MTV' tunes into today's trends

Sunday, August 05, 2001
Hera Diani, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Go ask a group of teenagers at the mall about what they want to be when they grow up.
Yes, doctor, architect or accountant are sure to come up, but, in their hipsters and tank tops and sneakers, they will also mention an occupation that never crossed the minds of their parents.
MTV veejay.
Being on the station, talking the talk and becoming a household name has been a dream of many since MTV Asia first broadcast into the country's living rooms in 1995 on ANteve and by satellite.
Every time MTV looks for the person with the right combination of looks, personality and teen appeal to be a new VJ (they call it a VJ Hunt), more than 2,500 people are sure to sign up. Many of them are even already famous, like model Caroline Zachrie.
From four million viewers of ANteve in 1995, last year's official viewer figure is more than 19 million households.
"That is only based on people who watched it through ANteve. That means there are a few million more who watched through satellite," public relations executive of MTV Southeast Asia Jakarta Muthia Farida told The Jakarta Post.
The station's influence on young people in music, lifestyle and fashion is undeniable. Hip-hop and rap have taken on their own regional variations, there are marked changes in attitudes toward formerly taboo subjects, including sex, and what young people wear in Jakarta is little different from New York or London.
A recent survey by Asia Market Intelligence and Bates advertising shows that MTV is the coolest brand among teenagers in this country.
An Indonesia Peoplemeter survey by AC Nielsen confirms that MTV is the most popular music channel in the country, reaching 75 percent of the audience aged 15 to 34 every month.
Little wonder that advertisers are banging on the door to plug their products, especially as the station's influence spread last year with the founding of MTV Radio and also merchandise store MTV Style.
According to Muthia, from five local advertisers in 1995 there are now over 50 local companies advertising on the station, over 100 regional advertisers and 50 advertisers who sponsor shows.
Changes
For the music industry in Indonesia, MTV has changed everything. Video clips are now an integral part of the success of singers and bands, with a well-produced video sometimes able to make a hit of a so-so tune.
New artists take advantage of MTV to lure the public, and old ones come back to it time and again to put their careers back on track.
Take Chrisye for example.
The 50-something singer and songwriter is suddenly hip again. His formula for success is to remake old hits, looking a little out of place as he stands among a bevy of models and other celebrities in striking videos produced by top directors.
Record companies acknowledge the influence of MTV as a promotional medium.
"It would be very stupid if we didn't use MTV to promote our artists," Suntono, a promotions executive at PT Indo Semar Sakti, told the Post.
One of Indo Semar's bands is Naif, whose latest album Jangan Terlalu sold hundreds of thousands of copies and won many honors, including an MTV award.
However, Suntono said that MTV was not the be all and end all of making a successful record.
"It really helps. But since the broadcasting is limited, the impact is not really that significant," he noted.
Fashion
The channel has also been part of changing fashion.
What the artists on MTV are wearing will soon be found adorning bodies in cities large and small around the world.
Fashion writer Muara Bagdja said MTV exerted a profound influence on fashion tastes among the young, and also made them a fashion market to be reckoned with in Indonesia.
Before its debut, he said, most Indonesian designers made clothes for older women. Today, local designers such as Urban Crew and the teen-oriented boutiques of Mangga Dua, for example, know where their rupiah is to be made.
"I don't think MTV is merely part of the change, but what has made the changes occur among the young," Muara said, noting fashion references to the Madonna and more recently Destiny's Child "looks".
"In fashion, you see the clothes are bolder, freer, dynamic, trendy. The influence wasn't directly on the designers but on the consumers -- and then the designers followed."
He said that MTV's nonmusic programming and ultrahip VJs, including bilingual Sarah Sechan, also had a positive effect on the personality and attitudes of Indonesian youth.
Young Indonesians, he believed, now hold to "universal" values, which have come in tandem with globalization and technological advances.
"Today young people are more open, more direct. Just compare how someone like Indra Safera approaches a topic to how Bob Tutupoli did," Muara said of the popular emcees.
Power
There is no doubt MTV has an influence on the lifestyle of young people, but is it really creating those trends or is it merely an artful follower?
Youth observer Robby Chandra said the power of MTV lay in its ability to study, observe and then conclude what was hip among young people.
"They can read the spirit of young people, give it the format and creatively present the things that are really suitable for them," he said.
Guitarist Piyu from rock band Padi said the function of MTV was only as an information provider.
"It only gives input about what's hip, information about the latest music," he said. "But when it comes to setting trends, it's not MTV who does it. The trend is already there. MTV only gives the impression that they are the actual trendsetters, while they're actually not."
Some young people criticize MTV Asia as too mainstream and commercial, and that its original mission as a music channel has taken a backseat to its reality-based shows, such as It's My Life, promoted as an up-close look at the lives of young Asians.
"Hery," 26, said that he stopped watching MTV over a year ago because the content was only boybands and teen pop.
"The local shows are also disappointing. It's My Life, for example, is a very bad reality show. And MTV Screen is not a movie review -- it is movie promotions because (according to the show) every movie is good," he said.
"Shouldn't MTV be about being different, taking risks and youth freedom?"
Others, however, worry that sometimes the content shown on the channel, with scantily clad men and women living out the "rock n' roll" lifestyle, goes too far.
Robby, along with Piyu and Muara, expressed concern about the negative impact of the music channel, which he said promoted consumerism and a hedonistic lifestyle in some of its programming.
Although MTV's various channels around the world have taken steps against explicit drug references in songs, including late-night-only airings of the offending videos, Muthia said the presence of "western values" was unavoidable.
"We can't just cut videos like that," she said.
And if they did, what would Indonesia's budding MTV Generation do?

Labels: culture, media, urban

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