Records for the Indonesian market continued to be manufactured in either Dum Dum, India, from which the market was controlled by EMI, or in Singapore where a major factory had been established. Stylistically the 1930s was an era when the Kronjong was influenced by other musics that the 78rpm record helped expose. Contemporary vogues for Hawaiian guitar and Argentinian tango were warmly welcomed and soon made their influences felt. These new ingredients helped create a dance-band sound 11 popular in stylish nightspots while a sampler, more It identifiably Indonesian style based upon an expanded version of the 1920s sound continued to develop. Interestingly, though, the styles appear not to have split the market by appealing to separate groups of devotees.
Records issued at the time often feature both styles, on each side, by the same groups.
By 1935 the Indonesian market was being exposed to sound film musicals also. Within the seemingly innocuous framework of movies like Kronjong Holiday nationalist songwriters began to use the medium as a vehicle for a return to Indonesian values rather than the broad acceptance of western culture that had been the constant by- product of colonialism. As a result, the significance of the Kronjong began to alter also. The rise of Indonesian nationalism that started to gain ground in the 1930s both used the Kronjong as a vehicle and ensured that the style itself became more closely identified with the national spirit. Western values certainly proliferated.