SITI NURBAIYAH NADZMI: Hear Our Music, Cry Out Local Artistes
Adibah Noor won Best Song for “Terlalu Istimewa”, a song she recorded under an independent label after countless rejections by recording giants
Setting an airplay formula will not revive Malaysia’s struggling music industry, artistes tell SITI NURBAIYAH NADZMI. Instead, they hope broadcasters will support a wide range of musical offerings, from both established and independent recording labels
Ramli Hamid (left) of Mohram says broadcasters should play a wider variety of music rather than stereotyping their listeners
THE local music industry is helmed by gods, who dictate who gets to record, distribute, appear in glossy magazines and have their songs played on radio and television shows.
Malaysian musicians, singers and bands, who are at their mercy, are looking for ways to break out from this situation.
Karyawan (Malaysian Artistes Association), which champions the rights of the performers, is pushing for more airtime on private radio stations with a 90:10 ratio for local and imported music.
But this move is seen as restrictive and would neither boost the music industry nor create a talent or market-driven industry.
Artistes have to bow their heads to the recording companies who, they claim, cut down the risk of poor sales by prescribing packaged “goodies” of pop music tailored to current trends and oozing “sex appeal”. Anything different would be rejected.
For this reason, many new and serious artistes are having their works published under independent labels with limited prints. A perfect example is Adibah Noor, who financed her own recording of Terlalu Istimewa after countless rejections from recording labels — and went on to bag the most coveted Song of the Year Award at TV3’s Anugerah Juara Lagu last year.
The industry is not talent-driven but is shaped and moulded by the big players, based on what they think would sell — and at the price of slaughtering the real artistes, says writer, critic and singer Zainal Alam Kadir.
He says established labels are more interested in imitating success formulas rather than creating new music, which would attract a wider listener and music fan base, not just in the country but also at the international level.
“When Noraniza Idris burst onto the music scene with her brand of ethno-pop music in the late 1980s, the labels signed new artistes and forced them to copycat her act. The same goes for Siti Nurhaliza, Raihan, M Nasir and Pak Ngah.
“But those with their own kind of sound, style and creative works would have no place during these trends.”
Recording under your own label is neither as daunting nor as intimidating as many perceive it to be, says Zainal Alam.
“With a good set of creative people, anyone can do it. The notion that albums can only be produced by giant labels is absolutely misleading.”
RTM newsreader Omar Arif took the plunge and invested his life savings on an album, Dia Yang Satu, released last month under his own label, Tjipta Maia, as a trial project.
Producing the album has given him an insight into the music industry and he is brimming with ideas to work on a new album next year.
“What’s important for me is working on my kind of music,” says Omar, whose second album delves into the grooves of soulful jazz.
Warner Music sales and marketing general manager Herman Cheng admits that they are rather selective when signing up new artistes but the label refutes claims that the company dictates the creative style of the artistes under its label.
“We don’t do that. The artistes are guided throughout the entire process — recording, concept, publicity, promotions and appearances. We want them to succeed,” he says.
Despite the global dwindling sales of audio compact discs, Cheng says music would continue to thrive, perhaps in a different format, such as digital music downloads.
Last year, megastar Madonna, after the release of Hard Candy, ended her 25-year contract with Warner Bros and signed an unprecedented global partnership of US$120 million (RM422 million) with Live Nation, a stage promoter company, to market her music downloads, concerts and merchandising. Early this year, megastar rock band U2 followed suit.
The move significantly marks the phasing out of audio compact discs, first rolled out 25 years ago in Hanover, Germany, to digital downloads played over MP3s and mobile phones.
In Korea, the sales of the physical CDs and digital downloads has reached a 50-50 ratio. Cheng says Malaysia is still lagging in terms of switching format from CDs to digital downloads, making radio airplay important in boosting the local music industry.
Radio stations view Karyawan’s proposal as preposterous because they claim that there is simply not enough quality material to sustain 24-hour seven-day week broadcasts.
They accuse independent label album productions of being below par and thus not fit for transmission.
Engku Emran Engku Zainal Abdin, the chief operating officer of Suria FM, a radio station which plays a ratio of 70:15:15 of local, Indonesian and English numbers, told a local Malay daily that there are not enough Malay songs to play.
His sweeping statement enraged serious artistes with world-class acts, such as Mohram, who were declined airplay by private radio stations on unclear grounds.
Mohram’s flautist Ramli Hamid, one half of the duo creating exquisite acoustic music who have performed at festivals and shows in Europe and Asia, says he has given up on radio stations.
“There are no hard and fast rules of radio airplay. Most programme managers have their whims and fancies about what the listeners crave over their stations. They would refuse your songs based on the most unfathomable reasons.”
One, he says, has classified his music as dangdut, in a degrading manner, as reasons for declining to play their songs on air.
Another issue harped on by radio stations, says Ramli, is listenership profiles and ratings, where stations “box” their listeners according to demographic profiles and preferences.
“What they are doing really is stereotyping the listeners and feeding them the same kind of music over and over again.
“Their music charts are not an actual sample of what people choose to listen but a choice of what the radio had selected for them.
“This is unhealthy for the music industry,” he says.
On the other hand, a relatively young radio station has courageously weathered the conflict by playing only Malaysian music, largely produced by independent labels, by bands known over the past decade as “underground” or “indie alternative”.
Positioned to capture the younger listeners, XFM, is helmed by programme manager Adly Syairi Ramli, a former journalist who pioneered the Under the Radar column in the “Malay Mail” to unearth new bands.
“This new Malaysian music is about being proud of the local talents who dare to depart from imitating the pop icons and be themselves,” he explains.
The result is a mix of pop rock peppered with blues, soulful ballad, hip-hop, ethnic and Malay folk sound, all concocted into an upbeat and rhythmic play list.
XFM, says Adly, premieres new songs at about 8.50pm on weeknights. “I don’t think there’ll be a shortage of good local material.”
Still, the radio station is fairly reserved when it comes to other types of music. The likes of Mohram or gambus supremo Farid Ali, who redefines the mainstream jazz by infusing it with the sound of gambus, have yet to find a window for their brand of music.
Farid, who has played to standing ovations at clubs and festivals both here and abroad, says the 90:10 ratio of local and imported music is not a salve to the ailing industry but could turn into a gangrenous move:
“Our music needs exposure and at the same time we too need to be exposed to other influences. It is not how much airtime but more of what is being played over the radio that needs to be looked into,” he says.
The gods in the local music industry have no choice this time but to descend to reality.
Urges Cheng: “Everybody should sit down and talk. The Ministry of Energy, Water and Communications, Karyawan, Recording Industry Association of Malaysia, and the radio stations should come to a consensus on this issue. Otherwise we are all on the losing end.”
New Straits Times