The Secret Of Kahitna Love Across Many Ages

Kahitna music group (Instagram / @ kahitna)

JAKARTA - Mention, what images come to your mind when you mention the Kahitna music group. Romantic song? Yovie Widianto? or a cross-era band? Everything is almost right. The question is, how is Kahitna able to maintain its existence, from generation to generation?

Previously, let us discuss how the Kahitna was formed. You could say this music group is headed by Yovie Widianto.

Yovie, who has been fond of music since childhood, grew up in a musician environment. Yovie himself, as quoted by Tirto, learned to compose songs and compose music from his cousin, a professional musician, Elfa Secioria.

While studying, Yovie began recruiting personnel from the forerunner of Kahitna. The majority of them were born from Elfa Music School (EMS) which was founded by Elfa.

Hedi Yunus, for example. He is a vocal EMS student. Meanwhile, Carlo Saba is a friend from Yovie's high school. Then, there is Bambang Purwono who is an EMS teacher.

Kahitna might never have been what she is now if Yovie hadn't "disobeyed". At that time, he was not too interested in following the musical footsteps of a format like Elfa.

"I was a bit disobedient to my brother. I know my brothers were a little annoyed with me. But, I finally proved that we really have to have our own identity. Although we also really respect and thank our teachers," he said. Yovie on Music Everywhere.

Then, on June 24, 1986, right today, a band from Bandung, Kahitna was formed. Its members are Yovie Widianto (piano), Hedi Yunus (vocals), Carlo Saba (vocals), Ronny Waluya (vocals), Dody IS (bass), Harry Suhardiman (percussion), Budiana (drums), Andre Bayuadjie (guitar), Bambang Purwono (keyboard).

Kahitna itself is taken from the Tagalog language which means "even so." The changing times and changes in the Indonesian music scene have not been able to drown Kahitna.

During the 34 years of existence, this band still managed to combine elements of jazz fusion, pop, and ethnicity in their music. They created no less than eight albums until 2016.

Call it, Love Stories (1994), Cantik (1996), Until Later (1998), My Empress (2000), Love is Gone (2003), Soulmate (2006), More Than Just Beauty, (2010) and The Secret of Love (2016) ).

Long life

From the beginning of the formation of Kahitna, it was predictable what made this band live long. One of them is because of identity. Yovie's decision not to continue the Elfa format can be a good start for how Kahitna can form her own persona.

Although experiencing several shifts in music, according to the journal Communication Management Strategy to Maintain a Reputation written by Widiasanty and Irwansyah in 2018, this has not changed Kahitna's character and identity. The concept of basic jazz music that was carried out by Kahitna in its development was combined with many elements of pop music that are timeless.

In his research, Widiasanty Cs compared Kahitna with other longevity bands, such as Java Jive, Kla Project, to Dewa 19. From there, it was revealed that apart from their strong musical character, what made Kahitna's reputation last was their solidarity as a team.

"Kahitna from its inception ... continues to work and never takes a hiatus despite having experienced personnel changes. Kahitna is still standing and consistently releasing albums with personnel who have not changed since Roni was replaced by Mario Ginanjar," he wrote.

Kahitna is not only able to survive, but also convincingly through the changing times with new hits that are different on each album. Meanwhile, in every creative process, Kahitna is consistent with her musical character without being carried away by the desire to create works that just keep up with the times, but have minimal quality.

"Kahitna wants Indonesian music to be filled with a variety of colors. The reason is, making songs that just follow the trend will make people saturated. That is why until now Kahitna's songs are always remembered and have a place in the hearts of music lovers, because Kahitna always comes special with musical colors. typical, "wrote Widiasanty.