State Of Despair
January 30, 2007 by Jo Minor
Music has the ultimate power of transcending borders, and influencing people all over the globe. This has been done for years and years, and music has the ability of reaching out to more people than any other art form - it can safely be said that more people recognize Michael Jackson’s name than they would recognize a character in a popular movie, say, for instance, Indiana Jones or Spock.
After having said that, however, there seems to be an invisible power holding music back in our beloved country, Malaysia. While we live in a peaceful and prosperous nation, the state of music here is in shambles.
Censorship is the biggest and most prominent enemy of the music industry, especially to such urban genres of music such as rap and heavy metal, but in Malaysia there seems to be a form of overzealousness when it comes to censoring material here.
Our national media is severely censored, but that’s reasonable and well acceptable because authorities and the people in general do not want children to be exposed to certain harmful elements. That’s all fine and dandy - but banning certain bands just for their band names?
This might sound almost politically-charged, but I don’t care.
Megadeth - a band well known to metal fans as one of the earliest pioneers of thrash metal, was labeled as a black metal band. And what timing - this ridiculous issue popped out moments before the band was scheduled to play in Malaysia for the first time. I bet the people responsible for this fiasco still jubilate over their victory to this very day.
Megadeth frontman Dave Mustaine, being as direct as ever, stated in an interview how superbly stupid this whole thing was. He even went on to criticize the authorities, calling them incompetent for not doing their homework before banning Megadeth. Justified, I might add. If we can’t openly criticize the powers behind such absurd stunts, then Dave did the talking for us. He could well be a formidable leader someday.
At one time, if I’m not mistaken, even the band’s records were banned from record stores nationwide. Oh, the stupidity.
Censorship might also contribute to the rampant cases of music piracy in Malaysia as well. Just think about these scenarios: you pop a CD you just bought into your stereo, only to hear beeps and scratching sounds which are not a part of the songwriting intended for the listener to enjoy. The next possible option would be to buy a pirated CD that costs a quarter or less than the original - just so you can enjoy complete, uncensored tracks. Moreover, you might not even be able to find music you’re looking for in our music stores, thanks to ludicrous prices.
Call me ridiculous, but this is happening all over the nation.
The prices of records, on the other hand, influence piracy even more than censorship. This is a gigantic issue that causes losses of millions to the local and international music industries - yet, there isn’t much done to protect the ownership of artistes and bands that live on the hard earned money they make from their music. The average Malaysian, on the other hand, can’t beat the temptation of owning music for a fraction of the cost - I can get a pirated CD for RM5 to RM15 when an original might cost anywhere from RM25 to RM120 (prices are crazier for imported CDs, of course).
After describing these main factors, one can not overlook the pathetic state of music we live in. Sadly, though, there are no heroes to save this drama - now or ever.
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