For my last cultural journal, I’m going to focus on a traditional style of Indonesian music that has become really popular throughout the years. Kroncong, or Keroncong (Indonesian pronunciation usually skips over the e) was originally introduced to Indonesia by the Portuguese around the 16th century and was played by a guitar-like instrument. It traveled around the islands, mainly through trade, but stuck to the coasts and ports for a while. It was considered mainly an urban music, and once it traveled to Java it was performed by a rather scandalous group. The music became associated with the sterotpe of buaya (crocodile) or jago (rooster), which was an attractive man who dressed well, frequently sported a mustache, had no visible means of support, and spent his time gambling, drinking, and seducing women. This stereotype was attractive but many envied or disapproved of him. This traditional stereotype was pirate-esque, and a Madurese dance called ngremo is a beautiful and artful expression of this stereotype. Usually the vocalist of the Keroncong group was a woman who was assumed to be a prostitute, so this style of music was rather looked down upon. However, as Keroncong traveled to central Java in cities like Yogyakarta, it evolved to fit the more etiquette-bound and restrained atmospheres. From here, some of the instruments of gamelan orchestras were incorporated into the music, playing a much more melodic accompaniment than the original style of music. Furthermore, the Kroncong singer became a refined, elegant lady instead of the prostitute stereotype. This process made Kroncong music more widely accepted, as it was now more respectable and infused with the tradition of gamelan. Then, as Indonesia was working towards unifying itself as a nation, Kroncong music offered a unifying popular culture aspect to a very widespread and diverse group of islands. Although gamelan music was first agreed as being the best style to unite people, Kroncong was more widely-accessible and already very popular in many places, especially Bali and Java. So, it was Kroncong composers who wrote the Indonesian national songs (the equivalent of the Star-Spangled Banner or America the Beautiful). In the late 20th century, the shadow-puppet plays incorporated Krongcong music, which expanded to a full orchestral ensemble in order to suffice for the large, outdoor theaters. With this, Krongcong became more commercialized and expanded its market of listeners beyond Indonesia. It especially became popular in Asian nightclub music, and is now a very popular modern form of Indonesian music.
I really enjoyed learning about the history of music styles in Indonesia because I discovered that many of the factors that influenced the Indonesian language also influenced the music. Bahasa Indonesia evolved from trade around the islands and colonial influences such as the Portuguese and the Dutch, just like the country’s music. Both the language and the music were also impacted by the striving towards independence in the 20th century as well. I find it fascinating to see so clearly in one country how much language, music, and history are closely entwined. As boring as I found history in high school, it’s truly critical to understand the current culture and language of any given place! I hope that future travels to Indonesia will make even more of these patterns evident in the social etiquette and customs.
Becker, J. (1975). Kroncong, Indonesian popular music. Asian Music, 7(1), 14-19.
Replies
Thanks for sharing about your research on this topic, Maddie! So interesting to see how music can be so socialized to a certain stratus of society, and even so specifically as being able to narrow it down to one sort of style! Very interesting to see how it changed over time and came to be considered more prestigious.
How come the stereotype of a crocodile and a rooster indicates all the characteristics of an attractive man and such? I thought that was pretty amusing, but I also can’t seem to find the correlation between those two animals and that description. Although, I can sort of see how crocodile can be associated to a “pirate-esque” vibe, how does a rooster fit into the picture?