Rhoma Irama: King of Dangdut

In the 1970s a new style of music was being invented in Indonesia by Rhoma Irama, born Oma Irama. This music combined a broad range of influences from Indian film music, to western rock music, to the Indonesian orkes melayu with a nationalist, populist, and in Irama’s case Muslim, message. That music was dangdut (Frederick, 1982).

Rhoma Irama began his career as a melayu musician, and his group Soneta was first formed as a melayu group. Melayu was Indonesian despite international influences, and a music of the common people, two traits dangdut maintained. However, as his commercial and artistic goals developed, Irama began to create more upbeat, rock based songs for dancing (Frederick, 1982). Although the music was called dangdut by the upper classes as a mocking word referring to the sound of the drum beat in the new genre, Irama claimed the title as a source of pride as his music belonged to the common people (Weintraub, 2007).

the group Orkes Melayu Kenangan performing in 1950, unknown photographer

Irama also began producing films out of his music where he played himself, often with a story about a lower class man overcoming barriers to make it in the city and find love. As time went on, both his films and his music began to convey more religious messages, including ideas from hadith and the Quran, which created some controversy over whether he was desecrating Islam. Irama refers to these songs as dakwah, songs which are meant to teach and lead people to live more moral lives. An example of this is Laillaha Illallaha, which was criticized for using verses from the Quran directly in a song, but also became a popular dance tune (Frederick, 1982).

Irama also became involved in politics through his music. He first supported the opposition party PPP which led to him being banned from nation tv station TVRI for ten years. Surprisingly, he later switched to supporting the other party, Golkar. His music has remained true however to dangdut’s populist spirit, as he has always attempted to write lyrics which appeal to the common people and criticize greed and corruption. Dangdut remains influential in politics today, with both political parties looking to use dangdut stars to garner support in the 2024 election (Raditya, 2023). In the modern day, a new controversy has also impacted dangdut about sexuality in performances especially by female dangdut musicians. Irama has pushed modesty for dangdut performers, in accordance with his religious moralizing (Sutton, 2017).

Irama giving a lecture at the Ministry of Religion Affairs Regional Office of South Sumatra (photograph by the Ministry of Religion Affairs)

In writing his music, especially dakwah music, Irama had four guiding principles in mind: a good musical structure, impactful lyrics, cohesion between all aspects of the song, and relatability for the common person (Irama, 2011). These are the principles that have made him the king of Indonesia’s most popular music, dangdut.

 

References

Frederick, W. H. (1982). Rhoma Irama and the Dangdut Style: Aspects of Contemporary Indonesian Popular Culture. Indonesia, 34, 103–130. https://doi.org/10.2307/3350952.

Irama, R. (2011). Music as a medium for communication, unity, education, and dakwah (A. N. Weintraub, Trans.). In A. N. Weintraub (Ed.) Islam and popular culture in Indonesia and Malaysia (pp. 185-192). Routledge.

Raditya, M. H. B. (2023, October 31). How will Indonesia’s dangdut stars shape the 2024 election? Indonesia at Melbourne. https://indonesiaatmelbourne.unimelb.edu.au/how-will-indonesias-dangdut-stars-shape-the-2024-election/.

Sutton, R. S. (2017). Asia/Indonesia. In J. T. Titon (Ed.) Worlds of music: An introduction to the music of the world’s peoples (6th ed.). Cengage Learning.

Weintraub, A. N. (2007). Dangdut soul: Who are ‘the people’in Indonesian popular music?. In Entertainment media in Indonesia (pp. 76-96). Routledge.