The Power of ‘Lord’ Didi Kempot’s Fans

KOMPAS/P RADITYA MAHENDRA YASA

Fans wave as they welcome singer Didi Kempot’s appearance as a guest performer during a dangdut show on 30 July 2019 in Wuled village of Tirto district, Pekalongan regency, Central Java. Didi Kempot was popular among social media users, and was known for his songs about young love.

How can we explain the power of Didi Kempot’s "broken hearted" fans?

Didi Kempot was among artists with a powerful fanbase. They were not just consumers but also producers who were very active in reconstructing the image of their idol and his songs that speak about heartbreak.

This past year, the popular music stage seemed to belong to Didi. It could be said that there was almost no other singer who was able to compete with Didi\'s popularity and the charm of campursari (a mix of modern and Javanese music) that he brought. Anywhere, his concerts were always crammed with spectators. Once the event was over, the snippet of the concert atmosphere and the audience\'s experience immediately moved to social media to be commented on, re-interpreted and celebrated together.

Interestingly, some of Didi’s fans this past year were young people who might not have been born when the popular songs "Stasiun Balapan" and "Sewu Kuto" were created.

Interestingly, some of Didi’s fans this past year were young people who might not have been born when the popular songs "Stasiun Balapan" and "Sewu Kuto" were created. These new generation fans called themselves Sad Boys, Sad Girls, or Sobat Ambyar (the brokenhearted). They are Didi’s new generation of fans, who are more expressive and very active on social media. Didi called them educated and cool guys.

The popularity of Didi this past year was his second wave of popularity. His first rise in popularity was in the 2000s through the song "Stasiun Balapan " after painstakingly slithering toward the ladder of success for nearly two decades from 1987, including by becoming a street musician.

Since the song "Stasiun Balapan ", Didi\'s name has skyrocketed in the campursari music scene through songs such as "Sewu Kuto", "Parangtritis" to "Tanjung Mas Ninggal Janji". However, at that time his fans were still limited to Javanese-speaking people.

KOMPAS/P RADITYA MAHENDRA YASA

Didi Kempot (second left) performs as a guest singer during a dangdut show on 30 July 2019 in Wuled village of Tirto district, Pekalongan regency, Central Java. Didi Kempot saw a resurgence of popularity in mid-2019.

Since mid-2019, Didi reached the second wave of popularity, of which his audience was from various ages, genders, ethnicities, languages and political views.

Read also: Didi Kempot, a legend who lived twice

The power of Didi’s fans and charisma proved effective during the joint charity concert with KompasTV in mid-April. The fund-raising concert for people affected by the COVID-19 epidemic, in a short time was able to raise around Rp 7.6 billion. It’s a fantastic amount.

How can we explain the power of fans of this kind? Are they merely consumers of the product and image produced by the star?

Active fans

The existence of fans has long been an interesting topic in the studies of popular music and mass communication. There are at least three dominant approaches in understanding the sociology of popular music consumption (Wall 2003, Betts 2004).

The first approach emerged in the 1930s, which relied on the theory of mass culture. This view regards the consumption of music as a fanaticism associated with mass hysteria. Because of that fanaticism, fans are considered to have a mental state that is vulnerable, emotional, obsessive, likes to fantasize and childish.

This theory has been criticized by researchers who emerged in the 1950s. They do not believe that fans can be so passive and powerless in consuming music. This view is based on the fact that young middle-class people in the US post-World War II were actively involved in forming popular music culture. They chose music according to their taste, identity and way of life.

The presence of those alternative groups gave rise to the subculture theory which views music as an element of resistance to the dominant power.

A decade later, there were groups of young people who interpreted music as a tool to counter the domination of mainstream culture and political elites. They included rasta, skinhead, punk, mod, ted and rudie groups. The presence of those alternative groups gave rise to the subculture theory which views music as an element of resistance to the dominant power.

In the 1980s, a third approach emerged which was called fan culture. Instead of offering resistance ideas such as the subculture approach, this approach offers a way to understand the discourse in music consumption. This approach places fans not only as consumers, but also actively produce various meanings to what they consume, including the image of the star through various activities such as fan meetings, conversations or music discussions.

Didi Kempot fans were in the third-generation fans who actively give meaning to the image of the star, the message in his works and even the image of the music it carries. In fact, they were instrumental in triggering the second wave of Didi Kempot’s popularity.

KOMPAS/HERLAMBANG JALUARDI

Thousands of mostly young fans enjoy Didi Kempot perform on 4 Oct. 2019, the first day of the Synchronize Fest 2019.

Formulating a broken heart

The second wave of Didi’s popularity was initially triggered by a viral video of Didi\'s performance at Taman Balekambang in Surakarta, Central Java on 9 June 2019. Fajar Romadona, one of the initiators of the Sad People Club, said he and a number of friends from the Rumah Blogger Indonesia community filmed the show and then uploaded it on social media. It was unexpected that the video turned viral and continued to be shared on social media until the end of July.

Read also: The ideology of a broken-hearted party with Didi Kempot, the Godfather of Brokenheart (https://kompas.id/baca/utama/2019/08/07/ideologi- partai-patah-hati-bersama-didi-kempot-godfather-of-broken-heart/)

The tragedy of a broken heart immediately spread on the social media.

A month later, another video showing Didi\'s performance during the Ngobam (Chat with Musicians) show appeared on the YouTube channel of Gofar Hilman. The video shows a young man who looked miserable when listening to the song "Kalung Emas (Gold Necklace)", whose lyrics cut the hearts of the broken hearts into pieces. He was drowned to the lyrics of the song, "Loro atiku, atiku kelaran loro. Rasaning nganti tembus ning dada"(My heart is painful, my heart hurts. It feels like it pierces through the chest). The tragedy of a broken heart immediately spread on the social media.

The video immediately went viral and triggered a wave of brokenhearted expressions in virtual spaces in the form of comments, vent and symbols, such as images of broken hearts put together again by a band aid. Didi Kempot’s new generation of young fans were busy rebuilding the meaning of heartbreak, sadness and the relationship between men and women.

KOMPAS/SEKAR GANDHAWANGI

Young fans watch with rapt attention on 23 July 2019 as Didi Kempot performs during the 21st anniversary of the National Awakening Party (PKB) in Jakarta. Hundreds of his fans, dubbed “sad boys” and “sad girls”, watched their idol, nicknamed “The Godfather of the Brokenhearted”.

Most of them do it as a form of spontaneous expression. However, some others have other intentions. Fajar Romadona, the initiator of the Sad People Club, said he and his friends deliberately filled the virtual space with various meanings and images of Didi Kempot in June last year. In addition to guarding the fireball of the presence of Didi’s fans, he wanted to bring a new color to the virtual sphere that is cramped with political strife that continues to quarrel even though the election is long over.

After a few months being fed with political issues, we are thinking of bringing up other themes that can give a new color while embracing all people into one.

"After a few months being fed with political issues, we are thinking of bringing up other themes that can give a new color and at the same time embrace all people into one," said Fajar.

Read also: Politics and oasis from Lord Didi

In addition to reformulating the broken hearted messages in Didi Kempot’s songs, they also constructed the image of Didi\'s fans as rows of broken hearts, failed love, sad boys and sad girls. That image is so solid that it generates Didi Kempot fans as the brokenhearted people.

It grew even stronger when they gave Didi Kempot the title of The Godfather of Broken Heart aka the Father of National Broken Heart. Then, the fans rushed to dig and re-narrate Didi Kempot, who was simple and full of heartbreak and various rejections.

Kompas

A Didi Kempot fan wears Sobat Ambyar\'s shirt in Solo, Central Java, on Tuesday (5/5/2020). Sobat Ambyar was one of Didi Kempot\'s fan base identities.

The new narratives from Didi Kempot\'s fans finally surrounded the virtual space and imagination of so many people. Writers and observers were then tempted to reflect on Didi Kempot\'s figure and heartbreaking narratives into broader discourses such as politics and philosophy. This was the first time that feelings such as a broken heart, which was usually personal and not political, were drawn into such a sophisticated social and political context.

Read also: Ambyar

This is the power of fans, especially in the digital age when people pin their hopes on the phrase "social media do your magic!". Fans in this era are consumers and producers of meaning. Of course, the power of fans still rests on the idol\'s talent and strong charisma. (SKA/SAN)