Applying Burn’s Kineikonic Mode to a Dangdut Music Performance: Via Vallen’s Sayang at the 2018 Indonesian Choice Awards 5.0 NET

• Main Author: Alberta Natasia Adji
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: The International Academic Forum 2020-04-01
• Series: IAFOR Journal of Cultural Studies
• Subjects: dangdut music performance; andrew burn; kineikonic mode; via vallen; visual image text
• Online Access: https://iafor.org/journal/iafor-journal-of-cultural-studies/volume-5-issue-1/article-1/

Andrew Burn’s Kineikonic Mode theory of categorising visual image texts by sorting them into contributory and orchestrating modes is well enacted as an analytical form. At a micro level, Burn’s modes are used to examine elements such as set design, lighting, costume, colour, action, facial expression, filming, editing, and so on. In the following, the examined object is the video of Via Vallen’s Sayang (a dangdut performance) at the Indonesian Choice Awards 5.0 NET, taken from the YouTube channel. Via Vallen is a rising dangdut singer who is considered unorthodox for presenting her performances with K-Pop, J-Pop, and Western features, as well as being the first female dangdut singer to do so. Vallen’s performance at the award event received much praise since her Korean-culture-styled performance was deemed to disregard almost all of the “backward” and “vulgar” stereotypical characteristics of a dangdut show in general, providing a notable shift in the music genre’s style and attitude. Vallen’s success also functions as a prism that reflects the growing Islamisation movement in Indonesia that in religious, social and cultural spheres since the 1998 end of Suharto’s authoritarian regime. Furthermore, it also indicates that this empirical approach is fruitful for filmmakers and film scholars and verifies Burn’s noteworthy influence in the fields of film and multimodality.