BEING an urban middle-class, English articulate Malaysian is in many ways an MOR experience, which is shorthand for “middle of the road” that refers to commercial and popular music genres

I am not going to discuss music genres here, but I shall be using the term as a metaphor for how we live our lives by way of the parallels between genres and social classes.

To free oneself from the shackles of generic conventions is the ultimate goal, and moving the goalpost each time the question ‘So what genre do you play, bro?’ pops up presents a part of the fun of being a musician and of trying to keep things in the grey rather than a binary.

In contrast, commercial or mainstream musicians completely embrace generic conventions because… well, that’s just the industrial standard.  

Respected rock critic Robert Christgau stated that MOR had been “applied to radio formats that shun or put stringent tempo and volume restrictions on rock, although ‘lite’ and ‘adult contemporary’ are now the preferred evasions”.  

Sounds familiar? Well, we do have a popular music station called “Light and Easy” that has existed in different permutations and names throughout the decades. But what really defines such a station’s playlist is really nostalgia by way of music genres. 

Even some notorious rock bands with a ballad hit or two would be featured on such a station, so the indicator of whether one fits MOR is really on a per song basis.

Aside from “nostalgic”, I would attach to this sort of music such keywords as “comfortable”, “conformist”, “pleasant”, “relaxing” and “melodic”. We all have our guilty pleasures. 

So how does being an urban middle-class individual reflect this? What I’m trying to get at is the ideological stance which mirrors MOR that I notice tends to prevent people of this social stratum from getting out of their so-called comfort zone.

The rising popularity and ubiquity of outdoor and extreme sports in Malaysia in the past decade or so has certainly generated better-toned Malaysian bodies and physique and created a generation of adrenaline junkies. But it has also diverted the energies – and shall I say frustrations – of the middle-class members away from articulating their angst in some communicable art form.

Sandwiched between the working class that struggles to make ends meet and the bourgeoisie elite who tends to be more concerned about lineage and succession, the middle class find itself caught between a rock and hard place. It is left with the guilt of having a rather stable and adequate upbringing compared to the working class, but lacking the network and inner circle of the elite to free itself from the herd.

Could this explain, for example, why a country with a large middle class like Malaysia lacks artists and thinkers who could break away from tried and tested life narratives? 

While the other two social classes have their hands full with other pressing and restrictive concerns, the middle class in Malaysia is in danger of living in mediocrity if they do not step out of their “comfort zone”.

What traps the middle class most are financial commitments to things that tend to be more wants, which they can do without, than needs. Most would scoff at such a statement but scoff they will and fall back onto the comfort of their frappuccinos and the queue for their sugar-laden bubble tea.

As for myself, I am a decidedly middle-class, overseas educated Malay (go ahead, give me your best stereotype), but at the same time I have always been perplexed by the materialist tendencies of middle-class life. 

I am not saying that I am “special” or unique. All I am stating is that some of us value things differently regardless of our class-based upbringing, but the vicissitudes of life often distract us from what really matters and we fall back onto the velvet comfort of a Lobo (or whomever is your guilty pleasure) song and continue with our longings and ruminations.

Members of the middle class have a duty to be interesting and take chances. Yet they treat the opportunities accorded to them, particularly university education, as just a paper chase instead of taking it as a window where they test new ideas and forge long-term creative and intellectual alliances with classmates.

There is no hero or saviour who will come to save us as this has to be a long-term pragmatic collective endeavour. How do we reconcile our desires with the codes and conventions of the social classes that enable as well as hold us back? How long are we to remain “middle of the road”? 

The answer, my friend, is not blowing in the wind – it’s blowing from your five star-rated, energy-efficient, eco-mode, intelligent, instalment-plan air-conditioner. – September 11, 2020. 

* Azmyl Yunor is a touring underground recording artiste, and an academic in media and cultural studies. He has published articles on pop culture, subcultures and Malaysian cultural politics. He adheres to the three-chords-and-the-truth school of songwriting, and Woody Guthrie’s maxim “All you can write is what you see”. He is @azmyl on Twitter.