Ferra Mero’s Reviews > Dangdut Stories: A Social and Musical History of Indonesia's Most Popular Music > Status Update

“The mechanism of pleasure tempering people’s pain does not adequately explain the types of meanings that emerged in the songs of this era. Dangdut opened up interpretive possibilities rather than neatly closing them off. Dangdut did not provide answers to problems. Rather, it pushed the limits of what was allowable in order to expose an excess of possibilities.”