The possibility of creating Indonesian-pop

The possibility of creating Indonesian-pop Mario Rustan ; A Graduate of La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia

JAKARTA POST, 12 Januari 2013

Many countries in Asia look toward South Korea as a model for industry but also for pop culture. Just as YouTube and other video sharing websites are full of people making parodies of “Gangnam Style”, many Asians say their countries need to make their own waves. Indonesians, of course, want to have their own Indonesian Pop; “I-pop” (although claiming the letter ‘I’ could be a contentious issue with India). Where to start? Just like when we wanted to emulate Japanese industries in 1980s, of course the first idea is to ask the Koreans. Ask them to share human resources and experience with Indonesia. Another idea is to utilize the Internet as a promotion medium. “K-pop” is a term coined around 2002, and it was formed after the more famous “J-pop”. After the recovery from the Asian financial crisis, many debuting Japanese singers produced songs that caught the attention of audiences in Asia and among Asian communities in the West.  The success of J-pop was coupled with the global reach of anime and manga worldwide in 2000s. In Indonesia, the rise of J-pop came just at the time of Reform, when expressions of Chinese culture were permitted and thus Japanese entertainment products were no longer confused with Chinese cultural products.  The same situation happened in South Korea where the government lifted a ban on Japanese cultural products. The catalyst for K-pop was the romantic drama Winter Sonata. Very successful in Asia, Chinese commentators named the phenomenon the Korean Wave, and although carrying a sense of alarm and envy, Korean media liked it. In Indonesia, the success of Taiwanese drama Meteor Garden led to a boom in East Asian programs on newly established channels. Taiwanese, Korean and Japanese pop cassettes and CDs were soon gracing Indonesian music stores. It was not yet the time for K-pop, as it was still regarded in Asia as a bad copy of J-pop. Korean soap operas, however, were gaining ground on Indonesian television thanks to their ratio of price to number of episodes. 2007 marked the rise of K-pop as both the Japanese pop and anime industries had gotten stale. A cynical dictionary definition of K-pop is this: Overproduced music by overexploited dancers. And that is what makes it succeed. K-pop is not driven by record companies, but by entertainment agencies that operate like property developers. The prime template is gathering a group of guys with some talent in singing and dancing and putting them through boot camps. Several years later, market them. Then create a girl group counterpart. Put them on air non-stop. Repeat. So how, with this perhaps crude methodology, did K-pop outreach J-pop? First, it took off in the age of online social media. It is not really the artists (or more importantly, their management) who promote themselves. It is the audience. From Korean teenagers, the information is passed on to teenagers in Japan, Malaysia and Singapore, while another direct channel from Korea reaches Vancouver, Los Angeles and Chicago, homes to many Korean-Americans and Korean-Canadians. Less about the songs, it is more about the dances. Many K-pop artists have good links with the United States and Canada. Many of them were born and raised there. When K-pop mania was just building up, Korea exploited something overlooked by Japan — the Pacific audience. While J-pop artists stuck to Europe and America, K-pop bands reached both Asia and the West. They kept in mind that their biggest audiences were Asians. Their detachment from geek-oriented anime also made them look cooler than J-pop artists, and indeed many K-pop artists proudly sported American urban fashion while retaining their Korean pride. Finally, the rise of K-pop comes together with the rise of the Korean IT industry, and so Samsung and LG worldwide proudly featured K-pop artists. What was the message conveyed by those products? Same as what J-pop wanted to achieve a decade before: Harmony between human and machine. The future is here. The future is us. Therefore, there is no way Indonesia could make I-pop. It does not have the factors that South Korea has. The Indonesian diaspora is not notable in Canada or the United States in the way the Korean diaspora is. Indonesian pop music had a great potential a decade ago, but not now.  Many upper-income Indonesian teenagers cannot name an Indonesian song that they really like. K-pop is built on the foundations of the Republic of Korea — fastest broadband connection in the world, a highly consumer-oriented society, economically ruthless and ambitious, and a workaholic culture that terrifies Westerners. It is normal for a K-pop artist to have plastic surgery and to be hospitalized from overwork. More so than the artists, it is the corporations who do the promotion, and oversaturation is the name of the game. On every channel and billboard, in every magazine, at every hour, there is the familiar face of this boy or girl, advertising everything, hosting everything, promoting everything.  Many Indonesian indie bands have utilized online media to secure gigs in Australia and United States, while in Jakarta they are unknown or seen as has-been bands. Indonesian boy and girl bands are yet to win over the middle class.  Finally, the consumers must spend heavily, they must buy merchandise, tracks and seats all the time, and this is hard as Indonesians are among the world’s greatest savers. Our malls are full of browsers, but not buyers. There is a chance for Indonesians to join in the Korean Wave. Korean bands accept members who are ethnically not Koreans, as long they can pass as Korean and can speak Korean. So if an Indonesian can pass as a Korean and is willing to live in Korea, he or she can become a K-pop artist.  For decades Malaysians and Singaporeans have flourished in Taiwan as Mandarin-language pop singers, something not yet tried by any Indonesian. And they are always proud of their Malaysian and Singaporean backgrounds, just like these foreign K-pop artists are proud of their Chinese and American heritage. K-pop is built upon the success of Korean industrialization, so there is no way Indonesia could emulate it, not before we possess the advanced networks of fiber optics and overseas Indonesians. Indonesian singers are popular among Malays in Malaysia and Singapore, but that is about it.  If the government wants to have I-pop, then the government must work on the economy. Get the capitalist machine grinding. Otherwise, learn to sing in Korean and find a way to move to Seoul. ●