Rhoma Irama

Dang dut is the biggest musical genre in Indonesia. And in this genre of dang dut, the name Rhoma Irama looms large. He is the undisputed king of dang dut and his role as pioneer of the music is already in the history books. In fact, there's one book documenting the outsized role of Rhoma in establishing dang dut as the father of this music. The book is aptly titled Dangdut Story, written by Pittsburgh University music professor Andrew N. Weintraub.

From a technical point of view, Rhoma not only replaced the acoustic elements from Melayu Music with electric instruments but also created new synthetic sounds that have never been attempted before in Indonesia’s music industry.