The global category of world music has long centered creative works that carry distinct, place-specific sonic identities tied to the regions that shape them, and Indonesia’s contributions to this expansive field have positioned the country’s output as a core pillar of what the genre seeks to capture and share across cultural boundaries. Long before world music became a widely used categorization for recorded sound, Indonesian creators were sharing their work across regional borders, trading sonic ideas with neighboring communities and building a body of work that was both distinctly rooted in local cultural practices and open to the cross-cultural exchange that shapes all creative fields.