Music of Malaysia
Malaysian music is influenced by neighboring Indonesian and Thai forms, as well as Portuguese, Filipino and Chinese styles (Munan, 175).
The Malays of Kelantan and Terengganu are culturally linked to peoples from the South China Sea area, and are quite different from the West Coast of Malaya. The martial art of silat, while essentially still important as a branch of the self defence form, is also popular among the Malays as an art presentation. Similar to t'ai chi, though of independent origin, it is a mix of martial arts, dance and music typically accompanied by gongs, drums and Indian oboes.
The natives of the Malay Peninsula played in small ensembles called kertok, which is swift and rhythmic xylophone music. Ghazals from Arabia are popular in the markets and malls of Kuala Lumpur and Johor, and stars like Kamariah Noor are very successful.
In Malacca, ronggeng is the dominant form of folk music. It played with a violin, drums, button accordion and a gong.
Arabic-derived zapin music and dance is popular throughout Malaysia, and is usually accompanied by a gambus and some drums. Another style, Dondang Sayang is slow and intense; it mixes influences from China, India, Arabs and Portugal with traditional elements.
Contents
1 Pop music
2 Underground music
2.1 Terengganu Punk: The Origins of Malaysian Punk Rock
3 Chinese Music
4 Indian Music
5 Jazz,Classical & World Music
Pop music
Malaysia's pop music scene developed from traditional asli (pure) music popularized in the 1920s and 1930s by Bangsawan troupes. These troupes are in fact a type of Malay opera influenced by Indian opera at first known as Wayang Pasir (Persia) which was started by rich Persians residing in India. They portrayed stories from diverse groups such as Indian, Western, Islamic, Chinese, Indonesian and Malay. Music, dance, acting with costumes are used in performance depending on the stories told. The musicians were mostly local Malay, Pilipinos and Guanis (descendents from Gua in India).
One of the earliest modern Malay pop songs was "Tudung Periok", sung by Momo Latif, who recorded the song as early as 1930. In the 1950s P.Ramlee became the most popular Malay singer and composer with a range of slow ballads such as "Azizah", "Dendang Perantau" and the evergreen "Di Mana Kan Ku Cari Ganti".
In the 1960s, western-influenced Pop Yeh-yeh musicians came to the forefront. The Pop Yeh-yeh genre was popular in Malaysia, Singapore, dan Brunei in the 1960s. Pop Yeh-yeh ruled the Malay music scene from 1965 to 1971. The music and fashion of The Beatles and other British rock and roll bands during the 1960s were a strong influence of the pop yeh-yeh bands and also generally influenced the Malay music industry of that period. In fact, the term "pop yeh-yeh" was taken from a line from the popular Beatles song, "She Loves You" (“she loves you, yeah-yeah-yeah”.)
The first local song in the Pop Yeh-yeh vein was a song called "Suzanna", sung by M Osman in 1964. During the height of the pop yeh-yeh craze, a lot of the bands that were formed tried their best to mimic The Beatles in their look, songwriting and performance style. Usually the bands (also referred to as "kumpulan gitar rancak" - "rhythmic guitar bands" – or its shortened term "kugiran") consists of four members who sings on top of handling the basic four musical instruments (two electric guitars, electric bass and drums). Most of the bands were formed in Singapore but also in Malaysia. The southern state of Johore was the hub of activity for these bands.
The formation and development of these kugiran's encouraged the establishment and existence of various recording companies in Singapore in the 1960s and a lot of these songs were recorded on vinyl and sold well commercially. Some of the singers who made their name during that period include A Ramlie, Jeffrydin, Adnan Othman, J Kamisah, Ahmad Jais, M Osman, Hussien Ismail, A Halim, S Jibeng and L Ramlie.Other popular rock and pop bands of the period include The Rhythm Boys, The Siglap Five and The Hooks which featured A Romzi as their lead vocalist (they scored a hit with the song "Dendang Remaja").
The golden age of pop yeh-yeh started to dwindle in 1971. Since the fall of the popularity of pop yeh-yeh, the center of the Malay music industry shifted up north from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia. A lot of compoers, songwriter, lyricists, singers, and producers started to gain foothold not only in Kuala Lumpur but also in other cities including Johor Bahru and Ipoh to grab the opportunity of the emerging and rapidly changing Malay music industry.
DJ Dave, Hail Amir and Uji Rashid introduced Hindustani-influenced music in the 1970s. Between the late 1970s and mid 1980s, the market for local recordings and artiste was in big demand, bands and musicians performing in clubs and pubs were contracted to record. This was the time when non Malay artistes, bands and business man ventured into the Malay music industry. Bands like Alley Cats, Discovery, Carefree and Chendrawasih took the lead to modernize Malaysian Pop music; solo singers like Sudirman, Sharifah Aini further push the music to its peak.
Before the mid 1980’s another genre of music appeared. This time it was slow rock, heavy metal, hard rock and the blues. Popular bands from the west like Scorpions, Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Def Leppard were some of the major influences for these Malaysian bands. M. Nasir a Singaporean played a leading role in shaping rock music in Malaysia as a song writer and producer for a period of almost ten years. He produced local rock bands like Search and Wings and took them to their highest level of Malaysian rock music. Piracy in the form of duplicating cassettes and CDs became rampant and uncontrollable around this period as sales of these items soar which was supported by the country’s wave of economic success.
Between the late 80’s and early 90’s, R&B and Pop music became the focus of the urban youngsters. This music was cosmopolitan and catered to a professional and educated crowd. Sheila Majid a singer with a lovely mellow voice together with a bunch of creative musicians like Mac Chew and Jenny Chin both influenced by R&B, fusion and jazz achieved their dreams and set a new direction for many Malaysian R&B artistes to come. In the mid 1990s, KRU a vocal group comprised of three brothers among others developed Malay rap and hip-hop.
In 1991, an environmental album recorded by Zainal Abidin, songs written by Mukhlis Nor and produced by Roslan Aziz was released, this was received very positively by the public and the international music scene especially in Asia. Around this time nasyid pop music which was a form of Islamic religious which utilized a vocal group and acompaniment of only percussions music entered the market. Developed by vocal groups like Raihan, Rabbani and Brothers this music got a lot of support from the countryside and religious fans.
In 1996 a school girl by the name of Siti Nurhaliza from a rural town Termeloh in the state of Pahang released an album produced by a talented pop music producer name Adnan Abu Hassan. This album of Malay Pop genre was a huge success. She included different genres such as Malay pop, R&B and Malay Traditional music in her later albums with much success. This singer is now a singing sensation in the country.
The Malaysian underground music scene (also known as the Malaysian independent or urban music scene, with the term "urban" introduced only in the late 90s) is an established localized underground culture within Malaysia. This is as opposed to mainstream music, which usually, in the Malaysian context refers to artists with strong ties or are engaged in direct contract with fairly large recording companies, giving them a more commercial and popular image. These groups normally promote themselves by performing at underground clubs or places that require their music.
Artists and musicians who are involved in the Malaysian underground scene were typically guitar-driven bands with inclination towards heavy metal, thrash metal, speed metal and death metal sub genre of rock music although there are a number of acts with differing musical influences such as hip-hop, electronica and dance music. The current rise of singer-songwriters in the acoustic or folk vein in the underground scene (also oft referred to as the "independent circuit") represents the rising diversity in the problematised definition of "underground music". The first wave of singer-songwriters who have established and gained reputation in this genre include Pete Teo, Rafique Rashid, Meor Aziddin Yusof and Kit Leee. The 'new generation' singer-songwriters include Shelley Leong, Azmyl Yunor, Jerome Kugan, Shanon Shah, Mei Chern and Tan Sei Hon.
Most of these musicians are independent, entirely or partially DIY-driven groups or bands who emphasize on creating, sharing and experiencing music, together and collectively. Most recordings they produced are usually funded by themselves or by recording companies. Because of their creative differences with major recording companies these artistes normally wants to have their ideas and creativity embedded into their music. They also tend to play both the roles of performers and organisers and generally receive little airplay despite encouraging crowd support.
By the late 1990’s with the internet easily available, downloading was the easiest and cheapest way to obtain recordings through mp3 files. Hardware CDs are also available in shops, illegal CD stalls and night markets, priced at a quarter (1/4) of the original product price, major distributors and recording companies are no competition for these pirates.The market further deteriorated with the arrival of hardware such as mp3 players and mobile phones with such features.
The encouragement from the Malaysian government towards privatization of broadcasting stations received tremendous support from the public. An array of new radio and TV stations were built to facilitate the public’s interest in entertainment, news, movies and information.
It was during the early 2000 that introduction to a new form of entertainment call “Reality Shows” were able to gain public interest in music entertainment to some extent. Shows such as Akedemi Fantasia and Malaysian Idol allow the public to choose their own stars by sending SMS or short message system through hand phones or computers at the convenience of the audiences. This excited the public because they are involved in the choice of their stars and not artistes that are created by the recording companies.
Analyses implied that comparing from the past decades many other forms of entertainment such as DVDs, Cable TVs, increased radio programmes and change of life styles has affected the musical interest of the public towards local artistes. However, this is still not representative of the active live music circuit with performers who compose and perform their own materials. The rising tide of commercialisation and product placements using musicians and popular artists casts a giant shadow over the local independent music (or "underground") scene and gives a skewed perception of what the local music "industry" represents and the actual voice of local musicians who still actively perform at pubs, gig venues and cafes.
From reality shows, stars such as Vincent Chong, Jaclyn Victor, Daniel Lee Chee Hun and Mawi are able to command larger volumes of CD sales compared to new artistes. This diversity personifies the wide-ranging field of popular music in Malaysia and the unpredictability of Malaysian consumers towards popular cultural products.
Underground music
The Malaysian underground music scene (also known as the Malaysian independent or urban music scene, with the term "urban" introduced only in the late 90s) is an established localized underground culture within Malaysia. This is as opposed to mainstream music, which usually, in the Malaysian context refers to artists with strong ties or are engaged in direct contract with fairly large recording companies, giving them a more commercial and popular image.
Artists and musicians who are involved in the Malaysian underground scene are usually guitar-driven bands with inclination towards rock music, although there are a number of acts with differing musical influences such as folk, hip-hop, electronica and dance music.
One of the other characteristics of this local scene is that most of the musicians are independent, entirely or partially DIY-driven groups or bands who emphasise on creating, sharing and experiencing music, together and collectively. Materials that they produce, such as albums, demos or EPs will usually be independent works, most of the time funded entirely or to some extend by themselves. Also, small musical performances known as gigs are organized regularly showcasing these bands.
The state of Terengganu was known as the Malaysian capital of punk rock throughout late 1979 and the 1980s, but there were no bands then as the punks were too poor to afford the equipment. The scene then was more a covergence of pioneering punk rockers trading pre-recorded music and fanzines acquired from pen-pals and friends from overseas while dabbling in home-made DIY punk fashion. This early Malaysian punks started in 1978/79. The early punk scene in Terengganu hit its peak in the early 80s before gradually dying out in the mid 90s. A new generation picked it up again in the late-90s with bands, DIY labels and intermittent gigs.
The first rumblings of a bonafide "underground music scene", as in real bands and original recordings. in Malaysia actually started in the city of Kuala Lumpur in the mid-80s with bands such as Punisher, Nemesis, Rator etc. These pioneers paved the way for a huge explosion of bands in the early 90s and it continues today with bands and acts of many different permutations, from political, anarcho punk (Carburator Dung, Relationsheep, Mass Separation, Pusher etc.), hardcore (Chronic Mass, Basic Rights, Disaster Funhouse, Noisemonger, Cramp Mind, etc) to experimental, avant-garde noise (Amid the Mimic, Maharajah Commission, Ta, Goh Lee Kwang etc.) to singer-songwriters (Rafique Rashid, Pete Teo, Meor Aziddin Yusof, Azmyl Yunor, Jerome Kugan etc.) to Chinese indie (Moxuan, Lang Mang, KRMA, Nao etc.) to instrumental post-rock (Furniture, Sgt. Weener Arms etc.}.
Terengganu Punk: The Origins of Malaysian Punk Rock
The first proper punk rock "scene" in Malaysia started in Terengganu in 1978/1979. It started in the small town of Dungun by a group of friends influenced by British music magazines such as NME, Melody Maker, Sounds, and Zig Zag, as well as their brothers and friends living in the more modern West Coast cities who would pass them the magazines and music.
By late 1979, almost every secondary school in the state had its own cliques of punk rockers. They would hang out on the weekends at the main bus station in the capital city of Kuala Terengganu, with the usual punk rock regalia (badges, studs, safety pins and such). Too poor to afford guitars or any other musical instruments, there never was an actual punk band but trading of tapes and zines were vigorous.
Most of these coming from friends studying overseas, the friends living in the West Coast cities and also punk rockers from UK, Europe and US who were kind enough to send tapes and magazines for free. Irregular trips were made to Singapore and Kuala Lumpur (and Pulau Pinang, but rarely as it was too far) to dub punk rock records at the music stores or buy pirated tapes which were the only source for good music those days.
Some fishing villages would have the most punks and thus became the "centers" of activities. The main two villages were Kampung Mengabang Telipot (an hour north to the city) and Kampung Tanjung (right at the mouth of the city's river system). In Mengabang Telipot, there was a small bookstore selling magazines and music, which the kids would share. This bookstore is actually a wooden cupboard situated at one of the punk rockers' house.
The first Malaysian punk rock fanzine came out from this scene. It appeared in 1986 with the title of Huru Hara (meaning "chaos"); it was written in Terengganu slang by editor Mamat Hitam but never distributed in a large way. The first fanzine to do that was Aedes, which lasted until 1996; the first punk bands to appear there were Mallaria and later The Stone Crows. Both put out one rehearsal/demo tape.
There was a lull in activity in the mid-80s for the Terengganu punk scene, but a resurgence of bands of different persuasions appeared by the late 80s and early 90s (sparked in part by the setting up of a larger Malaysian underground music scene based in Kuala Lumpur in 1987). By the mid 90s onwards, there were constantly new bands appearing in the state and now in 2005, there are still a lot of punk-influenced bands and zines active.
Chinese Music
Hua Yue Tuan (華乐团) or Modern Chinese Orchestra is made up of a blend of western and traditional Chinese musical instruments. The music itself combines western polyphony with Chinese melodies and scales. Although the bulk of its repertoire consists of music imported from Hong Kong, Taiwan and China, many local Chinese orchestras also regularly perform Malay folk tunes with various local composers making a definite effort to absorb elements of surrounding musical cultures, especially Malay, into their compositions. In Malaysia, Chinese orchestras exist nationwide in urban areas which have large concentrations of Chinese Malaysians. Sponsored largely by various Chinese organisations including schools and Buddhist societies, a typical orchestra consists of between 12 to 50 members.
The orchestra is usually made up of four sections:
bowed string instruments, consisting of:
er-hu (二胡; range of 3 octaves performs the role of the violin)
pan-hu (板胡; similar to piccolo)
gao-hu (高胡; pitch is higher than er-hu)
zhong-hu (中胡; tenor er-hu, similaar to viola)
ge-hu (革胡; like the cello)
bei-da-ge-hu (倍大革胡; like the double bass)
plucked strings comprising various sized lutes :
pipa (琵琶; highest pitch)
liu-yue-qin (柳月琴)
yue-qin (月琴)
zhong-ruan (中阮)
da-ruan (大阮)
san xian (三弦)
gu-zheng (古筝)
yang-qin (扬琴)
the wind section consisting of:
di-zi (笛子; transverse flutes)
xiao (箫; vertical flutes)
sheng (笙; mouth organ)
suona (唢呐; reed aerophone)
percussion section consisting of:
paigu (排鼓; drums)
taigu (太鼓; drums)
dabo (大钹; cymbals)
lo (锣; hand held tam-tam)
shih mian lo (十面锣; frame mounted tam-tam)
ling (铃; bell)
ma ling (马铃; 5 suspended bells)
shuang yin mu (双音木), bang zi (棒子) and mu yu (木鱼; wood blocks)
There is no lack of virtuoso performers in the Chinese classical tradition in Malaysia. Advanced training is however not presently available with most Malaysian virtuoso musicians obtaining their advanced training either in China or Singapore. Various professional and semi-professional Chinese orchestras are in existence. Malaysian western trained classical conductors are employed full time. Much of the music played is imported from China. There are however some accomplished Malaysian composers for this medium such as Saw Boon Kiat and Chew Hee Chiat.
New generations of Chinese singers are more into pop music. These talented composer/singers includes Eric Moo, Lee Sin Je, Fish Leong, Z Chen , Penny Tai and lately Daniel Lee.
Indian Music
Indian music is very much associated with religious traditions and faiths. As its origins in India, there are two systems of traditional or classical Indian music in Malaysia, viz. the Carnatic and the Hindustani. Since Tamils from South India are the predominant group among the Indian population in Malaysia, it is the South Indian carnatic music which predominates. Simply speaking, Carnatic classical music is more lyric-oriented, while Hindustani classical music emphasises musical structure.
Indian classical music as it is performed in Malaysia has remained true to its origin. There is practically no other cultural influence. Other than reflecting Indian life, the purpose of Indian classical music is to refine the soul.
The fundamental elements of carnatic music are raaga and taala. A raaga is a scale of notes, while the taala is the time-measure. A carnatic music concert usually starts with a composition with lyrical and passages in a particular raaga. This will be followed by a few major and subsequently some minor compositions.
In Malaysia, traditional or classical Indian music are studied and performed by Malaysians of Indian ethnic origin with material that still comes from India. Musical productions are mainly in the form of dance dramas incorporating instrumental ensemble, vocal music and dance. Musical instruments used in the performances are imported from India.
Jazz,Classical & World Music
The 21st Century, gave birth to a variety of influences from different shores, which slowly but surely sipped in to the formation of an elite culture, strongly moved by the sophistication of Jazz and Classical Music. Students who left for Europe and the Americas brought back a stounch passion for these art forms, where it continues to thrive in its own accord. The Dewan Filharmonik Petronas (Petronas Philhrmonic Hall), home to the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra, sees through quality acts encompassing the art of Jazz,Classical and World Music.
Ethnic Music has also found a new and forceful following,with World Music Festivals like The Rainforest Music Festival which is held annually.
Firms like Trident Entertainment *[1] are known for their endless effort in the production/distribution of these art forms in Malaysia where the scene continues to bloom under their baton.
Petronas *[2] the petro-chemical giant which is responsible for construction of the Dewan Filharmonik Petronas (Petronas Philharmonic Hall) and the Sarawak Tourism Board are recognized contributors where Jazz,Classical & WorldMusic thrives. Schools like the Temple of Fine Arts (For Ethnic Indian Music) produces hundreds of students for the World Music Genre of Hindustani & Carnatic Music.
The country also gave birth to local musicians, who has achieved world standards namely Jazz Musicians Michael Veerapan,David Gomez,Zailan Razak,The Solianos as well as Ethnic Flutist Prabhu Ganesh and Drummer Lewis Pragasam Few of them have also attained qualification from renown music schools namely Berklee School of Music in Boston,MA and Julliard School of Music in NY.
