Popular Culture in Indonesia

This book examines popular culture in Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim nation, and the third largest democracy. It provides a full account of the key trends since the collapse of the authoritarian Suharto regime (1998), a time of great change in Indonesian society more generally. It explains how one of the most significant results of the deepening industrialization in Southeast Asia since the 1980s has been the expansion of consumption and new forms of media, and that Indonesia is a prime example of this development. It goes on to show that although the Asian economic crisis in 1997 had immediate and negative impacts on incumbent governments, as well as the socioeconomic life for most people in the region, at the same time popular cultures have been dramatically reinvigorated as never before. It includes analysis of important themes, including political activism and citizenship, gender, class, age and ethnicity. Throughout, it shows how the multilayered and contradictory processes of identity formation in Indonesia are inextricably linked to popular culture. This is one of the first books on Indonesia's media and popular culture in English. It is a significant addition to the literature on Asian popular culture, and will be of interest to anyone who is interested in new developments in media and popular culture in Indonesia and Asia.

"This collection of articles on Indonesian popular culture, edited by Ariel Heryanto, is a very welcome addition to scholarship on Indonesian film, television, staged performances of music and dance...this collection offers a wealth of fresh thinking and perceptive studies of new developments in Indoesia's rich and thriving popular culture. Scholars and students interested in cultural studies, or in the intersection of politics and culture, will want to read this book carefully." -- Michael Bodden, University of Victoria, Canada'This book is a welcome addition to the understanding of the country, its dyanism and diversity' - R Kwan Laurel, University of the Philippines, Journal of Contemporary Asia, 2009"This book has been released, catching the right moment, to critically evaluate the development of popular culture within the social transition from Suharto's authoritarian regime to the post-authoritarian present...This book should be worthwhile for any reader wishing to locate the meaning of popular culture in the wider socio-political framework of Indonesia and beyond." - Shiho Sawai, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, The Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, Volume 41/3, October 2010

Ariel Heryanto is Senior Lecturer at the Asia Institute, University of Melbourne, Australia. He is the author of State Terrorism And Political Identity In Indonesia: Fatally Belonging (Routledge, 2006) and co-editor of Challenging Authoritarianism in Southeast Asia; comparing Indonesia and Malaysia (Routledge, 2003).