INDRAMAYU, Indonesia — This small run-down town on the northern coast of Java Island features potholed roads and, according to government statistics, one of the highest rates of HIV/AIDS in all of Indonesia. Three hours by train from Jakarta, the country’s bustling capital, Indramayu couldn’t feel more distant.
The town has very little in the way of industry and few jobs. During the rainy season Indramayu’s streets turn into rivers. The town is known mainly for one thing: dangdut singing.
A gaudy and rambunctious musical style popular throughout Indonesia and Malaysia, dangdut is named for the characteristic sound of its drum beat — “dang dut .” It encompasses a broad range of folk music, influenced both by contemporary Middle Eastern music as well as Euro-club beats. Dangdut is associated with rural Indonesia — well-educated, urban Indonesians won’t have anything to do with it — and towns like Indramayu, in North Java, are dangdut-crazy.
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But if the musical form helps reveal this archipelago nation’s urban-rural divide, it also underscores a darker plight for women facing poverty. Female dangdut singers face exploitation more often than not, revealing a need, activists say, to provide better education and employment opportunities for women in the country.
Under a lean-to beside a river bank in central Indramayu, Muhammad Suyoto, 64, a retired folk singer, still remembers an older dangdut music tradition before it became flashy and connected to politics. In his day, songs “focused on true love, love until death.” But today’s dangdut, with the club-beats he so despises, are frequently characterized by music videos of high-heeled sexily outfitted female chanteuses belting out sexually explicit songs of heartbreak and divorce, and the struggle to make ends meet.
Thomas Barker, a sociologist who focuses on Southeast Asia, has written that contemporary dangdut, “is not just a music but also a space within Indonesian society in which various types of moral and cultural transgressions take place.”
Indeed, the popularity of dangdut is one of the hardest things to square about contemporary Indonesia, the country with the most Muslims in the world, and one where Islamic conservatism continues to grow as a force. It’s not unusual during dangdut performances to see a battalion of young female performers with jeans ripped to expose the thigh chanting out lascivious anthems, even grinding their bodies on the male MC behind them, as an audience of head-scarved women sings along enthusiastically.
But while Suyoto was critical of song lyrics he felt glorified divorce, Badrussalam Farabi, an Indramayu filmmaker, defended the use of gritty themes and lyrics in songs. “Daily life here is indeed like that,” he said. Art, he argued, was merely reflecting life. “Dangut lyrics are a lot like Eminem’s,” he said.
Moral and cultural transgressions took place on a recent Sunday, when Moh Ramdhani was running for district head in the nearby town of Majalengka. His son was getting married, and with elections scheduled for next year, it was a good opportunity to invite some of the country’s most famous dangdut singers to remind the neighborhood who to vote for.
The headliner was none other than Zaskia Gotik, Indonesia’ reigning female dangdut star, dressed vaguely like a bride in white, skin-tight, nearly transparent chiffon. Besides being beautiful, Gotik is famous for her “twerking duck” dance where she sticks out her rear end and shakes it. For Islamist conservatives, the singer is simply the latest in a long line of dangdut stars leading the nation’s youth astray.
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As her personal tailor made last-minute adjustments to her white dress, Zaskia reflected on the wild ride of her last few years. Like most dangdut stars, Gotik grew up poor in the village. “I’ve learned that if you want success you have to struggle for it,” Gotik said, reminiscing about the years when she earned just $6 for a day of singing.
Last year Gotik caused a national scandal when she was asked on TV to describe the shape of one of Indonesia’s national symbols, and, treating the question as a joke, announced it was a “twerking duck” — her famous dance. Conservatives pounced, arguing she should be arrested for insulting the nation. Charges were eventually dropped — after she endured several marathon interrogation sessions by police. Gotik said she was getting tired of scrutiny. “Before you’re successful you think ‘If I’m successful, I’m going to be happy all the time.’ But it isn’t like that.”
When Gotik entered the arena the audience surged toward the stage, babies held on shoulders, the crowd raising its phones as one to snap pictures. Gotik greeted the crowd, and congratulated the bride and groom. She invited everyone to sing along with her songs, a massive smile plastered to her face. The crowd roared as she did her famous duck dance.
But if fame can weigh on Gotik, it’s much worse for the thousands of female dangdut singers who ply bars and clubs, earning little money, and often resorting to sex work on the side. These women’s lives were on full display earlier this year when Irma Bule, a small-time dangdut performer from rural West Java, performed on stage with a cobra. The cobra’s venom was supposed to be removed but due to an oversight, wasn’t. Audience videos capture Irma struggling to keep performing while the poison worked itself through her system. She died on her way to the hospital.
Uti Brata, head of the Mandiri Institute, a research think tank, raised money online so that Irma’s three small children would have their schooling paid for. She said the exploitation of female dangdut singers couldn’t be remedied without deeper social changes. “What’s important is education and women’s empowerment. They are exploited because they are helpless.”
Patrick Effendy, a Jakarta-based music manager, who doesn’t manage dangdut singers because he finds the industry shady, said that the dangdut industry is thriving. Dangdut, despite its traditional folk appeal , is better positioned to earn money than the pop and rock music that the middle class prefers, he said. That’s because, with music piracy rife in Indonesia, music revenue primarily comes from ticket sales. Not everyone who listens to pop music shows up to concerts.
But dangdut fans show up. After all, with dangdut, Effendy said, “It’s all about the show.”
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Folk Music Remains Popular in Muslim Indonesia originally appeared on usnews.com
