Abstract
This chapter explores narratives of young Indonesian musicians who are working to achieve upward progression in their field of music at the same time as they seek to remain connected to place. Using participant observation and interview data, this chapter explores narratives of young Indonesian musicians keeping the balance between a sense of local belonging and building upward career mobility. The narratives of young Indonesian musicians in this study demonstrate that embeddedness within family and local community, the ability to contribute to society, the maintenance of musical idealism and feeling at home are considered important to aspects to becoming a successful musician. In contrast to the dominant perspective of youth studies which is largely metro-centric focused, for the young musicians in this study, to achieve career progress is not only a matter of recognition, fame, and financial gain. Belonging to place and to the people that matter to them also remains important. For young musicians living in Indonesia, the ultimate meaning of ‘home’ is a space where they can make sense of what happens in everyday life, make sense of their career, and also predict a relatively clear vision of the future.
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Notes
- 1.
Based on my previous research on young Indonesian musicians, being successful is manifested on how they keep the balance between domain of transition and culture. In the transition domain, being successful is still heavily defined in conventional ways such as being able to earn regular income, to get married and to own a house. On the other hand, in the domain of culture, being successful musicians is a matter of achieving recognition, fame, and financial gain. See Sutopo, Nilan, et al. (2017).
- 2.
- 3.
Originally, this research was part of my PhD fieldwork that took place in three different cities in Indonesia: Yogyakarta, Jakarta and Bali. However, for the purpose of this article and based on the empirical data gathered, Yogyakarta was selected because it represents the complex relationship between youth, upward career mobility and feeling at home.
- 4.
The research participants in my research have been given pseudonyms.
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Sutopo, O.R. (2019). Young Indonesian Musicians, Upward Career Mobility and Feeling at Home. In: Habib, S., Ward, M.R.M. (eds) Identities, Youth and Belonging. Studies in Childhood and Youth. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-96113-2_3
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