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Invasion from the dance floor
A dance scene at the Djakarta Warehouse Project last year
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A dance scene at the Djakarta Warehouse Project last year. (JP/R. Berto Wedhatama)
Once a club sound, dance music has forayed into pop radio. The result: top DJs today lead stadium-large crowds with nerve-jangling rhythms.
Jakarta is one of their conquests. Over the past couple of years, A-listers such Tiësto and David Guetta have played sets to crowds that fill large open-air areas like Pantai Carnaval and Ocean Ecopark, both in Ancol.
Trio DJ Swedish House Mafia opened the year with their farewell concert, “One Last Tour”, here in Jakarta last month.
In a Muslim-majority country that was once under Soeharto’s autocratic regime, the genre, better known as electronic dance music (EDM), was only played at nightclubs and private parties in the 1990s, while television aired melodic tunes from pop rock bands like Dewa 19 and Sheila on 7.
House music, a sub-genre of EDM, had its moment in the earlier part of the decade, when various kinds of regional pop — from pop minang in Sumatra to pop minahasa in Sulawesi — embraced its upbeat tunes.
The peripheral music scene was enlightened by the new flavors through cassettes and VCDs, but it didn’t really charm mainstream music lovers due to its association with promiscuity, drugs and alcohol.
Today, Indonesia seems to enjoy every single drop of EDM. Having top singer Agnes Monica constantly adding dance flavor to her music, EDM has become a platform of the country’s pop stars.
“The music has a become trend in the world, and Indonesia seems to follow the lead by making it bigger,” said local DJ Hogi Wirjono.
Hogi said that the genre’s rise to fame was quite normal, just like any other genre in the music industry.
“There’s ups and downs. Right now, dance music is at its peak.”
Hogi mentioned that Agnes had been using EDM in some of her hits, including “Godai Aku Lagi” (Tease Me More),
which was produced by DJ Sumantri in 2009.
“And if you hear the current hit song, ‘Gangnam Style’ [by Korean star Psy], it’s total electronic dance music, and it was celebrated at the closing of [2012] American Music Awards,” he added.
Involved in the EDM scene since its early years in the country, Hogi said there has been a movement to detach the music from the grim light of nightclubs.
He said some local DJs, including him, had organized underground dance music events in 1995.
“It was more like a statement against then dance clubs. We wanted to bring the music into a different atmosphere,
the underground style, so we went to Parkit [a local venue in Jakarta] and we had an intense gig of about 500 people at that time.
“It was small indeed, but it had a banging influence that transformed it into a movement. Afterwards, we could enjoy Bengkel Night Park. The development was pretty natural,” said Hogi of the establishment that is now called The Fairgrounds in the Sudirman Central Business District (SCBD) in Central Jakarta.
The movement brought more local and some international DJs together for an influential event, Jakarta Movement, a one-day dance music festival held between 2003 and 2005.
“We could gather around 18,000 people per festival at that time. They were all enjoying music from local DJs. We only invited some international DJs - the ones who we knew quite well about.
“The last time we made Jakarta Movement [was in 2005], following some strong opposition against dance music from some groups,” said Hogi, referring to the sweeping raids by mass organizations.
It wasn’t the end for dance music in Indonesia, however.
In 2006, Tiësto visited Jakarta, and about 20,000 die-hard dance music worshippers flocked into the outdoor gig at Pantai Carnaval to rejoice in the presence of the spin and scratch master.
“Now we have an annual festival, Djakarta Warehouse Project, which is good to develop the local scene,” said Hogi of the annual big event for music dance, which was last held in December in Jakarta.
The festivity brought in notable international DJs such as Grammy winner Paul van Dyke of Germany, Calvin Harris of Scotland, Avicii of Sweden and around 26 local performers, including up-and-comer Angger Dimas. About 12,000 partygoers attended the event.
With at least 20 DJ schools in Jakarta alone, Indonesia has shaped up its dance music scene.
“However, Jakarta may not ready yet for a big-time showdown like ZoukOut in Singapore, because it needs full support from the government,” said Hogi, referring to the annual dance festival in Singapore that can attract up to 28,000 people.
“I’m sure we will get there someday as long as the community stays on the right track and the government notices the potential and starts to really support us,” said Hogi.
As a DJ and producer, he hopes that Jakarta can host a block party one day. “It’d be great to close down Jl. Sudirman downtown, for example, and set up some stages, performing all kinds of electronic dance music on a weekend. I’m sure it’d be huge, both in organization and the buzz.”
Taking Singapore with its ZoukOut as an example, Hogi believes that a single music dance party would bring more international tourists to Indonesia.
“Singapore is a strict country, with the rules and all. But when they host ZoukOut, its government is like totally allowing everyone to party. It means more money coming in from the international tourists,” he added.
“I’m also grateful with the fact that we now have Angger, a young DJ with international experience,” said Hogi of the 24 year-old who started his career overseas by signing with Australian label Vicious Recordings in 2009.
Within five years, Angger had opened Tiësto’s show in Bangkok, formed a group and released an extended play album, We Rock, with the DJ god.
Forbes named the Dutchman as the world’s highest-paid DJs last year, with estimated earnings of US$22 million.
“The dance music scene nowadays has grown into a serious business. It is no longer something that is close to negative acts, as most people used to think,” said Hogi.
