Popular music in a transnational world: The construction of local identities in Singapore

• Main Author: KONG, Lily
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 1997
• Subjects: Construction of identities; Cultural geography; Globalisation; Localisation; Music; Singapore; Asian Studies; Sociology of Culture
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research/2262; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/soss_research/article/3519/viewcontent/PopMusicTransnationalWorld_1997.pdf
• Institution: Singapore Management University

As an area of geographical inquiry, popular music has not been explored to any large extent. Where writings exist, they have been somewhat divorced from recent theoretical and methodological questions that have rejuvenated social and cultural geography. In this paper, I focus on one arena which geographers can develop in their analysis of popular music, namely, the exploration of local influences and global forces in the production of music. In so doing, I wish to explore how local resources intersect with global ones in a process of transculturation. Using the example of English songs by one particular songwriter and artiste whose works are part of the popular music industry mainstream, and that of Mandarin songs of the genre xinyao, I will show that, despite increasing globalising forces, music is still an expression of local/national influences. Indeed, I will argue that globalisation intensifies localisation.