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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