SOAS Research Online

Abstract

Music and culture were key ways through which the Soviet Union maintained control in twentieth century central Asia. Over time, the proliferation of foreign music through the audio cassette market eventually developed into online music streaming and Westemised forms of local popular music, though official state attitudes remained wary of their effects on national identity and traditional values. This wariness persists today, but is increasingly challenged by younger generations participating in the global digital economy, drawing influence from Wes tern culture via the internet. This paper focuses on Uzbekistan and Tajikistan to better understand the role that electronic music, namely hip-hop and electronic dance music (EDM), plays in challenging the status quo. It discusses the recent festivals Stihia, near the Aral Sea, and the World Through Student Eyes, in Tashkent, as examples of a burgeoning Pancentral Asian youth identity. Electronic music embodies this changing identity in central Asia, spurred by economic growth, tourism, and the global music business. Against the scrim of conflicting generational views on identity, central Asian youth is creating a breakout identity through electronic music that reconciles patriotism with individual creative expression. The result? A plurality of musical and cultural worlds with which to create one's own narrative.