Yesterday, I bought myself a CD entitled "Pujaan Pop Yeh!Yeh! 60'an".
Saw the advertisement for the CD on TV3. The compilation boasted of heavyweights from the Pop Yeh! Yeh! era. It featured hit songs from Jeffrydin, A. Ramlie, S. Jibeng, M. Osman, Zam Zam and many more. The CD consists of 16 songs.
In the 1960s, western-influenced Pop Yeh-yeh musicians came to the forefront. The Pop Yeh-yeh genre was popular in Malaysia, Singapore, and Brunei in the 1960s. Pop Yeh-yeh ruled the Malay music scene from 1965 to 1971. The music and fashion of The Beatles and other British rock and roll bands during the 1960s were a strong influence of the pop yeh-yeh bands and also generally influenced the Malay music industry of that period. In fact, the term "pop yeh-yeh" was taken from a line from the popular Beatles song, "She Loves You" ("she loves you, yeah-yeah-yeah".)
The first local song in the Pop Yeh-yeh vein was a song called "Suzanna", sung by M Osman in 1964. During the height of the pop yeh-yeh craze, a lot of the bands that were formed tried their best to mimic The Beatles in their look, songwriting and performance style. Usually the bands (also referred to as "kumpulan gitar rancak" - "rhythmic guitar bands" – or its shortened term "kugiran") consists of four members who sings on top of handling the basic four musical instruments (two electric guitars, electric bass and drums). Most of the bands were formed in Singapore but also in Malaysia. The southern state of Johore was the hub of activity for these bands.
The formation and development of these kugiran's encouraged the establishment and existence of various recording companies in Singapore in the 1960s and a lot of these songs were recorded on vinyl and sold well commercially. Some of the singers who made their name during that period include A Ramlie, Jeffrydin, Adnan Othman, J Kamisah, Ahmad Jais, M Osman, Hussien Ismail, A Halim, S Jibeng and L Ramlie.Other popular rock and pop bands of the period include The Rhythm Boys, The Siglap Five and The Hooks which featured A Romzi as their lead vocalist (they scored a hit with the song "Dendang Remaja").
The golden age of pop yeh-yeh started to dwindle in 1971. Since the fall of the popularity of pop yeh-yeh, the center of the Malay music industry shifted up north from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia. A lot of composers, songwriters, lyricists, singers, and producers started to gain foothold not only in Kuala Lumpur but also in other cities including Johor Bahru and Ipoh to grab the opportunity of the emerging and rapidly changing Malay music industry.
Article courtesy of wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pop_yeh-yeh