Kangen Band; A Voice against Hegemony

KANGEN BAND is a new pop band in Indonesia. Their debut in 2007, sprang a vexed controversy all around Indonesia and the neighboring country Malaysia . Some people were shocked, some musicians were envious, and some music critics were annoyed; grunted that this band was not capable enough to play music. Later, the more popular they were, all aspects of this band became an object of controversy. The quality of the record was poor, the songs were old fashion, and the persons are sucked, they said. “Naif” the senior band expressed their envy in more harsh words, they said that this band was a heck. The social background of the persons made the controversy even harsher.

But, meanwhile, their first album “Tentang Aku, Kau dan Dia” sold more than 600,000 copies, not to mention the pirate copies which, according to reports, sold millions; an outstanding number and the best seller of the year for it was hard for most popular artist to even sell 50,000 copies at the time. Besides, the Ring Back Tones (RBT) sold more than one and a half million, also the best seller RBT of the year.

Their second album “Bintang 14 Hari” in 2008, is another big success. This album sounds much different from the first one for many big musicians took parts in the making. This second album is excellent in quality of the sounds, but the songs are less fascinating than their first album. However, most of the songs in this album, became top most hits. There are not as many controversies and criticizes in this second album as in the previous one.

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Music critics and Musicians may look down upon this band. But the people may say something different. The people don’t care a rap about the band but the songs. There’s no such a category as poor songs and good songs. It’s all about taste. It’s just someone’s perception. And the perception is just a way, a method to judge upon something. When you come to the conclusion that a song is good, it’s just a way you appreciate it; your own way. You cannot claim that your way is a sole truth while someone else has a different way.

What happened to Kangen Band is that people set their own way to appreciate music; they refused other ways. They claim that it’s only their way that is right; other ways are wrong. Then the scorns started, the envies begun, and the misjudgments initiated.

Other thing that may lead to misjudgment is unfairness. It’s not fair and it is ridiculous to judge something bad just because they are not your group. The fact that all popular bands been so far come from Java, of middle class family, of big towns, and of good looking people has set the people’s mind that these are the category of a good band; bands out of this category are not good bands.

That’s why when Kangen Band came with none of this category, some people were taken aback, shocked and wondered what was going on. Never before had a band been so popular with none of this category; they are not from Java, they are not of middle class family (they are poor people), they are not of big town, and they are not good looking people. People with this mindset then set a war to stop Kangen Band; they fight their might just to uphold their hegemony.

And as always be, the first casualty of the war is the truth. The war against Kangen Band has killed the truth in the hearts of the warriors. Those people who deep in their hearts admit that Kangen Band is good deny it in their mouth and their pens just because they are not part of their own hegemony. .***