The Sender Anonymity The Second Element of Hidden Transcript: Anonymity

4.2.1. The Sender Anonymity

It is clear that many times a singer acts as the sender of a message in a song that he sings. Therefore it is hard to hide his identity as the sender of the message. However, in a certain case which relates to a sensitive matter, a singer tends to position himself as an observer and create a unanimous lore to make it seems like a rumor despite it can be based on a true event. Bob Marley who clearly proclaimed himself to be a militant soul rebel somehow use a more indirect criticism to avoid direct confrontation with the authority. One possible example is the story of violence in Johnny Was. The song uses a narrative structure that tells a story that most people felt was based on true incidents. 48 It is a straight ballad that introduces a mystery for the person who has witnessed so many tragedies in the ghetto. The emphasize is not on the person who report the event but more on the incident which is anonymous. Questions like where, why and when did it happen, and did Johnny really exist seem to be a rhetoric since the answer is ambiguous. This open ended story becomes a lore that spread among the people. Here Bob Marley cleverly unveiled the face of violence and brutality through anonymous lore about Johnny. The emphasize and warning is that even a good man like Johnny can be the victim of an astray bullet. An astray bullet generally symbolizes brutality and specifically relates to impunity. Unlike what has been found in the story of Johnny, through a thorough investigation the writer found out that this typical technique of sender anonymity is nil in The Black 48 Dawes, Kwame. Bob Marley Lyrical Genius, p. 161. Brothers songs. The issue of violence is avoided. The possible cause might be the high sensitivity and the risk of addressing the issue in the New Order Regime. As far as the writer consider, during that time period in Indonesia people lived in fright and terror. Thus the writer would argue that there seems to be not a single popular artist or band would have a nerve to explicitly address criticism regarding violence by the brutal authority. It was also due to the tight censorship of what can and what cannot be put into song by the recording company.

4.2.2. The Receiver Anonymity