Out of boredom and curiosity, I browsed YouTube last night and found some interesting clips on dangdut band in Indonesia. No, I am not talking about famous label-related band, the ones I observed were locals. They usually perform live on stage, outdoor, in parties and local celebrations. What fascinates me most is the tradition is "nyawer". Nyawer is a custom where people (usually men) would give money to the singer of the band, which almost definitely will be women.
So, I watched this 10 minutes long clip of a dangdut band performance in some rural town. The singer, as usual, wearing skimpy, sexy clothes. Hot pants and tank top are the most common costume. She started singing a rock song which later on remixed into dangdut rhythm. Obviously, people are dancing wildly. Once the song enters the dangdut rhythm, one man came up to the stage. He was wearing some sort uniform that I am not familiar with and a beret. Reluctantly he approached the singer with a bunch of money in his hand. The singer quickly came to him and asked for his name. Soon after, she tried to incorporate his name into the song to make him happy while dancing sexily in front of him. He passes on bank notes, one by one to the hand of the singer while she was singing and dancing. Not long after, a rather distinguished man came up to the stage holding even more money in his hand. I could see big notes with red and blue colour, so it must be bank notes with Rp.100,000 and Rp.50,000 denominations. The singer wouldn't miss her chance, she came to this man and asked for his name, later on she refers to this man as "Bang Haji" ~ he is not Rhoma Irama, the famous dangdut singer who has that nickname, but obviously he mentioned his name as 'Haji X' She did the same thing with this man. The man, having the title 'Haji', was in between excited and shy. So, he kept his back to the audience while the singer give him what is equal to lap dance on stage.
And then, the third man came up to the stage with whole bunch of money. I saw the colour was yellowish and pink, so it must be the Rp.5,000 and Rp.10,000 denominations. This rather young man was very excited. As the other two, he got his share of standing lap dance from the singer. He seemed to enjoy the hip movements from the singer that nearly touched his crotch. Soon after, the atmosphere was heated and became very competitive between the three men with money. They tried to get more standing lap dance from the singer by "stealing" the singer from one another. Of course, Bang Haji gets the most since he holds money with bigger denominations than the other two. The band was also excited to see this as they kept playing the music and the singer kept singing and dancing. Altogether this 5 minutes song finished in 10 minutes when all the money has gone.
In my humble analysis, nyawer is a form of macho culture, where men show their power through how much money they can give to the singer. They satisfy their ego by owning the singer for themselves for a short period of time in public. This will show the people who are in the audience who is the wealthiest and the most powerful one because not everybody can go up on the stage and get a private standing lap dance from the singer or have their name incorporated in the song. Only men with a lot of money have this privilege. Whoever nyawer the most will gain certain respect and have their social status leveled up. That is why in many village or rural areas, distinguished local leaders such as community leader, village chief, wealthiest farmers will participate in saweran to maintain their social status. They believe that by showing their capability to nyawer a lot, they will bring the pride to the family and themselves as wealthy men who are capable to provide.
The singer, however, is the front-liner in the band. She needs to attract many people not only by her singing but dancing and costume too, because many men who intrigued to nyawer are not attracted by the singing, but mostly by the sexy dance and costume. The band is usually paid relatively low, so they really rely on the extra income from saweran. That is why the band players usually are really pumping the atmosphere to enable the singer get more money from men who nyawer.
In some ways, this tradition can be perceived as very patriarchal and exploiting women. Women, as the singers, are usually seen as the commodity for the band to sell. I watched other clips that has 2 female singers with sexy costumes and dance moves, the singing was not good but they also get a lot of money from saweran. So, clearly, the singing is not the main attraction here. Men just enjoy the sexy dance movements combined with sexy costumes. It amazes me how some men need such self-actualization, social status maintenance and power show off through saweran. The superiority feeling is channeled through handing in money to the singer for a short sensual sensation in public. What was funny to me, these men did not even realize that the women, in this case the singers, are actually holding higher bargaining position than them. The singers cleverly use men's ego to gain profit for themselves (and for the band, of course). They optimized their weapons of attraction, which are the dance and the sexy costumes. At the end, the men would most likely got turned on and had to deal with his sexual arousal issue, while the singers just simply keep singing and easily asked the band security to get rid of the men from the stage once the money are all gone. After all, a little shake of hip for these men wouldn't hurt the singer.... =)
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