Exhibition delves into The Rolling Stones' Bandung legacy

Taipei, Sept. 22 (CNA) The Rolling Stones are easily one of the most iconic bands of all time, with the band's snake-hipped frontman Mick Jagger generally considered a music legend. But, to people living in Bandung, an Indonesian city with roughly the same population size as Taipei, the band's legacy is more complicated and somewhat different.

There, the name "Jagger" is synonymous with "troublemaker," and band members are worshipped as heroes of the slums, according to Indonesian cultural researcher Muhammad Irfan, curator of "Rocking Indonesia: The Cultural Legacy of The Rolling Stones in Bandung," who now works as a reporter for Fokus Taiwan, CNA's Indonesian-language edition.

The multimedia exhibition documenting the Stones' influence in Bandung runs until Oct. 27 at The Cube Project Space in Taipei.

While this compelling cultural phenomenon mainly took place from the 1960s to the early 1990s, it has left a lasting impact on people dwelling in the poor areas of Bandung, Irfan said.

It's only a logo, but I like it

For example, he said many of them still worship the Rolling Stones' famous lips and tongue logo, a ubiquitous sight on the walls, alleys and in other public spaces in Bandung's slums.

Interestingly, Irfan said, most people only know the two most famous Rolling Stones, Jagger, and his songwriting partner Keith Richards, and only a handful of Stones' songs whose meanings they are probably clueless about.

"It's more an image rather than the band itself that they worship," Irfan explained, attributing this in part to the lack of formal schooling among the area's residents.

Despite this, the Stones are undeniably huge in Bandung, as evidenced by the throng of cover bands -- some still active -- that sprouted up in the city's music scene from the 60s onwards.

To wrap one's head around the Stones mania in Bandung, Irfan said one must look at the history of Bandung, built by the Dutch in 1810 and positioned as a "city of tourism" for Europeans around the 1920s, when shopping centers and cinemas were built, leaving the city predisposed to Western influence.

Gimme shelter

Therefore, when the Darul Islam-led rebellions against the Indonesian government broke out in West Java in the first decade following Indonesia's independence in 1945, Bandung was primed to be attractive to those seeking a more sheltered life and a better future, Irfan said.

However, when many of these settlers struggled to make a living in the relatively small city and ended up living in poverty, they gathered in what would later become Bandung's "urban villages," Irfan said.

Boxed in by anger and frustration, when media coverage of the Rolling Stones and their music became widely circulated in the 1960s, they found their catharsis in the band, which was portrayed as having risen from the working class and having a rebellious attitude, Irfan explained.

Back then, he said, Jagger and the rest of the Stones had become symbols of "new coolness," and coverage of the band often focused on their lifestyle, which was infamously rooted in the unholy trinity of "sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll."

Before long, the Stones' exceptional popularity among people living in the slums of Bandung had spawned some new words in the local dialect that were influenced by the band and were used when talking about social problems plaguing Bandung at the time, Irfan said.

Rolling into local dialect

For example, Irfan said, the etymology of the Indonesian word Nyetun, taken from the Indonesian pronunciation of "stone," se·tun, comes from the Rolling Stones. The word literally means "do what the Rolling Stones do" and was largely used in the 1970s to mean to smoke marijuana or inject morphine.

Another one of these terms was "Jéger, which was" derived from "Jagger" and meant "troublemaker," "street brawler," or "thug," Irfan said.

"I recall when I was a kid, my mom would say, 'Don't go to that alley. There are lots of Jégers there." Irfan said. "Then, when I got into the Rolling Stones in high school, I did some research and realized that Jéger was Mick Jagger."

Also, the Indonesian government would execute people deemed "troublemakers" -- threats to social security -- by firing squad in the 1980s, and the media would run headlines to the effect of "Jégers in this area shot by police," Irfan said.

Agent of the Stones

In addition to the media, one individual also helped perpetuate the pejorative "Jéger" -- late local rock legend Deddy Stanzah, who emulated Jagger so much that his stage moves were a direct copy of Jagger's and who, just like his idol, was fond of libations and drugs, according to Irfan.

Even though Stanzah was a famous rock star, he was close with the ordinary people and would often show up in popular meet-up places in the city, dressed in outlandish fashion similar to that worn by famous Western rock musicians, Irfan said.

However, Stanzah, who was prone to "erratic" behavior at times, possessed a "dangerous charisma," and even though locals respected him, they tried to keep their distance because they knew well they had better "not mess with him," Irfan added.

While Stanzah managed to find success by emulating the Stones, the many Rolling Stones cover bands in Bandung that formed in the 1970s and 1980s never did, and most of them had never recorded an original song, Irfan said.

"For a city that's well-known for its music scene, I think sometimes, musicians in Bandung are copying their idols too much," Irfan said.

"Some of them who love the Rolling Stones feel content just to be a Rolling Stones cover band, but it's never enough if you want to live properly as a band," he said.

Irfan said it is because of this star-struck lack of originality that made him feel that the local music scene was "regressive rather than progressive."

"I think this exhibition also criticizes that and seeks to raise the question, 'Do we have our own culture? Or do we just follow other people's culture?'" Irfan said. "I think it's a critical question we Bandungers can try to answer together in the future."