Advocating Contemporary Traditional Indigenous Semai Music through an Exploration of Youth Interest

The traditional music of the Semai known as Sewang is losing its interest among the Orang Asli communities due to change in livelihood, religious conversion, and interest of youth in popular music and culture. This research aims to rejuvenate Semai musical heritage by exploring how the interest of the Semai youth in popular music can be integrated with traditional Sewang songs as an approach to musical sustainability. The objective of this research is to advocate the development of contemporary traditional Semai music by merging traditional elements into popular music styles. The new works will be performed and transcribed into a musical score, and recorded and produced as an online digital recording that has potential for commercialisation. This research will utilise an applied approach in which researchers act as advocators in nurturing a bottom-up development of contemporary traditional Semai songs. We argue that in order for Semai traditional music and songs to be sustainable, it needs to be relevant and of interest to the Semai youth. We hope to provide the Semai with creative ideas, musical and entrepreunership skills to develop and produce their own contemporary traditional works in future.