AbstractThe music acquisition and aesthetics of children in two Orang Asli villages, the Mah Meri of Kampung Sungai Bumbun, Carey Island, Selangor; and the Semai of Kampung Ulu Geroh, Gopeng has shifted from an oral tradition transmitted from ancestral lineages to institutionalized learning acquired from a teacher outside the Orang Asli cultural traditon. The interaction of Orang Asli children with friends from multicultural backgrounds, exposure to the mass media, and the evangelization of religious groups has also increasing dislocated Orang Asli children's music from a place-based and ethnic heritage to one "deterritorialized" space and time. These phenomena emerged due to the nation's hegemonic policies of assimilation, development and globalization since Independence in 1957. This article discusses the variable that influence and determine the music acquisition of Mah Meri and Semai children today. These variables include; issues of identity, worldviews and religion, tourism, locality, th.....