Most observers of Indonesian culture devote attention to so-called traditional or ethnic cultures (often exoticized by many studies to be authentic cultures of the people), the state-sanctioned ‘official’ version of national cultures (as often propagated in schools and ceremonies), or the ‘avant-garde’ or ‘high’ cultures of the nation’s intelligentsia (as found in the academy, theatres and prestigious galleries). These categories are helpful for conceptualizing what we mean by ‘pop culture’, by highlighting what it is not.
Heryanto, Ariel (2008) “Pop Culture and Competing Identities”, in A. Heryanto (ed), Popular Culture in Indonesia: Fluid Identities in Post-Authoritarian Politics, London & New York: Routledge, pp. 1-36.
keywords: classes, ethnography, feminine, gender, identities, ideologies, industry, Inul Daratista, Islamization, masculine, pop culture
Ariel Heryanto 