Who doesn't know Lord Didi Kempot? This Javanese campursari singer is known throughout time through his song works that are mostly heart-wrenching. He even earned the nickname "The Godfather of Broken Heart" from sadboys and sadgirls—another name for Sobat Ambyar, the term for Didi Kempot fans. Didi Kempot is a singer, artist, musician, and also a songwriter whose appeal never fades with time.
I personally have known Didi Kempot since long ago through his legendary songs "Cucak Rowo" and "Sekonyong-konyong Koder." I don't know why I was so happy as a child—around 2008—when people played Didi Kempot songs at celebrations. Not because I was a fan, I didn't even know who he was. It's just that his songs were pleasant, unique, and easy to memorize. Try to find another musician who would create a song with lyrics "sekonyong-konyong," which requires pursing your lips just to pronounce.
Studying Statistics makes me many times more curious about unique facts that exist in this world, including the "ambyar" phenomenon. Didi Kempot has created more than 700 songs, so I won't take census data—my hand would get swollen.
I took a sample of 15 most popular songs according to my Google search:
- Cidro
- Layang Kangen
- Banyu Langit
- Suket Teki
- Sewu Kutha
- Pamer Bojo
- Pantai Klayar
- Tanjung Mas Ninggal Janji (shortened to Tanjung Mas in analysis)
- Dalan Anyar
- Ambyar
- Kalung Emas
- Perawan Kalimantan
- Jambu Alas
- Stasiun Balapan
- Terminal Tirtonadi
Using RStudio—an IDE for R (statistical programming) that is certainly open source, the dataset I created earlier by combining the lyrics of these 15 sample songs was analyzed with the help of dplyr, ggplot2, tidyr, tidytext, and other packages. Here are the analysis results that will make you amazed:
First: Short songs make them easier to memorize
Analysis of the number of lines per song can identify the length of a song. The following diagram shows the number of unique lines—identical lines counted as 1 line—in each Didi Kempot song. Jambu Alas ranks first as the sample song with the most lines at 31 lines, followed by Perawan Kalimantan and Terminal Tirtonadi. Meanwhile, Dalan Anyar is the shortest sample song with 11 lines. Based on these 15 most popular sample songs, on average the number of unique lines per song created by Didi Kempot is 18 lines. Here's the diagram:
Second: Few words make songs simple and memorable
Besides the number of unique lines, analysis of the number of words per song can also identify the length of a song. The following diagram shows the number of words in each Didi Kempot song. Perawan Kalimantan ranks first as the sample song with the most words at 204 words, followed by Jambu Alas and Banyu Langit. Meanwhile, Stasiun Balapan is the shortest sample song with 69 words. Based on these 15 most popular sample songs, on average the number of words per song created by Didi Kempot is 132 words. Therefore, the average number of words per line is 4.5 words per line, making them easy to memorize and remember. Here's the diagram:
Third: Metaphors and pantun are song sweeteners, the more the sweeter
Like poetry, generally songs don't directly convey their meaning and purpose. Adding metaphorical words, expressions, proverbs, to pantun or rhymes with the same pattern. In the 15 sample songs I observed, almost all songs have metaphorical words.
For example, in the sample song Suket Teki there are lyrics, "paribasan awak urip kari balung lilo tak lakoni," which means a body that only has bones left, misery (effort) is still carried out—to get the beloved. There's also a proverb, "tak tandur pari jebul tukule suket teki," which means reality doesn't match expectations or can also mean good efforts bear no fruit.
Not few of Lord Didi Kempot's songs are pleasant to listen to because of their rhymes that are the same a-a-a-a or a-b-a-b like pantun. For example, in the sample song Dalan Anyar there are pantun lyrics, "Kembang tebu sing kabur kanginan, saksi bisu sing dadi kenangan." Also in the song Jambu Alas, "Jambu alas kulite ijo, sing digagas wes duwe bojo."
Fourth: Dominance of place names shows it's very Indonesian
Pantai Klayar, Perawan Kalimantan, Dalan Anyar, Tanjung Mas Ninggal Janji, Stasiun Balapan, Terminal Tirtonadi, 6 out of 15 sample songs or 40% of Didi Kempot's popular songs tell stories about place names in Indonesia—especially Central Java, Yogyakarta, and East Java. This proves that besides being a source of inspiration in songwriting, Didi Kempot wants to introduce to the world places worthy of being tourist objects in Java Island.
Take Terminal Tirtonadi and Stasiun Balapan which are located adjacent to each other in Surakarta. Tanjung Mas Ninggal Janji tells of a promise left at Tanjung Mas port in Semarang before the lover left. Dalan Anyar tells of an accident scene on the new road, west of Terminal Kertonegoro Ngawi. Meanwhile, Pantai Klayar is located in Pacitan, East Java.
Fifth: 'Ambyar' words become the characteristic of songs
Perhaps one question from all of us is what word Didi Kempot uses most in his songs. Are all his songs really filled with heartbreaking "ambyar" words so that he earned the nickname "The Godfather of Broken Heart"? The following analysis counts the number of unique words in his 15 sample songs by removing stopwords—sing, ra, iki, wis, ning, mung, karo, opo, sak, yen, dadi. Here's the diagram of the analysis results.
The top two positions are occupied by "aku" (I) and "kowe" (you) with almost the same number of words 60:59, most likely every time "aku" is mentioned, Lord Didi also balances it with "kowe." The excessive use of the words "aku-kowe" also shows that his songs are themed around the love between two people between "aku"—which is Lord Didi himself and "kowe"—not you who are reading this writing, ya. Hehehe.
Other words that are equally "ambyar" are "ati" (heart) and "atiku" (my heart) in positions 6 and 7 with a total of 34 words. Then the word "ambyar" itself appears 16 times, along with "janji" (promise), "rasane" (feels like), "kangen" (miss), "ngenteni" (waiting), "kelingan" (remember), "tresno" (love), and "aduh" in the last order. Proof that there are many metaphors in Lord Didi's songs is the abundance of the word "koyo"—like—which totals 13 words.
What's clear is that the "ambyar" level of Lord Didi Kempot's songs has a strong correlation with the frequency of how often you listen to his songs. This clearly cannot be measured by descriptive statistical studies alone. Do you have suggestions for other descriptive analyses?
This statistical analysis confirms what millions of fans already know intuitively: Didi Kempot's genius lies not in complexity, but in the mathematical precision of emotional communication. His songs are perfectly calibrated instruments for conveying the universal experience of heartbreak through distinctly Javanese cultural expressions.
The "ambyar" phenomenon isn't just cultural—it's also mathematical, built on optimal word counts, strategic repetition, and carefully balanced emotional vocabulary that creates maximum impact with minimum complexity.