Essential Listening: Thailand 2020
This year in anti-royalist rap, faux gay boy bands, and the second coming of city pop.
Editor’s Note: Scroll down to the first image for the song list, or keep reading for the overlong intro ;^)
In the typically narrow-minded way of the Western music critic, we usually think of the music industry’s dark ages as the mid-2000s, when revenue plummeted and piracy skyrocketed, and no one could figure out how to turn a profit in an industry rapidly moving beneath their feet. But in South and Southeast Asia, the collapse of the established industry players was delayed for a bit, thanks to low rates of Internet penetration.
Then came Steve Jobs, the iPhone and the cheap smartphone boom, and by the middle of this decade, the mighty regional titans were finally brought to their knees by YouTube. The decade kicked off with six straight years of decline, which was capped off by the sudden death of iconic Tpop label Kamikaze in 2017.
Now, this isn’t all bad news. Cantopop, for example, went through an even bigger contraction in the 2000s, going from multinational to hyperlocal music industry, and the result was actually a more vibrant pop scene. Labels, with nothing left to lose, took chances on indie rockers, bedroom producers and hip-hop acts, and the result was an experimental and young pop music scene. A similar realignment is happening in the Thai pop world now, and it’s made Thailand for the past few years the most exciting place for pop music on the whole continent.
This year, 2020, we got to see what a new music industry in Thailand might look and sound like. The old pop monopolies have been weakened, and young and hungry labels like BOXX Music, Smallroom and YUPP! (among many, many others) have been reaching listeners through the painless distribution of the internet. Foreign players like Def Jam and 48 Group have made significant investments in the region, and Thai pop music seems to be growing in a million directions at once. Here are some rising trends to watch:
The Rise of Hip-Hop
Competition television series like The Rapper and Show Me The Money Thailand have launched the careers of a new generation of young rappers, while the internet and streaming have provided a platform for those in the underground. In other words, Thai hip-hop is bigger and better than ever. It stands out from the rest of Asia’s burgeoning rap scenes for its baffling diversity. Grime is as huge as trap here, which gives Thai rap a unique flavor, though why grime is so popular in Thailand in the first place escapes me (is it all the British tourists?) J-rap, K-rap, backpack rap, Afrobeat, the aforementioned grime and trap—and now there are even Luk Thung and Mor Lam rap fusions—all have influenced the scene, and it makes for music that feels exciting and memorable.
Girl Groups and Boy Bands
Prefab pop is back in Thailand after it waned a little with the fates of major labels. We can thank AKB48 for that, whose local sister group BNK48 scored enormous hit after hit with Thai-language covers of the original Jpop hits. The new flavor of bubblegum is a little different than the old one: idol-like cuteness is the order of the day, and not the antics of vintage Girly Berry.
Boy bands aren’t as big in Thailand as the distaff counterparts, then and now. But the surge of BL (“Boy’s Love”) dramas have rekindled their fortunes, with popular male actor-singers pursuing romances both on the screen and in music with their groupmates. The homoerotic aspects of all boy bands are polished to its highest form in Tpop these days, which is a subject I’ll probably elaborate on in a future edition of this newsletter.
Luk Thung in Retreat
At the beginning of the decade, those with internet access in Thailand’s upper and middle classes stopped buying as much music—which means, in a situation almost unprecedented in modern music history, it was less profitable to cater to them. Pop music labels needed to look elsewhere. so they started appealing to Thais who listen to Luk Thung, the pop music of the heartlands, and recruited raunchy female Luk Thung vocalists to sing over roaring EDM beats. It was sexy, it was campy, it was fun, and I miss that era so.
But nothing good can last, and as Thais of all backgrounds entered the streaming age, Luk Thung fusion was on its way out. Thai pop is back on catering to the sensibilities of a certain demographic, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, mind you. But maybe hip-hop is now holding down this essential role, to be an affront to upper-class tastes everywhere. There was a bit on MILLI’s “Sudpang!,” the best single of the year undoubtedly, where MILLI rapped excellently in a countrified accent. I think that makes the connection between the two movements better than a music critic could.
ANYWAYS, WITHOUT FURTHER ADO: HERE ARE 30 ESSENTIAL SONGS THIS YEAR, THAT ALL JUST HAPPEN TO BE FROM THAILAND
Spotify Playlist Here | YouTube Playlist Here
Bitchersweet: “Bitchersweet Cypher Ep. 1”
Bitchersweet is a project started by Icemaiden to foster community with and promote her fellow female rappers, who are noticeably underrepresented in Thailand’s underground rap boom. Its debut cypher features promising rising stars like MILLI, Seedaa Thevillain and Minymynx. Watch this space.
BNK48: “โดดดิด่ง” (Dod Di Dong)
AKB48’s Bangkok satellite operation was given a little slack by HQ this year, and was authorized to start dropped original songs alongside Thai-language covers of Aki-P’s hits. Here, the idols go luk thung, which, on the class hierarchy, is beneath their former JPop perch. But BNK48 wants to conquer all of Thailand, countryfolk and cityfolk, north south and center, and it looks like they just might pull it off.
Boom Boom Cash: “อิหยังวะ” (Ei Yang Wa)
Longtime party rappers cannily synthesize this year’s two major trends with trap verses and a glo-fi chorus.
Clash, Pongsit Kamphee: “วันนั้นของพี่ วันนี้ของน้อง” (Wan Nan Khong Phee Wan Ni Khong Nong)
Legendary rocker Pongsit Kamphee, pioneer of the “songs for life” genre, guests on this song by the reliably mediocre Clash, immediately eats them for breakfast.
Dept: “Cycle of Love”
The song I came closest to cutting from this list—because I wanted to replace it with Dept’s other single from this year, “Let’s Cry.” What I’m trying to say is that Dept is very good.
DM: “DM มาแล้วจ้า” (DM is Here)
There is much to admire in luk thung’s “anything goes on the dancefloor” mentality. It produced this, for one, which is basically a sizzle reel for the cutting edge of the genre.
Fever: “The Feeling”
Fever dropped the best single of 2019 with “Ghost World,” full stop. It’s one of my all-time favorite girl group songs ever. “The Feeling” is not as perfect, but it does enough to maintain their position as the most interesting girl group in the country.
Freshybii: “Sweetie Shy Boy”
Iconic teen pop label Kamikaze relaunched this year after they collapsed amid the industry-wide decline of the major labels in the mid-2010s with a string of singles from its new young talent. The best of the lot was “Sweetie Shy Boy,” a bubbly slice of puppy love that reminds us why we missed corporate teen pop in the first place.
Gym and Swim: “Arizona”
Plenty of indie poppers evoke the form of city pop, but only Gym and Swim goes on to reproduce its content too. Much like the Japanese leisure class that gave city pop its urban moniker in the first place, Gym and Swim, from their name on down, fetishizes a certain upper-class attitude towards music, towards Americana and towards life. Hence we have a song entirely about feeling Arizona, the Arizona of the mind. And to be honest this imaginary ‘80s worldbeat pop Arizona kicks real Arizona’s ass.
ICEAGE: “HYPETRAIN - ICEAGE”
Hype Train is a new record label that appears to be committed to good beats just as much as good rapping, thank God. They dropped a series of probably not improvised short rap verses (dubbed “cyphers,” incorrectly) as hype bait, and hey, they’re pretty good! Keep an eye on this label.
JAYLERR, PARIS: “Nude”
BL (“boy’s love”) pop has been Thailand’s biggest contribution to the world pop scene in recent years, emerging in compliment to the country’s phenomenally popular BL TV dramas. Homoeroticism has long been used to sell records in the seedy world of boybandonomics, that’s for sure, but Thailand takes it to the next level. Here, the boys are openly encouraged to date each other in real life and on-screen, and then collaboration singles like this one, which is between members of the boy band Nine by Nine, tease relationships in the making. This song makes me get the appeal. Paris has classic Asian matinee idol good looks, and listening to him rub his voice all up against my favorite actor from last year’s webseries Great Men Academy, Jaylerr … hnnnng.
Jintara Poonlarp: “หาดนางคอย”
Jintara needs no introduction. She’s is an icon, she's a legend and she IS the moment … and she proves it again here. An insane sax (?) solo! Her singular voice! Her iconic hair bob, with nary a strand out of place!
Lil tan: “คิดถึงเสมอ” (Always Miss You)
Effortlessly good; Thai rap’s “Blueberry Faygo.”
MILLI: “Sudpang!”
This year’s best single from Thailand’s best rapper. How is she only 17???
mute.: “รอ (da dee da)”
The pan-Asian indie scene has been producing so much shitty guitar-strumming dream pop that it’s hard to remember what was good about the genre in the first place. mute. (yes, it’s formatted like that) has reawkened me to the joys of cooed vocals over a twee backing band. That proggy section at the one-minute mark? Perfection. Her peers better take note.
New & Jiew x MILLI x Waii: “โนสน โนแคร์” (No Son No Care)
A Tpop all-stars supergroup play off “Bang Bang” and the results are pretty awesome.
Petite: “เอาจิง” (Take Care)
Petite throws it back to ‘90s JR&B, a genre revered by Jpop critics who got their start in the blogging days and gay Brazilians on Twitter and no one else. There’s a bit of Misia’s powerful voice and a bit of Crystal Kay’s easy flow, which adds up to a sublime nostalgic jam.
Polycat: “M3”
The sound of Thai indie pop is now an impression of chillwave doing an impression of city pop doing an impression of ‘80s boogie, which itself was doing an electronic impression of ‘70s soul. The intelligence of the groove—the funk, in other words—is getting lost in translation, and the result has been single after single of syncopated drums and bass guitar riffs that are all sound and no heart. Polycat is different though, from the first five seconds alone of “M3” you know they’ve done their homework. They deal with the hall-of-mirrors complexity of funk in Thailand with grace and alacrity, and they have produced a song which pays tribute to the many lives of funk all at once.
Prang Prangthip: “ได้แค่นี้”
Prangthip ornaments her R&B with vocal flourishes drawn from Thai classical music, and the results are beautiful and compelling.
Rap Against Dictatorship: “REFORM”
Protest music in Thailand has a long history—what’s new amid the 2020 anti-monarchy demonstrations is hip-hop’s star turn. Please read the many, many foreign media reports on RAD, and note that the above video has subtitles!
Slur: “จาง” (Jang)
At this point Thailand does Britpop better than the British.
Snack PTmusic: “แซ่บ” (Delicious)
I’ll miss the EDM/Luk Thung bops of the mid-2010s—it was fun, it was bawdy, and it was probably the best dance music coming out of Southeast Asia, if not the whole continent. At least there’s Snack, who’s leading the next wave of roots fusion by mixing her country style with trap-pop and the expensive-sounding synth bleeps from Kelly Rowland’s “Motivation.”
Solitude is Bliss: “Show Time”
It’s not just rap soundtracking the movement. Indie rock has also lent itself to the uprising against Vajiralongkorn, who has a net worth of $30 billion after he appropriated large amounts of public land upon taking the throne.
TangBadVoice: “Tongue on Fire”
TangBadVoice is a comic rapper, not a comedy rapper, and that makes all the difference in his motor-mouthed, Tierra Whack-esque tribute to tongue-twisters.
Telex Telexs: “ดวงดวงดวง” (Mutelu)
Over a sprightly synthpop beat, vocalist AOM is all sunshine, but there are dark clouds on the horizon; her voice is strained a bit on the edges, like she’s barely holding herself together. “I don't want to be lonely anymore,” Google Translate tells me is a lyric from the song, and is there any sentence that captures the mood of 2020 better than that?
Tilly Birds: “Bangkok Winter”
Tilly Birds have had a phenomenal year: they went from indie obscurity to sharing space with BTS and Blackpink on Spotify Thailand’s year-end list. They take Arctic Monkeys’ AM … and that’s it literally, that’s probably the beginning and end of their influences, but many have tried to bottle AM’s lightning and only Tilly Birds suceeds.
Tsunari: “Tae Wada”
The hip-hop/R&B wave has been an opportunity for Black Thais like Tsunari and Samuel D.A. to break into the entertainment industry, where half-white Thais have a outsize and long-time presence. Tsunari channels a little bit of Afrobeat into her sound and flow, and it makes for a style you can’t hear from anyone else but her.
Yellow Fang, AP Thailand: “In Between”
Echoing vocals over gauzy, reverbed guitars is basically the Thai indie rock sound at the moment, and that’s partly thanks to Yellow Fang’s incredible 2013 debut. But here’s what their many imitators forget: you can’t just use a computer to multitrack a singer’s voice and get something as good as “I Don't Know.” Yellow Fang’s three-part, En Vogue-style harmonies are real, and it’s that imperfection—the slightly different timbres, the slightly imperfect pitches—that makes their music so rich and textured. “In Between” is Yellow Fang once again knocking it out of the park: if you don’t hear the excellence, just wait ‘til you get to the mamasay-mamasa-mamakusa part.
ZIGGARICE, AUTTA: “Mai Chob”
Def Jam, the label formerly headed by Jay-Z and current home of Kanye’s GOOD music, decided to open a Thailand branch this year and dropped the “Thai School Vol. 1” compilation to show off its roster and make some waves. Unfortunately for that plan, some of their rap talents have no talent and sink the record with their presence. “Mai Chob,” though, was easily the highlight of the album, featuring Ziggarice and Autta oozing charisma over a ‘90s throwback beat.
Z9, N/A: “Rack rack rack”
Tonal language hip-hop was blessed by Drake and his popularization of sing-rapping. In tonal language hip-hop hotbeds (Punjab, Bangkok, Chengdu, etc.) rapping has become more natural and fluid now that they are freed from grafting the accentual-syllabic rhythms of English onto their native language. Just listen to the smooth-as-butter chorus here: it took three decades of slow translation of hip-hop’s cadence into Thai to get that kind of effortless lilt.
Have comments? Questions? Corrections? Want to help me translate song titles and lyrics? Reach out to me through Twitter DM here.
Thanks for reading everyone! Please subscribe if you liked it! I’ll see y’all next Wednesday when I’ll write about Vietnamese pop in 2020.