What's the deal with Indonesia? [REDACTED]

[rumborak]

So, everybody knows the common joke of "DT, play in Indonesia!"
But, what really surprises me is this:

https://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=%2Fm%2F0jn38

Look at the distribution of countries on the world map. Indonesia is by far the leading country of people searching for DT. Now, it is the 4th most populous country in the world, sure, but the country of equal size, the US, doesn't even appear on that list.
Is Indonesia this totally metal-loving country?

EDIT: Also interesting is that #2, Chile, has only 17 million people, and yet is #2. That's impressive.

[Anguyen92]

I would think so.  Dream Theater played in this "Lapangan D - Senayan" which, according to Google, the capacity is about 10k people.  I think depending on how any band is promoted, and haven't played there yet or rarely (which is a lot of bands), they are going to get good reception.  I mean Alter Bridge played in Indonesia for the 1st time ever, last spring, in the same venue that DT played for A Dramatic Turn of Events tour and got a good reception from what I've heard.

People in Asia are pretty much passionate about the music and they just want their favorite bands play since there it's pretty rare for the band to have an Asia tour in the books.

[Nick]

I *believe* in Indonesia at least, that metal would be something quite counter culture. Although you don't hear about it much, Indonesia has the largest Muslim population in the world and tends to be quite conservative. My guess is that promoters there have two obstacles to overcome. The first revolves around that record sales there for this sort of music is likely non-existent. I just watched the bit in the Transatlantic tour documentary where Neal mentions that Radiant doesn't sell any music in South America and yet everyone there knows it. Kids downloading and watching youtube videos is probably the main vessels for the music in Indonesia. So promoters have no sales to go on and are catering to a group (younger people) with generally limited funds. The next thing would be if it is indeed somewhat counter-culter the promoters might offend some by bringing in a band like Dream Theater.

Again, just my guess-work, but perhaps something to it.

[hefdaddy42]

What's the deal with Indonesia?

That's a good question.

[?]

Even the president of Indonesia likes metal: https://loudwire.com/indonesia-elects-metalhead-president-joko-widodo/

[stellarnight]

Personally think it is a mistake to think that muslims= conservative = therefore do not do metal. Perhaps it might be different for muslims elsewhere but in South East Asia, many muslims are fans of heavy rock and metal. And as ? pointed out, President Jokowi is a huge fan of metal. Source: I stay in Singapore and muslims malays are among the biggest metal fans here.

[McNugg]

Not only is Indonesia's President a huge metal fan, but he was actually at the Dream Theater gig in Jakarta!  I'd like to see David Cameron or Barak Obama do that

[CharlesPL]

David Cameron ??

Who is?

[rumborak]

You are aware of this thing called Google, right?

[Shadow Ninja 2.0]

UK Prime Minister, I believe.

edit: lol

[CharlesPL]

You are aware of this thing called Google, right?

Sure,

Meh , It's not my business. I thought it was an actor

[Kotowboy]

UK Prime Minister, I believe.

Correct. He's slightly better than Gordon Brown but not as good as Blair's first term. Blair's second term was a complete catastrophe.

AT least in 1997 when Blair first got elected - it felt like something great was happening. Then 2001 happened and it went south FAST.

[hefdaddy42]

*very stupid thing to post*

I don't know where you live, but comments like these on a public forum, even if meant in jest, land you on quite a few "watch lists".

Yes, and that is not a good thing or a good reflection on this forum.  Take a week off to think about it.

And hopefully it won't come to this, but remember Rule 8:

8. By posting on this site, you acknowledge that your IP address and other personal information that you registered with become public information, and may be used by the Administrators of the site for any legal situations that arise from your use of the site.

[Jinx]

May I ask why the comment still exists? I mean if its gonna make the forum look bad I would get rid!

[hefdaddy42]

May I ask why the comment still exists? I mean if its gonna make the forum look bad I would get rid!

Probably a good idea.  I will do some editing.

[ariich]

Personally think it is a mistake to think that muslims= conservative = therefore do not do metal. Perhaps it might be different for muslims elsewhere but in South East Asia, many muslims are fans of heavy rock and metal. And as ? pointed out, President Jokowi is a huge fan of metal. Source: I stay in Singapore and muslims malays are among the biggest metal fans here.

Excellent post. Based purely on my own sample of "Rich's good friends", 100% of muslims (two out of two) are into hard rock and metal. Among my non-muslim friends the proportion is really low.

Nickfail

[Madman Shepherd]

I *believe* in Indonesia at least, that metal would be something quite counter culture. Although you don't hear about it much, Indonesia has the largest Muslim population in the world and tends to be quite conservative. My guess is that promoters there have two obstacles to overcome. The first revolves around that record sales there for this sort of music is likely non-existent. I just watched the bit in the Transatlantic tour documentary where Neal mentions that Radiant doesn't sell any music in South America and yet everyone there knows it. Kids downloading and watching youtube videos is probably the main vessels for the music in Indonesia. So promoters have no sales to go on and are catering to a group (younger people) with generally limited funds. The next thing would be if it is indeed somewhat counter-culter the promoters might offend some by bringing in a band like Dream Theater.

Again, just my guess-work, but perhaps something to it.

I wouldn't say Indonesia is a conservative culture, especially compared to some other Muslim countries.    There is a lot of freedom for women and even homosexuals although in some local municipalities they may be a lot more strict about things (I recently saw on that some people received lashings for homosexual behavior which lead me to find out that there are no national laws prohibiting it). 

Everything else you wrote is spot on. 

[MetropolisxPt1]

From what Ive understood from the articles i have read, the stability in Indonesia is questionable. Their are not many effective means to combat crime and these problems aside from violent force.

[plgi024]

I'm Indonesian, and I've waited around 13 years to have DT played the 1st time in Indonesia, and the others were around 20 years or more waited for them. So it's kinda magical to have them played here 2nd time this year. Like Xmas came early.

Here's my personal theory...
Rumors told that Portnoy against cig and alcohol drink sponsor, while in my country, those 2 are the biggest sponsor possible to have the great metal concert to respect the music and audience. So many local promoters have tried to ask DT to come and ended up rejected.
When I heard Potnoy left the band, my heart raced by agony coz he left and by excitement coz DT may have their concert here. And voila, they did, on 2012.
Based on this personal experience, I, myself, alone, I guess, believe my own theory is true.

But yeah, you can add up some security problems, being conservative, majority are moslem, and so on into the reasoning of it, plus our bureaucracy is the most complicated one in the whole world I believe, and this metal head president is about to fix them, so...hallelujah!
The reality is, we are not so conservative. The media mostly highlighted on several things like that out of oddity of this modern era, but it's not generally Indonesian. What's even surprising is when Stryper came to one of big rock fest in Indonesia, I met moslem fans even sing along and spilled the name Jesus within the lyric... So Indonesian metal-heads are religious and pretty respective to other religion as well. Maybe we shall worry more to those who are not into metal...

You may laugh on the joke of DT played in Indonesia, we will not blame anyone for joke like that, but you may have to try waited for 20 years or so to have the band you love played in your country to really understand it...

And yeah, we have a huge metal fan base of many bands, but since the society may perceive us as (maybe) savages, we usually stay humble and rage on the right time and place... But I guess metal heads not care much of what people said to them...

And from my own experience is that attending K-Pop concerts are FAR more dangerous than metal concerts. I've been to concerts of megadeth, iron maiden, helloween, DT (of course), metallica, and some others and NO ONE ever stepped on my shoes, or hurt me in anyway. (Yeah I have interest too in kpop stuff... I just have wide range of interest)

And Jokowi, our president, failed to attend any DT's concert, coz the 1st one he had a social event in his neighborhood, and the 2nd one he has to announce the cabinets of his presidential in the afternoon. So he missed those DT concerts. But he came on metallica's concert, he stood 10 rows behind me.

Just adding more information if you still curious about the Indonesian thing...

[erwinrafael]

From what Ive understood from the articles i have read, the stability in Indonesia is questionable. Their are not many effective means to combat crime and these problems aside from violent force.

Well, this is quite a...colonial view.