Indonesia's Reggae Revolution | The Genre's Second Island Home
In 1997, the Asian Financial Crisis hit Indonesia like a drum solo.
Riots, violent protests and calls for change toppled the 33 year-long dictatorship of President Suharto.
The price of freedom and democracy was economic desolation, debt and despair.
Fertile grounds for Indonesia’s Reggae revolution to take root.
Students face police forces - Jakarta, 1998
Burning and Looting - Jakarta, May 1998
If Hip-hop emerged as the the soundtrack to urban struggles across the world, reggae spoke to the tribulations of country and island life.
In fact, Reggae’s emergence in the East Indies at the end of 20th Century mirrors its explosion in the 60’s and 70’s in the West Indies.
It was the audio troubleshooting of post-colonial island nations that found an off-beat art form to articulate their calls for freedom and rebellion.
Something to step to.
The internet, travellers and borderless vibes brought the genre to Indonesia. The archipelago’s natural chillers not only had a music that immediately identified with their soul.
They made it their own.
Already by 1996, Tony Q Rastafara was cultivating the buds that were to blossom into Indonesia’s first real emergence on the world Reggae stage.
His first album, "Rambut Gimbal" (Bahasa Indonesia for dreadlocks) was the slow burn that pollinated Indonesia’s reggae's culture.
Tony Q’s Rambut Gimbal Album Cover
Mostly sang in Bahasa, it features a wide variety of instruments, rhythms and harmonics, along with elements from folk, local traditional music, and even electronic synths.
Well-known Angklung can be heard on Rambut Gimbal, as well as Kulintang and Seruling on Hanya Untukmu.
Birds sing in the background mix of Si Liar: the whole record's crisp recording and production quality are astonishing.
The evidence of a strong will to blend reggae and local legacy into a modern twist delivered a groundbreaking masterpiece.
Tony Q - Live Concert
Then, tragedy struck again with The Bali Bombings in 2002. Tourism vanished, and most of reggae's foreign audience with it.
This only inspired young Indonesian artists to reignite the spark passed on by their forebears, for their own sake.
Soerya in the Riau Islands Reggae community © TribunBatam.id
Steven & CoconutTreez's 2005 album The Other Side testifies to this.
Embodying a peace revival for disillusioned Indonesian youth, its heartwarming lyrics stood as an invitation to enjoy life as it is, free from past burdens.
As a counterpoint to political reggae, the first track Welcome To My Paradise speaks for itself.
When tourism peaked again in 2006, the album was playing ubiquitously throughout the country, especially in reggae's cradle: Bali and Lombok.
What started as a local musical solace was then brought home in ever increasing tourist’s luggage.
While most record labels didn't dare to sign groups of dreadlocked red eyes, it was online broadcasting and the rise of social media that facilitated the distribution of Indonesian Reggae.
Producers could now fulfil their duty as messengers and express their own universal struggles, in a popular music style, fit for any beach.
Their innate talent for the one drop let it breed.
Steven & CoconutTreez Live Concert © KapanLagi.com
At the same time, future international icon Ras Muhammad was still studying Liberal Arts in New York, when he released his first record, Declaration of Truths, in 2005.
Two years later, his album Reggae Ambassador unveiled an intention to represent the Indonesian genre's modern scene, in a ragga-dancehall style.
Nominated as the best "reggae act" by Rolling Stone Indonesia, his self-proclaimed title took him out of the smoke, into the Indonesian clouds and around the world.
Ras Muhamad © Popharini
He proved his deep insight for reggae culture when publishing Negeri Pelangi (Rainbow Land) in 2013, a book about reggae history, philosophy and vision delivered in Bahasa for the first time.
An Indonesia's best-seller, it sold out domestically and abroad.
Inspired by the pioneers of the genre, he is leading a new generation to cultivate their garden, green handed.
A bold voice in a ripening Indonesian reggae scene.
Ras Muhamad © MLDSPOT.COM
Invigorating the youth of South East Asia's leading economy, reggae embodies the raising voice of an ever-growing middle-class that has finally tasted economic prosperity, as well as those living a less material richness.
Seminyak Beach, Bali © YouTube
Indonesia’s Reggae Revolution is unstoppable.
A musical genre fit for nearly every inhabitant of its 267 million people across 17,000 islands.
While Bob Marley and company may have popularised and espoused a Caribbean version that entered the global Zeitgiest, Indonesia’s version is still, in comparison, a seedling on the world stage.
Yet, international recognition is not the inspiration for Indonesian reggae.
Its purpose is to tell the timeless tale of consciousness, struggle and peace to a groove that infuses the archipelago’s ancient history, culture and spirituality.
A sentiment that has already been, is and will continue to be, espoused in a simple message that Reggae infused into it’s musical core.
One Love.
