From Modern Rock to Postmodern Hard Rock: Cambodian Alternative Music Voices

Music is the most abstract of all art forms . It is al so a flexible art form subject to many influences and appropriation of different artists , genres, and cultures . Yet when it comes to Cambodian music-espe cially contemporary genres-one theme predominates for the audience: authentic music. Some commentators remark that contemporary Cambodian music consists merely of appropriation of foreign music, in contrast to the prewar musicians who performed an authentic musical repertoire. But as Butt argues, by definition music has no borders and is pluralistic in sound: "Music ceases to be that hermetically-sealed object existing apart from our everyday concerns , and becomes instead a l ine, an infinitely-expanding polyphony of cultural practice" (Butt 2006, 1 1 ) . We will not linger on defining the concept of authenticity or even at tempt to attach it to any form of nationalism. Music that Cambodian artists have crafted and are still crafting reflects plurali stic practices ex tending beyond national territories . In Cambodia, the performing arts, particularly music, are important forms of sociocultural discourse. In the ethnomusicological tradition of Cambodia, there are many accounts of the people ' s joy, despair, and he roic action glorified by storytellers and expressed through traditional per formance genres . Musical performance in Cambodia serves not only to accompany religious rituals and convey cultural messages, but also to convey the political message of each regime and each generation' s self expression. Before rock and roll came to Cambodia, there was already a strong musical presence and l ively popular music scene. Popular music emerged from the Mohori ensemble because this is the only ensemble that does not have a religious function or serve to accompany another art form (Sam Ang-Sam, interview, 2009) . Popular music was created specifically for entertainment by mixing the traditional music of the Mohori with new melodies and rhythms. Already a popular musical form, Mohori ex panded its repertoire and genres to reach a wider and younger audience in the city and countryside alike. Rural people called the new form "jazz" or "stepping music" after the proml11ence of drums (Keo 2004, 96) .