Music magazines: Coming up short with local readers

Sunday, April 25, 2004
Hera Diani , The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

At a bookstore in Kemang, South Jakarta, Pri searched for a copy of Rolling Stone music magazine, the so-called "immortal" edition about 50 legendary musicians.
Describing the edition as a must-have item for him as a music fan, he said he often bought the magazine for its great content.
"The writing is excellent, funny, often sarcastic but analytical and critical," said the 30-year-old PR company worker.
"It's something I've never found in local magazine."
While Americans browse through Rolling Stone, Spin or Maxim Blender, and British music aficionados scan-read Q magazine and nme tabloid, Indonesians have to keep up with a merry-go-round of poor quality music magazines folding after a splashy debut.
Music publications, including Newsmusik magazine, Mumu tabloid and Tabloid Rock, were shortlived, suffering from poor music knowledge, a lack of basic journalism and from being slanted to the editors' personal tastes.
Left on newsstands now are teenage magazines with little music coverage compared to fashion and lifestyle articles. The few music pieces are cute, funky and superficial.
Several publications -- like MTV Trax, Popcity, Poster and Hai -- try to give more extensive and deeper music coverage, but the scope of knowledge and writing quality are still spotty.
Reviews do not provide critical feedback for musicians, but merely consist of a synopsis and background information, written seemingly in a reciprocal relationship with record companies and promoters.
Even the music section of the country's largest daily, Kompas, mostly conforms to the formulaic review.
The current state of music publications is particularly disappointing because there was once an excellent music magazine, Aktuil, first published in 1967.
Based in the music hub of Bandung, West Java, it presented not only music news and features, but also analytical pieces on pop culture, both local and international.
Backed by noted figures in the music and literature scenes, like novelist Remy Silado and the late talent scout Denny Sabri Gandanegara, the magazine never failed to come up with new and daring ideas.
Remy's articles inspired a number of musicians to fight against capitalism and the mainstream, and his provocative poems served as the young writers' credo in the 1970s, criticizing the established literature scene dominated by the Jakarta-based literati.
Aktuil reached its pinnacle in 1975 when it succeeded in bringing rock group Deep Purple to perform here.
It was downhill from there: Plagued by internal conflicts, mismanagement and aging editors stuck in a rut, Aktuil closed in 1986.
No serious contender has emerged to take its place.
Akmal Basral, former chief editor of MTV Trax, said the potential market for music publication was high, because almost everyone was interested in the subject.
"The content is one thing and marketing is another. The problem is that local publications fail to come up with strong format and content," he said.
Although there was a lack of competition at the time, Aktuil was a huge success because the people behind it had strong knowledge of music, becoming pioneers in their respective fields.
"Now, editors often lack even the basic technical terms. Song titles, for instance, are often written incorrectly. Readers are often smarter, so no wonder they no longer trust the publications," said Akmal.
Some music aficionados have taken to publishing their own independent media, such as Ripple and Trolley. Of course, the publications are inevitably segmented and lack a marketing strategy.
The Internet changes everything, Akmal added, so that unless editors can come up with focused and new angles of writing, people would turn to website sources.
Akmal faced the problem of finding good human resources when he landed the position at the MTV Trax in 2002. "We then picked people with a deep musical background rather than journalists."
Feeling "too old and not crazy enough", Akmal was replaced by Hagi Hagoromo, former editor at celebrity tabloid Bintang Milenia.
There has been some improvement in the magazine since, with better reviews and coverage of the indie scene. Still, the superficiality remains, and at times it often comes across as pretentious and sensational, trying too hard to be cutting edge.
Hagi said it was difficult to juggle the idealism of presenting quality music content with finding advertisements to support operations.
"Advertisers want the hard sell, while the competition with other magazines is stiff," he said, adding its 30,000 circulation was quite good for a new publication.
He admitted that human resources were still a problem, even though there were many people with music knowledge and the abundant sources to be found on the Internet.
"But those who have references and can funnel the ideas and concepts through their writing are still few."
Experienced freelance music journalist Denny Sakrie said music reporters often lacked a love for music and merely entered the field to earn a living.
"Some are real journalists, but they were transferred from other desks so they have no knowledge. All they do then is just rewrite the press release," he said.
It comes down to a lack of a good grounding in music and the appreciation of musical knowledge as consisting of more than knowing the current Top 10.
It inevitably affects the quality of the music scene because of the lack of real critics.
"It results in half-baked musicians, and copycat acts in the music industry. Songs now sound the same because of that, and because there is no constructive criticism from music critics," Denny said.
Is there still hope for the appearance of a quality music publication?
Both Denny and Akmal believe there is, as long as there are efforts to improve the quality of human resources.
"Local publications have yet to dare to innovate. Music coverage and angles are still standard, as reviews or profiles. The entry point can be music, but it can be so wide," Akmal said, referring to U.S. magazine Maxim Blender that consistently comes up with good human interest stories about musicians, and provides interactive columns with readers.
"On the level of managing editors and above, they are still unable to catch up with the fast lane of fashion and trends."
There is a long-standing rumor about a local investor looking to secure the franchise license for Rolling Stone. With what they would have to work with, it's little wonder the rumor has come to nothing.

Labels: media, music

Posted by hera at 2:03 AM | Permalinks | Comments

Ad images, and society, still give women no respect

Sunday, April 18, 2004
Hera Diani, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The composite impression of the Indonesian woman in advertising in 2004 is that she is not so strong, certainly not invincible but she does suffer gladly and lives to please.
Some choice examples.
* An undeniably pretty young woman is still (somehow) sentenced to be the perennial wallflower until her skin is transformed several shades lighter. Oh, and make that wavy hair super straight.
* A wife sighs and smiles at her endearingly sloppy and unhelpful husband. Men, you gotta love 'em.
* What does a hungry boy find when he goes home from playing outside? There is go-getter mom, finding the time to do a quick batik pattern in between her household chores.
And more: Husband shouts at wifey to find his jacket, a bride freaks out as she cannot cook while hubby is a hog, a husband and his friend do a leering "the 'milk' is just right" as buxom mom hovers in the kitchen.
By and large, these representations -- sexist, stereotypical and seeming to hark back to a bygone age of the totally dependent woman -- continue to dominate the market.
The message is that femininity means becoming flawless beauties (skinny, straight hair and fair-as-can-be skin) through product consumption, using coquettish body language to attract the opposite sex and maintaining an aura of feminine innocence to remain sexy.
Of course, sex sells. But what on earth are a couple of scantily dressed women doing in a car paint ad?
According to Jean Kilbourne, an American activist against advertisements causing negative societal impact, the sexual images tie the product with women's basic desires, as if by buying the product, they are going to get not just sex, but love.
"Sexualizing women contributes to creating a society that has less trouble digesting violence against women. Ads also create impossible standards for women to live up to," said Kilbourne, a writer and award-winning documentary filmmaker, on the Internet.
Jeanny Hardono, creative director of Lowe Lintas, the local branch of Lowe Worldwide ad agency, acknowledged that using women's sexuality was the easiest way to create an ad.
"I believe that happens not only here, but all over the world as well," she told The Jakarta Post.
"Here, I must admit, advertisements still objectify women. Perhaps because not everyone is aware of a gender perspective, and the gender issue has yet to be on the agenda nor become a reference for advertisers and ad agencies," Jeanny told The Jakarta Post.
It's not just about objectifying women, but also taking advantage of women's insecurities, for instance, about having fair skin, which is the wish of most Asian women.
Believing that such ads are misogynistic, "Rossie", a senior copywriter at an ad agency, refuses to handle skin whitening products.
"Of all the beauty product ads, I think those for skin whitening products are the meanest of all. Because the bottom line is always that you won't get a guy unless you're white. Hair products don't always use that approach, but skin whitening products do," she said.
"Sadly, the product sells, because it's what Asian women want."
Aside from using women's sexuality, Rossie added that most ads still weigh on the formula of boy-meets-girl and boy-gets-girl, with most of the young women shown as shy and innocent -- the way society would like them to be.
"Attracting the opposite sex is another easy trick. But advertising people deny that they only want the easy way. The excuse then is human insight, that women want to be beautiful because they want to attract men," Rossie said.
Another excuse is that it is what clients want, or because it is in line with the research done by the client or the ad agency.
Glenn Marsalim, creative director of OgilvyOne (of Ogilvy & Mather international group), said research showed that public perceptions defined women as submissive and people pleasers.
"Do women feel like they are losing their dignity if they use skin whitening products or straighten their hair? No way," he argued.
According to Jeanny, however, the research is often abused to validate taking particular approaches, which results in a pattern for certain ads.
"Like bank ads must have men wearing ties, or detergent commercials always show housewives doing the laundry," she said.
The prevailing mentality is that it is good to stay in one's comfort zone, and better not step out if there is no example to follow.
No advertisers dare to be different, which Glenn also attributed to the monetary crisis and a reluctance to take risks.
"Besides, people are getting more individualistic right now. In the 1980s and early '90s, pop culture can still dictate and aspire people. Not now. There's no single trend right now."
However, if sex is the easiest trick in advertisements, it is still arguable if it will actually boost product sales.
"There are so many factors which can boost sales. Could be the price, good distribution, relevance to people's needs and interesting marketing. An ad induces trial, and works as shock power. If it has no relevance with the product, it only ends up as a cheap trick," Rossie said.
Women's rights organizations such as the Indonesian Women's Coalition have called upon ad agencies to sit down with them to enhance their gender sensitivity.
"We urge advertising agencies to start changing the social construction which is still against women. It's their role in educating society," said the Coalition's secretary general, Masruhah.
Rossie said that ultimately it was not the job of ad agencies to become gender awareness advocates, because they were merely taking from what the wants of society.
"Ad agencies are just an opportunist. They won't focus on skin whitening if people don't want the product. The responsibility of ad agency is only for the client. If they don't want to increase women's insecurities, then don't take the job," she said.
They need to respect the customer, and the only responsibility was to not mislead through false advertising.
Glenn said the issue was not about advertising and the media, but the public's view of women.
"I think if the value of women in society changes, the ad will follow. If women have jobs and something to do, the portrayals will shift," he said.
Ads merely reflect society, and in the end, he said, they were "all about dollars and cents".

Labels: culture, women's right

Posted by hera at 2:05 AM | Permalinks | Comments