Vietnamese music continues to seek out the 'treasure trove' of literature and folklore

More and more Vietnamese pop songs choose to exploit lyrics and content from famous literary works, old stories, old legends or folk cultural materials.

With 2 solo albums in the past 3 years, Hoang Thuy Linh has built her own "brand", won many major awards, when using many folk materials in works such as: Let Mi tell you, Banh troi nuoc, Em day chua phai Thuy Kieu, Duyen am, Gieo que, Ke cap gap ba gia... In particular, the song See tinh (a cheerful disco pop, the chorus has a bit of pentatonic sound and the MV exploits the folk culture material of the Southwest with the opening cai luong verse) has had a lasting appeal for more than 2 years and has suddenly become famous globally.

Hoa Minzy with MV Thi Mau

NSCC

Recently, many other young singers have also begun to choose this direction to exploit in their music such as Hoa Minzy, Phuong My Chi, Duong Hoang Yen, Bui Cong Nam, Ta Quang Thang... and have been widely welcomed by the audience.

Phuong My Chi released the MV Vu co anh on April 26, marking the 10-year journey from a girl singing folk songs to a 20-year-old woman. In this MV, Phuong My Chi did not choose a folk song according to her forte but decided to try her hand at modern folk music, combining the group DTAP and rapper Phao. The MV Vu co anh received more than 10 million views, highly appreciated for its inclusion of folk materials including ca tru, pentatonic, combined with modern elements such as disco, Disney images. Phuong My Chi said she "wants to reach young people in many ways and preserve and promote traditional music".

On June 22, Phuong My Chi continued to release the MV Pushing the Ox Cart, inspired by the literary work "The Picked-up Wife" by writer Kim Lan (currently reaching a total of more than 3 million views). The MV is youthful with the choreography of Phuong My Chi and 200 students, the cart-pushing movements were created by choreographer Lit Nguyen, creating a cheerful, bustling atmosphere. The music was composed by DTAP, belonging to the folk-tronica genre, mixing pop, house, and folk music. The MV does not recount the content or incarnate the characters in "The Picked-up Wife", but borrows the context of life in 1945 to talk about love today.

Ta Quang Thang sings rock about Son Tinh and Thuy Tinh

Recently, in early July, singer-songwriter Ta Quang Thang released a music video for a rock song inspired by the legend of Son Tinh - Thuy Tinh, in collaboration with the Ngu Cung band. Ta Quang Thang shared that he wrote the song as a dialogue between Son Tinh and Thuy Tinh. The scene of Thuy Tinh raising water to fight Son Tinh every year is depicted by the author through the lyrics: "The old story is different, Thuy Tinh/My beloved Mi Nuong is my wife/But why do you still keep harming her/Causing wild storms and rain". Ta Quang Thang said: "I hope that stories with strong national character will continue to be told through music".

In March this year, singer Hoa Minzy also released the MV Thi Mau, composed by Nguyen Hoang Phong, with Masew performing a folk and electronic arrangement. The song has a vibrant melody that harmoniously combines folk elements, such as the story of the character Thi Mau, traditional musical instruments, stage images and cheo costumes. Hoa Minzy hopes that the audience watching the MV will be interested in learning about the story of Thi Mau, Thi Kinh and the art of cheo in Vietnam. This song currently has nearly 40 million views on YouTube.

Phuong My Chi transforms with modern folk music video "The Universe Has You"

Create music with your own personality

Because Hoang Thuy Linh was so successful with songs with folk melodies, singers who later released songs in this genre were compared, accused of "imitating" and "copying". However, it is clear that the privileges of this musical material do not belong to Hoang Thuy Linh, and every other artist has the right to exploit, innovate, and pursue their own musical path.

Musician Nguyen Hoang Duy commented: "Folklore and classical literature are unique and attractive sources of material for young artists to create musical products that are both modern and imbued with national identity. It is encouraging that young people and artists use folklore and literary materials for their products because it will contribute to spreading and preserving traditional beauty."

Boycott distorted and offensive products

Exploiting literary and folk materials is very encouraging, but creativity needs to be filtered and transformed appropriately to create songs and musical products that are high quality and rich in humanistic meaning, with positive value to the public. At the end of April, a rap parody of the poem "Lượm" by poet Tố Hữu was remixed with offensive music and countless inappropriate lyrics on TikTok, receiving fierce opposition from public opinion. In response to criticism, the person who remixed the rap, DJ FWIN, said he had decided to remove the above version, saying that he would be careful and meticulous in making music to avoid making similar mistakes. 2see, the composer of the rap, apologized, hid the song on YouTube and deleted the original parody on all platforms.

Currently, the DTAP group is the author of many songs that use "capital" from Vietnamese culture, such as a series of songs by Hoang Thuy Linh or Duc Phuc with Nguoi oi nguoi o dung ve... DTAP is a producer group of 3 members. The decisive point for DTAP's success is in the new creative thinking. The group was inspired by the story of Vo chong A Phu, transforming it into the song De Mi noi cho ma nghe. It is very rare that the story in a famous literary work is expressed so vividly in a song, and the success of De Mi noi cho ma nghe says it all. Musician Nguyen Hai Phong revealed that DTAP is in the group of Gen Z producers who are most sought after for the role of music director of many big programs as well as albums of current star singers and new singers.

Sharing about the trend of Vietnamese music incorporating traditional folk and literary elements, Mr. Tran Thang Long, representative of Universal Music Vietnam, said: "Young artists only need to focus on creating music and developing their own personalities, then the opportunity to shine with catchy, trendy songs is always waiting ahead. For a song to spread beyond the border, the combination of Vietnamese cultural elements and modernity is indispensable."

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/nhac-viet-tiep-tuc-tim-den-kho-tang-van-hoc-van-hoa-dan-gian-185230710222038886.htm