Negotiating identity and agency of female singers in the contemporary Toba Batak popular music industry
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.32734/ijcas.v10i2.25926Abstract
The contemporary Toba Batak popular music industry (2000–2025) is marked by a surge in the visibility of female singers in both public spheres and digital spaces. This phenomenon is particularly compelling as it operates under the hegemony of a patrilineal social structure deeply rooted in the Dalihan Na Tolu philosophy and the idealistic doctrine of Tiga H (Hamoraon, Hagabeon, Hasangapon). This scientific article aims to analyze in-depth how female singers articulate their agency and negotiate gender identity amidst the pull of music industry capitalism and strict customary social control. Utilizing a qualitative descriptive-analytical method with a case study approach, this research examines field data through the theoretical lenses of Simone de Beauvoir’s Existentialist Feminism, Howard S. Becker’s Sociology of Art, and Antonio Gramsci’s Cultural Hegemony. Primary data were obtained through in-depth interviews with female musicians, producers, and cultural experts in Medan, where A total of 17 singers were interviewed, divided into six groups. Among these groups, four are Batak trios, and one is a duo, A total of four producers were interviewed as research informants, while secondary data were gathered through content analysis of digital music videos and netnographic tracking of YouTube comment sections with total of 23 music videos were analyzed, comprising 19 works by female musicians and 4 by male musicians, the number of YouTube comments varied, with a total of 7,661 comments observed for analysis. The results indicate that digital spaces offer significant opportunities for disintermediation, thereby strengthening the financial agency (Hamoraon) of female musicians independently. Nevertheless, this agency is not absolute but rather manifests as a fluid negotiation. Toba Batak female singers consciously adopt and reproduce a modest domestic image (immanence) as both a commercial strategy and a cultural shield to win the critical reception of the audience, evade customary resistance, and maintain their professional autonomy in the public sphere (transcendence).
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