Spiritual Sufism Representation in The Song and Music Video “Sujud” By Matter Mos: A Roland Barthes Semiotic Analysis
Keywords:
Sufism Spirituality, Roland Barthes Semiotics, Music Video, Mediatization of Religion, RepresentationAbstract
Abstract. The growth of digital music consumption in Indonesia has increasingly carried spiritual messages into the space of popular culture, one example being the song and music video "Sujud" by Matter Mos featuring Teddy Adhitya, released during the momentum of Ramadan 1446 H. This study aims to uncover the representation of Sufism spirituality contained in the lyrics and visuals of the music video through the three levels of signification in Roland Barthes’ semiotics, namely denotation, connotation, and myth. The study uses a qualitative approach with a media textual-analysis method, in which the song and music video "Sujud" are treated as a cultural text that produces meaning. Primary data in the form of lyrics and video screenshots were collected through structured digital observation and visual documentation, then analyzed using Barthes’ framework and reinforced by al-Ghazali’s Sufi concepts (tazkiyatun nafs, taqarrub, tawadhu) as well as Stig Hjarvard’s theory of the mediatization of religion. The results show that, denotatively, spirituality is represented through the diction of longing and the acknowledgment of dependence in the lyrics, as well as low-key lighting and prostration gestures in the visuals. Connotatively, these signs represent three gradual stages of Sufism: tazkiyatun nafs through the symbol of darkness, taqarrub through light and upturned hands, and tawadhu through the prostration gesture that dissolves the ego. At the mythical level, the work constructs three new myths, namely spirituality as a universal experience, beauty in surrender, and Islam as a contemporary aesthetic, which together invert the stereotype of hip-hop as a genre synonymous with arrogance and hedonism. These findings confirm that classical Sufi values can be mediatized through popular culture without losing their depth of meaning, while opening opportunities for developing a more contextual da’wah communication strategy in the digital era.
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