From folk to national popular music:: Recreating ronggeng in Malaysia

The Malaysian social-dance music known as ronggeng underwent changes in style and performance contexts from the early twentieth century until the turn of the millennium. Roniggeng has been transformed from a folk genre of the Malay and Baba communities-performed by lower-class women who danced publicly with men and were, thus, looked down on as common by some sectors of the population-to a national form promoted by the Malaysian State, performed by and attracting audiences of different ethnic groups and classes. As ronggeng has become national, it has been "reconstructed" and "sanitized"; certain elements have been selected while other undesirable ones have been omitted, so that the music and dances of the new national ronggeng have become divorced from their folk forms and settings.