MIDWAY through my Azmyl & the Truly Asia US Tour about two weeks back, I made a cheeky post on my personal Facebook page about how a local mainstream press would prefer to cover a story (most probably syndicated) about a Singaporean band that was robbed while they were just at the start of their own US tour over an actual Malaysian band touring the US at the same time.

I say “cheeky” because I noted that I had sent press releases about my upcoming US tour to the mainstream media (by mainstream I mean those publications that still have a print version) but none had taken the bait, let alone shown any interest.

The online press, of course, was very supportive and did publish several news stories about our tour.

I figured – my ego as an artist aside – that a humble Malaysian band like us playing at a music festival in the United States, which included some legends such as Robert Plant, Ziggy Marley, Los Lobos, and Earth, Wind & Fire as their headliners would be a newsworthy feel-good story for our local news. 

Apparently not.

While the comments and responses from my Facebook contacts were encouraging – in the sense of slamming the aforementioned mainstream press for sidelining my story – I too am very aware of the “bad news is good news” adage that still permeates our new media industry.

One legendary local musician also commented that maybe my story lacked “drama”, which is a valid reason when one considers “newsworthiness”. 

Or, quite possibly, I do not have the pull or “sex appeal” as a news piece to even get a slight mention in their news cycle. 

Let’s get to brass taxes here: while our epoch has been about decrying sexism and gender bias, in the media, female artists often have a greater chance of being covered or featured in the press compared to male artists. 

This is, of course, a double-edged sword and I am not calling nor advocating more coverage for males out there. I am just stating a problematic norm. 

Considering other local rock band frontmen and actors have also been in the news lately in the more gossipy news cycle regarding their crumbling marriages and divorces, I am a relative “non-event” in the news cycle radar because I am gossip-free and not prone to public humiliation. 

Maybe I am just a minnow in the industry’s eyes, which doesn’t bother me a bit because I’ve never considered myself a part of the “industry”. 

It’s just like applying for a credit card from a bank with a zero or clean personal financial record: you will most likely be rejected for being too “clean” and indebted to anyone. 

Be that as it may, music and arts journalism in this country is in an appalling state. Not that it has ever been in a glorious period at all to begin with.

However, I personally can identify a “golden period” from the mid-1990s to the early 2010s, when the mainstream press had journalists who actually knew the pulse of what was going on in the local music scene and more critically the local independent and underground circuit. 

I’m not including the mainstream music industry because that industry is well-oiled with industry stalwarts as gatekeepers and is notorious for exploiting unassuming talents. 

These journalists who knew what was happening in the independent and underground music circuit were weaned from the tradition of rock journalism spearheaded by the likes of the late legendary music writer Lester Bangs, the early Rolling Stone music magazine (now a shade of its former self) and the late legendary DJ John Peel, to name a few. 

Of course, these journalists eventually grow older and move on to more senior or editorial posts or eventually leave the publications, leaving a gaping hole that never gets filled. Continuity is a perennial Malaysian national problem. 

These sort of media personnel are sorely missing, notably in the arts writing of all Malaysian media, mainstream or otherwise. 

It isn’t going to improve or return to its glory days really because the key performance indicators for media publications now are clicks, shares or likes rather than the actual content of the news stories. 

There are plenty of politicians who in my book do not deserve the coverage they get but they are adept at identifying how the media take their bait with nonsensical or at times confounding statements. 

This is no different from the “sex sells” adage, which may explain why female performers get more coverage (they are better “eye candy”) because appealing to the lowest common denominator is still the rule of the day for the Malaysian media industry. 

Just like our mainstream politics. – May 19, 2023.

* 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.

* This is the opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insight. Article may be edited for brevity and clarity.