Pedagogical Values in Indonesian Lyrics of Dangdut Songs: Evidences of Language Vulgarism and Gender Exploitation

Abstract

Language vulgarism can be heard in the lyrics of many Indonesian dangdut songs in terms of words, phrases, and clauses to portray women as either the instigators or objects of sexuality. The objectives of the study are to see: vulgar language that present in dangdut song lyrics as the pedagogical evidence of gender exploitation, and internal structures for vulgar forms that intentionally appear in the song lyrics. A qualitative approach with content analysis was employed to describe various phenomena of vulgar language that tends to portray women as either the instigators or objects of sexuality. The corpora of 25 Indonesian dangdut songs whose lyrics often feature vulgar language without being limited to certain composers or time of composition were analyzed. The data were language units, namely basic words, affixes, phrases, clauses, and compound sentences. Data were collected using document analysis techniques and interviews. The document analysis technique involved reading the documents and taking notes. Informants were chosen from the writers of the selected songs, the songs’ lovers, and elements of the Indonesian Broadcasting Commission. Results show that vulgar language was indeed used, and even emphasized, in dangdut song lyrics, representing a continuing sexist attitude toward exploiting women.