Art is the pinnacle of culture, which reflects civilization in which it contains values that a nation upholds. Indonesia's ancestors were a nation that was intelligent in inheriting moral values through art. Almost all research studies show that Indonesian traditional arts, including music, contain values and philosophies that community members firmly hold. It's a shame that the inheritance of traditional arts in this decade has decreased compared to the previous period, especially in the 1980s. At that time, the children were very familiar with traditional music. The onslaught of modern culture has caused folk songs almost to become extinct. In the 1930s, Hans Overbeck said there were 690 Javanese children's songs, but in 2015 Jui-Ching Wang found only 152. Six years later, of the 152 songs, only 40% were recognized. The decline in the popularity of traditional music is because the younger generation currently listens to foreign music more than Indonesian traditional music. For this reason, it is necessary to take precautions by reintroducing traditional music to the younger generation.
This concerns a group of UNY lecturers who empower students to produce traditional music multimedia. They are dr. Kun Setyaning Astuti, Prof. Samsul Hadi, Prof. Maman Suryaman, Prof. Tri Hartiti Retnowati, Dr. A.M. Susilo Pradoko, Dr. Cipto Budi Handoyo, Dr. Else Liliani, and Dr. Siswanto. According to the head of the Kun Setyaning Astuti group, they have been promoting traditional music through six pieces of traditional l music through the YouTube link. “Although promoting several traditional music songs is still far from sufficient. This amount is disproportionate to foreign music circulating among Indonesia's millennials. For this reason, it is necessary to increase traditional music multimedia production in larger quantities and reach traditional music in all regions of Indonesia," she said.
The UNY Language and Arts Faculty lecturer collaborated with CV Ruang Media Indonesia's partner in making multimedia video clips of traditional music, providing opportunities for lecturers to develop knowledge and providing opportunities for students to gain work experience.
This activity carried out a series of works, from identifying titles and scores to elements of traditional music, compiling scripts, selecting talent, making arrangements, making image and audio recordings to editing, mixing, and marketing them. One of the chosen talents was Ghea Indrawari, an FBS student at UNY who is also an Indonesian Idol finalist, with shooting locations in South Kalimantan with funding from the Matching Fund-Kedaireka Kemendibudristek. Apart from Ghea, another talent is Violita Langit, a UNY Music Arts Education student who has won a gold medal in Peksiminas, with a video clip set in Lengkuas Belitung Island.
