23rd

Malaysia’s alternative music is underrated.

Introduction

According to Merriam-Webster, alternative music is a genre of music that is produced by performers who are outside the musical mainstream. Musical mainstream – such as Siti Nurhaliza, Anuar Zain and Aiman Tino. I’m not judging but we’ve been listening to this kind of music for decades.

Content 

1. The music industry focus on the popularity rather than quality

Mostly when the singer fits in the beauty standard. I don’t want to criticise but this is what the legend has said about Fazura and Fattah Amin. They can’t sing but they kept on doing it. But back in 2009, indie music was given a chance to shine. Bands such as Hujan, Bunkface and Meet Uncle Hussein shined throughout that year. Even Yuna shined, and people really like her because she was one of the earliest hijabi singer and Muslim girls finally have someone they can relate themselves to. But today, we’re back at it, they keep recycling old songs and beats, and they don’t try to come up with something new and fresh. Dato Seri Vida, she has the money, owns most of the platforms where she can make them play her song over and over but her song is exceptionally different from others, which is nice, but the lyrics are meaningless. But this is what we see through the media. There are more musicians deserve better recognition such as Spooky Wet Dreams, Alextbh, Juno and Hana, Patriots, my brother’s band; Frugal, Amirah’s brother’s band; Ryan Band.  

2. The music fans refuse to invest and show support.

Things as simple as retweeting gig posters on Twitter and liking the promo posts on Instagram can help them being recognized. Plus, we, Malaysian have this habit on downloading illegal MP3s nowadays instead of buying their merch or albums. If you really think physical merch isn’t reliable these days, at least invest some money and subscribe to Spotify (if you don’t like the ads). Some of us think that music events are unhealthy, but yeah, maybe, depends on the genre. Actually if you go to concerts sometimes they check your bag to make sure you’re not bringing illegal stuff. If you attend SOG performing live, you might need to be careful but if you go to indie gigs, it’s actually pretty chilled. Like there’s no illegal activities, people come just to enjoy the music. The atmosphere is different. I promise you. 

Conclusion

Malaysia’s music industry isn’t actually bad but the good ones are underrated because the music industry themselves focus on the popularity rather than the quality and the music fans refuse to invest on their favourite musicians. So, as Akbar from thelevel.my said, if Yuna can do it, we all can do it too but a change starts from here and it started with you.

(My last minute slides)