This dissertation is an ethnography of the Burmese popular music scene, which is centered in Yangon, Burma. The author attended concerts, rehearsals, recording sessions and music classes to develop the data discussed in the dissertation. She conducted seventy-seven individual interviews with members of the industry, including singers, instrument players, composers, studio owners, producers, managers, radio station employees and censors. In Chapter 1, she describes a typical recording session and then explains how the people there typify the larger Burmese pop music scene in terms of their gender, religion, career path, and their relationships to their fans, each other, and their government. She argues that musicians' frequent contributions to humanitarian causes are relevant to the ongoing debate about the development of civil society in Burma today. In Chapter 2, she describes a typical live show. She analyzes the kind of music that Burmese pop musicians create and describes their theories about music, showing that, for them, preserving the Anglo-American pop tradition is usually more important than creating innovative musical works. In Chapter 3, she explains the Burmese approach to learning and rehearsing music, showing that musicians' beliefs about talent mediate their rehearsal practices. Chapter 4 explains that, in Burma, musical recordings are distributed both via legal channels and by pirates, who pose -- according to industry members -- a tremendous threat to the industry. The author outlines the music distribution network using sociologist Richard A. Peterson's production perspective as a framework for the analysis. She argues that one of Peterson's most important contributions to the scholarship on cultural industries should be re-examined in light of the Burmese case. Chapter 5 offers a detailed look at the relationship between Burmese pop musicians and the government censors. The author shows that musicians use a variety of strategies to assert agency in the midst of the constraints imposed by the censorship system. She argues that scholar James Scott's ideas about power relationships, developed in studies of rural farmers, apply also to famous and influential musicians in Burma.
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机译：本文是一本以缅甸仰光为中心的缅甸流行音乐人种志。作者参加了音乐会，彩排，录音会议和音乐课，以开发本文讨论的数据。她对行业内的成员进行了77次个人访谈，包括歌手，乐器演奏者，作曲家，工作室所有者，制片人，制作人，经理，广播电台员工和审查员。在第一章中，她描述了一个典型的录音会议，然后解释了那里的人们如何在性别，宗教信仰，职业道路以及与歌迷，彼此以及政府之间的关系方面代表更大的缅甸流行音乐。她认为，音乐家对人道主义事业的频繁贡献与当今有关缅甸民间社会发展的持续辩论有关。在第二章中，她描述了一个典型的现场表演。她分析了缅甸流行音乐家创作的音乐类型，并描述了他们关于音乐的理论，表明对他们而言，保存英美流行音乐传统通常比创作创新的音乐作品更为重要。在第3章中，她解释了缅甸人学习和排练音乐的方法，表明音乐家对才华的信念是他们进行排练的中介。第4章解释说，在缅甸，唱片是通过合法渠道和海盗发行的，据业内人士称，海盗对业界构成了巨大威胁。作者概述了使用社会学家Richard A. Peterson的生产观点作为分析框架的音乐发行网络。她认为，应根据缅甸案重新审查彼得森对文化产业奖学金的最重要贡献之一。第5章详细介绍了缅甸流行音乐家与政府检查员之间的关系。作者表明，在审查制度所施加的约束中，音乐家使用各种策略来主张代理权。她认为，詹姆斯·斯科特（James Scott）关于农村关系的研究是在对农民的研究中提出的，关于权力关系的思想也适用于缅甸著名的有影响力的音乐家。
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