Independent Media in Indonesia

Pure Saturday and Rocket Rockers are the pioneers and scene setter of Indie band in Indonesia. Both of them, has been exist in Indonesia since the independent movement in Indonesia were developing in the 1990’s. Why I categorized these two bands as the pioneer beside the other senior bands that have existed before them? Because, beside these two bands are my favorite bands, these two bands has made a lot of movement in their scene, and a lot of development in independent scene in Indonesia. Both of them are from Bandung, The City of Flowers, which a lot of people claimed that the artists who came from there, has some kind of buried talent that could make a lot of innovations. The city which has the most prestigious Institute in Indonesia, which is ITB (Institut Teknologi Bandung / Bandung Technique Institution), are being an example for the other independent scene in other place in Indonesia. Let’s say the “distro” or “distribution outlet” that is dominated Bandung from the economical crisis era in 1997, until now. Each “distro” have their own community, which has their own characteristic and points of view. And we can found a lot of “distro”s in Bandung. How do they communicate each other, and made a scene setter? There should be some media, who can be the place of expressing their idealism, and promote their own stuff to the public. Or maybe I could say some “zine”, because of their “underground” idealism.

Well, from the reference that I took from Ripple Magazine, which the pioneer of printed Indie scene media is Trolley Magazine, Ripple Magazine has shown there existential in promoting the Indie movement in Bandung and also Indonesia. Although they were born from skateboarding and street communities in Bandung, their sellout Ripple Magazine has made a visible improvement in the quality and quantity to their independent scene, generally. The magazine that is filled with propagandas, and campaigns from local bands and products, has indirectly developed the Indonesian variety of music and lifestyle. The major labels that are only dominated with pop rock genre changed their mind to release other genres, from the people / bands who exist in Indie scene, such as Metal (Burger Kill, Sucker Head), Punk (Superman Is Dead, Rocket Rockers), Garage Rock (The Brandals, Speaker 1st), etc. Indie scene in Indonesia seems to have their own market and costumers, which is dominated by the teenagers who wants to be different to others. As the psychology of teens, which is very generous, thy just want to be different with others, and just want to make some kind of innovation to be a scene setter to their communities. This is totally being used as the independent media, to appreciate every creativities and innovation from their own communities to their own communities.

But, it looks like this independent medias were getting bigger and bigger, and more competent and competitive. The breeds of the independent media which were getting more variable, has also improves the variety of the independent media itself. The old types of independent media, which are from venues and gigs, have developed their new types and more efficient media, such as textbook, magazines, and webzine. Today, technology was getting cheaper, easier, and more reliable to get, and made a lot of improvements in the independent scene, especially in Indonesia. Bands who were usually do the hard work and spend a lot of money to promote their bands to get famous with the limited of media, now, is getting easier and also cheaper to be done with all the variety of media in the independent scene in our country.

As we know, media is a “tongue connection” between individual / corporal problems, facts, fictions, or information’s, to the public. A lot of artists and activist promote their talent, ability, or work to the public as the investment of their entrepreneurship. Media has been a vital thing in our life. Without media, maybe we didn’t who is the President of The United States of America now. Or how much cost of victims in Aceh’s Tsunami. Media itself also can drive people point of views. Now, working in media is one of the most prestigious jobs in Indonesia, seeing the geographical, politics, and economy problems that strike Indonesia. But besides resuming the problems in our country, there are still plenty of things that we can expose in media. How about the independent scene in Indonesia? Nowdays, the people who exist in independent scene in Indonesia are still need to be exposed, especially in secluded places in our country. Maybe we could found the hidden talent from our youth in the other side of our country. We are the positive thinking Youth Of The Nation!



I could categorize Ripple Magazine, and deathrockstar.info Webzine as the most famous independent media in Indonesia. You can check some reference from there!

There are still plenty of things that we can do to support the independent scene in Indonesia. You could be the one who active in Independent scene, or you could be the one who helps the activist of the independent scene, active in independent media. This is the place for us to improve our creativities and talent. It’s open for everybody!

Be creative and positive!