From Home-Studios to Mobile Phones
Recent Trends in Popular Music Recording and Sharing in Papua New Guinea
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/jwpm.36114Keywords:
popular music, Papua New Guinea, recording, online music, mobile phone, laptopAbstract
This article explores changes in home-based recording contexts in Papua New Guinea to highlight the ways that digital recording and communication technologies become embedded in localized social practices. It seeks to contribute to the emerging discourse in ethnomusicology about new technologies, local agency and cultural diversity. The research is informed by ethnography undertaken with urban music producers, and explores the impact of mobile phonebased music sharing, as well as the dissemination of music through social media. The article problematizes notions of homogenization in the context of indigenous music recording practices, and contributes to an emerging discourse on musical cultures in the Pacific that positions local popular music as a constituent part of local social relations. I conclude by considering how technological disruptions represent new possibilities for understanding the ways that cultures embed technologies in the context of music recording and production.
References
Appadurai, Arjun. 1996. Modernity at Large: Cultural Dimensions of Globalization. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Bruett, Tillman and Janine Firpo. 2009. Building a Mobile Money Distribution Network in Papua New Guinea. Pacific Financial Inclusion Programme. International Finance Corporation.
Cole, Steven James. 2011. “The Prosumer and the Project Studio: The Battle for Distinction in the Field of Music Recording”. Sociology 45/3: 447–63. https://doi.org/10.1177/0038038511399627
Crowdy, Denis. 2006a. “From Black Magic Woman to Black Magic Men: The Music of Sanguma”. PhD dissertation. Sydney: Macquarie University.
—2006b. “Tribute without Attribution: Kopikat, Covers and Copyright in Papua New Guinea”. In Access All Eras: Tribute Bands and Global Pop Culture, edited by Shane Homan, 129–39. Berkshire: Open University Press.
—2010. “Live Music and Living as a Musician in Moresby”. In Villagers and the City: Melanesian Experiences of Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, edited by Michael Goddard, 137–57. Wantage, UK: Sean Kingston.
—2015. “When Digital is Physical and Ethnomusicologists are File Sharers”. Journal of World Popular Music 2/1: 61–77. https://doi.org/10.1558/jwpm.v2i1.27171
Crowdy, Denis, and Steven Feld. 2002. “Papua New Guinean Music and the Politics of Sound Recording”. Perfect Beat 4/4: 78–85.
Crowdy, Denis, and Philip Hayward. 1999. “From the Ashes: A Case Study of the Re-development of Local Music Recording in Rabaul (Papua New Guinea) Following the 1994 Volcanic Eruptions”. Convergence 5/3: 67–82. https://doi.org/10.1177/135485659900500306
Crowdy, Denis, and Frederick Lau. 2016. Hearing the Future: The Music and Magic of the Sanguma Band. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press. https://doi.org/10.21313/hawaii/9780824851569.001.0001
Diamond, Beverley. 2017. “Mixing it up: A Comparative Approach to Sámi Audio Production”. In Music, Indigeneity, Digital Media, edited by Thomas R. Hilder, Henry Stobart and Shzr Ee Tan, 106–26. Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press.
Diettrich, Brian. 2016. “Virtual Micronesia: Performance and Participation in a Pacific Facebook Community”. Perfect Beat 17/1: 52–70. https://doi.org/10.1558/prbt.v17i1.28841
Diettrich, Brian, Jane Freeman Moulin and Michael Webb. 2011. Music in Pacific Island Cultures: Experiencing Music, Expressing Culture. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Facebook. 2018. “WhatsApp Latest PNG Music”. https://www.facebook.com/groups/109874409150750/ (accessed 18 January 2018).
Feld, Steven. 1988. “Aesthetics as Iconicity of Style, or ‘Lift-up-over Sounding’: Getting into the Kaluli Groove”. Yearbook for Traditional Music 20: 74–113. https://doi.org/10.2307/768167
Goddard, Michael. 2005. The Unseen City: Anthropological Perspectives on Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea. Canberra: Pandanus Books.
Gregory, Chris A. 1980. “Gifts to Men and Gifts to God: Gift Exchange and Capital Accumulation in Contemporary Papua”. Man 15/4: 626–52. https://doi.org/10.2307/2801537
Hilder, Thomas R., Henry Stobart and Shzr Ee Tan. 2017. Music, Indigeneity, Digital Media. Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press.
Huang, Chun-Yao. 2005. “File Sharing as a Form of Music Consumption”. International Journal of Electronic Commerce 9/4: 37–55. https://doi.org/10.1080/10864415.2003.11044343
Ihde, Don. 1990. Technology and the Lifeworld: From Garden to Earth. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Leyshon, Andrew. 2009. “The Software Slump? Digital Music, the Democratisation of Technology, and the Decline of the Recording Studio Sector within the Musical Economy”. Environment and Planning A 41/6: 1309–31. https://doi.org/10.1068/a40352
Malinowski, Bronislaw. 2002. Argonauts of the Western Pacific: An Account of Native Enterprise and Adventure in the Archipelagoes of Melanesian New Guinea. New York: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203421260
Moulin, Jane Freeman. 1996. “What’s Mine is Yours? Cultural Borrowing in a Pacific Context”. The Contemporary Pacific 8/1: 128–53.
Niles, Don. 1998. “Questions of Music Copyright in Papua New Guinea”. In Sound Alliances, edited by Philip Hayward, 58–62. London: Cassel. https://doi.org/10.1558/prbt.v2i4.28772
Philpott, Malcolm. 1998. “Developments in Papua New Guinea’s Popular Music Industry”. In Sound Alliances, edited by Philip Hayward, 107–22. London: Cassell.
Sillitoe, Paul. 2000. Social Change in Melanesia: Development and History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Stern, Monika. 2014. “‘Mi wantem musik blong mi hemi blong evriwan’ [“I want my music to be for everyone”]: Digital Developments, Copyright and Music Circulation in Port Vila, Vanuatu”. First Monday 19/10. https://doi.org/10.5210/fm.v19i10.5551
Strathern, Marilyn. 1988. The Gender of the Gift: Problems with Women and Problems with Society in Melanesia. Berkeley: University of California Press. https://doi.org/10.1525/california/9780520064232.001.0001
Suwamaru, Joseph Kim. 2015. “Aspects of Mobile Phone Usage in Papua New Guinea: A Socio-Economic Perspective”. Contemporary PNG Studies: DWU Research Journal 22: 1–16.
Suwamaru, Joseph Kim, and Peter K. Anderson. 2012. “Closing the Digital Divide in Papua New Guinea: A Proposal for a National Telecommunications Model”. Contemporary PNG Studies 17/1: 1–15.
Telban, Borut, and Daniela Vávrová. 2014. “Ringing the Living and the Dead: Mobile Phones in a Sepik Society”. Australian Journal of Anthropology 25/2: 223–38. https://doi.org/10.1111/taja.12090
Théberge, Paul. 1997. Any Sound You Can Imagine: Making Music/Consuming Technology. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press.
Webb, Michael. 1993. Lokal Musik: Lingua Franca Song and Identity in Papua New Guinea, edited by Don Niles. Boroko. Port Moresby: Cultural Studies Division, National Research Institute.
—1995a. “‘Pipal bilong tru’ / ‘A Truly Musical People’”. PhD thesis in Ethnomusicology, Wesleyan University.
—1995b. “Sources, Ownership of Songs and Approaches to Composition in Recent Commercial Music from Rabaul”. New Guinea Ethnomusicology Conference Proceedings.
—1997. “A Long Way from Tipperary: Performance Culture in Early Colonial Rabaul, New Guinea, and the Genesis of a Melanesian Popular Music Scene”. Perfect Beat 3/2: 32–61. https://doi.org/10.1558/prbt.v3i2.28758
Webb, Michael, and Don Niles. 1987. “Periods in Papua New Guinea Music History”. Bikmaus 7/1: 50–62.
WhatsApp. 2017. “About WhatsApp”. https://www.whatsapp.com/about/ (accessed 18 January 2018).
Wilson, Oli. 2012. “Ples and the Production of Lokal Music in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea”. PhD dissertation. Otago University.
—2014a. “Ples and Popular Music Production: A Typology of Home-based Recording Studios in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea”. Ethnomusicology Forum 23/3: 425–44. https://doi.org/10.1080/17411912.2014.975142
—2014b. “Selling Lokal Music: A Comparison of the Content and Promotion of Two Locally Recorded and Released Albums in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea”. World of Popular Music 1/1: 51–72.
—2018. “Perspectives on Music Sharing via Mobile Phones in Papua New Guinea”. In Mobile Story Making, edited by Max Schleser and Marsha Berry, 65–73. Cham: Palgrave.
Bruett, Tillman and Janine Firpo. 2009. Building a Mobile Money Distribution Network in Papua New Guinea. Pacific Financial Inclusion Programme. International Finance Corporation.
Cole, Steven James. 2011. “The Prosumer and the Project Studio: The Battle for Distinction in the Field of Music Recording”. Sociology 45/3: 447–63. https://doi.org/10.1177/0038038511399627
Crowdy, Denis. 2006a. “From Black Magic Woman to Black Magic Men: The Music of Sanguma”. PhD dissertation. Sydney: Macquarie University.
—2006b. “Tribute without Attribution: Kopikat, Covers and Copyright in Papua New Guinea”. In Access All Eras: Tribute Bands and Global Pop Culture, edited by Shane Homan, 129–39. Berkshire: Open University Press.
—2010. “Live Music and Living as a Musician in Moresby”. In Villagers and the City: Melanesian Experiences of Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, edited by Michael Goddard, 137–57. Wantage, UK: Sean Kingston.
—2015. “When Digital is Physical and Ethnomusicologists are File Sharers”. Journal of World Popular Music 2/1: 61–77. https://doi.org/10.1558/jwpm.v2i1.27171
Crowdy, Denis, and Steven Feld. 2002. “Papua New Guinean Music and the Politics of Sound Recording”. Perfect Beat 4/4: 78–85.
Crowdy, Denis, and Philip Hayward. 1999. “From the Ashes: A Case Study of the Re-development of Local Music Recording in Rabaul (Papua New Guinea) Following the 1994 Volcanic Eruptions”. Convergence 5/3: 67–82. https://doi.org/10.1177/135485659900500306
Crowdy, Denis, and Frederick Lau. 2016. Hearing the Future: The Music and Magic of the Sanguma Band. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press. https://doi.org/10.21313/hawaii/9780824851569.001.0001
Diamond, Beverley. 2017. “Mixing it up: A Comparative Approach to Sámi Audio Production”. In Music, Indigeneity, Digital Media, edited by Thomas R. Hilder, Henry Stobart and Shzr Ee Tan, 106–26. Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press.
Diettrich, Brian. 2016. “Virtual Micronesia: Performance and Participation in a Pacific Facebook Community”. Perfect Beat 17/1: 52–70. https://doi.org/10.1558/prbt.v17i1.28841
Diettrich, Brian, Jane Freeman Moulin and Michael Webb. 2011. Music in Pacific Island Cultures: Experiencing Music, Expressing Culture. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Facebook. 2018. “WhatsApp Latest PNG Music”. https://www.facebook.com/groups/109874409150750/ (accessed 18 January 2018).
Feld, Steven. 1988. “Aesthetics as Iconicity of Style, or ‘Lift-up-over Sounding’: Getting into the Kaluli Groove”. Yearbook for Traditional Music 20: 74–113. https://doi.org/10.2307/768167
Goddard, Michael. 2005. The Unseen City: Anthropological Perspectives on Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea. Canberra: Pandanus Books.
Gregory, Chris A. 1980. “Gifts to Men and Gifts to God: Gift Exchange and Capital Accumulation in Contemporary Papua”. Man 15/4: 626–52. https://doi.org/10.2307/2801537
Hilder, Thomas R., Henry Stobart and Shzr Ee Tan. 2017. Music, Indigeneity, Digital Media. Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press.
Huang, Chun-Yao. 2005. “File Sharing as a Form of Music Consumption”. International Journal of Electronic Commerce 9/4: 37–55. https://doi.org/10.1080/10864415.2003.11044343
Ihde, Don. 1990. Technology and the Lifeworld: From Garden to Earth. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Leyshon, Andrew. 2009. “The Software Slump? Digital Music, the Democratisation of Technology, and the Decline of the Recording Studio Sector within the Musical Economy”. Environment and Planning A 41/6: 1309–31. https://doi.org/10.1068/a40352
Malinowski, Bronislaw. 2002. Argonauts of the Western Pacific: An Account of Native Enterprise and Adventure in the Archipelagoes of Melanesian New Guinea. New York: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203421260
Moulin, Jane Freeman. 1996. “What’s Mine is Yours? Cultural Borrowing in a Pacific Context”. The Contemporary Pacific 8/1: 128–53.
Niles, Don. 1998. “Questions of Music Copyright in Papua New Guinea”. In Sound Alliances, edited by Philip Hayward, 58–62. London: Cassel. https://doi.org/10.1558/prbt.v2i4.28772
Philpott, Malcolm. 1998. “Developments in Papua New Guinea’s Popular Music Industry”. In Sound Alliances, edited by Philip Hayward, 107–22. London: Cassell.
Sillitoe, Paul. 2000. Social Change in Melanesia: Development and History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Stern, Monika. 2014. “‘Mi wantem musik blong mi hemi blong evriwan’ [“I want my music to be for everyone”]: Digital Developments, Copyright and Music Circulation in Port Vila, Vanuatu”. First Monday 19/10. https://doi.org/10.5210/fm.v19i10.5551
Strathern, Marilyn. 1988. The Gender of the Gift: Problems with Women and Problems with Society in Melanesia. Berkeley: University of California Press. https://doi.org/10.1525/california/9780520064232.001.0001
Suwamaru, Joseph Kim. 2015. “Aspects of Mobile Phone Usage in Papua New Guinea: A Socio-Economic Perspective”. Contemporary PNG Studies: DWU Research Journal 22: 1–16.
Suwamaru, Joseph Kim, and Peter K. Anderson. 2012. “Closing the Digital Divide in Papua New Guinea: A Proposal for a National Telecommunications Model”. Contemporary PNG Studies 17/1: 1–15.
Telban, Borut, and Daniela Vávrová. 2014. “Ringing the Living and the Dead: Mobile Phones in a Sepik Society”. Australian Journal of Anthropology 25/2: 223–38. https://doi.org/10.1111/taja.12090
Théberge, Paul. 1997. Any Sound You Can Imagine: Making Music/Consuming Technology. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press.
Webb, Michael. 1993. Lokal Musik: Lingua Franca Song and Identity in Papua New Guinea, edited by Don Niles. Boroko. Port Moresby: Cultural Studies Division, National Research Institute.
—1995a. “‘Pipal bilong tru’ / ‘A Truly Musical People’”. PhD thesis in Ethnomusicology, Wesleyan University.
—1995b. “Sources, Ownership of Songs and Approaches to Composition in Recent Commercial Music from Rabaul”. New Guinea Ethnomusicology Conference Proceedings.
—1997. “A Long Way from Tipperary: Performance Culture in Early Colonial Rabaul, New Guinea, and the Genesis of a Melanesian Popular Music Scene”. Perfect Beat 3/2: 32–61. https://doi.org/10.1558/prbt.v3i2.28758
Webb, Michael, and Don Niles. 1987. “Periods in Papua New Guinea Music History”. Bikmaus 7/1: 50–62.
WhatsApp. 2017. “About WhatsApp”. https://www.whatsapp.com/about/ (accessed 18 January 2018).
Wilson, Oli. 2012. “Ples and the Production of Lokal Music in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea”. PhD dissertation. Otago University.
—2014a. “Ples and Popular Music Production: A Typology of Home-based Recording Studios in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea”. Ethnomusicology Forum 23/3: 425–44. https://doi.org/10.1080/17411912.2014.975142
—2014b. “Selling Lokal Music: A Comparison of the Content and Promotion of Two Locally Recorded and Released Albums in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea”. World of Popular Music 1/1: 51–72.
—2018. “Perspectives on Music Sharing via Mobile Phones in Papua New Guinea”. In Mobile Story Making, edited by Max Schleser and Marsha Berry, 65–73. Cham: Palgrave.
Published
2019-12-23
Issue
Section
Articles
How to Cite
Wilson, O. (2019). From Home-Studios to Mobile Phones: Recent Trends in Popular Music Recording and Sharing in Papua New Guinea. Journal of World Popular Music, 6(2), 133-150. https://doi.org/10.1558/jwpm.36114
