People in much of the world are struggling to balance the seemingly conflicting developments in technology and globalization with traditional cultural values and religious fundamentalism.Malaysia is a rapidly developing, technologically sophisticated Muslim country that has been at the forefront of many of these issues that affect so much of the world’s population. This paper examines the impact that recent societal changes have had on music in Malaysian society by profiling recent developments in music in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia's largest city. One of the results is that Malaysia's two most recent prime ministers have both promoted what they refer to as a form of moderate and progressive Islam. What are the musical implications of this? This paper is based on observations made during several trips in the past years, and compares these findings with the Malaysian music scene of the1970s and 1980s.