MEMS (Final Piece) by Jared Lee

Hello there music lovers! Welcome back to the final column of MEMS, let's hope it's only the end of this column and not the end of MEMS (Malaysian English Music Scene) itself. With your support it definitely won't end, and I hope that you do.

In this final piece, as I have promised, I shall reveal the reasons why you have not heard of our talented local musicians.

First of all, where do we get our music from? Yes I know, download from the internet and buying them from a music store. But what I really mean is that where do we get to know new music? Our main source? The radio of course! You're in your car, at home or at your office and there's a radio. It is silent. You turn it on and hope that it will please your yearning ears. But does it do it's job well? Not all the time but most of the time due to individual genre preferences. The main point remains. You listen to a song on radio which you have not heard of before and you like it, the DJ tells you the artiste and the song name, after that you either buy it or download it from the net.

This is not the only reason why you have not heard of our local musicians. They don't get enough plays even on our local radio stations, so far you can only hear them on radio on Sunday evenings. And even then they only play 10 different artistes.

Another main reason why they are not known. They don't get enough paid shows to record their songs, and when that happens they can't even think of sending their songs to radio stations hoping we'll listen to it someday.

Here's a fact that not a lot of people know. Bands in Malaysia needs at least RM1000 to record just one song. And seeing that most of us don't support our musicians, organizers who handles events or create them won't hire our local musicians knowing no one is into them thus making them poorer and going into the studio to record their songs will be nothing but a dream.

There are a million more reasons out there but let us all start by supporting our local music scene. They need us and I am sure they will repay the favor by giving us songs that will please us and even the whole world one day. Wouldn't that be awesome? To hear Malaysian made music in another country? To see a Malaysian artiste nominated in the Grammys? It is quite the sight ain't it?

It's been a fun 3 columns, I hope you all had fun reading them too. Well, I have done my part.

Have you done yours?