ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the specific ways in which music has been harnessed to enhance the wellbeing of a nation, and to evaluate the successes and challenges of such a strategy, focusing on the case of Singapore. It focuses on the manner in which the government in the city-state of Singapore has harnessed the potential of music for the wellbeing of the nation, seeking to build both a sense of identity amongst Singaporeans as part of an 'imagined community', and strengthen the sense of belonging to 'territorial communities' in locality-anchored activity. The imagined community, as famously borrowed from Benedict Anderson, is made up of members who do not know most of their fellow members, with whom they likely exist in relations of inequality, but nevertheless live in an image of communion and horizontal comradeship. Overall, the Sing Singapore programme is unparalleled in its degree of organization, commitment and influence.
