Number 82 | August 2006
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Sounds of Indonesia
The Library’s Indonesian Collection recently
received a major donation of Indonesian popular music from the Sydney
poet, writer and collector, Ian Campbell. The collection of 160 commercially-produced
audio cassette tapes spans 35 years of Indonesian pop music from 1970
to 2005.
Indonesia
has a vibrant and eclectic pop music scene drawing on a wide range of
influences, including traditional, regional, western and religious. With
a poet’s ear for language and lyrics, Campbell
collected the ‘hit parade’ songs he heard played on the radio during his
many visits to Indonesia.
His collection not only provides an insight into the mood and spirit of
contemporary Indonesian society, it is also a fascinating snapshot of
the development of popular music in Indonesia
over more than three decades. The recordings Campbell
donated include examples from the following genres: pop music, gamelan,
dangdut (popular music with an emphatic beat), keroncong (a style derived
from Portuguese songs), angklung (a West Javan bamboo instrument that
is shaken), and regional and folk music (Sundanese, Minangkabau, Batak
and Javanese).
The artists recorded are hugely popular in
Indonesia
but little-known in Australia.
They include famous singers such as Hetty Koes Endang, Rhoma Irama, Iwan
Fals and many others, including a name more familiar to students of Indonesian
politics—General Wiranto—who is a fine singer as well as a former soldier
and presidential candidate.
The collection has been catalogued with
a detailed listing of artists and compositions, and can be searched
in the Library’s catalogue (http://catalogue.nla.gov.au)
under the general heading ‘Koleksi musik populer Indonesia
= Indonesian popular music collection’. Readers can listen to the tapes
in the Library’s Asian Collections Reading Room.
While the Library does not normally collect
recorded overseas music, an exception has been made for this collection,
which supplements existing strengths in the Indonesian Collection. Its
format on analogue audiotape may well be short-lived as professional standard
cassette tape players are no longer manufactured. The Library is considering
transferring the tapes to a digital medium in the longer term as demand
dictates.
At present, the strength of the Library’s
overseas music collection is in its British and European print resources.
The acquisition of Campbell’s
Indonesian popular music collection has helped shift the centre of gravity
to our hemisphere.
Amelia McKenzie and Tieke Atikah
Asian Collections