Good news for contemporary music

(Baonghean) - It can be said that modern life is a very good material for music. Therefore, young musicians today, when composing, have a very clear awareness of life and current events. They immerse themselves in life and write songs with a strong contemporary feel, bringing new features to Vietnamese music.

Music brings life

In old Vietnamese music, many musicians were already famous for their narrative music, imbued with the breath of life, such as Tran Tien with the song "My Sister" (about the eldest sister who suffered many hardships, humiliation, and loneliness in carrying the family), "Come Back, My Dear" (written about girls who work as "flower sellers")... Nowadays, in the midst of a music scene that is developing chaotically and lacking highlights, the appearance of people who dare to venture into contemporary music such as Ngọt band, Mew Amazing, or Lê Cát Trọng Lý in the past few years has brought positive signs.

Portrait of the members of Sweet band.

Ngọt is a 9X band, with young men in their twenties. Their music is simple, honest, accurately expressing the wavering mood of youth before the crossroads of life. Besides the familiar theme of love, Ngọt's music also focuses on family affection, lifestyle, hot issues in the field of education... Each song is a frank, sharp look at reality with countless shortcomings, but expressed through an optimistic and hopeful musical lens. Ngọt sang: "I rushed out to the car, today I went to school/ If I were a child I would cry/ But now I'm twenty, twenty, twenty/ I get on the car to go to school, but sit on the chair doing nothing" (Doing nothing).

Along with Ngọt, Mew Amazing is also a young musician whose compositions are full of modern life, both wild, humorous and profound. The song "That Bat Ngo" which once created a storm in the Vietnamese music scene is a voice that affirms Mew's talent and desire. "That Bat Ngo" cleverly mocks the bad habits of today's society such as living superficially, following the crowd, superficiality, chasing after luxury and glamor on the outside... Right in the first verse, that purpose is clearly expressed: "In the newspaper, information jostles together in a row. The woman is revealing, then the story of a curvaceous person, then the story of fashion items"...

Chasing after those virtual values ​​has made the spiritual life of the modern generation increasingly poor. That is also what Le Cat Trong Ly is concerned about in the song “Poor”: “My generation, one moment happy, one moment sad, laugh alone, cry alone. Too enthusiastic but lack faith, rich in hope but poor in ambition”… From there, the author comes to the conclusion: “Poor in everything except money. Oh, poor in everything except money”!

Hope for a new generation of composers

Some time ago, the press used to waste a lot of ink expressing concern when commercial music with nonsense lyrics flooded the market. But then, gradually, the self-proclaimed good music that resembles that music seems to be gradually fading away. Contemporary Vietnamese music is having a new generation of composers that are worth hoping for. Besides Mew Amazing, Le Cat Trong Ly, Vu Cat Tuong..., the discovery of new faces like Le Thien Hieu, Bui Cong Nam, Phan Manh Quynh... is increasingly making Vietnamese music more diverse.

Le Thien Hieu of the show Sing my song is probably the most anticipated name. With only 2 songs "Ong ba anh" and "1 plus 1", Thien Hieu has affirmed his special musical personality. Released not long ago, many people have memorized the lyrics of the song "Ong ba anh" with impressive passages such as: "You and I loved each other in the time of iPad, iPhone. You and I loved each other in the time of Facebook, Instagram. You and I loved each other in the time of SH, Audi, you and I loved each other, there was happiness when we didn't talk to each other, sat next to each other holding iPhones for a long time. And there were many times when I got angry when I didn't want to show you off to the curious world"...

Besides Le Thien Hieu, Bui Cong Nam is also a very promising name today. With the song "Chi Pheo" stirring up Sing my song, the young author continues to exploit the life scene with the charming song "Oh my god" full of the sound of the times: "Oh my god! This morning the girl wrote on the wall that her husband had stopped loving her. She complained that he only loved her for a short while, angry at herself for not knowing in advance. Oh oh oh oh oh oh oh... He shouted: If you want to explain, go to the police station. Oh oh oh oh oh oh oh. No literature: if you want to explain, go to the police station"...

Music, like art, always emphasizes creativity, but it is not a creativity that is far from reality. Music requires engagement. Engagement is not a description or copy of reality, but from that close reality, it brings about concerns and reflections, helping people to have more positive and virtuous emotions. With young musicians who are both talented and have a strong musical consciousness, we can put our faith in the new steps of Vietnamese music.

Thuy Nguyet