I have been waking up rather early the last few Sundays (as opposed to "normal" standards of late morning/early noon like some people I know -- okay, so I don't sleep much anyways). Early enough that when I start channel surfing on the idiot box, can't help but notice that RTM's Selamat Pagi Malaysia morning talk show has been consistently featuring Pop Yeh Yeh groups all this while. I have nothing against that genre of music (I only have problem with dangdut) but why can't RTM feature newer artists or musicians or at the very least have a good balance between the old and the new? The artists of yesterdecades have had their day already and are not really producing any new materials these days. Newer artists are the ones who are in a better position to provide "movement" in the somewhat stagnant local music industry 'cos like it or not, it's the younger population who'd be inclined to buy and listen to music rather than the senior people who'd be listening to music more for nostalgic reasons than anything else. Perhaps it's due to the fact that RTM is being run by senior people (I rather not use the term "old" here for reasons of political correctness :P) that we get these kinda things happening. It's not that we want to forget the past completely (if so, The Beatles, Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra and Nat King Cole wouldn't be known today) but move on with the times! At least our neighbors Singapore and Indonesia are doing justice to newer/emerging artists by giving them ample exposure, hence we see more movement there than here in Malaysia. Help promote those in the now but create awareness of those in the past, not the other way around.

Still on the musical note (Heh! Geddit? Music - Note. No? Nemind... :P), I only managed to watch the second half of AIM 2003 last night. Definitely a much better show than last year's as far as performances and hosting by Afdlin Shauki and Bob Lokman are concerned. It's also good to see that newer talents are credited where it's due and more variety emerging from the local music industry. At least there's some progression and departure from the "blame-the-pirates" excuse that has been cited time and time again.