There is nothing new under the sun and there is nothing original in music.
Even pioneering acts such as The Rolling Stones, The Beatles and Led Zeppelin could not claim originality in their works.
Taking their cues from blues, the English groups turned rudiments of the American-born genre into a "white" music by emphasizing the epic refrains of the call and response, speeding up the rhythm guitars, enhancing the organ arrangements and adding vocal harmony.
With such a formula, blues-oriented groups took the world by storm in what was universally known as the British Invasion. Indonesia's music scene was not spared the invasion and among the first group to absorb influences from the English bands, the Beatles in particular, was Koes Plus. Building their sound from a template created by the Liverpudlian quartet, Koes Plus, four brothers from Surabaya, East Java, penned hundreds songs that brimmed the Beatles sunny and catchy melodies, incisive guitar solos and concise lyrics. Koes Plus later grew to become one of the country's biggest bands until today. The band even scored a number one hit, Why Do You Love Me in neighboring countries, including Australia. Their inclination toward the Beatles, however, landed members of the band into legal problems. The government of president Sukarno, which launched a campaign against all western influences, considered the band as promoting decadent foreign culture and sent band members to jail. Against all odds, the band strived even after the demise of the Beatles. The demise of the Beatles paved the way for a legion of bands that would later create an even bigger sensation, such as Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and Deep Purple. The guitar-oriented sounds from the band quickly inspired thousands of young people in Indonesia to form their own bands. Of the three bands, it was Deep Purple who apparently made the biggest influence on bands here. Dozens of Deep Purple-sounding bands thrived after the hard rock band staged their gigs in Jakarta on Dec. 5 and Dec. 6, 1975. The sounds of Ritchie Blackmore's bluesy guitar and Jon Lord's otherworldly Hammond B-3 organ were all over songs from local bands such as Superkid and Bandung-based outfit Giant Step. Even the self-appointed king of dangdut music, Rhoma Irama, heavily borrowed from Blackmore's guitar sound. Indonesian musicians were not only influenced musically by the English acts. A Surabaya-based band A.K.A had a vocalist who could match Sabbath lead singer Ozzy Osbourne only in his self-destructive stage antics. Although falling short of biting a live bat's head off on stage, A.K.A vocalist Ucok Harahap practiced voodoo-like rituals on stage and won a cult following for his efforts. The influence of seminal bands from the 1980s British pop scene, the likes of Joy Division, My Bloody Valentine, Stone Roses and The Smiths, was so strong that it still resonates in the mid 1990s and until recently. In the mid 1990s, a vibrant music scene in Bandung gave birth to bands such as Pure Saturday, Kubik and Cherry Bombshell who owed their jangly sound to the British acts. Bands to come out of Bandung music scene were a national phenomenon when they scored hits and sold thousands of records. These days, a lively indie music scene in Jakarta and other cities in the country were still susceptible to Brit-pop influences. Cashing in on the thriving indie-scene in the capital, earlier this year independent label Aksara Records released JKT:SKRG, a compilation of songs from Brit-pop inspired indie-bands. More than forty years after its first invasion, Brit-pop is still alive and kicking. by M. Taufiqurrahman
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