Tang Duy Tan writes music: What is the academy for?

Having just released the album Love Garden which was highly appreciated by experts, Tang Duy Tan attracted attention for his statement 'I can write academic music, but for what purpose?'.

Tang Duy Tan affirms that he can write classical music - Photo: Screenshot

Tang Duy Tan's career is quite diverse: national hits and international virals are considered to belong to the Vinahouse genre, which is easy to listen to and easy to remember.

The new album Love Garden has clearly improved in terms of skill, received praise from experts but has not had a big hit yet.

Meanwhile, the song "Rebirth" written for his cousin Tung Duong was unexpectedly successful.

What is academia for?

After a series of hits like "Innocent", "Dark Night", "Upstairs", "Turn on love", "Cut in half the sadness"..., Tang Duy Tan was quite quiet in the market before releasing the album "Love garden" at the end of October.

Rebirth - Tung Duong (Tang Duy Tan x Drum7)

He explained that in the previous 2 years, he had continuously studied composing, singing and performing to overcome his weaknesses.

On November 30, in the talk show On Set with editor Dieu Minh, Tang Duy Tan shared: "Now if you want me to be an academic, I can be an academic, I am more than capable of being an academic. If I can't sing, Tung Duong will write for me.

Tang Duy Tan's new album shows progress in his composing ability - Photo: LE GIANG

But what is academia for? Academia is only occasional, when I want to target some of my desired audiences.

But now when I want to bring happy, upbeat melodies to make people happy and entertained, it has to have a market element."

Being labeled "commercial music", Tang Duy Tan sees no problem, even prides himself on it because making music that is loved by the market is not easy.

Through his old hits, Tang Duy Tan is loved by audiences for his mysterious, somewhat tragic and sometimes dark but seductive music.

But that's why his music comforts and soothes listeners.

With the album Love Garden, Tang Duy Tan now has a gentle perspective on love, sometimes filled with happiness. The song chosen for the MV is Ikigai (duet with Bich Phuong) which is also very catchy but has a "chill" feel, relaxing and contemplative instead of boisterous.

Had the chance to write music for Tung Duong

When an album doesn't go viral, doesn't have popular choruses on TikTok or other social media platforms, and doesn't have a huge number of views on YouTube, it's easy for the album to be labeled a "flop".

But this assessment is too hasty for Tang Duy Tan, because an album needs to be evaluated over the long term.

Songs like Tonight I Dream of You Again were commented by an audience as "seeing through the heart of a lonely person at night".

Or Soul Prison was inspired by the song "Dream of Lovers" (Bao Qing Tian movie soundtrack) which was famous with the 7X and 8X generations.

Or Rebirth - a song not included in the album Love Garden that Tang Duy Tan wrote for his cousin Tung Duong's album Multiverse. The song is going viral on TikTok, which is considered the "territory" of Tang Duy Tan's music.

Tung Duong sang Tang Duy Tan's thoughts: "Immersed in passionate eyes, I thought I was twenty years old, the person who made me love passionately like my first love. A bright star in the darkness, the morning after the rain, reborn me from the ashes of love".

Tang Duy Tan sang with his cousin Tung Duong in Tung Duong's live concert "Singing Man" on November 23 - Photo: FBNV

Speaking to Tuoi Tre, music producer Viruss said Tang Duy Tan does not need to prove himself at award ceremonies, such as the TikTok Awards Vietnam - where he was nominated for Outstanding Song of the Year 2023 with "Cut in Two Sorrows".

"Currently, Tan needs to find a middle ground between Tan's music and viral. It's difficult, because when Tan's music became popular, music had not yet clearly shifted. But now, young people, especially Gen Z, have a very different sense of music than 9X, 8X and other generations" - Viruss said.

Tang Duy Tan is sober when he clearly knows that his mark does not lie in the catchy Vinahouse music, the key point that makes his music go "viral" fiercely abroad.

Therefore, he made the album Love Garden to satisfy his personal ego with genres such as pop, ballad, r&b, flamenco, non-disco... While Rebirth belongs to the electro-pop genre.

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/tang-duy-tan-viet-nhac-han-lam-de-lam-gi-20241207100018527.htm