The Sorry State of Our Lagu Melayu

The local music scene, especially the malay songs are in a pathetic state, according to my observation. I was a net malay song listener from 1989 to 2007. Similar to the Malaysian soccer condition, the current state is really parah (sick in Malay).

The first song that got me hooked up was Suci Dalam Debu by Iklim. At that time, Juara Lagu was a show that I always looked forward to each week. This was way back in my secondary school times. Then, I knew more and more songs, singers and bands from TV and magazines. It was fun to hear band names such as Mega, Gamma, Metafora, Sera, Ekamatra, etc.. Then there was a time when the government ban local bands from adopting English names, and those related protested because it will be funny for Search to change to Mencari and Wings to Kepak.

As time goes by, slowly the quality of the songs began to drop. At one time around the year 1992~1993, there were only a few famous songs, and they kept on repeating on the radio. Songs from singers such as Fotograf, Nash and Jamal Abdillah became the chart topper each week for many weeks, even months. Much later, more and more younger bands came up and created a healthy replacement for some of the older bands. They are such as Ukays, Slam, Exist and Samudera.

When KRU and 4U2C came out, the music scene has seen a big leap out of slow rock, or known locally as rock kapak. This was the time where Malay rap was introduced, but too bad, I think they failed miserably. Raps are best in English, and never good in Malay and even Cantonese. Surprisingly, when the nasyid groups came out, they suddenly became a hit. I don't deny that I once liked some of the songs, especially those sung by Raihan and Saujana. This genre lasted for at least 5 years, but it became history now.

As of now, in this 21st century, I have totally lost touch with the current batch of singers, more so the songs. I think the last good malay song was Spider's Relaku Pujuk and the last good band is Spider. It sounds quite irritating for those songs that uses Facebook as their theme. It definitely sounds out of place when you hear "like" and "share" words in a malay song.

I just can't help but felt sorry for the current state of the malay songs that I once adored. Each time when I was looking through Youtube, I would only search for rock kapak or those songs that was from 80s and 90s, to early 2000s. Anything from 2007 onwards are not my cup of tea anymore.