Baleganjur is a traditional Balinese gamelan genre featuring drums, gongs, and cymbals, long used to accompany cremations and other rituals. This paper examines how Korean rhythms influence Balinese contemporary baleganjur composition. Putu Hiranmayena (2022) discussed the cross-cultural resonances of baleganjur with metal music, though scarce musical analysis has been conducted to explain how such aesthetic fusions operate. Additionally, there are other emerging cross-cultural influences in contemporary baleganjur, namely the presence of Korean samulnori rhythms in recent compositions by I Wayan Sudirana, I Wayan Diana, Dewa Gede Wijaya, and myself.

In this paper, I explain how this trend began and how it has developed through a generational approach. Focusing on baleganjur ngarap—a ceremonial cremation processions genre—I analyse works from the four composers and identify distinctive ways that these composers incorporate samulnori rhythms due to their different degrees of exposure to Korean music. To do so, I introduce four Balinese terms––nyuang, ngidih, nyemak, and nuduk––as emic categories for levels of rhythmic transmission.

Through McGraw’s (2013) adaptation of Sperber’s (1996) concept of an “epidemiology of representations,” I argue that these rhythmic ideas spread not only from formal study, but also through mediated processes of listening, imitating, repetition, and embodied practice. As these rhythmic ideas circulate, musical forms change and gradually lose their direct connection to original sources. The analysis shows how Korean rhythmic ideas have been transmitted, transformed, and localized into Balinese musical practice. Rather than threatening tradition, this process is crucial in supporting ongoing creativity in baleganjur.