This new book represents a major contribution on a number of fronts. Not only does MacLachlan present a wealth of rich description of the popular music scene in contemporary Burma, but she engages cultural theory, from Theodor Adorno to James Scott, framing her ethnographic evidence and challenging widely held assumptions about creativity, authenticity, censorship, and the role of music in people's lives. Scholarship on any aspect of music in Burma has been disproportionately sparse in comparison to the rest of Southeast Asia, and from this standpoint alone, MacLachlan's book is a valuable addition. With the explosive interest in popular music within the fields of ethnomusicology and cultural studies, her choice to focus wholly on this important dimension of musical life in Burma is especially welcome, as it has not garnered in-depth attention from other scholars. Drawing on thorough ethnographic work, primarily in Yangon, MacLachlan's sensitive writing contextualizes what are sometimes...

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