Indorock

History#

The guitar was imported to the East Indies by Portuguese explorers in the 16th century. The traditional Portuguese song styles, saudade and fado, played with guitar accompaniment, later became kroncong music. Many Indorock musicians had a predilection for Hawaiian music, which was popular in the Netherlands at the time. Other significant influences include American country & western, and the rock & roll repertoire played on radio stations in Indonesia via American (AFN) stations from the Philippines and Australia. While Dutch audience were interested in Rock & Roll, white Dutch musicians did not perform the genre in the mid-1950s, and Indonesians and Moluccans filled the void at that time, and bands such as the Bellboys, the Room Rockers, the Hap Cats, and the Hot Jumpers performing to a mixed audience in venues such as pubs. Since the Dutch music industry offered few venues for Indorock artists, many of them went to Germany where it quickly became highly popular, at least until the advent of British beat music. The Indorock scene had largely faded in the Netherlands by the mid-1960s, as it was superseded in popularity by British rock as a result of the British Invasion. However, it would continue to be an influence in Indonesian rock music. Indorock has also been considered by some to be an early form of proto-punk, as some of its stylistic elements are similar to those in the punk rock movement of the 1970s.

Notable indorock artists#

• Tielman Brothers (1957)
• Bintangs (1961)
• Black Dynamites (Los Indonesios) (1958)