Music subcultures and countercultures have always been scapegoated by politicians in Malaysia for political mileage since the early 1970s. The formula of conjuring mediated moral panics that puts the sole blame of Malaysian society’s ills on rock bands and rock culture has been so commonplace and successful that this trend carried on until the mid-2000s when a popular underground venue called Paul’s Place were raided by the police on new year’s eve 2006 when the underground and indie music community retaliated with a press conference at the very same venue two days after the raid.
Although in these instances the usual rallying call by politicians is to label rock music as ‘yellow culture’ – foreign and Western culture ‘not of our own’ – the term has also been applied to other genres and artists like Beyonce and Indonesian dangdut queen Inul Daratista aside from hip hop acts, punk and metal bands. What is important to understand is that most of the negative soothsaying is by and directed at the ethnic Malay Muslim majority population. At times, even moral panics and accusations of ‘yellow culture’ has also been applied to minorities. One also has to understand that all this fear mongering is political theatre at its best: the Malaysian music underground scene still thrives and is a lot more pluralistic than the authorities make the public believe through the media.
About Azmyl Yunor
Azmyl Yunor is a renowned Malaysian bi-lingual independent singer-songwriter, musician, writer, gig organizer, and videomaker who started out as a street musician that adheres to the ‘three chords & the truth’ school of songwriting. As an artist-researcher, he has published his research on the cultural politics of Malaysian music subcultures and mediated moral panics, and the overlooked histories of the Malaysian underground and independent music circuit.
A founding member of several seminal underground bands in the early 2000s, his most recent solo album John Bangi Blues (2020) has been praised by fans and critics alike for “its raw power and lyrics that shuffle between satirical humour and a stiff middle finger.” He is also a Senior Lecturer at the School of Film & Performing Arts, Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences, Sunway University Malaysia. He has published academic book chapters on Malaysian music subcultures, DIY (do-it-yourself) practices, and cultural politics in the media. He has taught in the performing arts, film production, and contemporary music diploma and degree programmes.
The Ethical Troubadour lecture-performance series is an ongoing project by Azmyl to engage with the creative and academic community in Southeast Asia and South Asia beyond performance spaces while on tour to encourage regional solidarity and understanding which began in 2019.