
JAKARTA/KUALA LUMPUR -- Five young men stand in single file on a rickety stage. Behind them, a line of loud, screeching amplifiers transforms their anger into a hailstorm of pounding sonic bullets. Youths stand cheering below the stage, shaking their heads up and down and pumping their fists in the air, mesmerized by the relentless noise. This is not madness, but the powerful effect of subcultural liberation.