ABSTRACT
In this chapter, I describe the competing worlds of nation, gender, and Islam through dangdut, a massively popular form of Indonesian music (and dance) that integrates foreign ideas and material practices. Its broad appeal and wide circulation via electronic media and the fact that its audience comprises the majority of Indonesia’s population have earned dangdut the moniker “Indonesia’s most popular music.” On one hand, dangdut’s ubiquitous presence, hybrid repertoire, and adaptability to diverse performance contexts point to a kind of social inclusiveness or cosmopolitanism. Since the 1990s, it has been promoted by state cultural institutions as a form with the potential to “go international” and has even attracted attention in other parts of Asia. On the other hand, dangdut has become a site for national debates about a particular kind of Islamic morality and the regulation of women’s bodies in public, which suggests social exclusiveness or “counter-cosmopolitanism” (Appiah 2006).
