A Malay Pop Songs of Deli, Minang and Minahasa: The Dynamism of Songs Characteristics, the Identities of Linguistic, and Musical Expression

Abstract

One of the varieties of popular music of Indonesia is the so-called “Nyanyian Populer Daerah” (Local Popular Songs) which usually employs local dialect as well as typical melodic styles and expression. The number of these kinds of songs are abundant as there are so many local dialects and musical expression can be found in every region. This research focuses only on three local popular songs, two found in Sumatra island and one found in North Sulawesi. The two genres found in Sumatra islands (Deli and Minang) were exceptional as the main genres which got its influences of original Malay songs characteristics, meanwhile the other one was from Minahasa, which has its own different melodic styles but provides the same expression in singing. This research employed fieldwork as well as the study of the selected recordings available on the social media such as Youtube, etc. During the fieldwork, semi structural interviews was taken to some selective figures of local musicians and singers. The collected data from the fields then was interpreted and analyzed (object analysis) using musical theory perspectives and aesthetics criticism. As it presented here, this research was not comparative at all, let alone the readers enjoy the similarities and the differences of the genres. It was found out that all of the genres shared the similar Malay musical idioms in traditional narratives as well as oral cultures that show the dynamism of changes and sustainability of the local dialects as linguistic expression. A suggestion for further research was as vital as there were still so many musical and aesthetics values available to be searched out for future documentation and shared values