Zainal Abidin - Salute to the 90s

1) The Sun on Thursday August 7, 2014 posted a highlight of 90s that premiers on Sunday 10pm on National Geographic Channel. This is a little bit of music which Zainal described an exciting decade in his singing career.

2) I truncated this piece for readers to read as it described a little bit about our local music scene during 90s. Here goes:

Among the singers who ruled the music charts then was Zainal Abidin, the former frontman of a rock band Headwind. Zainal later went solo and became a star in his own right singing his pop-ethnic songs about the environment.

"The 90s was an exciting decade for me," said Zainal. "It was history in the making for my career and for my age. The music scene in the 90s was one of the best times of my life."

Zainal's first solo album - the self-titled album Zainal Abidin (1992) - had tracks such as Hijau, Inayah and Baba and these became his signature songs and sustained his career over the decade.

His follow-up album Gamal and Terang also consolidated his position as an artiste. In fact, it was based on these albums that singer-songwriter Phil Collins invited Zainal to record the Malay version of the songs featured in the movie Tarzan.

Zainal also describes the 90s as an era when music and artistic works were very competitive.

"No one wanted to be someone else. Everyone wanted to be themselves. Real talent could been seen." He cited Sheila Majid who had emerged in that era with her unique singing style and stood out from the crowd. After the 90s, Zainal said artistic talent had become more formula driven.

"When Siti Nurhaliza became a hit, all the new artistes had to 'sound' like her. That was not the case in the 90s," he added.

He points out that the 90s was special to him because that was when he got married, had his first child and became a solo artiste.

"People thought I had taken a wrong step when I went solo. Up to that point, I was known for love songs and ballads. Then I switched to singing songs about the environment with a Kelantanese dialect.

"People said that it would not work. My philosophy back then was not to give people what they wanted to hear but rather offer my best. So I came out with something very different."

Zainal said that at first, his fans thought he was being political or being religious. It took time to convince them it was all about the environment and conservation. However, once they understood,Hijau<?i> became an anthem to save the environment.

"It came out at the right time and at the right place," Zainal admitted. "People were getting tired of hearing the same thing over and over on the radio. Suddenly, there was a song that made them want to learn more. If I came out with it now or before the 90s, it would not have worked."

 3) Zainal have said "No one wanted to be someone else. Everyone wanted to be themselves". This is the basic principle in music - one must have their own identity, not a copy of someone else. I am quite sure when artist reach certain level of their quality, they turn to be more matured, and the music they brought would have some impact, the lyric and music will would have more maturity, which normally happen to most season musician and artist. Do you think Ramli Sarip sound like Led Zeppelin or Amy Search trying to imitate Steven Tyler? No I don't think so. Yes they used to singing like the original singer initially, but as the time goes, they became themselves neither a copy of other singer nor it original singer.

4) The other thing he mentioned "My philosophy back then was not to give people what they wanted to hear but rather offer my best. So I came out with something very different". It is like a acquired taste of any food, that not necessarily can be acquired by someone else. It is like two sides of coin that has pros and cons, that not necessarily correct either way.

5) And he admitted "It came out at the right time at the right place. People were getting tired of hearing the same thing over and over on the radio. Suddenly there was a song that made them want to learn more" and this has proved his principle of not giving people what they wanted to hear, but giving his best. So he came out with something very different.

6) Zainal Abidin feat also can be applied in other field we wish to join. The only thing is, we must have courage, determination, believe and have done proper study before proceed to jump in.