The reason why Hoang Thuy Linh's name is constantly mentioned when her colleagues release new songs

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Sunday, April 30, 2023 19:23 (GMT+7)
19:23 4/30/2023

After 2 quality albums, Hoang Thuy Linh naturally became a standard for folk music combined with electronics for any artist who uses it later.

After changing her musical direction and having a series of big hits, Hoang Thuy Linh has increasingly reached her height and has a solid position in Vpop. That makes many artists want to have songs like De Mi noi cho ma nghe and See tinh for themselves.

On the other hand, the treasure trove of Vietnamese folklore and tradition is enormous for artists to exploit. When using these elements, artists can easily create sympathy and positive effects for the audience. They bring images and sounds that are close to the Vietnamese people instead of modern but distant European and American or Chinese, Japanese and Korean elements.

However, in the recent short period of time, Hoa Minzy, Duong Hoang Yen and Phuong My Chi have all received questions about being compared to Hoang Thuy Linh, and many audiences even think that they are imitating the owner of the hit See Tinh .

Artists are continuously compared with Hoang Thuy Linh

To be frank, do artists Hoa Minzy, Duong Hoang Yen and Phuong My Chi have anything in common with Hoang Thuy Linh? The answer is "yes". All three artists use sounds and images of Northern culture such as cheo, xam, and ca tru, similar to Hoang Thuy Linh.

Duong Hoang Yen and Phuong My Chi also collaborated with the DTAP group - a production team that Hoang Thuy Linh herself discovered and brought to the public. DTAP has been with her through a series of hits over the past 4 years. In particular, Duong Hoang Yen also brought the Northwest space into the MV Can Ca The Gioi - directly reminding of the super hit De Mi Noi Cho Ma Nghe - although the music does not have the typical sound of the Northwest.

When making music products for these artists, DTAP also retains many characteristics in the mixing aspect such as building an EDM structure, a rap part inserted right after the first drop... Although Hoa Minzy uses a different team, it still has the structure of EDM and does not go too far.

Hoang Thuy Linh has done that in 2 albums. However, the privileges of the material do not belong to Hoang Thuy Linh. In fact, every artist has the right to exploit, innovate and pursue their own musical path.

However, it is not possible to blame the audience when seeing similar sounds and images, they immediately think of the most successful person in this genre.

Products of Duong Hoang Yen, Hoa Minzy, and Phuong My Chi have similarities with Hoang Thuy Linh.

Another reason why some artists are considered to follow Hoang Thuy Linh's success is that they have not yet built a solid musical personality before. Hoang Thuy Linh, right from the time she entered the music scene more than 10 years ago, has affirmed her name and musical color associated with the dance pop genre through 2 albums Hoang Thuy Linh and Dung Hua Vang .

She is also one of the pioneering artists in making EDM music in Vietnam with a 3-song EP that received a lot of public attention at that time. Before exploding with De Mi noi cho ma nghe , Hoang Thuy Linh also explored the market with Banh troi nuoc , pursuing folk culture combined with electronics and achieving many successes.

Because of those contexts, plus the fact that she personally "unearthed" a production group that was almost completely new to the market, what Hoang Thuy Linh did was considered "unique" even though there were many artists who combined folk with modern sounds before.

In particular, Hoang Thuy Linh has persistently pursued that path in two consecutive albums. Therefore, it is understandable that this color is favored by the audience and closely associated with the name Hoang Thuy Linh.

The artists who came after, more or less, inherited the experimentation and pioneering spirit of Hoang Thuy Linh. Before that, in their discography, there was almost no music product with similar colors. They even used the production team of Hoang Thuy Linh to explore with similar musical materials, the uniqueness was somewhat lost.

On the other hand, the artists who came after Hoang Thuy Linh also did not create anything too new. Hoa Minzy retold the entire Quan Am Thi Kinh story in the spirit of the original, without bringing in many elements of the times, while Hoang Thuy Linh successfully changed the image of the character Mi 4 years ago.

Duong Hoang Yen's story of a girl who wants to be the supporter of her lover is quite basic and simple, without any special connection between tradition and modernity. Only Phuong My Chi has her own unique story, when she brings the multiverse element that is very popular into the seemingly familiar image of Tam.

What direction for artists to combine folk culture with modern music?

If you want to be different and not be compared to Hoang Thuy Linh, artists who combine folk music with modern elements should not look at Linh's achievements. Instead, look at the process by which she achieved that success. She built a solid enough music career with similar elements.

She boldly excavated a brand new production team that had never had a hit song on the market to make music for her. She has been persistent with this musical material for 6-7 years (from the time of Banh Troi Nuoc until now). She did not use the original literary images and old stories, but innovated, closely linking them with elements of the times.

Just looking at the results of the calculation "folk elements + modern music = success" is not enough. For artists who have only released 1-2 songs, comparisons are inevitable. If they have the perseverance to pursue for a long time and actively innovate themselves, find their own personal mark, they will naturally escape the shadow of their colleagues.

Phuong My Chi has her own story. Although her music is combined with DTAP, in essence, she has separated herself from Hoang Thuy Linh.

The artists who came after have not really separated themselves and have many new discoveries on the foundation that Hoang Thuy Linh has paved the way.

On the other hand, the treasure of Vietnamese folk culture is very large, not only the culture of the North or the Northwest. Modern elements are also numerous, not only electronic sounds or EDM structures. Artist Dzung has an album that uses all familiar folk melodies from the North to the South, but dressed in a very new and modern rock metal coat.

Artist Huong Thanh also combined jazz with songs with a strong Vietnamese folk melody. Quyen Thien Dac also used jazz and blended it with Bac Ninh quan ho very smoothly and harmoniously. Artist Tri Minh used Northwest culture and electronic sounds, but he directed the musical space to ambient, which was very strange and poetic.

The traditional folk treasure and its combination with modern music is clearly not one's own.

Zing News Entertainment introduces the book Vietnamese Folk Music: Echoes of a Hundred Years

The book is a vivid and comprehensive recreation of the folk music treasure, a priceless heritage of Vietnam, and also a great source of material for the later compositions of musician Pham Duy.

Overall, the Special Study on Vietnamese Folk Music is divided into two parts: Folk Music of Ethnic Minorities and Vietnamese Folk Music with feelings and images of musical instruments, musicality, and the influence of concepts and ideologies with distinct or similar characteristics depending on the environment and living conditions of each ethnic group.

Nam Tran

Hoang Thuy Linh Hoang Thuy Linh Duong Hoang Yen Phuong My Chi Hoa Minzy