Preserving Indonesian Traditional Music

              “Culture opens the sense of beauty.” is a quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson, an American essayist. Our country, Indonesia, has a variety of cultures. Indonesia has traditional dances, traditional foods, traditional martial arts, and do not forget traditional music. Indonesian traditional music is a type of music that has its own elements. One example of the Indonesian traditional music genre is dangdut. Dangdut became popular in Indonesia in the 1990s. As time goes by, dangdut gets developed by modern-era musicians. This development of dangdut creates pros and cons for society. Many people fail to understand that modern-era musicians want to preserve Indonesian traditional music by adding a touch of today’s music into dangdut and have no purpose of ruining dangdut. Indonesian traditional music must be appreciated and preserved and I believe making new arrangements with Indonesian traditional music is one of the ways to preserve it.

            Didi Kempot is one of the examples of a musician who preserved dangdut by making new arrangements. Didi Kempot used Indonesian traditional songs and combined the traditional instruments with the violin and cello. He wrote his songs in his native language: Javanese. The arrangements of Indonesian traditional instruments and language with the musical instruments of the world produce a great combination for his songs. He was able to preserve Indonesian traditional music by recycling his original songs from the 90s then turning them into a new masterpiece without removing elements of Indonesian culture before he passed. Thus, dangdut is preserved by Didi Kempot.

            The next musician who also preserved dangdut in a rather different way is a duo called Feel Koplo. Feel Koplo makes arrangements/remixes for hit songs with a touch of dangdut. Feel Koplo’s most famous works are “New Light (Feel Koplo Edit)” originally by John Mayer and “Terbaik Untukmu (Feel Koplo Edit)” originally by Tangga. Though their appearance in the music industry is fairly fresh, some people judge that Feel Koplo’s remixes diminish the taste of dangdut since Feel Koplo is a disk jockey (DJ) duo. To prove themselves that they purely want to preserve Indonesian traditional music, they released their latest original work with the title “Hura Haru”. “Hura Haru” is a pop/dangdut song with arrangements consisting of kendang, saron, and a DJ mixer. Feel Koplo’s latest work received good feedback from the community. “Hura Haru” is a tuneful song and labeled as dangdut organik ramah lingkungan meaning “eco-friendly organic dangdut” by their supporters. Once again, dangdut is preserved in the scene of Indonesian music.

            It has been interesting for Indonesian traditional music to have evolved throughout the years (from only using traditional instruments to combining them with modern instruments). Didi Kempot and the creative duo Feel Koplo proved that changes and recycling can be good. While not every person can brace for modern changes in this world easily, those who can accept them have to spread good changes. It is necessary to change things so we can keep up with time and not be left behind. As a part of the youth groups, I hope the people in my generation could carry on maintaining our beloved culture.