Social Criticism in the Lyrics of Iwan Fals’s “Sarjana Muda”
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: The song Sarjana Muda by Iwan Fals is a true portrait of Indonesia's social conditions, particularly in terms of inequality between education and employment. This study aims to uncover and analyze the social criticism contained in the lyrics of the song Sarjana Muda by Iwan Fals using the critical discourse analysis approach of Teun A. van Dijk's model. The song Sarjana Muda was chosen because it represents the social reality experienced by higher education graduates who face difficulties in finding employment. The method used is qualitative with Van Dijk's critical discourse analysis technique which includes three main structures, namely text structure, social cognitive structure, and social context structure. The results show that the lyrics of the song Sarjana Muda contain social criticism of the education system, social inequality, and the government's weakness in providing employment for college graduates. At the social cognitive level, this song describes how society views education as a path to prosperity, which in reality is not always the case. Meanwhile, from the aspect of social context, this song reflects the socio-economic conditions of Indonesia in the 1980s which are still relevant today. The social criticism conveyed by Iwan Fals through this song functions as a form of symbolic resistance against injustice and structural inequality.
Source: Social Sciences Journal
Language: English
Subfield: Linguistics and Language
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W7225775227
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