Lady Gaga was banned but Death Metal is cool - from the streets and clubs of Jakarta, we hear the contradictions that make up the burgeoning Indonesian music scene.

As many young Indonesians have more cash in their pockets, music promoters are seeing the country as a new opportunity for high profile pop tours. Artists such as Beyoncé and Rihanna have been booked to play in Jakarta, albeit modestly dressed.

But there have been frictions. The world took notice when Lady Gaga's recent show in Jakarta was cancelled - local authorities sat on the fence as conservative Islamic groups called her the "devil's messenger." It seemed that despite Jakarta's reputation as the "city of sin" (an unlikely reputation for the capital city of the most populous muslim country in the world) things were changing.

Then American death metal band Cannibal Corpse, banned from performing in some countries because of their graphic songs about mutilation and necrophilia, was approved to play in Jakarta. This is one of the contradictions in Indonesian pop - discovering that heavy metal is on the rise amongst young radical muslims.

This documentary looks at these opposing forces and how the music scene is taking shape in this influential city.

Maria Bakkalapulo talks to the group Tengkorak, a self-styled Islamic metal band sympathetic to FPI, the Islamic Defenders Front, a hard-line Islamic group in Indonesia notorious for vandalising nightclubs and even breaking up concert gigs. Tengkorak & FPI were integral in pushing Lady Gaga's show cancellation in Jakarta.

So, muslims approve of death metal while rejecting Lady Gaga? I always suspected they were way more metal than the christians.

...the presenter said "I love to shock and I love to be shocked but when I saw some of the song titles of that Cannibal Corpse band I felt ill".

Not a double standard at all. Good on Indonesia for being intelligent enough to know that Cannibal Corpse don't actually promote the violent acts in their lyrics! Whereas when it comes to the skank-pop genre, many artists do practice what they preach and encourage fans to do the same.

Not to say that banning things is something i support, just that the government's policy isn't a logical inconsistency. Even if it's incorrect by Western judgments.

Because if she's preaching tolerance then isn't that a better message than any preached by the seemingly laodicean or downright apolitical Cannibal Corpse?

There is absolutely nothing contradictory about this at all.

Lady GaGa promotes and supports Tolerance, Individualism, Homosexuality and Feminism. All things that are still rejected in most eastern countries because of their ridiculous conception of the world.

Lady GaGa promotes and supports Tolerance, Individualism, Homosexuality and Feminism.

she's more metal than anybody here

If by individualism, you mean being a regular, modern party girl who is one of the biggest pop stars in the world, but wears silly avant-garde fashion to pretend to be "misunderstood" or "counter-culture," sure.

If by feminism, you mean wearing a thong and see-through plastic bra while sitting in a birthday cake and singing about getting drunk in the club and riding the "disco stick," sure. What an inspirational figure in the feminist movement! I now totally accept women as intellectual, non sex objects.

Someone obviously isn't able to catch the ironic reflection of society she throws right into your face with her lyrics and imagery. But I would not expect any different from a casual "metalhead" who's rejecting anything that has the "pop"-label for superficial reasons.

Someone obviously isn't able to catch the ironic reflection of society she throws right into your face with her lyrics and imagery. But I would not expect any different from a casual "metalhead" who's rejecting anything that has the "pop"-label for superficial reasons.

Agreed. Anyone who has actually listened to Lady Gaga would not say something like that, unless they were listening with the intent to nitpick. In fact, I'd say her songwriting for Born This Way is way more inspired and well-thought-out than Torture or Evisceration Plague.

By the way,I probably own more first-press tapes than you do CDs, so you can jump right off the metal high-horse this instant, it's not going to win you an argument or make you seem intelligent, or get any point across(other than you being unable to make a statement without forcing in some unrelated insults).