Refleksi: Apakah kalau hukum Syariah diterapkan di Indonesia akan bisa ada panen buat industri musik pada waktu Ramadhan? Sebagai jawaban dapat dikatakan sulit dijamin, karena pada waktu Thaliban berkuasa di Afghanistan diberlakukan hukum Sariah, tidak dibolehkan musik, TV, film dan main layangan. Semua ini diberlakukan atas nama perintah Allah.
http://www.thejakartapost.com/detaileditorial.asp?fileid=20071001.F04&irec=3 Ramadhan harvest time for music industry Akh. Muzakki, Surabaya Ramadhan Karim (Ramadhan, the noble)! Ramadhan Mubarak (Ramadhan, the blessed)! Muslims commonly use these two Arabic utterances to show appreciation for the holy month. A moment like no other for Muslims, Ramadhan extends beyond the religious sphere and influences economic life as well. For some, the symbols of Islam that are on display during Ramadhan represent increased piety and passion. However, for those who exploit these symbols in the marketplace, they represent increased economic capital. In recent years we have seen the phenomenon of music groups without an Islamic orientation releasing religiously themed musical collections at Ramadhan. Collections such as pop group Ungu's Surgamu (Your Heaven) album and Radja's 1001 Malam (1001 Nights) are two high-profile examples. Another is Pintu Surga (Heaven's Gate) from veteran pop-rockers Gigi. The fact that non-Islamic oriented groups have turned to releasing Islamic-themed albums suggests that these products are tradable commodities with good prospects for attracting the interest of consumers. Indeed, 250,000 copies of Surgamu were sold within two weeks of its September 2006 release; approximately 400,000 were sold within the next few months. The commercial success of Islamic-oriented singers (broadly defined as Muslim singers who specialize in Islamic songs) seems to have inspired non-Islamic oriented artists. For example, 1.3 million copies of the two-disc Cinta Rasul (Prophet's Love), composed by Hadad Alwi, have been sold since 1999. And Opick's Astaghfirullah (We Seek God's Forgiveness) has sold more than 850,000 copies. For this achievement the artist was awarded five golden platina. A golden platinum is the highest award given to a musician for marketability of an album. Kristina Santi, producer of Opick's album, describes itexcellent achievement in the genre of religious music". Opick went on to publish a book about his career as an Islamic-oriented singer titled Opick: Oase Spiritual dalam Senandung (2006). Both gross sales and the diversity of products exploited by the so-called Islamic industries indicate that the future is bright for entrepreneurs trading in the symbolism of Islam in Indonesia. Islamic-themed pop music represents not only a popular consumer commodity but also a means for influencing the public and private features of Islam here. If Islamic-themed popular music can become a commodity, so can Islam itself. Through the process of commodification, Islam becomes a saleable economic object. As a practical matter, the process of commodification bestows on commodified objects or forms a so-called "exchange value". This exchange value allows a variety of objects with their use values to become real, worthy and valuable facets within the economic mechanism. In this way, abstract things such as Islamic ideas and expressions (as represented by the lyrics of Islamic pop songs) become a real, saleable commodity. Through the commodification process, Islamic ideas and expressions promoted through popular music come to represent certain ideological and emotional understandings of Islamic thought. They characterize what Jean Baudrillard calls "commodity signs". What does the phenomenon of commodification mean for Islam in Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim country? First, the scholarly debates on Indonesian Islam should not be restricted exclusively to opposing interpretations of religious concepts. Indonesian Islam cannot be reduced to a dichotomy between radical and liberal thought, as represented by the country's radical and liberal Muslim groups. Neither do the moderate views espoused by the country's two major Islamic groupings - Nahdlatul Ulama and Muhammadiyah - tell the whole story. Muslims in Indonesia consume ideas, concepts and thoughts, which are abstract elements of Islam. They also consume the material culture of Islam, which is increasingly being commodified. As such, Islamic material culture presents itself as an alternative medium of exchange among Muslims. And Islam becomes a concrete, real, valuable and tradable commodity. Second, the commodification of Islam provides support for the view that Islam in Indonesia should be approached from a broader analytical perspective than can be offered by traditional Islamic or religious studies alone. The commercial success of Islamic-themed pop music suggests that political economy and cultural studies are paradigms that will profitably complement traditional analytical approaches. Suffice it to say that, since Islam in Indonesia is so complex and dynamic, something beyond a simple, static model of analysis is required to understand it. The writer is a lecturer at the State Institute for Islamic Studies (IAIN) Sunan Ampel Surabaya and is a PhD candidate at the University of Queensland, Australia. He can be reached at [EMAIL PROTECTED] printer friendly Post Your Comments Comments could also be sent to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] Post message: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe : [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe : [EMAIL PROTECTED] List owner : [EMAIL PROTECTED] Homepage : http://proletar.8m.com/ Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/proletar/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/proletar/join (Yahoo! 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