Turning the Tide of Cultural Imperialism with Dangdut

Abstract

Ever since MTV Asia was launched from Singapore in 1995, the music channel has become one of the most recognisable media brands in the region. Its infuence on the music industries of Southeast Asia has been signifcant. Yet, it has not led to what cultural imperialist theorists have been arguing about, vis-à-vis foreign cultures imposing themselves on the local cultural spheres. MTV itself has had to increase its broadcasting allocation of local music in most countries, and in some countries, like Indonesia and Malaysia, the MTV infuence has been countered with local music movements that have borrowed MTV's formatting and production techniques, but not its music.This paper1 will discuss how the cultural imperialism thesis is being challenged through the emergence of hybrid musical genres that use local and traditional styles of music and dance, but use MTV's production techniques in appropriating its "cool" branding formula and approach to marketing. I will be using as a case study Indonesia's Dangdut music, which is a genre of Indonesian pop and dance music heavily infuenced by Indian (Bollywood) flm music and Arabic pop music.