ABSTRACT
Watching a dance floor clear as one track cross fades to another can be very revealing of mainstream musical taste. At a gathering of the Papua New Guinean (PNG) community in Sydney in 2006, a packed dance floor moved to a local PNG song by well-known musician Telek. As this faded to another Telek song – this time one produced in Australia in a ‘world music’ style – the dance floor emptied. The track was left to play for a while before a local song recorded in PNG started, this time by a different but equally popular local artist. A group of Papua New Guinean women of all ages led a surge to the dance floor and it filled again. When the PNG community wants to party in celebration of its nation's independence, the clear crowd favourites are local acts in a local, mainstream style, rather than the Australian-produced versions that might make it to a world music festival.
