The Role of Music in Mass Media, Public Education and the Formation of a Malaysian National Culture

Pg 432 – “Music, particularly through the mass media and education, has been given an important role in this process of unification by the Malaysian government. Although this had been encouraged ever since independence was achieved, the outbreak of racial violence in 1969 added urgency to the matter.”

~ So the government is trying to create a culture in order to unify citizens. This shows the bond that those in a similar culture can have. It is so strong that governments want to generate it just to be able to govern and run the country better.

Pg 435 – “Mass media are required to reflect and promote national unity and the national culture in the same manner as the education system.

~ Interesting that the government will express a part of the people’s culture, but will not allow for the media to promote any alternative cultures that do not agree with national unity or culture. Basically they are oppressing a piece of everyone’s culture by not allowing them full disclosure of their opinions of the nation. I wonder if the media is allowed to talk about things that the country needs to fix, or only things that are already positive.

Pg 450-1 – “As a result of the centralized mass media a relatively small number of musicians have had a large impact on the development of modern Malaysian music.”

~ So by centralizing a culture it can spread better to others. So the more decentralized it is the fewer who will be in it and the more varied the aspects of that culture will be, in turn leading to a greater variety in personal identity.

Pg 451 – ‘However, there has been some success in reaching the goal of establishing a national identity through music, especially among the current generation of school children who do seem to have a more unified or shared musical identity than their parents’ generation.”

~ So making a culture takes time. I think this goes back to the idea of personal history. The parents do not have the personal history that leads them to think of music in a certain way. This way is hard to change once you reach a certain stage (could possibly be another developmental stage). But in young people change is much more prevalent so they are more willing to change their personal history and identity in order to conform with that which is being shown to them (earlier developmental stage?).

Chopyak, J. D. (1987). The role of music in mass media, public education and the formation of a Malaysian national culture. Ethnomusicology, 31(3). Retrieved November 9, 2008, from JSTOR database.