Thouhgts on Music Ethnography in Urban Indonesia: From Yogyakarta Recordings to Translocal Popular Culture in the Melayu Borderlands
Abstract: Previous studies on
Indonesian music focused on cultural heritage and traditional preservation or western-style
modern music such as pop and rock music. Both were perceived as separate genre,
even modern music often downplayed traditional one. The author argues analysis
of hybrid genre like keroncong and dangdut would provide more complicated
picture than such dichotomy. He explained long history of cultural exchanges in
various parts of Indonesia which showed these two genres influenced each other.
As a case study the author presents urban music as main character of urban
social lives in Indonesia. This article depicts street music and campursari in
Yogyakarta and linking it to popular cultures in some cities. Popular culture
refers to informal recreation in different social settings. Eventually, this
article reveals new ways to understand relation between music style and social
identity in urban Indonesia.
Author: Max Richter
Journal Code: jpantropologigg110002
