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Music of Malaysia
Javanese and Balinese gamelan, Thai piphat, Khmer pinpeat, Vietnamese ca trù and đàn bầu, Burmese saung harp, Filipino kulintang and Malay dikir barat.
Sung and searched in Malay. The YouTube button above can run your search in that language.
Roots and traditions
Ethnic traditions
Besides Malay music, Chinese and Indian Malaysians have their own forms of music, and the indigenous tribes of Peninsular and East Malaysia have unique traditional instruments.
Traditional Malay music spans from music for various theatrical forms such as wayang kulit, bangsawan and dance dramas as well as story-telling, to folk songs and music for dances, royal ceremonies, martial arts (silat), life cycle events, and religious occasions. Many forms of traditional Malay music and performing arts appear to have originated in the Kelantan-Pattani region with influence from India, China, Thailand and Indonesia. The music is based around percussion instruments, the most important of which is the gendang (drum). There are at least 14 types of traditional drums, including kompang and hadrah drums. Drums and other traditional percussion instruments are often made from natural materials. Besides drums, other percussion instruments (some made of shells) include: the rebab (a bowed string instrument), the serunai (a double-reed oboe-like instrument), the seruling (flute), and trumpets.
Popular music
Modern music
Malaysia's pop music scene developed from traditional social dance and entertainment music such as asli, inang, joget, dondang sayang, zapin and masri, which were adapted to Anglo-American dance band arrangement by Bangsawan troupes in the 1920s and 1930s. The Bangsawan troupes are in fact a type of Malaysian opera influenced by Indian opera at first known as Wayang Parsi (Persia) which was started by rich Persians residing in India. They portrayed stories from diverse groups such as Indian, Western, Islamic, Chinese, Indonesian and Malay. Music, dance, and acting with costumes are used in performance depending on the stories told. The musicians were mostly local Malays, Filipinos and Guanis (descendants from Goa in India). One of the earliest modern Malay pop songs was "Tudung Periok", sung by Momo Latif, who recorded it in 1930. In the 1950s, P. Ramlee became the most popular Malay singer and composer with a range of slow ballads such as "Azizah", "Dendang Perantau" and the evergreen "Di Mana Kan Ku Cari Ganti".
Read the full article: Music of Malaysia Text under CC BY-SA 4.0
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Music only, no news or talk. Stations that play the local tradition come first, then the most listened. They play in the corner of the page.
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