“However, there’s no denying the fact that, even though everything is great, at the same time, competition has heightened, too. It seems that there should be no reason why an artiste can’t be big. You can get all the facilities that you need. “One thing that strikes me is how everything is so sophisticated and advanced. Returning to the present, I ask him what he thinks about the current music scene? “If your song hits number one on Lagu Pujaan Minggu Ini, then you know that you’re gonna be big.” Hosted by the first Malay DJ MIA ( Mohd Ismail Abdullah), it was aired on Radio Singapore and was a weekly chart sort of thing. Last time, there used to be a programme called Lagu Pujaan Minggu Ini. ”] “Basically, if you got the right song, you would go up. Short as they were, these songs were the key factors that would make or break an artiste. Tengah syiok then habis,” he recalled with a smile. “A song normally lasted for like, two or at most, three minutes. One error and you would have to start all over again. “The recording session was an one-run thing. The artiste’s name was printed on the EP instead of the album title. Back in those days, albums came in the form of EPs, which normally contained four songs each. Sang by M Osman in 1964, it is widely considered as the first Pop Yeh Yeh song. The singer traces the roots of the genre back to Suzanna. The term Pop Yeh Yeh was derived from a line from The Beatles hit, She Loves You, `she loves you, yeah-yeah-yeah’.
By 1969, the trend started fading,” recalled A Rahman. “Strictly speaking, the era began in 1964 and the hype lasted till the late 60s. The genre soon gained a huge following in Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei. One thing is for sure, the man is different from the veterans who can’t help but keep on reminiscing about the good old days.įor the uninitiated, Pop Yeh Yeh was inspired by Western rock and roll bands, particularly The Beatles. With a cigarette dangling between his fingers, he started to chronicle in a slow, calm tone, the rise and development of Pop Yeh Yeh. The man sitting in front of me was a picture of serenity. So finally, there we were, sitting in a corner at the lobby of Hotel Adamson.
It wasn’t exactly an easy task to get hold of the man thanks to the seemingly never-ending photo shoots surrounding him following the announcement of Konsert Pop Yeh Yeh Suatu Evolusi. All I know – through researching and asking around about my subject of interview – is that he’s one of the pioneers of Pop Yeh Yeh, a local music genre which took the region by storm in the 60’s. TO be honest – by this, I mean, REAL honest – thrilled was not exactly the word to describe how I felt when I was assigned to interview Datuk A Rahman Hassan.įor starters, well, Malay music was never my beat and the fact that I don’t know s**t about that era and the music that triggered and defined that era, doesn’t help either. One of the cruelest things I did was to assign, Chew Wan Ying, a Chinese-educated girl from Muar to interview, Dato’ A Rahman Hassan. I pity them for having to work for an asshole like me. I can’t go and interview my favourite subject, I cant really sit down and write like how I want to write, bla… bla… bla… However, I was blessed, and sometimes cursed to have a group of young writers reporting to me.
One of the biggest setback of being the entertainment editor of The Malay Mail, was not having the luxury of time.
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