Patriotic music provides a means for social cohesion, not via the propagation of dogmatic patriotic content, but through the personal and intimate associations that such songs solicit from individual citizens. The study finds that unlike initially hypothesised, patriotic songs-instead of commercial popular songs-were actually more popular and wide-reaching in appeal across different professions, ethnicities, religions and geographic locations of Malaysians. Despite the significant amount of research on Malaysian popular music from the 1980s until present-day, there has yet to be a study that considers the responses and attitudes of Malaysian citizens, as music listeners and consumers, toward popular Malaysian patriotic songs.

It also sought to determine whether specific popular and patriotic songs, made and circulated within Malaysia from the 1960s to 2000s, could solicit a wide appeal and foster a sense of collective Malaysian identity amongst the informants.

The study interviewed informants about their everyday experiences and preferences in consuming popular music. In a recent study by researchers at the Institute of Ethnic Studies (KITA), several focus group discussions (FGD) were conducted in Kuching, Kota Kinabalu and the Klang Valley. Many other popular songs, however, contribute to Malaysia's national identity and they are mutually appreciated across the country regardless of individual differences in ethnicity, class or religion. These songs are mostly commissioned by the government for specific campaigns and are thus, authority-defined in their selection and dissemination. These songs are popular and accepted by Malaysian citizens as a part of their national identity and such affinities are supported by the songs' repeated broadcast and consumption on national radio, television and social media platforms. Music in the form of the national anthem and patriotic songs were and remain essential components of these totems mobilised by the state to foster a sense of national cohesion and collective identity. Upon its independence in 1957, Malaysia was in the process of becoming a modern nation and therefore required 'modern totems' to bind its society together under the imagined nation-of-intent intended by the government of the day.

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