why I listen to Indonesian songs

When I was still an undergrad, I noticed that the Chinese and Indians have this tendency to conquer the TV sets around the residential college, watching shows that only they understand -that is, in languages that only they can comprehend. I thought that this trend is another way of showing how proud they were to belong to their respective ethnic groups (which I must admit I'm fine with since I'm not racist). I was blind to one other also highly probable reason; variety. Chinese shows might come from Taiwan or Hong Kong or China, and the Indians have shows from India. Malays watch Malay shows made by RTM.

Then the Indonesians started exporting their performing arts.

Regardless of what people say about the influx of Indonesian songs (and movies, even) here, I think it's good variety. And it's good to see TV3 coming up with pretty good Malay shows nowadays. I mean, learning English is alive and fine, but it's also mighty fine if we have shows that can educate people and expose them to lots of information in our very own mother tongue. And although the Indonesians use Bahasa Indonesia instead of Bahasa Melayu, it's still very much comprehensible, not very much unlike listening to people speaking our mother tongue. And in arts (not just performing arts but arts in general) and the usage of language I think the Indonesians are waaay classier. The words they use in their songs, we only use in our textbooks. And their songs still sound waaay better. Trust me, people who never listen to Indonesian songs should do so. The musical arrangement in some Indonesian songs are just plain brilliant. And the lyrics are deep.

So I guess that's why I listen to Indonesian songs a lot. Bukan sebab arwah ayah aku orang Jawa la.