From Twilight to Melody
Tracing the Meaning Shift in Music and Trends
The shift in the meaning of a trend can sometimes be an interesting phenomenon. If I mention the word “senja” (twilight) to Indonesian people, what will comes to their mind first? For most Indonesians, “senja” (twilight) is now closely associated with a specific type of music.
I believe this story were started around 2017–2018, when social media suddenly became flooded with memes and conversations linking indie music to the word “senja” (twilight).
These memes consistently depicted “anak indie” (a term often used on social media to describe people who enjoy “indie music”) as having a hobby of drinking coffee and posting pictures or quotes related to twilight.
Indie music itself has been around in Indonesia for quite some time. For instance, Pas Band gained popularity in the 1990s, and Efek Rumah Kaca emerged in the mid-2000s. So, why has indie music only recently been linked to twilight? What is the connection between indie music and twilight?
Before diving deeper, we need to acknowledge that the term “indie music” itself might be somewhat misleading.
Let’s focus on that first.
In early 2019, while waiting in line to buy concert tickets at a booth for an indie-labeled band in Lebak Bulus, South Jakarta, the person next to me asked:
“Do you also watch indie concerts? What other concerts have you been to?”
I told him that just a week earlier, I had seen Barasuara (an Indonesian rock band that happens to be indie-labeled) at a mall in Jakarta.
“Wow, they’re rock, right? I don’t really follow rock; I just follow indie music,” he replied.
What’s interesting here is that he equated rock (a music genre) with indie (which actually stands for independent, referring to how musicians record and release their work under their own label).
This method is typically chosen by musicians who want more creative freedom without adhering to the standardized norms of major record labels.
The music genre itself can be very diverse, ranging from rock, pop, blues, folk, hip-hop, metal, rap, punk, to dangdut, and many more.
After we continued the conversation, I realized that what he referred to as “indie music” was actually folk or pop-folk music.
Why?
This shift in meaning can be linked to the phenomenon of the word “senja” (twilight) discussed earlier. To simplify, there are two factors that I believe played a significant role in shaping this trend around 2017–2018:
- The explosion of the song “Akad” by an Indonesian band named Payung Teduh.
- The “Made for/Based on your recent listening” algorithm from music streaming services.
The rise of the song “Akad” by Payung Teduh in mid-2017 was similar to the explosion of “Despacito” around the world — it was everywhere: on the radio, TV, malls, cafes, buses, traffic lights, and many other places.
This popularity also influenced its performance on music streaming services. According to data from spotifycharts.com, “Akad” was the most-streamed song in Indonesia in 2017, averaging 500–700 thousand plays per week (even exceeding 1 million plays during certain weeks).
Although interestingly the song “Akad” doesn’t contain the word “senja,” it’s linked to the second factor: the “Made for/Based on your recent listening” algorithm of music streaming services.
Many of us are aware that similar genres and songs play a significant role in shaping this algorithm. If someone frequently listens to rock music, the algorithm will predominantly fill their playlist with rock songs.
Therefore, someone who often listens to Payung Teduh (which can be classified as folk or pop-folk) will receive playlist recommendations predominantly filled with folk or pop-folk music.
As a result, the explosion of the song “Akad” create a snowball effect and significantly boosted the plays of other popular folk or pop-folk songs at the time.
For example, at the time, the content of a popular Spotify playlist named “Indienesia” was mostly filled with this genre. Furthermore, other popular playlists like “Indofolk” and “Pojok Akustik” also contained mostly the same songs.
Coincidentally, most of these songs are often identified with poetic lyrics, and coincidentally, “senja” is one of the most frequently appearing words in these poetic lyrics and is often used in song titles as well.
As a result, according to Google Trends data, the score of the word “senja” (twilight) remained stable between 20–30 from 2004 to 2015, but jumped to around 60–80 in mid-2017 to mid-2018 and continued to increase in 2019 with “Lagu Senja,” “Menuju Senja” (the title of a Payung Teduh song), and “Lirik Senja” as the most popular keywords.
Seeing this trend, it’s no wonder that “indie music” has become strongly associated with the folk or pop-folk music genre and more specifically, with the word “senja.” Of course, there’s nothing wrong with this; shifts in meaning based on trends at certain times are natural occurrences.
