Running in Circles: Performing Values in the Bandung ‘Do It Yourself’ Hardcore Scene

Abstract

The city of Bandung, Indonesia is home to a significant hardcore punk scene; within this scene, a small community strives to uphold anti-commercial ‘Do It Yourself’ (DIY) principles, organising independent hardcore shows ‘by the kids, for the kids’. Inspired by global DIY hardcore practices, but grounded in the local scene, these shows are organised and experienced as displays of community solidarity and autonomy from the capitalist market. In this paper, I argue that the DIY values of autonomy (kemandirian) and community (komunitas) are expressed and realised through the intersubjective relationships established through the organisation and performance of hardcore music. DIY hardcore performances are collectively organised and participatory events that explicitly challenge the divide between performer and audience. Their values of autonomy and community are symbolised by the circle pit, a form of punk dancing that expresses both social cohesion and playful disorder. In seeking to establish such a synthesis, DIY hardcore performances reflect the anti-capitalist politics of the ‘DIY kids’ (anak DIY) and their desires for another way of life. Rather than simply gesturing towards such a social alternative, the DIY show demonstrates that musical performance is an intersubjective act of social creativity, producing new forms of value and new models for social organisation. At the same time, the social creativity of DIY hardcore is limited by its aestheticisation as a set of performance styles that remain entangled in the contradictions of the commodity form.

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