PERFORMING LOCALISED HYBRIDITY IN THE 1960s MALAYSIAN POP YEH YEH

The term ‘Pop Yeh Yeh’ refers to the genre of Malay popular music that emerged in the 1960s in Malaysia and Singapore. Notably influenced by Western pop groups of the era, such as The Beatles, The Shadows and The Rolling Stones from the United Kingdom (UK), the genre is characteristically known for its kugiran (an upbeat guitar band). The kugiran consists of three guitars and a drum set that mirrors the configuration used by Western bands of the time. However, musicians of the Pop Yeh Yeh genre were often criticised by veteran musicians as amateurs who lacked proper musical training, and producing poor-quality songs. This article shows that despite sharing many similarities with the music of popular bands in the 1960s UK, local musicians the likes of M. Osman & The Mods, as well as A. Rahman Hassan & Orkes Nirwana, were inspired to localise and make the Pop Yeh Yeh genre their own. Markedly, in integrating Malay asli (Malay dance music with ornamented melodies) vocal styles, the Malay language and lyrics about the Malaysian way of life with Western surf rock rhythms, vocal harmonies and musical forms. Likewise, the Malaysian fashion sense and images symbolic of Malaysia were also deliberately used on album covers. Therefore, this article demonstrates how these musicians used regional aesthetics of hybridity through which Malay elements are combined with Western and other elements in their attempt to localise the Pop Yeh Yeh genre. The results are collated from three different research methods. These include analysing the music of local musicians recorded on 45 rpm vinyl records, obtaining information from Malay entertainment magazines from the 1960s through the 1980s, and conducting interviews with people in the music industry.