DISLOCATING SOUNDS: The Deterritorialization of Indonesian Indie Pop

Abstract

Anthropologists often read the localization or hybridization of cultural forms as a kind of default mode of resistance against the forces of global capitalism, a means through which marginalized ethnic groups maintain regional distinctiveness in the face of an emergent transnational order. But then what are we to make of musical acts like Mocca and The Upstairs, Indonesian “indie” groups who consciously delocalize their music, who go out of their way, in fact, to avoid any references to who they are or where they come from? In this essay, I argue that Indonesian “indie pop,” a self‐consciously antimainstream genre drawing from a diverse range of international influences, constitutes a set of strategic practices of aesthetic deterritorialization for middle‐class Indonesian youth. Such bands, I demonstrate, assemble sounds from a variety of international genres, creating linkages with international youth cultures in other places and times, while distancing themselves from those expressions associated with colonial and nationalist conceptions of ethnicity, working‐class and rural sensibilities, and the hegemonic categorical schema of the international music industry. They are part of a new wave of Indonesian musicians stepping onto the global stage “on their own terms” and insisting on being taken seriously as international, not just Indonesian, artists, and in the process, they have made indie music into a powerful tool of reflexive place making, a means of redefining the very meaning of locality vis‐à‐vis the international youth cultural movements they witness from afar.

Early marriage, adolescent motherhood, and reproductive rights for young Sasak mothers in Lombok

“…Much of the published literature on Indonesian youth to date has been focused on young people who are still participating in education (Parker 1997(Parker , 2009Nilan et al 2011), who are still living under the care of their natal families or other relatives (Bennett 2005), and who have the economic means to participate in highly commodified and increasingly globalized youth cultures (Beazley 2008;Luvaas 2009Luvaas , 2010Nilan 2008). The young people who have typically been the subjects of social research in Indonesia have tended to be middle class, unmarried, viewed as still dependent upon their natal families and pre-adult in their social status.…”

Identificaciones y vinculaciones: una propuesta de intersección para analizar la música “indie” de la ciudad de La Plata en los años 2000

“…En este nuevo marco para las vinculaciones de los sujetos con la música, la literatura atestigua el crecimiento de la música indie en México (Cornejo-Hernández, 2008; Woodside, Jiménez y Urteaga, 2011), en Indonesia (Luvaas, 2009), en Argentina (Peña Boerio, 2011Boix, 2013) y en España (Fouce y del Val, 2016), entre otros países. Los estudios comenzaron a afirmar que no encontraban en esta música códigos que delinearan un género para preferir entonces el concepto de escena.…”

“…Será por ello que los mensajes que esta música transporta consigo -al respecto del valor de lo alternativo y de lo auténtico-se han llevado prácticamente toda la atención de los análisis. Por mucho tiempo la música indie y el análisis constructivista, específicamente narrativo, parecían hechos el uno para el otro: los sentidos de la independencia y lo alternativo, el intimismo y el distanciamiento de los asuntos colectivos, la búsqueda de lo inclasificable, el compromiso estético, el gusto por las referencias musicales esotéricas se repiten en los trabajos académicos, a fin de dar cuenta de un ethos que sería característico de los músicos y públicos indie (Cornejo-Hernández, 2008;Dale, 2009;Fouce y del Val, 2016;Hesmondhalgh y Meier, 2015;Luvaas, 2009;Newman, 2009;Peña Boerio, 2011;Waits, 2007). Este tipo de análisis sigue siendo válido pero resulta insuficiente frente a los cambios significativos en las formas de producir las escenas musicales, de hacer música y de apropiarse de ella (Gallo y Semán, 2016;García Canclini y Cruces, 2012;Ochoa, 2003;Yúdice, 2007).…”

preliminary exploration

“…This use of English becomes a form of "vernacular globalization" (Appadurai 1996) which contributes to new ways of local expression and "structures of feeling" (Ahearn 2001). In his discussion of English-using Indonesian "indie" bands, Luvaas (2009) explains that English is used to differentiate oneself both from being regional (and thus backward) and from the BI speaking general populace; thus presenting a unique "Indonesian" voice (i.e., indie) that is at the same time in tune with global popular culture. Meanwhile, Boellstorff (2003) suggests the notion of "dubbing culture", through which certain Indonesians "dub 'Western' sexual subject positions" which allows "individuals to see themselves as part of a global community but also as authentically Indonesian (2003:237)."…”

“…The substantial literature on the study of this category of youth culture in Indonesia (e.g. Siegel 1986, Baulch 2007, Kiem 1993, Bodden 2005, Luvaas 2009, and Slama 2010 has shown how youth often combine and appropriate foreign cultural forms and language to create new forms of expressions that are different from those within the national or traditional/local forms of expressions. Studies on Indonesian youth 5 Ever since Indonesia's independence from the Netherlands, English has replaced Dutch as the de facto prestige foreign language (Tanner 1967).…”