Dangdut Stories

A Social and Musical History of Indonesia's Most Popular Music

Andrew N Weintraub author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Oxford University Press Inc

Published:30th Sep '10

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Dangdut Stories cover

A keen critic of culture in modern Indonesia, Andrew N. Weintraub shows how a genre of Indonesian music called dangdut evolved from a debased form of urban popular music to a prominent role in Indonesian cultural politics and the commercial music industry. Dangdut--named onomatopoetically for the music's characteristic drum sounds "dang" and "dut"--is Indonesia's most popular music, heard in streets and homes, public parks and narrow alleyways, stores and restaurants, and all forms of public transportation. Despite dangdut's tremendous popularity in Indonesia and other parts of Asia, it has seldom received the serious critical attention it deserves. Dangdut Stories is a social and musical history of dangdut within a range of broader narratives about class, gender, ethnicity, and nation in post-independence Indonesia (1945-present). Quoted material from interviews, detailed analysis of music and song texts, and ethnography of performance illuminate the stylistic nature of the music and its centrality in public debates about Islam, social class relations, and the role of women in postcolonial Indonesia. Dangdut Stories is the first musicological study to examine the stylistic development of dangdut music itself, using vocal style, melody, rhythm, form, and song texts to articulate symbolic struggles over meaning. Throughout the book the voices and experiences of musicians take center stage in shaping the book's narrative. Dangdut was first developed during the early 1970s, and an historical treatment of the genre's musical style, performance practice, and social meanings is long overdue.

In Dangdut Stories, Weintraub has written a masterful, engaging, and exemplary portrait not only of a colorful music genre--with an audience of tens of millions--but also of a dynamic society in transition. * Peter Manuel, Professor, Music Department, the Graduate Center of the City University of New York *
Combining a thorough survey of up-to-date knowledge on multiethnic churches and her own fieldwork, Garces-Foley offers an insightful and wide-ranging assessment of today's attempts to create inclusive, ethnically diverse communities of faith. Through the trials and successes of one multiethnic church, Garces-Foley not only affirms the desire to achieve racial diversity but also reveals the strains of achieving an ethnically inclusive community that simultaneously affirms the ethnic identity of all members. Through this one church, Crossing the Ethnic Divide artfully explores strategies of ethnic inclusion and the variable salience of ethnic identity within church cultures. * Gerardo Marti, author of A Mosaic of Believers: Diversity and Innovation in a Multiethnic Church *
Andrew Weintraub's Dangdut Stories is at once the definitive work on this important genre and a methodological tour de force. Dangdut Stories promises to be an enduring work of ethnomusicology. It also has much to offer scholars interested in popular music, the Islamic public sphere, media and transnationalism, and culture and power. * Jonathan Sterne, McGill University, author of The Audible Past: Cultural Origins of Sound Reproduction and MP3: The Meaning of a Format *
Dangdut Stories contains a wealth of new and original musicological source material, in the form of interviews with dangdut stars, information from obscure journalistic resources and thoughtful analysis of dangdut standards, combined with a keen reappraisal of the existing literature. * International Institute for Asian Studies Newsletter *
Anyone intrigued by the creative contradictions of pop culture in Asia should pick up this meticulous and thoughtful book. * Wall Street Journal *

ISBN: 9780195395679

Dimensions: 155mm x 231mm x 15mm

Weight: 386g

272 pages