SEMINAR: School of Music: Postgraduate Seminars - Semester 2

Sean will be presenting his seminar on The politics of performance in an Indonesian DIY hardcore scene.

Underground music has a significant role in modern Indonesian youth culture, and the city of Bandung boasts a flourishing hardcore punk scene. A committed minority within this scene have reacted against its perceived mainstreaming and commercialisation by organising a small, independent community based around non-profit 'Do-It-Yourself' (DIY) production and performance. These /anak DIY /('DIY kids') are motivated both by their desire to defend the underground authenticity of the local hardcore scene and by a political critique of commodification. In this seminar, I discuss the divergent and contradictory performance strategies that they engage in as they attempt to express and realise the DIY values of community and autonomy, while avoiding the reduction of their performances to commodified spectacles of resistance.