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Entry tags:
thai music
this is a primer/rec list that will interest approximately NO ONE but i was feeling chatty today
most of my knowledge of thai music comes from listening to the thailand top 50 playlist on spotify and my exposure from thai bl tlist, lmao. the top 50 chart as well as the joox top 100 chart (joox being the biggest music app in thailand, iirc?) mostly consist of local music, but there's almost always some kpop (usually blackpink or bts) and western artists as well. in an era where american and kpop songs are topping out at 3-3.5 minutes long, thai songs are (in my experience) more likely to be close to 4 minutes or even 4.5 minutes. the charts are dominated by solo artists or bands, with a few established male rap artists and now one female rapper (milli). similar to the, say, melon charts, some OSTs also chart well. story mvs and mvs over 4 minutes long are very common.
tpop groups have long existed, but it seems like there has been more of a push in the last 1-2 years to push local artists who can compete with kpop or borrow from the kpop aesthetic. you have lyra, a subunit of bnk48 co-managed with universal music. trinity, a group formed from former project group 9x9 (whose own debut song night light could've been a follow up to wanna one's energetic, imo) with a debut that made its kpop influence obvious with korean composers and an mv made by tiger cave (who has worked on mvs like i can't stop me, eung eung, and pirate king among others). imo haters got nothing has some genuinely fantastic parts but is overall meh is everything trinity has done but whatever i love them... 4EVE, a group formed from the competition show girl group star. the chorus of ooh la la kind of slaps and i feel like 4eve has potential i haven't seen from other thai ggs because they're doing more than recreating nugu kpop songs. or maybe i just react more positively to girl crush ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ you also have ally whose debut song was produced by and featured gray and whose follow-up ally in the 90s was choreographed by someone at 1million.
thailand also has two 48 groups: bnk48 and their sister group cgm48. is chiang mai big enough to support its own 48 group? no it is not tbh...there is a dearth of subbed bnk48 content but they do have two documentaries on netflix if you're looking to collect a massive amount of girls. i am not a jpop fan so the number of bnk48 songs i actually like is limited to heavy rotation and tsugi no season.
there is a new weekly(?) music show, tpop stage, which is cool because there hasn't previously been like one central show to promote new or popular songs. based on the lineups for week 1 and 2, there's a mix of artists to appeal to both the general public and fandoms.
moving onto the recs!
- tilly birds: same page? has not fallen out of the top 50 on spotify since its release in march and, like, i get it. it's one of those songs that's incredibly easy to listen to and hard to get tired of. i'm also a fan of worth the wait and the one.
- three man down: another staple on both the spotify and joox charts. their most recent single ถ้าเธอรักฉันจริง was the first win on tpop stage and the lead singer went viral for the way he belted out the lines in the chorus because my heart is still full of that person / and that leaves space for no one else. i listened to choose the best, is it raining?, and city on repeat all fall 2020. now i'm working through their older discography which leans more pop punk, which i will never complain about. that's the lead singer, krit, as the main actor in most of their mvs.
- the parkinson - dear friend: this song was used in two emotional scenes in a fantastic series (project s: spike), but i always come back to it for this touching and painful mv about a trans girl in love with her best friend.
- wanyai: wanyai is a solo singer who made some ballad-y songs i love, such as so long and gleaming light.
- ink waruntorn - erase: i have a soft spot for ink waruntorn, a city pop influenced solo artist, because she's good friends with my favorite thai actor lmao...most of her music is nice enough but i don't love any other songs as much as this one.
- violette wautier - smoke: violette has a really lovely voice and she's also gorgeous and a great actress...she can do it all. i am also obsessed with this song which served as the intro to bad genius: the series.
- jaylerrxparis - nude: jaylerr and paris were both members of project group 9x9 and both actors under nadao bangkok. last year they released unexpected which went viral due to the chorus dance challenge. ok look i don't love either paris or jaylerr musically but i love them as people so I WANT THEM TO SUCCEED.
- billkin - skyline: this is kind of a self-indulgent pick because this is an ost ballad from the incredible i told sunset about you, which i need everyone to watch, but it's also extremely popular in thailand so clearly the people have spoken.
ok that's all from me pretending to be an expert on another country's music scene while i live in america and only speak english.
most of my knowledge of thai music comes from listening to the thailand top 50 playlist on spotify and my exposure from thai bl tlist, lmao. the top 50 chart as well as the joox top 100 chart (joox being the biggest music app in thailand, iirc?) mostly consist of local music, but there's almost always some kpop (usually blackpink or bts) and western artists as well. in an era where american and kpop songs are topping out at 3-3.5 minutes long, thai songs are (in my experience) more likely to be close to 4 minutes or even 4.5 minutes. the charts are dominated by solo artists or bands, with a few established male rap artists and now one female rapper (milli). similar to the, say, melon charts, some OSTs also chart well. story mvs and mvs over 4 minutes long are very common.
tpop groups have long existed, but it seems like there has been more of a push in the last 1-2 years to push local artists who can compete with kpop or borrow from the kpop aesthetic. you have lyra, a subunit of bnk48 co-managed with universal music. trinity, a group formed from former project group 9x9 (whose own debut song night light could've been a follow up to wanna one's energetic, imo) with a debut that made its kpop influence obvious with korean composers and an mv made by tiger cave (who has worked on mvs like i can't stop me, eung eung, and pirate king among others). imo haters got nothing has some genuinely fantastic parts but is overall meh is everything trinity has done but whatever i love them... 4EVE, a group formed from the competition show girl group star. the chorus of ooh la la kind of slaps and i feel like 4eve has potential i haven't seen from other thai ggs because they're doing more than recreating nugu kpop songs. or maybe i just react more positively to girl crush ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ you also have ally whose debut song was produced by and featured gray and whose follow-up ally in the 90s was choreographed by someone at 1million.
thailand also has two 48 groups: bnk48 and their sister group cgm48. is chiang mai big enough to support its own 48 group? no it is not tbh...there is a dearth of subbed bnk48 content but they do have two documentaries on netflix if you're looking to collect a massive amount of girls. i am not a jpop fan so the number of bnk48 songs i actually like is limited to heavy rotation and tsugi no season.
there is a new weekly(?) music show, tpop stage, which is cool because there hasn't previously been like one central show to promote new or popular songs. based on the lineups for week 1 and 2, there's a mix of artists to appeal to both the general public and fandoms.
moving onto the recs!
- tilly birds: same page? has not fallen out of the top 50 on spotify since its release in march and, like, i get it. it's one of those songs that's incredibly easy to listen to and hard to get tired of. i'm also a fan of worth the wait and the one.
- three man down: another staple on both the spotify and joox charts. their most recent single ถ้าเธอรักฉันจริง was the first win on tpop stage and the lead singer went viral for the way he belted out the lines in the chorus because my heart is still full of that person / and that leaves space for no one else. i listened to choose the best, is it raining?, and city on repeat all fall 2020. now i'm working through their older discography which leans more pop punk, which i will never complain about. that's the lead singer, krit, as the main actor in most of their mvs.
- the parkinson - dear friend: this song was used in two emotional scenes in a fantastic series (project s: spike), but i always come back to it for this touching and painful mv about a trans girl in love with her best friend.
- wanyai: wanyai is a solo singer who made some ballad-y songs i love, such as so long and gleaming light.
- ink waruntorn - erase: i have a soft spot for ink waruntorn, a city pop influenced solo artist, because she's good friends with my favorite thai actor lmao...most of her music is nice enough but i don't love any other songs as much as this one.
- violette wautier - smoke: violette has a really lovely voice and she's also gorgeous and a great actress...she can do it all. i am also obsessed with this song which served as the intro to bad genius: the series.
- jaylerrxparis - nude: jaylerr and paris were both members of project group 9x9 and both actors under nadao bangkok. last year they released unexpected which went viral due to the chorus dance challenge. ok look i don't love either paris or jaylerr musically but i love them as people so I WANT THEM TO SUCCEED.
- billkin - skyline: this is kind of a self-indulgent pick because this is an ost ballad from the incredible i told sunset about you, which i need everyone to watch, but it's also extremely popular in thailand so clearly the people have spoken.
ok that's all from me pretending to be an expert on another country's music scene while i live in america and only speak english.