ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a critical overview of the birth and development of Iban popular music in Sarawak from the 1950s to the 1970s. It examines the potential of popular music historiography to uncover paradoxes of modernity in the socio-cultural meanings of song lyrics of the Iban who are the largest indigenous ethnic group in Sarawak. The chapter interrogates the socio-cultural and socio-political factors that contributed to the creation of these Iban pop songs through a history of Iban radio and a lyrical analysis of Iban songs. While tracing the history of Iban popular music, it is important to trace the roots of Western music in Sarawak. During the reign of the Brooke Rajahs, various music genres and new ways of playing music were brought to the social entertainment scene in Kuching, the capital of Sarawak. The emergence of Iban popular music involved two upper class Iban families from the city of Kuching known as the Linang and the Bayang.
