Asia 61 – Nhat Truong, Tran Thien Thanh 2

Asia’s latest DVD, Nhat Truong, Tran Thien Thanh 2, depresses the living hell out of me. I can’t get my mind off the image of Bang Tam with her forehead busted open lying in the hospital bed dying while bombs exploding in the background. The entire scene was so disturbing that I wish I didn’t get to it. In fact, I wish I didn’t watch the entire video at all. Now I can’t help feeling deeply sorry for our Vietnamese music.

She is like a cow being trapped in the box allowing Asia and other productions to milk every last drop out of her and preventing her from growing. When was the last time a new, original Vietnamese song was introduced in these videos? Tran Thien Thanh had quite a number of popular tunes and most of them were written in Borolo. Asia didn’t even bother to give them a new arrangement. Sitting through an entire Borolo rhythm with occasional upbeat is quite torturing.

Then again, we can’t really point the figure at these productions. As long as they could sell out their concerts and videos, why not repeating the concept? We need to step up our game before the productions could do their part. It’s all about supplies and demands. Save our music and give her a chance to grow.