Made in Vietnam by DTAP Production Group: Vietnam in a Different Way

Representatives of DTAP receive congratulations and encouragement from Ms. Nguyen Pham Duy Trang, Secretary of the Central Committee of the Youth Union and President of the Central Council of the Young Pioneers, upon the launch of their album "Made in Vietnam" on August 19th - Photo: LE GIANG

From Thanh Hoa, a famous singer during the war, to Hong Nhung - an icon of the 1990s, and then My Tam - the biggest star of the 2000s.

From "national" rapper Den Vau to one-time "hip hop queen" Suboi...

To be able to gather dozens of people like that for a single musical project, something that in previous generations only great musicians could do, shows that this is the era of young musicians.

The voice is theirs, the "power" is theirs. But what will they do with all the materials and resources at their disposal?

MV Made in Vietnam - DTAP, People's Artist Thanh Hoa, Truc Nhan and Phuong My Chi

Hello Vietnam

Of course, that title will also remind us of Made in Vietnam by My Linh from more than 20 years ago, an album in which Vietnameseness was expressed not through the theme, not through the content, but through a Vietnamese singer mastering a music genre of international origin, R&B, which was quite new in the country at that time. So how will Made in Vietnam of the younger generation tell about Vietnam?

The album's opening line, "Hello Vietnam," features the calls of vendors selling banh chung and banh gio (traditional Vietnamese rice cakes) in the North and banh giay (another type of Vietnamese rice cake) for 1,000 dong each in the South, set against a backdrop of zither and flute music blended with electronic sounds.

The choices are not too new, because many Gen Z musicians have already incorporated the sounds of daily life and the sounds that are common memories of the city into their compositions, but that choice immediately sets the atmosphere of the following songs: a Vietnam that is both old and new, a Vietnam that is both familiar as on tourist postcards and also a Vietnam with a lot of contemporary energy.

"Made in Vietnam ," an album about Vietnam, yet titled in English—that detail alone is enough to make one wonder: How will Vietnam be portrayed in this album? Or rather, what does Vietnam mean to those music-making students of the late 1990s, the near-Generation Z?

There are many currents in Made in Vietnam : the current of heroism through songs like Nam quoc son ha or Mau do da vang, the current of lyricism through Mua gio bong tren roof or Nha toi co hang mot con co, the current of rusticity and joy like playing a game like Ho truong minh and Bai ca tom ca.

But overall, the images of the country in these songs are clear and vivid, with large but simple splashes of color, reminiscent of the propaganda posters that became a unique part of Vietnam's aesthetics for a long time.

An image from Made in Vietnam

It seems they are becoming more international?

Compared to previous products inspired by Vietnamese literature that DTAP had created with Hoang Thuy Linh or Phuong My Chi, the new album sometimes shows a slight limitation in terms of language.

Lacking classic literary works to provide consistent inspiration, the musicians occasionally fall into the trap of portraying Vietnam in a rather general and unpersonal way.

That's also why the songs featuring rappers, who rarely restrain their egos, are the standout tracks of this album, like Nam quoc son ha, with the opening part being a lullaby and the recitation of a seven-word quatrain poem from the Tien Le period, followed by Phao's always intelligent, strong-personality, even witty rap.

Questions are often raised about the identity of contemporary creatives: are they becoming increasingly internationalized? Are they becoming less Vietnamese? Are their cultures and languages becoming more diverse?

Perhaps DTAP's album is an answer to those doubts: it's true that they're still internationalizing, they still play EDM, they still include English in album titles, but in reality, they're still very Vietnamese, just in a different way.

Tuoitre.vn

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/made-in-vietnam-cua-nhom-san-xuat-dtap-viet-nam-theo-mot-cach-khac-20250824091959804.htm#content-2