| This thesis examines how soundscapes signify identity in contemporary metropolitan Malaysia. The chosen examples highlight the evolution of musical styles that have become representative of broad Malaysian cultural identity. By moving between analytical frameworks, from cognitive to music analysis, I highlight the ways monolithic identity categories are represented and challenged through various modes of music transmission. I begin by showing the eclectic roots of Malaysian popular music and its appropriation by the State to promulgate messages of unity and nationalism. I then turn to the music at the popular Hindu festival, Thaipusam, to show that hegemony flows multi-directionally, both transcending and reinforcing broad identity categories. Lastly, I turn to musical "codes" situated within the monolithic identity concepts of religion and ethnicity. I show that by utilizing these high level categories, fluid identities are revealed not for purposes of State nationalist rhetoric, but for natural hybrids of musical expression. |
