Ali Johan managed to sit down and speak to prolific Indonesian music documentist and journalist, Denny Sakrie, on the early days of Indonesian music, from the prohibition of western music (rock and roll, pop) in Indonesia in the 1960’s which forced Indonesians to develop their own distinctive sound, to Indonesia’s long time relationship with its neighboring countries, especially Malaysia.
Part 2 of the interview covers how the dawn of rock and roll era during the ruling of president Sukarno; which had a stern anti-imperialist, anti-western stance and distaste for foreign music leads to a diversity of musical genres flourished in the scene such as “keroncong” and “dangdut” that shaped contemporary music scenes of Indonesia.
Our meeting with Denny was indeed brief, but he managed to squeeze and share as much information as he could during the interview. To read more of his writings, head over to his blog and follow him on Twitter.
