Have you wet your pants yet?

It all started since the rise of so-called musicians like Radja (I’m positively sure the vocalist is blind – that, or he is a total Bono-wannabe!), Kangen band (what the hell is with these guys? They’ve the fugliest looks and voice, ever!), Mulan Jameela nee Mulan Kwok (too much whimpering and not enough singing – what are you, a chihuahua?), Dewi Dewi (mediocre singing talent, maximum body flaunting, ditto with Mulan, which I guess are the prerequisites if you want to join Ahmad Dhani’s Republik Cinta). And those are only a few of the many terrible musicians that Indonesia seems to adore.

I’ve seen one too many live performances from the said artists, and not one of them can really perform. What amazes me though, the crowd loves them! They really, really love them! I even start to think whether I’m the one who’s got totally shit taste in music, because if those people are loving it, then why aren’t I? Or is it possible that Indonesia is undergoing through a major degradation of music taste right now?

All I know is that back then, people took their singing talent very seriously. Back then, people really did have talents in music and creating music, as opposed to having the talent to disco and body-oscillating this way and that. Back then, people really did make music and thought of the lyrics carefully, instead of singing about whatever was ‘hot right now’ (all the current musicians seem to be into singing about love affairs and loving two people at the same time – hey, perhaps that’s why polygamy is so popular now!). Back then, people made music that really touched people’s hearts – or mine, at least.

It’s seems to me that Indonesian artists have less integrity in withholding their profession – everything is done half-heartedly, as long as the video clips are controversial enough (ie. show some skin or show top models doing weird lounging around activities – to name a few), as well as the songs being played over and over in the radio to brainwash the listeners so that the songs get stuck in their head, and as long as these artists get publicized enough at talk shows and live performances, then all of those combined efforts are what make an artist deserve to get Platinum awards.

Which is why I don’t listen to the radio and seldom watch local TV – if not for the news, which are, most of the time, making me feel even more depressed than ever. But perhaps that is the main reason why I was shocked to bits when I decided to surf the local TV channels (whilst waiting for soccer to come on) and stumbled upon the performance of this band who had the whole junkies look to perfection and alas, when they brought the microphones upon their mouths and voices came out … I was paralysed and speechless. Oh, the voice! Oh, the tunes! Oh, the lyrics! Ouch, my ears!

Though I’m not a huge soccer fan, I’d rather see a bunch of men kicking around and fighting over a ball – any day, rather than witnessing junkies and Arabian-whore lookalikes writhing and whinnying something which they call themselves a song.