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Popular Music and Interculturality:

the dynamic presence of Pop music in contemporary Balinese performance

By Zachar Laskewicz

“The future will bring us a diversified and complex world, and not the uniform cultural landscape which the Westerner has dreamt of for various reasons since the 19th century. . .”

(Pinxten 1994: 133, translated from Dutch by the Z. Laskewicz)

Contemporary anthropology seems to have transcended the structuralist notion of culture viewed as something existing outside or above the dynamic force of individuals.  It seems in this post-structuralist day and age that viewing culture as an entity in a constant state of flux is no longer a problematic issue, just as it is no longer difficult to suggest that the arts are more than simply a ‘reflection’ of a given culture but a force which actively brings about cultural change.  Wading through the large amount of material written about Balinese music one quickly gets the impression that western theorists, ethnomusicologists especially, are in their own way attempting to save the Balinese culture from  ‘losing its ethnicity’.  From developments in different academic disciplines this may seem now a paradox: an apparent attempt to protect the culture from its own development in a world in which we realise that change is the only ‘given’ cultural studies can offer us.  My primary purpose in this article is to discuss the way the Balinese culture has been able to adapt to an everchanging world by integrating the continuous change into their meaningful experience through updating and adjusting their forms of performance, helping to make their environment that much more comprehensible.  As I hope to demonstrate this is only possible thanks to the integration of pop culture.

In an attempt to conceive of and describe the way the Balinese culture assists itself in making its world more comprehensible, or rather develops and adjusts systems for this purpose, a number of steps will be taken.  We begin with a discussion of the term ‘performance’ and its implications in relation to the western understanding of music as opposed to dance.  Then we move on to discussing the role played by performance in perpetuating and changing culture.  This is followed by an introduction to ‘interculturality’ as a theoretical concept, and then we move on to a brief discussion of the remarkable ability the Balinese culture has to adapt to cultural change.  The next area of discussion is involved with comparing the sorts of distinctions our culture makes between ‘traditional’ and ‘popular’ music, and how this differs for the Balinese.  This leads on to a discussion of musical forms in the twentieth century which are, in the author’s opinion, clear examples of popular musical forms which have provided the Balinese with tools to be used to actively adapt to rapid cultural change.  This discussion begins with Gong Kebyar, a form of gamelan and an approach to music-making which was created to meet the new needs of Balinese culture during a period of rapid change around the turn of the century.  Finally, we end on a discussion of new music and dance forms which are emerging from the Balinese youth of today, some western forms which are adapted in a unique Balinese way often for anti-colonial purposes, and some combining western music and traditional forms, which I refer to as campuran.  It will be demonstrated that this adaptation is not the inundation feared by ethnomusicologists, leading to the ‘uniform cultural landscape’ suggested by Pinxten (1994: 133), but is a dynamic attempt of the Balinese of today to make sense of a diverging musical environment and to fit it into a particularly Balinese cultural agenda.  As Pinxten suggests, cultures ‘die’ slower than we may like to think.

The term  performance is used in this paper rather than the terms music and/or dance.  Although many theoreticians and anthropologists restrict themselves to one of the two, the terms ‘music’ or ‘dance’ are simply insufficient to refer to the multimedial nature of performative experience, especially as far as Balinese culture is concerned.  This is, however, no less true in our culture which includes the motional intention of disco music and of course music-videos.  In exploring the dynamic role of pop music in Balinese culture the word ‘performance’ seems the only applicable term considering that in Balinese ‘traditional’ art the terms music and dance are difficult to apply as separate entities: the one depends on the other and vice versa.  I have used this term  deliberately because in my opinion, contemporary pop performance, most certainly in the Balinese case—but also true in a contemporary European context—is so much more than simply the sound it makes.  It is a dynamic, three-dimensional, interactive process which can involve visual (music videos, special staging etc.), physical dynamics (loudness of the sound evoking physical vibrations in discos), sensual (in terms of sometimes violent emotional confrontation in a tightly filled space), movement-based (such as the strong desire to move one’s body to music, in other words, to dance), olfactory (smell of gyrating bodies, smoke and even purposely induced smells in specific circumstances), among others.  Referring simply to the music, is a dangerous reduction: the terms dance and music are western constructions which function to reduce cultural phenomenon to individual analysable elements.  So in referring to performance, I am referring in this paper to that activity which young and not so young Balinese people involve themselves in while creating what we call ‘pop music’.  Using these parameters as a source, contemporary composers and performers create a dynamic environment which communicates vital spatial and temporal information which can not be communicated in any other way.

Performing artists such as pop music musicians and other composers create models which communicate to an audience.  Some of these musical models are more accessible than others, adopting recognisable forms which an audience can interact with.  Thanks to this interaction, change takes place in a musical culture.  I Wayan Dibia, an important Balinese choreographer and academic who is the director of the STSI in Denpasar, Bali (the Indonesian College of the Arts), suggested that the composer plays a critical role in culture by bridging two opposing poles: tradition and innovation.  On the one hand, the composer plays the role of the innovator in that he or she actively creates new forms and structures from his or her own experience of the old to adapt to new and changing environments. On the other hand, the composer has an important role to play in the perpetuation of his or her culture.  According to Dibia, the composer retains a strategic position between perpetuation of traditional forms and innovation upon or alienation from the status quo. This creates a tension which remains in a state of unsteady balance.  If, on the one hand, a composer’s work has a tendency towards innovation, then he or she may have difficulty finding an audience.  If, on the other hand, the composer has a tendency towards perpetuation, this will lead to stasis and eventual stagnation. A composer or in fact any artist often acts as a sort of bridge between tradition and innovation.  The most successful composer is often the artist who keeps up with new developments in the surrounding culture, providing their listeners with a bridge to new developments through adopting a musical language which the audience recognises.  I Made Agus Wardana, a Balinese composer who lives and works in Brussels, helped me realise the importance of this is in Balinese terms: musik harus diterima oleh semua orang: tidak terlalu sulit tapi enak didengar…  [my translation: music should be accessible to all people: not too difficult, and pleasant to hear].[1]  In this paper I hope to demonstrate how new developments in Balinese popular music are helping to bridge this gap.

In contemporary Bali, there are a number of forces which act upon this unsteady state of artistic development.  On a village level, the perpetuation of existing local variation is considered important, and so there is often a greater emphasis on tradition.  At the same time, on a state institutional level-at the STSI in Denpasar-there is a greater emphasis on innovation and experimentation, sometimes varying to a very large degree from traditionally accepted performance-based structures.  Balinese culture, however, is not so easy to classify.  On a village level, teachers of music and dance as well as gamelan groups are invited to teach new music or play new works for community events, such as concerts organised by the banjar in order to provide the community with a bit of extra income, or having important performers from another village teaching the latest musical craze which may have been introduced during the PKB (Pesta Kesenian Bali)—a major artistic festival—the year before.  On the same token, the STSI in Denpasar has had a tendency, certainly under the direction of Pak Bandem, to homogenise local variation in order to ‘clean-up’ Balinese performance for an Indonesian artistic audience. What is perhaps the most interesting level of change in the Balinese musical world is the influence of Contemporary western pop music to a new generation of Balinese youth.  In this [chapter/article], I would like to tackle the issue of intercultural influence by taking an analytical viewpoint which considers the two contrasting poles, both tradition and innovation, and the complex ways these two poles are bridged in contemporary Balinese culture. This means to what extent does the performance event or style come from a dynamic innovative variation on traditional material, or to what extent the creative activity is based on a perpetuation of imposed cultural forms.  It will be suggested that the forms used by the Balinese youth of today achieve a healthy balance between the two extremes, giving a uniquely Balinese way of experiencing the current cultural environment.

In this paper we discuss particular dynamic forms of Balinese performance which have helped to bring about cultural change and development, where innovation upon tradition is brought about by physical action and interaction.  Examples are demonstrated of new Balinese performance forms, some of which combine western-style pop and traditional music.  In this way, I will demonstrate how the Balinese youth of today are finding it increasingly necessary to combine popular music with their traditional forms so that their environment becomes comprehensible in a rapidly changing world.  I believe that it is through this active interaction with their environment in the form of music and dance performance that cultural change takes place.  Music has such a strong connection with change because of its vital temporal and spatial aspects.  It is, certainly in terms of the Balinese culture, embedded in a spatial and temporal performance-based environment, and is therefore in a constant state of adaptation in order to provide the culture with the tools necessary for understanding that changing world.  If we are to help musicology along on its path to a non-transcendent view of culture, we have to develop a theoretical model which is sensitive to this change.  If music is allowed to become static, a museum piece or an “object” to be studied as something abstracted from the parameters of space and time, as it has been done to a large extent in our own culture (especially within the field of traditional musicology) it simply stops playing a significant role in perpetuating culture.  In this paper I wish to demonstrate that intercultural influences, like the adoption of western popular forms, do not at all have to be experienced in a negative way (as is the prevailing tendency in contemporary ethnomusicology).  Instead it has to be seen as inevitable, necessary and vital change which allows the music to retain structures which are comprehensible to the Balinese. A generation of Balinese youth has to deal with a whole new series of Indonesian and other external influences, and adaptation and integration of pop forms helps them to assimilate and integrate them..

In order to approach interculturarity, we have to discuss the different ways cultures make use of these processes to their own advantage.  Interculturality is a complex process involved with the recontextualisation of foreign cultural material within their own culture.  It is not the same as globalisation which is a term we are confronted with more and more often as the world gets (virtually) smaller thanks to extended telecommunication technology.  Interculturality, however, is most certainly becoming a more common form of artistic expression thanks to globalisation.  People who are confronted with a rapidly changing world are searching for tools to understand that world.  This is one of the major factors which has to be understood about the way interculturality works.  I’ve experienced this process myself through adapting my own artistic means while learning the contrasting cultural possibilities available to me through my contact with Java, The Netherlands, Bali and Belgium, all of which contrasted with what I had accepted as the status quo.  I’ve also witnessed this phenomenon, having been in contact for many years with an intercultural environment, i.e. a non-European community, including Balinese people, who combine with their own performance forms all sorts of physical/sensory material they experience in the new culture they find themselves in.  I Nyoman Wenten, an important Balinese choreographer who lives and works in California, told me in an interview[2] that globalisation has brought to Indonesia special music schools which only teach western music, and that these schools are funded by the Indonesian government.  According to Wenten, the ultimate plan of the Indonesian government is to encourage their students to play other forms of music outside the context of the gamelan tradition. The actual political implications of this attitude to western musical forms are beyond the scale of this article, although it certainly is an example of the growing need for intercultural interaction in contemporary (Indonesian) society. 

The intention here is to demonstrate that such intercultural experiences occur because the culture involved fulfils a personal need or desire.  Traditional ethnomusicology often ignores the influence of western popular music on non-European cultures because they conceive of this as an imposition on ‘traditional’ culture. Interculturality, however, should be seen as a tool we use to better understand ourselves the Other[3] through dynamically interacting with the new environment.  Diamond, herself an American composer who writes for the Javanese gamelan, comments on the importance of interculturality.  She observes in one of her papers: “Western influence dominates in certain areas, like global distribution of mass media and material goods.  But is there only one villain here?  Or are many cultural practices both dangerous and wonderful?  Is television only bad?  Is the oral tradition only wonderful?” (Diamond, 1990: 16). Similarly, Wardana, the Balinese composer mentioned previously, finds interculturality very important because it allows two cultures to produce something by combining their different musical ideas.  His wording is literally “finding a solution” or “creating a harmony”; with different people, he said, you learn new things, new ways of looking at yourself.[4]  The desire for intercultural influence, however, suggests an internal necessity for change, and one adapts the extra-cultural influence according to a personal agenda, which is only a natural process. Debussy, the important French composer, introduced profound changes into the way music was listened to after having a brief experience of ‘eastern’ music—in this case Javanese gamelan—at the 1889 Paris exhibition: here began the lure of the exotic in music.  The vague pentatonicisms and new dimension of space and the exotic sensuality of sound seemed radically new and different, but in fact Debussy’s ‘impressionistic’ creations had little to do with Javanese music at all, representing instead a personal agenda and the needs for expression and development within a staid French middle-class.  The list can be extended to many other artists from the beginning to the end of the twentieth century including Benjamin Britten and Steve Reich, both of whom were interculturally influenced by Balinese culture and made significant contributions to the development of music in western culture.  The innovations may have been influenced by the way the artists experienced eastern culture, but it is more problematic to state that they reflect the culture which influences them: cultural anthropology taught us long ago that studying new cultures can often tell far more about the researcher than the culture being investigated.

The Balinese have always been open to intercultural influence and that influence is most certainly noticeable in the twentieth century. One only has to look at general performances such as the Barong which is considered to have developed from Chinese/Buddhist influence, or dance performances such as Janger which is an unusual variation of contemporary pop-culture and Balinese coupling rituals.  Here the Balinese have been influenced by cultures beyond Balinese shores, but in such a way that there is no sense that the performances are any less Balinese than ‘traditional’ Balinese performance.  At a time of dynamic change and development, namely the infiltration of Dutch colonialism and the downfall of the Balinese feudal system, a number of western artists and anthropologists found themselves on Bali, finding there the answer to many of their unfulfilled dreams in the West, and were inevitably influenced by the Balinese way of experiencing their world.  Here we can mention the names of Walter Spies (graphic artist), Colin McPhee (composer/ethnomusicologist), Margaret Mead, Gregory Bateson and Beryl de Zoete (anthropologists).  Just as Bali was to have an influence on these people epistemologically, they in their turn had an influence on the Balinese culture.  This is an interesting area of discussion considering many of those ‘scientists’ were attempting to give an objective account of what Balinese culture was like when in truth they were helping it to change and develop.  I think it is important here to conclude that while a given culture is making the new culture comprehensible and possibly integrating it, the process is primarily self-reflexive, i.e. it is directed towards its own needs and desires. This allows the observer to experience a superficial aspect of the culture in question, but that it is not necessarily negative, quite often positive in that it forces us to question the way we experience and understand our world, and the (artistic) tools we use to do that.  As a result of this, we very often tend towards interculturality because of expectations we harbour about the culture we are interacting with.

A typical misunderstanding which arises in Balinese-European cultural interaction is involved with the sort of music tourists expect the Balinese to enjoy, and how in real-life the Balinese have played in on this expectation to help promote their restaurants or art-centres. Very often this takes the form of reggae music which did not, of course, originate in Bali.  In a commercial sense it is considered to be appropriate for the tourist market.  It provides genuine employment possibilities in the generally mid to lower priced hotels and clubs, which means real job prospects for people who can appropriate this music on Bali.  It functions primarily to affirm the popular conception of Bali as a ‘tropical beach paradise’.  The primary concern of these reggae groups is to emphasise the Caribbean-like nature of Bali or a Rastafarian aesthetic which suits our traditional image of ‘tropical’ culture.  From my own experience with the Balinese who live an intense and busy existence nothing could be further from the (Balinese) truth.

One important point which should be noted here is the major contrast our culture makes between popular and traditional music, not only in terms of genre but also quality: in our culture it is a ‘folk’ acceptance that pop music is in some way less refined and complex than ‘classical’ music, and even that pop music is a rung below ‘traditional’ music which is a static but sound reflection of some culture.  According to Barth, pop music “radiates the same tendency of attraction [to the Balinese] as among western youth” (Barth 1996: 246).  Despite pop music reflecting a dynamic culture in action, thanks to our cultural discrimination it is considered of lesser value and often subversive. Furthermore the developments in music in our culture are usually written against the period before, for example the contrast between modern and post-modern art.  Our image of art and artists is generally one of struggle involved with achieving a goal, misunderstanding between innovative artists against the status quo, and sometimes even pain or death.  Such an image of art is simply impossible in terms of Balinese contemporary performance.  Popular music is only distinguished in terms of genre and appropriate time and place of performance.  Contemporary composers write dynamic new works which almost every Balinese person will find at the very least interesting although more typical emotions include rapture and joy.  Creation on traditional instruments or any type of western instrumental audience will not be considered in terms of quality.  Westerners, especially musicians and composers, find this musical aesthetic remarkably innovative and liberating, and therefore it comes no surprise to discover that hundreds of Balinese Gong Kebyar ensembles are made for an international market each year.  This ensemble, a form of gamelan developed in the twentieth century, is highly popular in contemporary Bali.

Gong Kebyar is such an important form of Gamelan because it fulfils both the roles played in our culture of ‘traditional’ and ‘popular’ music.  This ensemble, which is actually both a set of instruments and a style of playing them, became enormously popular during a period of momentous change and cultural ferment brought about by a combination of the presence of western artists and anthropologists, Dutch colonialism—which was increasingly undermining the cultural role of the Balinese feudal  system—and the growing tourist trade.   Since colonialism had depleted support from noble houses because of the lack of taxes on a village level, the gamelan ensembles reverted to the villagers which put the control of the music into the hands of the villagers themselves.  The changes on the island on both a political and a cultural level meant that a new dynamic form of musical communication was necessary, one that stood against the staidness of the then existing forms.  Gong Kebyar certainly fulfilled these needs: a musical form accompanied by dance came into existence which was in a sense ‘abstract’.  There were no ‘stock characters’: the function of the dancer was to present a “kaleidoscope of moods and emotions that reflects the rapidly changing character of the music itself” (Ornstein 1980: 24).  The word kebyar can be literally translated as ‘bursting’ into flame (like a fire) or bloom (like a flower), which is a relatively correct analogy for the music itself which is filled with sudden bursts of sound and electrifying changes.  It emerged in a period of artistic ferment in North Bali, and then spread at a lightning tempo across the island, replacing the existing forms: older gamelans were sometimes melted down and reformed into the Kebyar ensembles which eventually became the basis for all contemporary Balinese music.  Another important point is the way Gong Kebyar performance became not only a form of new music, but also a ritualised form of competition: performers were brought together to ‘compete’ with their vitality, theatrical presence and musical virtuosity.  This could be seen as ritualised rivalry which existed through the different Balinese regions when the feudal system existed.

Gong Kebyar, and its accompanying dance forms, was so much more than simply a musical form: it brought with it an entirely new way for the Balinese to relate to their environment and one another, and in the author’s opinion was used as a tool to adapt to rapid sociopolitical and cultural changes that the twentieth century brought with it.  Gamelan ensembles from across the island joined one another in large-scale musical contests.  And Balinese ‘mega-stars’ demonstrating remarkable musical or dance technique would become popular for a short time before being lost again into oblivion.  In many ways it still plays that role, but unfortunately the form has developed to such a degree that its ‘klasik’ status puts it out of the reach of the average Balinese youth who lack the specialisation brought about now by the music academies which have taken the role played earlier by the villages and have therefore now become the institutions for musical innovation and change.  The young people of today are searching for new means to express their own approach to the world, something which Gong Kebyar can not on its own fulfil: it has in many ways become too difficult for many young Balinese people who are obliged to spend more and more of their time catering to either the tourist industry or the rapidly evolving business world.  These new needs are often brought about by adapting western pop music forms which function both to unite them with the world they are perpetuating in the industry and providing comprehensible forms of cultural expression in a post-colonial world. 

Balinese youth who I interviewed during field work in 1998 told me that they considered their ‘enjoyment’ of pop and traditional music to be essentially the same.  Popular music, though, has a vitality which they greatly enjoy, allowing them to experience a shared space enjoyed by other young people.  The tendency within ethnomusicology—which is thankfully receding—to lament the ‘imposition’ of pop music as a result of tourism or commercialisation is in itself a neo-colonialist assumption harking back to the old days when viewing Balinese culture as non-political and non-ideological, consisting of people who made music and danced, and otherwise spent their days in the rice-paddies working or relaxing at the beach.  This is, of course, a hopelessly out-of-date assumption, and is in general only perpetuated for the large tourist market.  For the young Balinese, popular music has many advantages when compared to traditional music.  To be able to dance to this music one does not have to have had years of dance training, which opens a whole world of experiencing space, sound and the sense of community among other young people.  Although their own traditional music has its own exuberance and sensuality, especially with regard to speed and theatricality, it involves a great deal of well-practised technique, whereas pop music is open to a wider audience and permits more freedom of movement.  It must not be forgotten, however, the the Balinese who attend discos are often the same people who attend the new music festivals in Denpasar and are often directly involved in playing in both rock-bands and traditional orchestras.  As mentioned, there is no 'class’ distinction between popular and classical music: for them the relationship between traditional and popular music seems a logical consequence.

As discussed above, increasingly more young people are reaching out to other forms of music, and have found thanks to the massive influx of western tourists many new types of popular music to fulfil their needs, especially in the tourist areas such as Sanur, Kuta and Ubud. I Wayan Dibia, director of the STSI in Denpasar, has made vocal the fact that he regrets the loss of many different performance forms which have been or will be lost because of the growing desire of the Balinese youth to specialise in western music (Dibia 1993). According to Bakan, “the influx of western popular music culture into Bali has created an awareness of a certain kind of musical energy and intensity that is very appealing to Balinese youth” (Bakan 1993: 335).  Bakan goes on to say that even Gong Kebyar lacks communicative potential for the average youth of today because of the enormous technical skill required.  As Dibia observes, more and more Balinese people, especially in the larger cities, are working five day weeks and do not have the energy to participate in traditional performance either actively as a performer or even passively as a viewer.  Staying at home and resting in front of the television for light entertainment is becoming increasingly more popular.  For the performing arts which are still popular, one can also notice a process of movement from religion/cultural education to entertainment.  Dibia comments on the fact that performances such as Wayang Kulit which were initially used for educational purposes and to provide answers to current issues are changing (Dibia 1993: 52-3).  The performances of today are becoming more and more entertaining which stands opposed to their initial function in the perpetuation of traditional values and general cultural education.  The pedagogical sections are becoming increasingly smaller and the amusing sections which allow the audience to relax and enjoy the more slapstick sides of the performance are extended, meaning in essence that the whole process of the performance is to lighten up a tired audience who have spent the day at work.  As Dibia demonstrates: “the result of working hard during the day is that people become both physically and mentally tired” (Dibia 1993: 62) and “the society has become less ready to ‘digest’ performance which are too serious… light entertainment which can be enjoyed without having to think hard has become both the food and the effective medicine for people to restore their physical and mental condition (Dibia 1993: 66). I Nyoman Wenten also comments on the decreasing interest of Balinese youth in traditional forms of gamelan.  He notes that Balinese gamelan and other forms of Balinese music are simply too difficult for the average young man (or woman) to learn because of professional or other responsibilities.  Balinese youth are no longer able to participate because he or she may lack the necessary musical education in the academies, and participation in the active process of music-making is an important part of partaking in this type of ‘musical knowledge’.  It is natural therefore that other musical forms will arise to fulfil some of the roles that Gong Kebyar can no longer fulfil. 

One of the unquestionable factors concerning the desire of the Balinese to look beyond its shores for musical satisfaction can not only be ascribed to sociological change.  Technology has made its impression not only on the reproduction of the human arts but on communication in general, and in fact all other ways we interact with our environment.  Thanks to forms of telecommunication many of the ‘traditional’ forms of Balinese culture are threatened, at least as far as a whole school of western ethnomusicology is concerned and a growing school of academics from Balinese extraction.  Examples include Dibia (1993) who mourns the intrusion of the radio and television and Soedarsono (1995) who laments the availability of mass-media which encourages people to stay at home and not attend traditional performances. According to I Nyoman Wenten, the last twenty years have seen a significant decline in the overall dedication of people in the villages to the gamelan and other artistic forms (Bakan 1993: 391).

Another major factor is the possibilities to reproduce music made possible thanks to the introduction of recording techniques, most noticeable in the form of the cassette, and to a lesser extend the CD.  This medium is so popular because it is affordable, small and transportable. It is a medium for Balinese youth to create actively their own tradition, even if they are based on western models or campuran, fusion forms mixing traditional with pop music. Basically, reproduction makes western music accessible to the young.

The influence of mass-media such as radio and television has of course had a great impact on Indonesia as a whole, both in Bali and Java.  Slick marketing and lots of cultural propaganda has resulted in a new ‘pan-Indonesianism’ which resembles a contemporary western cultural conformity.  Hatley  points out the obvious in her article on cultural expression: the new Indonesianism revolves primarily around one thing, making big money and being successful in terms of a polished reflection of the unattainable ‘American dream’ (Hatley 1994: 257). Mass-media, which takes advantage of new technology such as the radio and the television, is also fostering all over Indonesia a new form of living and relating to the world based on an American middle-class norm. 

Reasons for this move towards a western popular model are not restricted to technology or the mass-media.  It is also possible that Balinese young people are led to explore different musical genres because of the institutionalisation of traditional gamelan forms.  I’m referring here to the fact that if a musical form is taken out of its context and taught in a static environment it simply stops communicating to a whole new generation.  This has certainly occurred thanks to the increasingly significant role the STSI (the Indonesian College of the Arts) plays in defining Balinese classical culture, one which is becoming available only to a select few.  Also, Balinese music is used by the Indonesian government for particular Indonesian political functions within both Indonesia and on a world stage, and in this regard its role as a ‘popular’ form has been reduced.  The STSI comes directly under the control of the Directorate General of Higher Education within the Ministry of Education and Culture (Hough 1992: 14), and the institution’s role is “to manifest at the regional level the current discourse of national culture” (Hough 1992: 15).  In the contemporary world, it would seem that the Indonesian State would like to have complete control over contemporary Balinese musical forms from within the academies.  Balinese performance, as has been demonstrated in the work of Hough, has became a tool for the perpetuation of Indonesian ideals.  The Balinese performance culture is used to demonstrate Indonesia’s ancient roots and its ethnic diversity “united in the common purpose of national development” (Hough 1992: 18).  Lavish new productions were created with casts of hundreds which could be interpreted as large-scale political propaganda events: the Indonesian state is rich in diversity and has control over this diversity, and what’s more, can arrange mega-spectacles for international demonstrations.  According to Hough, the New Order period “has been characterised by State intervention in cultural production throughout the archipelago.  The co-option or appropriation of specific ethnic cultural forms to a national context appears to be a conscious effort by the state to enhance its own position and promote its economic and social programmes of development.” (Hough 1992: 1).  We can see this as being part of moving in a general cycle: in the past, before the advent of Gong Kebyar, Hindu-Balinese rulers of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries served to standardise Balinese culture.  Now, after a period of independent change and development, “government-sponsored schools, research teams, and creative projects” from the Indonesian state itself is again exerting power on performance forms.  It will be demonstrated further in the paper, however, that new forms are again developing external to the academies, influenced by or based on western popular music which is still not under the control of the state in the way that the Gong Kebyar of today is.  It will be demonstrated that these new forms are essential for young people, just as Gong Kebyar was at the turn of the century, to make sense of a rapidly changing world.  We will begin with a discussion of Bali as a member state of the Indonesian republic, and the implications of this for the appropriation of pop music forms in Bali.

In the Sukarno period of Indonesian politics, western music was included in his overbearing nationalist rhetoric which ultimately led to the banning of contemporary western rock music.  It is no wonder then that foreign music genres represent such a strong statement against a cultural dictatorship. In terms of a new generation of Indonesian youth of the New Order [Orde Baru], the mass-media as a means of communication in a common language has offered the young a tool for expressing their dissatisfaction with a corrupt political and social system. The Indonesian clones of western bands should be viewed in terms of their ability to provide to their audience a sense of liberation from an oppressive political system.  The New Order did reduce restriction of access to extra-Indonesian musical forms which has had both its positive and negative aspects.  Western popular music still has today the advantage of escaping some of the restrictions imposed by the Indonesian state, and that it is accessible to a more general public of Balinese youth who have grown up with it in terms of foreign recordings and television broadcasts such as MTV.  In Indonesia itself, the pop medium has enjoyed a relative freedom when compared to the more traditional art forms taught in the academies, simply because the Indonesian state considers it less necessary to suppress because of its non-Indonesian origin.  Unfortunately for the state, however, youths are bombarded with foreign images of music via MTV and the like, something which is not easily controlled by governmental decree.  Both in a Balinese and in a larger Indonesian context pop music still has to the same degree a direct anti-societal function, or at least an expression of the vitality of youth which stands against the corruption of the ‘system’ which favours an elite few and leaves the rest to struggle with meagre means. The Balinese have been no exception to the Indonesian model, finding an enormously enthusiastic market for both popular and fusion forms.

Further on we will be discussing some of the vital applications of pop music forms in Bali, many of which stand against all the stereotypes perpetuated for a tourist audience.  In terms of Balinese youth, disco music is indeed the newest rage and hundreds of young people flock nightly to the many clubs which have sprung up in the major tourist centres.  One could lament the fact that traditional culture is being set aside, but such a conviction is entirely misplaced.  All of the young people I interviewed liked both traditional and popular music, and received a great deal of satisfaction in both musical environments.  They referred to popular music as universal mendunia, a form which allowed them to share a dynamic moment with all (mostly young) people.  This is to be expected in Bali because of the wide range of extra-Balinese visitors who Balinese people interact with, meaning that the music and the night-club environment provide them with a common area they can take advantage of, connecting themselves with the international crowd.  The Balinese world is now, of course, much bigger than the shores of Bali. 

According to an interview held by the author with a young Balinese dancer and musician who sings for a new ‘ethnic fusion’ pop group (which will be discussed in more detail further on), western music, although lacking the taksu[5] of traditional performance, has a strong sense of freedom which is not obtainable in the same way in other musical forms.  The combination of traditional and modern forms is highly popular, but further than this, the idea of combining the two forms is a preferred possibility most likely because of its educational function.  They even feel that they have a personal obligation to perform these experiments, to create new performance forms with the surrounding cultural ‘tools’,  Seeing is simply not enough: Balinese teenagers want to be able to do it themselves, to experience this fusion with their own bodies to help them make their ever-changing environment comprehensible. The music that emanates from the West through the tourist industry has found a place in the lives of the Balinese young people, especially those living in the larger tourist-based centres. This does not mean, however, that the West has successfully re-colonised Bali, it means that the Balinese have appropriated yet another level into their own culture.  It unites them with what they feel to be a world culture made up of young people, revelling in being in filled and busy places (perhaps a contemporary evocation of ramai[6] ).  Many western-style discos have popped up to cater to the tastes of western tourists.  Whether intentionally or not, the discos created initially for tourists are most certainly frequented by a large population of Balinese young people from a wide-range of different age-groups (from quite young: one of the people I interviewed was only fifteen years old), although most probably from a middle to high-class section of society.  Discos which are frequented by Balinese people include Janger, Bintang Bali, Skandal and many others.

The strongly linked nature of Balinese society results in a great emphasis on retaining connection with its young people, meaning that ‘estrangement’ between old and new generations—at least in terms of those in Bali who belong to a Balinese banjar and participate in the culture directly—is comparatively limited if compared to western culture.  Although forms of radical new music such as heavy metal or punk do not receive direct assistance from society, banjar-approved groups run by the musicians set up major events held weekly: I was told of an event held in a performance space in Denpasar set up by a death-metal initiative know as the Bali Corpse-Grinders in one of my interviews, or the Sunday Hot Music event which is held weekly for Balinese death-thrashers in Sanur, both of which are quite unknown to tourists who often content themselves with the artificial reggae performances often  intended to fulfil a tourist idea of what being ‘Balinese’ is actually about. 

The Balinese youth of today enjoy popular music: this seems to be a clear statement.  They enjoy listening to it and participating in the whole group dynamic which is inherent in the types of musical events attained at discos or one of the specially organized events mentioned above.  There is, however, more to it than just that, in other words more than just uniting Balinese youth with youth around the whole world as the MTV ethos seems to suggest.  The Balinese have a special relationship with this type of music. The term ‘pop music’ is in fact a blanket term for many different kinds of music which have particular audiences and intentions.  The major forms I experienced during fieldwork on Bali were House, techno and punk rock.  Yong Sagita is a well-known Balinese musician who has invented his own form of House music which is often played in Balinese discos.  His work is interesting for a number of reasons.  Firstly, he uses one of the Balinese languages in his texts, and secondly because he uses Balinese gamelan music as part of the loud and repetitive House dynamic.  His texts, also, are of up-to-date subjects concerned with issues which Balinese people in Denpasar can relate to.  His songs on the recording include a number of situations young people are typically confronted with in contemporary Bali.  The work Toris is about misunderstandings in a conversation with a tourist, and ‘Hitom’ and ‘Bajang Sakura’ are both about a Japanese girl (prevalent visitors to Bali).  It appears that the language use can often be quite base, although the recording itself for a westerner sounds more pleasant than the hard-core rock of most house music. 

Astita, a Balinese composer and teacher at the STSI, refers specifically to ‘House’ music as one involved wish Western -style discos, but at the same time refers to the phenomenon as ‘tripping music’ and observes the fact than many Balinese pop groups are getting together and using a combination of both sampled gamelan instruments and sometimes Balinese texts to create House works for use in discos, similar to the work of Yong Sagita.  He also recognises that this music form shares some characteristics with traditional music: “steady and hard rhythm over and over for a long time and that tends to make people get into a trace and become involved with the music.”[7]  A combination of Balinese gamelan music and House music with repetitive hard rhythms played very loudly functions to totally overwhelm the (largely Balinese) audience who become incensed and sometimes reach a trance-like state.  Thanks to this dynamic musical pounging the body is almost forced  to become involved in the communal sharing of a vital spatial and temporal environment, perhaps again helping the Balinese young people to achieve ramai.  Achieving ramai means basically that one loses oneself in a mass, perhaps a sort of release from the restrictions on one's life within the confines of a banjar.[8]  Another aspect we should consider is the tendency for Balinese people to fall into dance during dramatic ritual performances accompanied usually be instance and dramatic music.  Young Balinese people I interviewed after having totally given themselves over to Techno music seemed in a state of high intensity, in a totally entranced state which could undoubtedly be compared to the trance states regularly induced in traditional rituals such as the Barong performance. 

Another important area which is greatly influential is punk music.  Punk is specifically interesting because it represents a new way living and experiencing the world: it so much more than simply loud music.  It’s very much representative of an anti-colonial tendency, one which goes against the stereotypes and represents a certain way of experiencing a spatial environment in a group.  The rather nightmarish texts of some of the songs,  the incredibly loud volume, the raw theatrics and the catharsis created in this environment is not necessarily a negative thing, and in any case punk music is something which represents a way of life.  The attraction is in the music itself, which provides them with a sense of freedom to express themselves in a way that is not possible with other musical forms.   It is not so much what the songs say, but how they go about presenting it, and the whole sensual environment which rejects repression and freedom of existence. In all these situations the Balinese culture is clearly creating itself an environment which assists them to cope with their culture in a world which is overrun with people who are not native to Bali.

Perhaps the most well-known cultural event, one which is very much an accepted part of Balinese cultural life is the world famous Pesta Kesenian Bali, abbreviated to PKB, often translated as the Bali Arts Festiva.  This event is basically an island-wide competition which involves all the best performers and performances coming together in Denpasar.  There is now a section know as ‘Pop Daerah’ in which all the Balinese kebupaten (regions) compete by sending Balinese rock bands to Denpasar.  This ‘regional pop’ division has a similar amount of musicians to a rock band.  The songs are written in Balinese, and often include fusion with Balinese gamelan instruments or melodies.  The singers also dance, similarly combining traditional dance and costumes with pop dance and motions.  According to Ni Made Wulan, a female Balinese singer/dancer who participated in the event, they ‘mix-and-match’ Balinese and popular forms.  They use typical western pop instruments, and sometimes gamelan instruments like the trompong.  The music itself can also integrate Balinese playing styles such as kotekan.[9]

As mentioned at the beginning of the chapter, music and dance are tools we use to experience or understand our environment, and it is only natural, therefore, that the Balinese will feel the necessity to combine and mix traditional forms, which they are familiar with from their ritual lives, with western popular music, which is becoming more and more a standard part of Balinese existence.  The case study in this regard is a group which has the specific intention of helping Bali along on the path of finding its own communicative form within the genre.  The group, made up of a well-known Balinese musician and composer who teaches at the STSI in Denpasar, I Komang Astita, and his friends and family, attempts to combine contemporary Balinese issues with Balinese musical forms, and of course Western pop, attempting to set a standard for Balinese bands in the future.  They want to use the music to both perpetuate Balinese traditional culture and at the same time to adapt its musical forms to a new musical epistemology inherent in the popular music of the nineties.  The group is called Koka Studio which is a combination of the names of the two major creative forces behind the group, Komang and Kadek, and they have called their first tape “Om Swastiastu”, which is a traditional Balinese term for ‘welcome’.  Komang’s daughter Tisna explained to me in an interview that this had the symbolic value of the band’s desire to be welcomed into the Balinese musical world: they see their work as a ‘first’ on the Balinese popular music scene, and hope that it catches on.  It is also the name for the first song on the tape.  She thinks that Balinese young people are watching too much Western pop music on television, and that they are hoping to demonstrate that Bali has its own type of pop music which does not have to resemble the Western model directly.  A video was even made and broadcast in Denpasar and Jakarta, and this included in addition to gamelan instrument adapted on a synthesiser, traditional Balinese dance movements and costumes.

As mentioned, the subject matter of the songs themselves is involved with issues which are of importance to the Balinese of today.  These extend from songs concerning religious issues, such as Canang Sari, concerning the presentation of offerings to the Balinese spiritual world, to protest songs trying to cope with the difficult issue of changes to the Balinese environment brought about by the rapidly increasing tourist industry.  The song Inguh, for example, concerns the confusion Balinese people feel because of the continually decreasing amount of land left for them or their gardens, having being taken up by hotels and bungalows: no place left anymore for ‘nature’, only a superficial Western tourist world which forces the Balinese to question their existence and their future.  The songs even extend to the reality of the material world, which is certainly a significant factor to the Balinese of today: the song Kartu Kredit is a comical account of spending too much money using a credit card and discovering it at the end of the month.  The collection is an interesting mixture of themes, and the music itself resembles pretty much a replica of Western pop music forms with the typical addition of a drum machine and a Western singing style.  Despite the idealism implicit in the band’s hope to entirely change the Balinese soundscape, one hopes that such a venture will at least influence other bands to make similar developments within their own music in terms of taking on Balinese issues significant to the Balinese, and the recognition of Balinese traditional forms.

These combined forms allow the Balinese youth to ‘physically’ comprehend the musical influences flooding in from the West, musical influences which are obviously a vital communicative form for the young people of today and have dramatic epistemological consequences for how they experience the world in general.  Popular music, defined in opposition to ‘classical’ or ‘formal’ music by western society, is a powerful force, one which surrounds us, forcing us to sensually experience the world in a certain way.  It speaks to young people, and is so much more than simply a reflection of a given age, but an actual tool used to bring about cultural change and development.  From the contents of this paper, it is clear that Bali has seen many different and exciting changes in the twentieth century, and is evidently continuing to change, as all culture does and always will do.  The Balinese obviously recognise the importance of these musical forms, and are adapting to them in a unique way so that their culture doesn’t lose touch with a new generation of young people who are brought up in an entirely different cultural environment, influenced by various factors such as a new political regime, a new education system and an abundant and growing tourist industry.  Thanks to their understanding of the importance of change, remember Desa Kala Patra, the Balinese are protecting their own culture.  I’m pretty sure that my conclusion is the same as many others discussing the Bali of today: having such a remarkable ability to adapt, the Balinese culture has a promising future, and certainly not one we have to worry about paternalistically here in the West.  In fact, Balinese music and culture in general is playing a continually more important role outside Bali.  As always, the Balinese are teaching us more than we may be aware.

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