ARTICLE INTERNATIONAL journal of CULTURAL studies Copyright © 2002 SAGE Publications London, Thousand Oaks, CA and New Delhi Volume 5(2): 281–305 [1367-8779(200206)5:2; 281–305; 023569] Creating a scene: Balinese punk’s beginnings ● Emma Baulch Monash University, Australia ABSTRACT ● The promotion of alternative music by deregulated television and recording industries, together with the increasingly felt presence of the metropolis, converged on Balinese cultural and physical landscapes in the 1990s. Mirroring developments in broader society, a regionalist discourse, which polarized notions of ‘centre’ and ‘periphery’, emerged among Balinese youth in the context of the local band scene. For certain musicians, musical authenticity was firmly rooted in a cultural and geographical locale, and was articulated by their abhorrence for socializing at shopping malls. In contrast, these Balinese alternative musicians sought authenticity in a metropolitan elsewhere. This article is a case study of the indigenization of a ‘global’ code in a non-western periphery. It contests arguments for the ‘post-imperial’ nature of globalization, and demonstrates the continued salience of centre-periphery dialectics in local discourses. At the same time, the study attests to the progressive role a metropolitan superculture can play in cultural renewal in the periphery. ● KEYWORDS ● ‘alternapunk’ ● authenticity ● Bali ● globalization ● identity politics ● metropolis ● regionalist discourse ● shopping malls ● social spatialization ● subculture ● youth Introduction In 1993, riots took place when US thrash band Metallica performed in Jakarta. The dominant analysis reported in the Indonesian media was that