The Music Experience

“Maybe that is similar to women who own two of the same exact color lipstick of different brands.” I asked, “And why would they do that? She shrugged her shoulders - she did not have an answer for it either.

Back in the day, there were LPs, then cassettes, then CDs. Now that everything is streaming, LPs and cassettes are making a comeback.

I went to a section of Blok M where clusters of small shops are selling used cassettes and LPs. They are packed floor-to-wall with cassette tapes, some had a few youngsters in it, some has no one. It was dinner time anyways, I thought. I tried to start conversations with one of the attendants, the one I spoke to doesn’t seem want to engage in a conversation.

I continued walking, seeing, listening.

As I walked through the hallways, I passed a corner store, stopped and backtracked because I noticed someone interesting on my peripheral. An interesting looking character, sitting in the corner of his store, smoking. His name, Andi Twins. As always, after introductions, then the conversation starts. Later on I realized just how vast his knowledge on music is.

I was sharing a story about my high school days going to Duta Suara in Jalan Sabang, spending hours flipping through rows after rows of cassettes, when a young lady came by asking about a Sade tape for a gift for her friend. He did not have it in the store so he recommended Michael Frank instead and played it for her.

As she was listening to the music, another cool, stylish young couple came over to the shop, a few minutes later we started chatting, and I found out that the young woman was the lead singer and guitarist in her band. After revealing what guitar she plays with, I told her about a friend of mine who owned a Les Paul Epiphone guitar, then when he saved up enough money, he bought the same exact look and type of guitar - the Gibson Les Paul. She replied, “Maybe that is similar to women who own two of the same exact color lipstick of different brands.” I asked, “And why would they do that? She shrugged her shoulders - she did not have an answer for it either.

Her boyfriend chatted me a little about documentaries and photography. I find it interesting that there were so many of these younger generations that are attracted to these two things. These days, the generation who grew up with social media is constantly looking for things that are real, imperfect, more human. They find this in analog, they find this in cassettes, LPs, and film photography. Even with digital photography, they look for things that are so different than conventional ways of seeing photography. For them, perfection is manufactured, untrustworthy. They care about real things. This is why so many of them care more about documentaries more than the previous generations (at least in Indonesia).

Andi, in the mean time, was playing old school music of different genres and eventually played some things that intrigued the young couple. In some cases they sang along, and doing the typical music listening things that I used to experience in my younger days with my friends.

The conversations became more interesting. Andi takes one of the customers’ phone, puts Spotify on, and searched for a particular song. Then he played it out loud, inverting the phone, and asked: “Guess which song this is”. A game of famous songs that were ripped off began. Laughter, jokes, music, nostalgia, and playful conversations ensued.

As I bid my farewell, I suddenly realized how hungry I was. I was there for 2 hours.

Music was exactly that for me. Sometimes my hangouts with friends after school was to listen to music while talking about other stuff. Sometimes we are just sharing new finds. Sometimes, it was making mixtapes. “Have you heard this one?” that was the most fun part. Discovering something new, with people who love music the same way that I do.

That was my life, back then - when cassettes were in (the first time), repeated in a two-hour window.

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