Thai Music
I didn't like Thai music until this week.
I think I should listen to Thai music because it's a good way to learn the language, so liking it is kind of important.
I've asked friends for suggestions, but a lot of them like the pop music or American imports.
However, looking at the links, I found a cove of another royal composition by this synthpop band called TELEx TELEXs (the possible meaning is as incomprehensible to me as the words are unpronounceable in Thai). I was a little surprised that they were able to do a completely different take on the material.
Pu Pongsit is another artist born from that movement who is still recording:
The lesson here to future exchange students is don't be too shy to ask for music recommendations, and if nothing does it for you, just sit down and search for a day. You'll find something. I just wish I had found it earlier.
*In an earlier draft of this post, I neglected to notice that TELEx TELEXs covered a different song. I just put my favorite band first, so now that I've fixed the mistake, it's out of order.
This next bit is something different I want to share because it's been a sort of comfort on my exchange, although it doesn't deserve its own post because it's not related to Thailand and potentially a little bit offensive. In a way, it's more for me when I look back at this blog and wonder what I did in Thailand. First some background. In the age of fake news and alternative facts, many media outlets took to the term "post-truth." We can debate on and on whether those are really new concepts and whether their effects are more devastating now than in the past, but accepting that the idea of "post-truth" is a cultural concept of importance in the contemporary era, it's interesting to see how satirists respond. Many people will be familiar with The Onion, America's premier satirical newspaper. However, fewer know of their subsidiary, Clickhole. Clickhole's operating philosophy is that every piece of content deserves to go viral. They spew out the names of celebrities, politicians, and made-up characters in stories so bizarre and pointless they can hardly be considered slander. A lot of people would consider it a monumental waste of time, which I wouldn't disagree with completely. However, I also happen to think it is the only effective satire of post-truth itself. While news outlets go on fact-checking sprees and satirists have to become ever more far-fetched to be distinguishable from reality, Clickhole is there using no semblance of facts to make non-political non-arguments; it's absurd to the point of being a parody of absurdity. I thankfully don't often get sucked into the clickhole, but when I do it is oddly comforting. This hasn't been a major cultural experience on my exchange, or even the dominant American cultural experience I have indulged in, but in many ways it is the most noteworthy of the ways in which I waste time.
I think I should listen to Thai music because it's a good way to learn the language, so liking it is kind of important.
I've always liked the jazz music (much of which was written by the late King Bhumibol), but that's not all I want to listen to.
The next section (ends at the second video) is complaining, so if you want to go ahead and skip to the happy ending, don't bother reading it.
As for what I don't like, most of what's on the radio or the top of any youtube or music app search is slow mid-2000s sounding pop-rock ballads that I often find indistinguishable from one another except by how strange the singer's accent is (some of them literally sound like Americans not even attempting a Thai accent). This music is pretty much devoid of traditional influences, so I don't really feel beholden to try to like it as a part of assimilating to Thai culture. Another popular style is what I've heard referred to as country, officially "Luk tung," or "child of the rice field." It's kind of a blend of Thai folk instruments and melodies with jazz instruments and melodies, which I actually like both the idea and the sound of; the problem is that the singing style is very heavy on bends and vibrato, and a little bit nasal. For me, this usually starts to sound like the singer is just struggling to find the notes and can get annoying fast.
Last is the club dance music which plays in one of the ice cream places in town and makes appearances in various situations such as the bus on the way to a school trip. I do have a video (not nearly the most offensive I've heard, but the best I could find), but I'll describe it to save the time. I'm sorry and I hope we can still be friends if you like it because this is the only genre I have ever discovered that I have literally no positive criticism for. First, it is offensively repetitive. Second, it is utterly nonmelodic. Third, it is loud and grating. Fourth, it is relentlessly fast, blending into a wall of incomprehensible sound that maybe could be danced to on the right cocktail of drugs (Drugs are a D for don't do 'em).
Last is the club dance music which plays in one of the ice cream places in town and makes appearances in various situations such as the bus on the way to a school trip. I do have a video (not nearly the most offensive I've heard, but the best I could find), but I'll describe it to save the time. I'm sorry and I hope we can still be friends if you like it because this is the only genre I have ever discovered that I have literally no positive criticism for. First, it is offensively repetitive. Second, it is utterly nonmelodic. Third, it is loud and grating. Fourth, it is relentlessly fast, blending into a wall of incomprehensible sound that maybe could be danced to on the right cocktail of drugs (Drugs are a D for don't do 'em).
I've asked friends for suggestions, but a lot of them like the pop music or American imports.
Recently I've spent time trying to find more alternative and electronic bands, which has been difficult since a lot of them gravitate towards that same pop sound. I've also thought about looking for older music, but I didn't have any good ideas to look for that until as I am writing this blog post. Interestingly enough, I had my big breakthrough looking at a composition of the late King Bhumibol's that I was given the sheet music for - his ชะตาชีวิต (H.M. Blues).
Here's roughly the instrumentation he wrote it for:
I'm a fan, but jazz isn't all I want to listen to while I'm here (there are other recordings and other songs of the King's that are sung in Thai).
However, looking at the links, I found a cove of another royal composition by this synthpop band called TELEx TELEXs (the possible meaning is as incomprehensible to me as the words are unpronounceable in Thai). I was a little surprised that they were able to do a completely different take on the material.
I think their sound works better with their originals, but it's a sound that gets away from what a lot of popular Thai bands are doing and sounds a little closer to what I would be listening to in English. Following links from their music has led to me finding that this sound is almost a subgenre of Thai music, populated by at least 6 or 7 good, relatively popular bands.
Boom Boom Cash has another cover of H.M. Blues that I like:*
Her normal sound is incredibly heavy EDM, but more in the American dubstep/house vein than the Thai style, and more focused on the vocals than either tends to be.
Around the same time, Pom, the Rotary counselor in Sattahip, suggested this song that's not trying as hard to be pop. I wasn't quite as excited about it as the above, although I think it's the first Thai song I've heard that I would listen to regardless of language.
And here's Caravan, a band that I discovered on Wikipedia of all places as I was writing this post. They were at the forefront of a pro-democracy movement in the 1970s, and symbolic of the phleng phuea chiwit genre of protest music.
Pu Pongsit is another artist born from that movement who is still recording:
The lesson here to future exchange students is don't be too shy to ask for music recommendations, and if nothing does it for you, just sit down and search for a day. You'll find something. I just wish I had found it earlier.
*In an earlier draft of this post, I neglected to notice that TELEx TELEXs covered a different song. I just put my favorite band first, so now that I've fixed the mistake, it's out of order.
This next bit is something different I want to share because it's been a sort of comfort on my exchange, although it doesn't deserve its own post because it's not related to Thailand and potentially a little bit offensive. In a way, it's more for me when I look back at this blog and wonder what I did in Thailand. First some background. In the age of fake news and alternative facts, many media outlets took to the term "post-truth." We can debate on and on whether those are really new concepts and whether their effects are more devastating now than in the past, but accepting that the idea of "post-truth" is a cultural concept of importance in the contemporary era, it's interesting to see how satirists respond. Many people will be familiar with The Onion, America's premier satirical newspaper. However, fewer know of their subsidiary, Clickhole. Clickhole's operating philosophy is that every piece of content deserves to go viral. They spew out the names of celebrities, politicians, and made-up characters in stories so bizarre and pointless they can hardly be considered slander. A lot of people would consider it a monumental waste of time, which I wouldn't disagree with completely. However, I also happen to think it is the only effective satire of post-truth itself. While news outlets go on fact-checking sprees and satirists have to become ever more far-fetched to be distinguishable from reality, Clickhole is there using no semblance of facts to make non-political non-arguments; it's absurd to the point of being a parody of absurdity. I thankfully don't often get sucked into the clickhole, but when I do it is oddly comforting. This hasn't been a major cultural experience on my exchange, or even the dominant American cultural experience I have indulged in, but in many ways it is the most noteworthy of the ways in which I waste time.
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