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Disciplining Rock Music and Identity Contestations: Hybridization, Islam and New Musical Genres in Contemporary Malaysian Popular Music
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Abstract:
Sometime in 1989, Margaret Scott, a Far Eastern Economic Review (FEER) journalist,
observed the heightening fervour of Malay rock music among ardent young Malay
followers calling themselves ‘kutus’, when at the same time Islamic fundamentalism was
on the rise. Fast forward towards the end of 1997, however, Raihan, a Nasyid (Islamic
religious song) group, signed by Warner Records, sold a record-breaking half-a-million
of their debut album. Since then Nasyid musical groups and Raihan wannabes began to
mushroom creating a new hype in Malaysian popular music and industry, culminating in
the Nasyid pop ‘success’ story. The focus of the article is to analyse how, at a particular
phase in the evolution of Malaysian popular music, ‘rock’ was ‘disciplined’ to make way
for the rise of other musical genres, in this case, Balada Nusantara (Irama Malaysia)
and Nasyid pop. Taking a critical perspective, I argue that the ‘transition’ from rock to
these musical genres occurred on a terrain which involves several levels of
contestation, constituted by the juxtapositions of different institutions and social actors - such as the role of the state, state actors, political parties, the mediation of Islam and
national culture, and ultimately, the ‘agency’ of non-state actors and the creative nucleus.
Description:
Date:
2015
Authors:
Zawawi Ibrahim
