An impassioned plea for dangdut music on TPI and an ode to its earthy soulful charms.
Save Dangdut! (TM)
Seksi Friend,
Neither Man – nor Woman – can live on Nasi alone: we need Dangdut. But Seksi Friend, yet another great institution is under fire, one which gives hope and light to millions of struggling Indonesians every day it airs.
TPI Dangdut is facing closure. No. More. TPI. Dangdut.
We must act together. We must act to…
Save Dangdut! (TM)
Music, as my ex-girlfriend Madonna once sang, brings the people together. Today, old IM sparring partners, Mr. Ross and Drs. Achmad stand together, united, in our call to you, dear readers, to help save TPI Dangdut and the spirit of freedom across Indonesia.
Ah, Dangdut. Its aching melodies, winding and gyrating through the tin shanties of the Kampung, the macet, the crackling radio, are sweeter than honey. The Indo-Arabic pulse of Dangdut tells of love, of loss, and sometimes silly things like staying up late with your friends or two people eating out of one plate.
Elvy Sukaesih. Evie Tamala. Rhoma Irama. Meggy Z. There are many more, Seksi Friend. The likes of Diponegoro, Si Pitoeng, and Gen. Nasution may be heroes of combat and the physical revolution.
What of the revolution of the heart ?
Dangdut lets you goyang (swing your hips) and twiddle your thumbs without the pressure of being Keren (cool), or going to a fancy nightclub.
Dangdut speaks to your soul, the one that likes sop buntut or knows that nasi goreng from a Pedagang Kaki Lima (street vendor) tastes so much better than any 5 star chef could ever make. And that’s you, mall goer, Blackberry user, iPhone user, Facebook member.
Embrace your inner Norakhood.
Look at what Dangdut has achieved. Ross and I, old enemies, now allies, joined by the spirit of the goyang. We once even engaged in an IM-sponsored insult fest. He called me abrasive, mean, mendacious and carnaptious; I called him a bacterial experiment from a petri dish. And yet now, Dangdut has united us as comrades.
We call on You, IM readers,
To join our campaign,
To help save the spirit of Freedom,
To help save TPI Dangdut.
Save Dangdut ! (TM)
So Mr. Patoengs, do you support our campaigns ?
I think the “kampungan”/ tacky impression of TPI is due to its orientation to take the segment of middle to lower class audiences while the upper class has been targeted by other stations such as Metro, or Trans TV. While they wrongly interpret that targeting the low class means less educational stuffs needed is something I agree they need to fix about.
I also think that it is a matter of musical taste whether you like dangdut or not.
But let me tell you something, my friends who brag about their jazz, blues, soul, hiphop collections can’t resist themselves to “goyang” when listening to dangdut music (sometimes they need a place to hide, poor things!). It runs naturally through their vein as Indonesians.
Dangdut is the music of my country, my country, of my country…….
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Achmad is right! (never thought I’d type that!)
Dangdut does indeed deserve the support of music-lovers. Treated as some sort of lower-class ear-fodder by the snob levels of Indonesian society, dangdut ipso facto must be a good thing, since if you have to have contact with such elements, you almost instantly grasp the shallowness of their mentality.
Those who affect to despise dangdut are the sort whose intellectual horizons are bounded by their fancy malls, who go everywhere in their classy cars, never lowering themselves to travel by public transport, and to whom the travails of the struggling wong cilik are not so much dismissed from but rather never enter their consciousness.
Dangdut’s rhythms are such that even an android could scarce forbear to respond to their seductive allure. No wonder the down-trodden find release in its melodies.
TPI may disappear, but if that comes to pass, we should lobby the remaining channels to fill the goyang gap!