for launching this special issue on Urban Melanesia and for their patience and guidance. More generally I am very grateful to my colleagues present in November 2014 at the Melanesian Research Seminar at the British Museum devoted to urban Vanuatu. Many of their comments were very helpful for the progress of my work on music and the city. My gratitude also goes to Marie Durand, Thomas Dick and Stéphanie Geneix-Rabault who very kindly read drafts of my paper that helped me in the writing of it. I would like to thank Deborah Pope for her English language corrections and patience.
Since the year 2000, Port-Vila, the capital of Vanuatu, has experienced considerable development in digital technologies. This has strongly influenced young people’s musical behaviour.The mobile phone market expanded rapidly with the arrival of the Digicel company, launched in June 2008. Statistics show that in 2009, more than 50 percent of the population had access to mobile telephony. The possibilities for digital storage have made the mobile phone an indispensable tool for young musicians.In August 2012 the country joined WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization). However, IP (intellectual property) law cannot be practically implemented, because no formal organization to enforce IP has been established by the Vanuatu Government. Musical exchanges are engrained in the archipelago’s traditional culture and, alongside the old circulation systems of musical knowledge, the Internet and mobile phones have created new networks for the circulation of musical culture.While copyright can be seen as important for the development of the local music industry, its implementation faces challenges, given that the circulation of local music occurs largely outside of the formal market system.
This article examines the principles governing the ownership and circulation of music in Melanesia. It demonstrates how musical practice is part of what connects people in kin-based, local, and regional systems of reciprocity, recognition, and social reproduction. The article outlines the principles that underlie these systems and shows how they are often starkly at odds with assumptions about value and transaction in capitalist, commodity-focused economies. The contrast is epitomized in the differences between connections forged under Melanesian political economy and those in western intellectual property law, specifically copyright. The article makes the case for understanding the value of contemporary as well as traditional forms of music in this frame, focusing on relationality and obligation in both rural and urban contexts.
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