Growing up, I listened to my parents play and sing various type of Vietnamese music. Their taste in music was and still is more traditional than my own. Their favorite types of music include folk and ballads. I find that these types of Vietnamese songs tend to be more poetic and symbolic than western music. Ballads often reference love stories using colorful imageries and metaphors to the natural world.
Traditionally, there are 3 main styles of Vietnamese music: The Hue style, the northern professional style, and the southern amateur style. The Hue style has an emphasis on solo pieces and is very traditional. This style of music is usually thought of as court music since it is typically used in ritualistic fashion or in fine art such as opera.
The northern professional style which is often accompanied by a lute is also traditional. However, unlike Hue the northern professional style of music is consider folksy. This kind of music is derived from ancient cultural practices that developed along the rivers of north Vietnam.
Lastly the southern amateur style which incorporates more western instruments such as violins and Hawaiian guitars is a mixture of the two other kinds of music. It attempts to take court music and give it folksier elements.
Vietnam also has its own traditional musical instruments. There are four groups of Vietnamese instruments: plucked strings, bowed strings, winds and percussion. Some of these instruments include the bamboo flute, Đàn đá (lithophone), Đàn tam thập lục (hammered dulcimer), and the k’ni (mouth violin) These instruments have long been attached to the /cultural and spiritual life of the Vietnamese. The k’ni is especially popular among many ethnic minority groups living in central Vietnam.
However, Vietnamese music is beginning to change. With the rising popularity of K-pop, Vietnamese pop music has started to change to imitate aspects of Korean entertainment. V-Pop like K-pop infuses parts of western pop music to tell stories. Music videos now present some type of “plot” and they can be quite colorful and creative.
One of my favorite V-Pop star is Sơn Tùng M-TP. Sơn Tùng M-TP is undeniably the biggest star in Vietnamese pop music today. In 2017, he became the first Vietnamese singer to reach one million YouTube subscribers. This achievement earned him the Gold Play Button – just one of his many awards. He is at the forefront of Vietnamese musicians who are blending styles from around the world to change the local music landscape, combining raw talent with style and entertainment value. He recently made headlines on international charts after a rather interesting collab with Snoop Dog.
However, I have also started to venture into lesser known artists such as Nguyễn Trần Trung Quân and Lê Trung Thành (ERIK). I am particularly interested in Nguyễn Trần Trung Quân mostly due to his rather controversial music videos’ creative concepts. Some of his pieces addressed topics such as transgender, sex reassignment, and same-sex relationship. In the conservative culture of Vietnam, controversial topics such as LGBTQ tend to be frowned upon, especially by the older generation, however, consider the success of Quân’s work, it is possible that the standard is slowly changing.
Below are links to the music videos on youtube. Please do check them out if you're interested.
Màu Nước Mắt - Nguyễn Trần Trung Quân | Official Music Video
TỰ TÂM - NGUYỄN TRẦN TRUNG QUÂN | OFFICIAL MV
Chúng Ta Không Thuộc Về Nhau | Official Music Video | Sơn Tùng M-TP
Comments
I checked out the music videos. Sơn Tùng's song that you linked here is very much like K-pop as you mentioned. I get what you said about Nguyễn Trần Trung Quân's music videos. The one you linked here was actually really interesting and cool! It's always nice to see artists addressing and raising awareness about controversial but necessary topics in their art.
Music is a great way of exposing oneself to a different culture. Each culture has their own differentiating styles and instruments, and that is very interesting that Vietnamese music contains mainly three groups. It is also interesting how you mention that there is V-Pop using western styles. I wonder how else the Vietnamese music will morph and change over time.