The Music of Thailand

The Kingdom of Thailand is a country with a population of over 65 million and is located in Southeast Asia, neighboring such countries as Laos and Cambodia. You probably know the city name of Bankok, which is Thailands capital and largest city. Thailand is said to have deep cultural connections with both the Indian and Chinese nations. Interestingly enough, although Thailand was never colonized by any Western powers, popular music and other European and American styles have over time become increasingly influential and popular to the Thai people. There are two overlying and dominant styles that are equivalent to the well-known styles in Westernized Music, this would be mor lam and luk thung.

A distinctive Thai culture did not exist until 1257, when the kingdom of Sukhothai was created. The history books say that Thai culture was non-existent until around 1257, but soon after this time, music was an important part of life in Thailand and brought on the birth of what we know as classical Thai music.

One major musical style is known as ‘Pleng luk thung’, which is basically Thai country music and came about in the early 1950s to express the pain and suffering that the rural Thais experienced. Ponsri Woranut and Suraphon Sombatjalern were said to be the genre’s first pioneers with help from Latin American, Japanese, Indonesian, Malaysian influences, and American film soundtracks.

The second major musical style in Thailand is known as ‘Mor Lam’. Mor Lam is known mostly as coming from the people found in the northeastern regions of Thailand. Mor lam music is heavily influenced by the luk thung genre, but Mor lam is a distinctively Laotian genre and is often characterized by energetic, rhythmic vocal choruses and a funk style drum beat. There are said to be around fifteen variations of the mor lam music itself, and there are plenty of modern versions as well.

Perhaps the most fascinating chapter of Thai music came only in the last century and was said to hail after the 1930s, when Western classical music, showtunes, jazz and tango were gaining popularity. Of all these genres, it turned out that jazz stood above the rest to influence Thai popular music the most. Soon after this, the first Thai Jazz band was formed, by an artist known as Khru Eua Sunthornsanan. This event spawned an entire sub-culture and ongoing creative genre that invented thousands of new styles, including pleng Thai sakorn and Luk Grung (basically further evolved styles of eclectic origin). If you search hard enough, you will find some amazing Thai music that often incorporates unique Thai melodies with Western classical music, jazz, funk, and soul. Thai music continues to evolve and is soon becoming an animal of it’s own that contributes greatly to the world music evolution.