Nhạc vàng aka “Soft music” being revived in Vietnam

 
Several modern singers have opted to sing nhạc vàng

Nhạc vàng is a style of music that appeared in southern Vietnam in the 1960s. It then  became popular across the country by the 1970s, especially before national reunification in 1975.

After 1975, nhạc vàng was used to label any music from southern Vietnam that was produced during  partition and was consequently banned in the public media.

During that time, all music produced in the southern region was classified as “reactionary” or “depraved” or “mawkish” and many of the recordings were destroyed for failing to demonstrate the collective will.

However, this style of music still exists and is sung by many people across the country as it helps to  describe their feelings.

And recently, nhạc vàng has come back with a vengeance and is being performed on several major stages.

Several overseas Vietnamese singers who are famous nhạc vàng performers, like Tuan Vu and Che Linh, have recently organised shows in their adoptive homelands so as to meet people’s rising demand for such style of music.

Many popular modern singers in Vietnam, namely Dam Vinh Hung, Phuong Thanh and Le Quyen, have also organised programmes for this music.

Anh Tuyet who is a famous singer of nhạc vàng has recently released a new disc of it.

“I decided to sing this music as a natural option for my soul. It’s not true that I do it because I'm short of ideas. I honestly do think that nhạc vàng is a genuine part of the history of Vietnam’s music industry,” Anh Tuyet said.

Soft music seems to have penetrated  the academic environment as singer Anh Tho recently announced that she would also sing nhạc vàng.

Popular singers in southern Vietnam including Thuy Duong, Xuan Phu and Quang Minh, who previously sang both red music and soft music, tend to favour soft music when the demand for red music slips.

Composers of modern light music, Quoc Trung and Huy Tuan seemed to foresee that the rebound of soft music might mean a smaller market share for other types of music. They then decided to performnhạc vàng as well and this caused some public controversy.  Then in a remarkable move, Quoc Trung chose to blame other singers of nhạc vàng for the controversy.

Several members of the public said that people have a perfect right  to sing whatever music they choose and should not be criticised for doing so.

“It’s not really true that certain types of music can be classified “soft” or “high-end”, the value of music depends on how it affects people’s souls,” Anh Tuyet commented.