Popular Music as Local Culture: An Ethnographic Study of the AlbumMatha Wa!by the Band Paramana Strangers from Papua New Guinea

Abstract

This paper explores the capacity for commercially recorded popular music to sustain local culture by presenting the ways in which recordings by the band Paramana Strangers from Papua New Guinea are imbued with meanings that are understood locally as having roots in traditional culture. I present examples in the form of song texts from the album Matha Wa! (1981) to demonstrate how traditional metaphors and cultural practices surrounding music composition are sustained through popular song traditions. I focus my analysis on what the song composers deem important, and explore ways that recordings are utilized to sustain culture, not only as ‘documentations’ of culture, but also through the practices of music making and sharing. By doing so, indigenous ways of knowing and imparting knowledge are given priority, providing local perceptions about traditional culture and its sustainability.

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