Indonesian children's songs today

Written by Ardela Nabila | Read in Indonesian

Steadily, Indonesia’s children's song industry is sliding into obscurity. Children no longer listen to songs with cheerful lyrics and music that are appropriate for their age.

Instead, they mainly listen to more mature songs or children’s songs in English that they found on the Internet. Indeed, social media content consumption plays a huge role in this matter.

It is no wonder then that many children and parents nowadays can’t answer questions about children’s songs and child singers of today.

This situation is a stark contrast to that a few decades ago. From the late 1990s through the early 2000s, Indonesia's children's song industry was at the peak of their glory.

Many child singers emerged, bringing fun songs with simple lyrics containing positive values to their peers.

The industry at that time birthed iconic child singers such as Tina Toon, Joshua, Tasya, Chikita Meidy, as well as Trio Kwek Kwek. Children grew up with light songs such as "Libur Telah Tiba", "Diobok-obok" and "Katanya"–which stay in their memories even until now.

The 2010s saw a shift in the trend of children's songs with the emergence of teenage boy and girl groups with adult-themed music, such as Coboy Junior (CJR) and Winxs, whose songs mainly talked about falling in love.

Child psychologist and author of "Quantum Brain - 7 Secrets to Catapult Child's Intelligence" Efnie Indrianie said children’s songs should contain motivations and positive values.

"Oftentimes, if we sing a song repeatedly, it will become a reflex. After that, the words in the song will be locked inside our subconscious. With the words locked in our subconscious, it affects our psychological conditions. That’s why it is important that children's songs have meaningful lyrics. Because when they instil values through songs that are sung repeatedly subconsciously, it will be absorbed in our subconscious," Efnie said in a press statement received by TFR, Thursday (25/7).

Even though it seems like there is no successor–at least for now–, quite a few concerned parties keep on striving to revive the industry.

Anugerah Musik Indonesia (AMI) recorded that in 2023, there were 184 children's songs registered for AMI Awards, and 168 songs in 2024. Regrettably, such massive numbers were a complete opposite to the dwindling popularity and commercial success of the ailing industry.

New initiatives keep popping up, but they are hard to sustain

Indonesian musicians continue to make efforts to bring the industry back to life. For example, the pop band RAN on 23 July launched a children's album "RAN For Your Kids", coinciding with National Children's Day 2024.

“It all stemmed from our concern in seeing many children singing songs with mature lyrics. We felt that it probably happened in part because of the lack of choices in children's songs lately, so we tried to deal with the problem,” said RAN member, Nino.

The songs in the album were accompanied by music videos showing the animated version of all RAN members and featured a narration by Kak Seto. There is also a new version of the song “Macet Lagi”, which is identical to the character Si Komo, making it more relatable to parents.

Of course, the album is expected to breathe a new life into the industry, including for parents to introduce these songs to their children.

The lamentable reality, however, is that reflecting on past initiatives by other music activists, this will be an uphill battle.

In 2008, the rock band NAIF launched the album “BonBinBen”, containing eight children’s songs, to make up for the lack of entertainment for children. In 2014, legendary singer Titiek Puspa launched the teenage vocal group Duta Cinta.

Another effort was made by Erwin Gutawa. He founded the Di Atas Rata-Rata collective to bring together musically gifted children in Indonesia. In 2022, the music group Mocca together with former NAIF vocalist David Bayu released a children's song titled "Easy Like 1-2-3" with the aim of providing children with appropriate entertainment.

In addition to senior musicians who are deeply concerned about the national children's song industry, the "Save Children's Songs" movement emerged in 2016, initiated by several former child singers.

Despite those unrelenting efforts, the children’s song industry remains lethargic compared to the fast-paced development of its adult counterpart.

Quinn Salman, Neona and Arsy Hermansyah are among the prominent names in the children's song segment in recent years. However, today’s children’s songs are easily overlooked as most parents prefer English children's songs.

Efnie said English songs could replace children's songs in Indonesian, provided that the child understands the lyrics. Otherwise, they won’t get the message of the songs.

"If the child is bilingual, maybe they will understand the meaning a little. But if the child is a monolingual, or non-native bilingual, for example they can speak Javanese and Indonesian, or Sundanese and Indonesian, they will only absorb the tune. They will not be able to grasp the essence and meaning of the song because they do not understand it," she explained.

Music observer David Tarigan said the popularity of children's songs actually depends on the hook and the marketing and distribution of the song.

"If you want to make a children's song, it is important to make a hook that sticks in the child's mind. Something that is easy to remember. If everything falls into place and there is exposure, the song could become popular. However, in this day and age, are there any businesses or entrepreneurs willing to invest in children's songs?" David lamented.

Collective spirit from all stakeholders is essential

Launching the latest children's songs has been done. Introducing young talents has been done. Bringing back iconic characters to engage parents has also been done. What else needs to be done by local music activists?

David said that driving the popularity and trend of children's songs in the music scene needs collective efforts by stakeholders, including adult musicians who launch children's songs.

It goes hand-in-hand with regeneration in child singers. Collaboration with established musicians can be an initial step to popularise new child singers who will take up the mantle, as RAN did in their “RAN For Your Kids” project.

They worked with young talents Velyn Elsa, Khayla Khay and Achmad Barakha to support Indonesia’s musically gifted children. Interestingly, the three were chosen through a series of selection processes.

"It takes more than one party to revitalise the children's song industry; if there is a collective initiative, everyone will revive children's songs whether consciously or not. Now that might be interesting," David concluded.