On identity – contemporary music research in the Asia-Pacific region: introduction

Anthropology, as the study of human societies, has always been inclusive of music in some form or another, whether simply referencing a culture’s music through evocative book titles or delving in detail into musical forms and performances themselves. Music is acknowledged as a gateway to understanding a people’s experience*in particular song, which gives voice to human expression not always possible in everyday language. From another angle, music research has increasingly engaged with anthropology and this has occurred most notably in the development of the discipline of ethnomusicology, which grew from comparative musicology, and the publication of one of its key texts, Alan Merriam’s The Anthropology of Music(1964). This issue of The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology(TAPJA) contributes with a special focus on contemporary music research in the Asia Pacific region