Cosmopolitan Intimacies: Malay Film Music of the Independence Era

Adil Johan

Paperback

9789814722636

The golden age of Malay film in the 1950s and 1960s was the product of a musical and cultural cosmopolitanism in the service of a nation-making process based on ideas of Malay ethnonationalism, initially fluid, increasingly homogenised over time. The commercial films of the period, and in particular their film music, from national cultural icons P. Ramlee and Zubir Said, remain important reference points for Malaysia and Singapore to this day. This is the first in-depth study of the film music of the period. It brings together ethnomusicological and cultural studies perspectives.

Contents:

1 Introduction

2 Decolonising Motifs

3 Nationalising Tradition or Traditionalising Nation?

4 Technologies of Classiness and Narratives of Class

5 Disquieting Denouement

6 Indiepretations of Zubir Said and P. Ramlee

7 Conclusion