Music of Vietnam

Chèo orchestra accompanies the performance of water puppetry

Chèo is a form of generally satirical musical theatre, often encompassing dance, traditionally performed by peasants in northern Vietnam. It is usually performed outdoors by semi-amateur touring groups, stereotypically in a village square or the courtyard of a public building, although today it is also increasingly performed indoors and by professional performers.

Blind artists performing xẩm

Xẩm or Hát xẩm (Xẩm singing) is a type of Vietnamese folk music which was popular in the Northern region of Vietnam but is considered nowadays an endangered form of traditional music in Vietnam. In the dynastic time, xẩm was performed by blind artists who wandered from town to town and earned their living by singing in common places.

Singing quan họ at Hoàn Kiếm Lake

Quan họ (alternate singing) is popular in Hà Bắc (divided into nowadays Bắc Ninh and Bắc Giang provinces) and across Vietnam; numerous variations exist, especially in the Northern provinces. Sung a cappella, quan họ is improvised and is used in courtship rituals.

Singing chầu văn in the lên đồng ritual

Chầu văn or hát văn is a spiritual form of music used to invoke spirits during ceremonies. It is highly rhythmic and trance-oriented. Before 1986, the Vietnamese government repressed hát chầu văn and other forms of religious expression. It has since been revived by musicians like Phạm Văn Tỵ.

Nhạc dân tộc cải biên is a modern form of Vietnamese folk music which arose in the 1950s after the founding of the Hanoi Conservatory of Music in 1956. This development involved writing traditional music using Western musical notation, while Western elements of harmony and instrumentation were added. Nhạc dân tộc cải biên is often criticized by purists for its watered-down approach to traditional sounds.

Band performances Ca trù

Ca trù (also hát cô đầu) is a popular folk music which is said to have begun with ca nương, a female singer who charmed the enemy with her voice. Most singers remain female, and the genre has been revived since the Communist government loosened its repression in the 1980s, when it was associated with prostitution.

Ca trù, which has many forms, is thought to have originated in the imperial palace, eventually moving predominantly into performances at communal houses for scholars and other members of the elite (this is the type of ca trù most widely known). It can be referred to as a Korean gisaeng-type of entertainment where women, trained in music and poetry, entertained rich and powerful men.

Excerpts from reformed salary Tự đức dâng roi

Cải lương originated in Southern Vietnam in the early 20th century and blossomed in the 1930s as a theatre of the middle class during the country's French colonial period. Cải lương is now promoted as a national theatrical form. Unlike the other folk forms, it continued to prove popular with the masses as late as the 1970s and the 1980s, although it is now in decline.

Cải lương can be compared to a sort of play with the added aspect of Vọng cổ. This term literally means "nostalgia for the past", it is a special type of singing with the background music often being the đàn tranh zither or the đàn ghi-ta (Vietnamized guitar). In a typical cải lương play, the actresses and actors would use a combination of regular spoken dialogue and vọng cổ to express their thoughts and emotions.

Costumes as warlords for Tuồng (Hát Bội) in Huế in 1874

Tuồng also known as hát tuồng or hát bội is a form of Vietnamese theatre. Hát tuồng is often referred to as classical Vietnamese opera influenced by Chinese opera.

Hò can be thought of as the southern style of Quan họ. It is improvisational and is typically sung as dialogue between a man and woman. Common themes include love, courtship, the countryside, etc. "Hò" is popular in Cần Thơ - Vietnam.

• Nhạc lễ - court music

• Đàn bầu (monochord zither)
• Đàn gáo (two-stringed fiddle with coconut body, from Chinese yehu)
• Đàn nguyệt (two-stringed fretted moon lute, from Chinese yueqin)
• Đàn nhị (two-stringed fiddle with hardwood body, from Chinese erhu)
• Đàn sến (two-string fretted flower lute, from Chinese Chaozhou qinqin)
• Đàn tam (fretless lute with snakeskin-covered body and three strings from Chinese sanxian)
• Đàn tam thập lục (hammered dulcimer from Chinese yangqin)
• Đàn tranh (long zither from Chinese guzheng)
• Đàn tỳ bà (pear-shaped four-stringed lute from Chinese pipa)
• Kèn bầu (oboe from Chinese suona)
• T'rưng (bamboo xylophone)
• K'ni (also spelled k'ny or k'ný) - one-string vertical fiddle with a resonating disc that is held in the player's mouth; played by the Jarai people of the Central Highlands

Sơn Tùng M-TP singer representative of music V-pop

The embrace of modern pop music culture has increased, as each new generation of people in Vietnam has become more exposed to and influenced by westernized music along with the fashion styles of Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, and South Korea. Musical production has improved and expanded over the years as visiting performers and organizers from other countries have helped to stimulate the Vietnamese entertainment industry. Such performances include international stages like the Asia Music Festival in South Korea where popular Vietnamese singers such as Mỹ Linh, Mỹ Tâm, Hồ Ngọc Hà, Lam Trường, Sơn Tùng M-TP and others have performed along with other singers from different Asian countries. During the recent years such as 2006 and beyond, Vietnamese pop music has tremendously improved from years past. Vietnamese music has been able to widen its reach to audiences nationally and also overseas. There are many famous underground artists such as Andree Right Hand, Big Daddy, Shadow P (all featured in a popular song called Để anh được yêu) or Lil' Knight and countless others who have risen to fame through the Internet. In addition, there are also other singers that have gone mainstream such as M4U, Hồ Ngọc Hà, Bảo Thy, Wanbi Tuấn Anh, Khổng Tú Quỳnh, Radio Band, etc. There are also amateur singers whose songs have been hits in Vietnam such as Khởi My, Tóc Tiên, Văn Mai Hương,... These singers tend to view singing as a hobby, therefore not being labeled as mainstream artists. Overall, the quality of recording and the style of music videos in Vietnam has improved a lot compared to the past years due to many private productions and also overseas Vietnamese coming back to produce a combination of Western and Vietnamese music.

Introduced by American soldiers, rock and roll was popular in Saigon during the Vietnam War. This genre has developed strongly in the South and has spread out over the North region after the rise of Bức Tường in the 90s. For the last 10 years, metal has become more mainstream in Vietnam. Ngũ Cung and Microwave are the current top Vietnamese metal bands in the 21st century.

The early 1990s Hip Hop import into Vietnam. However, due to language limitations, the number of listeners is not much. Until the early 2000s, hip hop begins to grow in Vietnam become a movement of young people. Not long after that, the movement quickly subsided and many turned their backs on Hip Hop and Rap. Although it can be considered as the freezing period of Vietnamese Hip Hop, it also helps Vietnamese Underground Hip Hop become more stable when the true continues the mission of making this culture ever stronger and promises more and more talents are born from this cradle.

Suboi rapper representative of Vietnamese Hip Hop

Until the early 2005s new groups and communities were born Most prominent is Wowy a famous rapper in Vietnam in 2005s, and DSK ("Die Sonnen Kinder" or "Da Sun Kid") is called "King Of Rap". After that, he teamed up with Karik to become a very famous rapper couple in Vietnam in 2005s–2010s. Another famous rapper in Vietnam is named Suboi, she is the first Vietnamese female rapper to become successful in her country and is considered "Vietnam's queen of hip hop".

Currently, hip hop plays an important role in V-pop, hip hop gameshow competitions are currently developing in Vietnam such as Rap Viet, King of Rap,... Contributing to bring Vietnamese hip hop internationally.

Karaoke music mostly consist of songs with a slow tempo, often with sad and/or romantic lyrics. Vietnamese karaoke with sing-along lyrics often come in the genres of ballad, bolero or like cải lương. Vietnamese ballad and bolero music such at those from Paris by Night or from Vietnamese music productions in Vietnam still remain one of the most popular genres of slow-tempo music for Vietnamese people.[22]

• UbuWeb Ethnopoetics: Ca Dao: Vietnamese Folk Poems
• Recording of Vietnamese folk singer Pham Duy at the 1966 Florida Folk Festival (made available for public use for the State Archives of Florida)
• Nhạc Truyền Thuyết Về Chú Mèo Ngủ Quên, the legend of the Cat-That-Sleeps.