Luk Thung - An Interesting look at Thai Music Culture

Rak Ni Thi Seven

( My Love is at 7/11 )

"My love is born at 7/11.

Honey, please behold my heart.

I am waiting for you but you haven’t come,

Or you will never show up.

Drinking Pepsi, waiting for you at 7/11.

From dusk to dawn, I don’t see you.

Tons of Big Bites [hot dogs], oh girl, I am so full.

Yet, you never showed up.

All the clerks, the cashiers, looking at me like I’m weird.

Waiting for you, taking forever,

Feel like the year is over, what is it for?

That’s it, my love,

That’s it, my life.

I waited for you until I get the flu.

No love, that’s fine, but please no lie".

It’s the style called Luk Thung. This means Country song.

The Thai’s are very proud of this genre, since they feel this is the authentic style of music in thailand.

After Luk Thung, another style developed called Lukkoon, which basically means “city song”

With the emergence of the 1970s came also the “String” genre, along with the the electric guitar, the electronic synthesizer, and the cassette tape, and the arrival of rock music, a new generation of lukkoon artists and audiences began to favor a more ‘‘pop’’ like sound.

Young musicians began to imitate rock stars such as Elvis Presley and Cliff Richard and the Shadows. It was at this point that the genre of Thai pop/rock known as String was formed.

String is a broad genre that includes a wide range of music from teeny-bopper and easy-listening to hard rock, always sung with Thai lyrics.

Apart from luk thung, luk krung, and string, there is a fourth genre, pleng puea chiwit (lit., songs for life).

This genre emerged in the late 1960s among the political left, and was influenced by anti-establishment American folk-rock as represented by Bob Dylan and Joan Baez.

Pleng puea chiwit’s social and political commentaries are mostly accompanied by acoustic guitar, with occasional insertions of harmonica or Thai flute. Pleng puea chiwit songs during the period of the 1970s were often banned from the radio, although distribution continued via cassette.

(Source: Amporn Jirattikorn 2006. “Luk Thung: Authenticity and Modernity in Thai Country Music”)

Recently the Luk Thung genre has had a comeback. The regained popularity may come from being tired of copying Western music and culture and a new found pride in National resources or simply because two artists took the Luk Thung genre back into use.

The already famous “King of Pop” in Thailand, Bird Thongchai released a Luk Thung inspired album as his 32nd album. He did it with the help of three other artists, a well known Morlum singer Jintara Poonlarp (Morlum is traditional Northeastern style).

Originally Morlum was a form of local poetry set to music for religious ceremonies and festivals, considered even more country bumpkin than Luk Thung and “Nat” Myria benedetti and Kataleeya English, both models and pop singers, with a caucasian look. In the biggest hit on the album, Fan ja, My Honey, the 3 guests sing along with Bird in four different dialects presenting the four regions of Thailand. North, Northeast, Central and South. This was a renewed form of Luk Thung whilst keeping the traditional style.

Then there is Jonas Anderson, who has stayed in Thailand for the last 10 years and worked and helped out as a volunteer in different programs and projects at various institutions, such as orphanages, hospitals and rehabilitation centers. Music was frequently used in many of these activities and Jonas learned through there, the Luk Thung genre.

He did not renew or come with a personal translation of the Luk Thung, his strength was in the simple fact that he, as a caucasian, a blue eyed, blond boy from Sweden took interest in the traditional Thai singing, and became so good at it that he actually sounded like a traditional Thai luk thung singer.

That someone from the outside took such a great interest in something so local and traditional was nearly considered as an honor to the Thai’s.