Malaysia Airlines’ New Boarding Music Offers Taste of Rich Heritage

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Stills from a promotional video for Malaysia Airlines’ new boarding music.

For years, Malaysia Airlines played commercially available music as passengers boarded and disembarked its flights. Now, the airline has an original tune of its own to convey the rich textures of its homeland.

Passengers notice boarding music. For those who are listening closely, it can conjure feelings of passion or spite; they have strong reactions to airlines’ choice of songs, whether it’s Enya, Beck, Carrie Underwood or the opera Lakmé.

“The piece has been crafted to provide passengers with a sense of warmth, joy, belonging and pride not only for Malaysia as a nation, but in its much-loved airline.” – Brad Power, Stellar Entertainment

Malaysia Airlines sourced commercially available tracks for its boarding music until it decided to change its tune when, earlier this year, it introduced a new soundtrack for boarding and disembarking to. The 30-minute piece, created by Stellar Entertainment composer Luke Mason, captures the harmony – muhibbah – of Malaysia’s multicultural makeup.

Despite wanting to portray its Malay, Chinese, Indian and Islamic cultures, Malaysia Airlines did not want the piece to sound too local or too foreign. It also had to feel joyous and modern to coincide with the carrier’s brand. So, Mason mixed traditional instruments with current tech samples and loops and set them to a more contemporary chord structure. “This ensured all Malaysian races, ethnicities and instruments got to say hello in this piece,” he explained.

Luke Mason, composer, Stellar Entertainment

Having lived in Malaysia for 20 years, Mason, an Anugerah Industri Award-winning composer, drew from his experience of working with various artists in the country and brought to the piece local instruments such as the pinai (flute), Gamelan, bowed string chordophone and Chinese erhu as well as Islamic-influenced vocal motifs, which come together to create multiple layers in the sound.

“To reflect Malaysia’s rich cultural heritage in an extended music composition requires knowledge not only of the country and its people, but also the rhythms, sounds and instruments that portray a truly Malaysian feel, while recognizing its place in contemporary culture,” said Brad Power, creative director, Stellar Entertainment.

As a piece of boarding music, Stellar was going for something relaxing and soothing that could also offer a little excitement to a passenger returning home or heading off for vacation. And as an element of the airline’s brand identity, “The piece has been crafted to provide passengers with a sense of warmth, joy, belonging and pride not only for Malaysia as a nation, but in its much-loved airline,” said Power.

“In our experience across all our airline clients, boarding music receives a huge amount of customer feedback. We use this feedback along with the airline’s brand and desired direction to customize sonic strategies for each of our clients,” said Sam Allen, director of Licensing.

With this in mind, airlines might also keep an ear to social media to see what people are saying about their boarding music, and consider keeping their tracks in more frequent rotation, for you never know who might be listening.