re-introduced thanks partly to the wider range of possibilities offered by samplers and MIDI equipment.40 Representative of this trend are the albums brought out by artists like Yenny Puspita, Yossy Den Has, and particularly the former street musician Zalmon. Zalmon's 1993 album Kasiak tujuah muaro is widely regarded as marking a comeback of pop Minang, both on the national and the provincial level. Its title song, and probably Zalmon's most famous song, refers to the Minangkabau expression Ramuan tujuh muaro, denoting a love potion made up of the sand from seven river estuaries, which is supposed to close one's heart and soul to a potential new love. Those believing that new times require new themes have proved wrong.

40 For similar developments in Hong Kong Cantopop see Ching-Yun Lee (1992:14), who points to Japanese influence where she refers to what she calls 'quasi pentatonic melodies'.

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The inspiration for lyrics is drawn partly from the kaba and pantun tradition. Like their traditional equivalents, these lyrics emphasize sadness and melan- choly. Ranah Minang is still a popular theme here, as is clear from Yossy Den Has' 'Taragak pulang' (1996). Ranah Minang nan denai cinto the realm of Minang, which I so love Nagari elok rancak alamnyo its splendid villages and serene nature Gunuang Singgalang Tagak manjago Mount Singgalang with its high peak Gunuang Marapi kapasangannyo matching Mount Marapi Nantilah denai ondeh denai kapulang juo later, oh, I shall also return home Karanah bundo kanduang kilo basamo to our common motherland

Both on the point of form and content pop Minang is likely to become a subject of the ongoing debate, which continues to be influenced to a large extent by changing formats and technological innovations. Currently VCD is one of the most promising new formats, which may again trigger a different interaction between sound and image. The Padang branch of TVRI has been on the air for a few years now, and although it has a good reputation in the field of local traditional art programmes, regional pop videos are posing a new challenge. There seem to be good local facilities for the production of VCDs, however, with even the remotest villages possessing the necessary equipment, and several pop Minang VCDs have in fact been released in the last two years.41 Other formats will soon be introduced, however, one of the most promising among them streaming (or Internet) media. These are already being used at present on the web sites of some local recording companies.42 These developments are regularly discussed in the framework of PAPPRI (Persatuan Artis, Pencipta Lagi dan Penata Musik Rekaman Indonesia), the local branch of the Indonesian Recording Composers and Arrangers Association, of which the seventies idol Tiar Ramon was president during the last years of his life. In the absence of both an organized trade union and a professional music press, this forum focuses on the above-mentioned devel- opments and related topics like copyrights, piracy, and the aesthetic qualities of new products in the cassette industry. One should be careful, however, not to overemphasize the conscious character of pop Minang standard. In contrast to, for example, West Javanese pop Sunda (Williams 1989:129; Subagio 1989), regional pop music in West Sumatra has never given rise to seminars or publications. There is no official debate about pop Minang, and the discussion of a modern 'all-Minang music'

41 Examples of such VCDs are Batu tagak by Efrinon and Bukik Lantiak by a group of Pitunang artists featuring Anroys. 42 See www.musikminang for an example of online sales and samples in ASF (Advanced Systems Format, a currently popular format for streaming media).

Downloaded from Brill.com09/23/2021 02:24:12PM via free access The Sound of 'Longing for Home' 443 is largely embedded in a wider discourse on the question of Minang-ness and the implications of this concept at a time of rapid globalization. In West Sumatra various media have been instrumental in shaping this discourse. Local newspapers like Hainan and Singgalang almost daily feature articles on recent changes in Minangkabau culture and society. The recent debate on otonomi daerah is reinforcing traditionally strong adat institutions like the LKAM (Lembaga Kerapatan Adat Minang, Minangkabau Adat Council) in this part of Sumatra. Minang customary law has recently been put back on the elementary school curriculum as a subject, as has Bahasa Minang. In 1986 the Yayasan Genta Budaya, a cultural association which aims to monitor developments in Minang culture through a cultural magazine and seminars, was founded in Padang. The cultural centre Taman Budaya, also in Padang, which stages both traditional and contemporary dance and the- atrical performances, has also got a discussion going on the question of what is so essentially 'Minang' about Minang art. Its debates are relevant to the future direction of pop Minang, and it could even be that pop Minang has to a large extent popularized this discussion. The problem is how to create a modern Minang genre with which a mod- ern audience can identify and which at the same time does not ignore its traditional Minang roots. As the history of pop Minang shows, 'authenticity is definitely not a property of music, [but rather] a discursive trope of great persuasive power. It focused a way of talking about music' (Stokes 1994: 7). Some Minangkabau musicians and composers will describe the features that distinguish pop Minang from other regional genres, such as its alleged preference for major chords and the rich local sources from which it takes its inspiration, as primarily musical. A key position is assigned in this discourse to the concept of so-called inti Minang - a constant Minang factor or essence to which all forms of Minang art should submit if they are to be considered 'truly Minang'. This essence in fact comprises a number of aesthetic rules to which I have alluded throughout this article. The environment in which they have their roots should inspire Minang artists to take the alam as teacher. In essence this philosophy links up with common concepts in the more tradi- tional Minangkabau arts, in which every creative act is the product of experi- ence and technical skill {pareso) on the one hand and emotions and intuition (raso) on the other. Music should focus on the emotions and the moods it is likely to evoke rather than on technical details and outward form.43 Although pop Minang is essentially secular and the concepts raso and pareso are certainly

43 In more spiritual, Sufi-oriented genres the dyad of form and content is often designated with the words lahir-batin, implying art as a mirror of the soul. By aiming at external harmony, in an attempt to understand the fundamental laws of the universe, inner perfection is finally achieved (see Barendregt 1995:128). This concept seems to have been influenced to a large extent by the Indian aesthetic concept of rasa-bava.

Downloaded from Brill.com09/23/2021 02:24:12PM via free access 444 Bart Barendregt not explicitly applied, their influence is noticeable in some aspects of the genre. The ultimate artistic aim of pop Minang is to evoke emotions of risau and parasaih, sadness and melancholy. Moreover, Minangness for most popu- lar music consumers consists in the moral lessons of many songs, the lyrics of which are often couched in rather esoteric language {bahasa kiasan). Pop Minang, while providing an alternative to some increasingly incomprehensi- ble traditional art forms like salawat, rabab and dendang, is continuing in their tradition of subtle allusion, whereby the listener should listen not only to the words being said or sung, but also to what he/she can actually hear. While pop Minang is providing one of the most important platforms for discussing both spoken and written Bahasa Minang, its inclusion of such indirect and highly refined language qualifies it as primarily a verbal art, to be developed further through the new media.

Conclusion

Like other regional popular musics, Minang popular music had its heyday in the 1950s and early 1960s and should be seen against the background of the center-periphery tensions marking the birth of the Indonesian Republic. Although in the 1970s it enjoyed national fame as a result of the success of acclaimed singers like Tiar Ramon and Elly Kasim, pop Minang currently is experiencing a genuine renaissance, as evidenced by the appearance of new studios and distribution companies and the rising number of young artists. Not coincidentally, this renaissance may well be connected with similar political tensions and a similar demand for more regional autonomy to those attending the birth of regional popular music. The call for local autonomy and the gradual re-emergence of former and formation of new adat alliances will probably only reinforce the current trend. This popular domain, rather than being the outcome of an intentional political initiative, however, seems to be more of a spontaneous artistic outlet for comments on current and anticipation of future processes, whereby regional identity is also discussed and represented. The familiar historical metaphors of the motherland and the overarching Minangkabau universe are being once more successfully employed here. There are new techniques and technologies that promise to play a promi- nent role in the re-emergence of Minangkabau regional music around the corner. VCD and the Internet, and related new technologies like mp3 and streaming media, are likely to provide some of the many challenging oppor- tunities. Having said this, one should note that some skepticism about the impact of these developments, and especially the wider distribution pos- sibilities offered by these new communication devices, is also in place. 'In

Downloaded from Brill.com09/23/2021 02:24:12PM via free access The Sound of 'Longing for Home' 445 comparison music technology is relatively unknown in Southeast Asia, at least to the vast majority of its residents. The main reason for this is simple - the technology is simply too expensive for the average person, and there- fore irrelevant.' (Ang 2001:3.) Indonesia still is one of the least 'wired' Asian countries44, and this also applies to the West Sumatran region. The video CD might prove an exception, as it is already enormously popular nation-wide, with some releases already being distributed exclusively on VCD. Although VCD players, computers and other new formats are proving to be prod- ucts par excellence through which young Indonesians especially appear to express a desire for modernity and cosmopolitanism, the new technologies seem to have a rather negative image in the national popular press, where the VCD format, for example, is associated primarily with piracy, pornography and political violence. The developments in question will therefore tend to pose new problems as well as provide new opportunities for the local intel- ligentsia, performers and audiences alike. One such problem is, for example, how to transform a regional musical genre that explicitly emphasizes the verbal component and that appears to be basically a continuation of more traditional verbal genres, into something that is suitable for distribution on video clips and VCDs - media that especially emphasize images.

It is widely recognized that Minang music should continually adapt if it is to continue to appeal to the Minang community as a whole. This includes not only a younger generation which can no longer understand the archaic language of traditional genres, but also Minangkabau living in the rantau, for whom the concept of Minang-ness has become quite different over the years. Change is something to which Minang culture has always been recep- tive, however. Music and dance are considered to be integral to so-called isti adat: those customs that are amenable to change through dialogue (Harun 1992:43). Minang arts thus constitute an essentially dynamic heritage. As a Minang proverb says: 'After each flood, the bathing place changes' (after every big event, new customs arise).45 From locally embedded musics, in which origin songs shaped both the individual and the community, Minang musics have increasingly developed into mass-mediated regional musics directed at the Minangkabau commu- nity as a whole. This shift reflects ongoing processes of increases in scale and technological innovation in the wake of which the alam Minangkabau has necessarily had to be reconfigured. The Minangkabau world has always

44 'In a country with 210 million people there are only two million PCs and 200,000 Internet dial-up users. If group users and outlet visitors are added to this, domestic Internet users number only 790,000. Of these, only 72,000 are domestic online shoppers. Of 70 business licenses issued, only 25 have been realized for no more than 5,400 domain names.' (Tamara 2000.) 45 Sakali aia gadang, sakali tapian barubah, namun aia kalian juo, sakali gadang batuka.

Downloaded from Brill.com09/23/2021 02:24:12PM via free access 446 Bart Barendregt been a conceptual rather than a geographical reality, and constantly changing media technologies are supplying the means with which to further constitute this 'virtual alarri and comment on it. In this context, pop Minang seems to rep- resent one of the most democratic efforts to re-localize the Minang commu- nity. Differently from the intelligentsia and from seminars and publications, it is trying to formulate a working definition of Minang-ness at the dawn of the 21st century.

ABBREVIATIONS USED

ASKI Akademi Seni Karawitan Indonesia, a national music conservatorium MC Master of Ceremonies PRRI Pemerintah Revolusioner Republik Indonesia (Revolutionary Government of the Republic of Indonesia) RRI Radio Republik Indonesia, the national radio broadcasting service TVRI Televisi Republik Indonesia , the national television service.

REFERENCES

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