From Spice Girls to Rock Kapak

Everytime my friends from school (schoolmate la tu) get in my car, I always get these exclamations of "eeeiiih! lagu apa ko pasang ni" or "tak sangka aku ko dgr lagu melayu" or "bukak hitz fm la brader" or "pedih telinga aku ni weh". Especially from my friend, lets' call him 'the pervert' (since it's not nice to give ut real names in blogs). All these because I listen to ERA in my car...it's even worse if played any of my compilation (cd burn la ..) of classic malay songs of the eighties and nineties.

Why the prejudice to malay songs? The general conception with them is listening to Malay songs is not cool, kampung, rempit dan sebagainya. I know where all these is coming from because I used just like them. We came from the same background. You see, I went to school in Subang. Back then, no one listens to malay music. Probably growing up in an urban environment made us forget our roots. If you asked me then who were the Malaysian artistes that I know, only two would came to my mind, Siti Nurhaliza and M Nasir. Siti's popularity was so great even the chinese kids knew who she was. Tak kenal Siti ko bukan orang Malaysia la. M Nasir was my mom's favourite singer so his songs werefamiliar to me. Having said that , I do know about Search, Wings and a few of the rock bands from yesteryear because their golden era was when I was still in primary school. Back on that later.

Anyone remembers high school? All those years of trying to fit in. Wanting to be seen with the cool kids. Trying to get the attention of that cute girl. Reputation is everything dear. So, when the general consciousness is that malay songs are not cool, everyone just follows the flow. So we listen to what Hitz.fm is feeding us everyday (fuckin' evil this radio station. poisoning the youth of our nation haha). Don't get me wrong, we were not those snobbish kids who speaks English all the time complete with fake foreign accent (nak tunjuk konon beranak oversea la..). We speak malay all the time. Memang Melayu btol la sume. Just when it comes to our music we prefer them in English. Still there were cool and uncool English songs. The boys would rather be dead than being caught redhanded listening to the Backstreet Boys or even worse singing along to the song having memorised all the lyrics by heart (ada...you know who you are dude hehe). Boyband was strictly for girls and for the girls trapped in a man's body. Then there was the Spice Girls, generally adored by most adolescent males and envied by young girls everywhere. Everyone had a favourite girl (mine was sporty. seriously). They were so huge you see their face in newspapers , tv, magazines evryday. Spice Girls led a British invasion of the world not seen since the glory days Beatlemania. But how long did Girl Power last? There years at most I think. Wonder what happen to them now...probably living of the millions they made when they were famous. With the exception of Posh Spice, all the other girls are now out of sight, out of mind. Don't even start on the Backstreet Boys...Yep those were the good old days.

When I got to university, the surrounding is very different. Here we get a lot of different people from all over Malaysia. Different backgrounds. They were so different from my friends back at school. It was a new experience for me as I didn't go to a boarding school. All my friends before have basically the same background as me because we grew up together in the same neighbourhood. Now I know guys from Pahang, Johor, Kelantan, Terangganu, all those places that I never bothered about before. Because let's face it, KL is where it's at (insert Vandal's song here).

It was then that my interest in music changed. You see, even if you already set in your heart that lagu melayu is crap, if your mate in the next room is always playing the latest song from Exist at his Winamp everyday (always loudest during early morning and at the ungodly hours midnight). Kau...Jesnita...You are bound to one day start singing along to the song when its played and then go to his room..."apa nama lagu ni ah? masukkan dlm komputer aku". And the rest is history. Before long I started going to my friends computer searching for the latest Indon songs. Bila dah terer plak, I searched for all those malay songs that I've been missing all these years. A sense of regret came into me. Kenapa la aku x dengar lagu2 melayu ni dulu, orait gak sebenarnya. Search, Wings, Man Bai, Hattan, Rahim Maarof...legends all of them
After a few years, Akademi Fantasia exploded into the scene. I became more into the local entertainment scene. After hearing the songs performed in an AF concert, the next obvious step was to find these songs for my own listening pleasure. With the massive popularity of AF reality talent shows started to grow like mushrooms. but AF will always have a special place in my heart.

Now, my favourite weekend activity (sometimes on weekdays as well) is karaoke. Watching all those talent shows make me want to test my own ability to sing albeit not in front of a real audience haha. I will never go to any of those talent show auditions to make a complete fool of myself on national tv. In these karaoke sessions, I found out it is more fun to try and belt out the high notes of the rock kapak songs. Try singing 'tiada lagi kidung mu' or 'fantasia bulan madu'. Sakit tekak tau. But when I realise how hard it is to sing these songs, it made me appreciate more of our local singers. It made me realise that we do have exceptional singers here in Malaysia. Amy Search in my mind is the best singer in the world. Hero gua.
It is sad when I read in the papers that our local artiste are finding it hard to survive in the industry beacause of the piracy. I think the main culprit now is illegal song downloads. I know a friend who confess he is a die-hard Siti nurhaliza fan. He knows every song. His PC wallpaper has Siti's face all over it. But, he doesn't own a single Siti Nurhaliza album. He downloaded every song. I'm not saying don't download songs anymore, I do it too. But if you like the artiste buy the original album guys. Support them. Or you may neverd from them again. These are the same malays who always say they want malays to succeed. Xnak orang cina takeover Malaysia la (not being racists here but the chinese do control our economies, malays need to stand up). Here's a thought for you; Our own malay produce the albums, but the chinese pirates cd sellers takes most of the profits...

Hmmm dah banyak sangat melalut ni. Bukan ada orang baca pun. Until next time. Ciao!