DTAP representative received congratulations and encouragement from Ms. Nguyen Pham Duy Trang, Secretary of the Central Executive Committee of the Youth Union, President of the Central Council of the Young Pioneers, when launching the album Made in Vietnam on August 19 - Photo: LE GIANG
From Thanh Hoa, a famous singer during the war, to Hong Nhung - an icon of the 1990s, and then My Tam - the biggest star of the 2000s.
From "national" rapper Den Vau to Suboi, the one-time "hip hop queen"...
Being able to summon dozens of people like that in a musical product, something that in previous generations only great musicians could do, shows that this is the era of young musicians.
The voice is theirs, the "power" is theirs. But what will they do with all that material and resources in their hands?
MV Made in Vietnam - DTAP, People's Artist Thanh Hoa, Truc Nhan and Phuong My Chi
Hello Vietnam
Of course, that title will also remind us of Made in Vietnam by My Linh from more than 20 years ago, an album in which Vietnameseness was expressed not through the theme, not through the content, but through a Vietnamese singer mastering a music genre of international origin, R&B, which was quite new in the country at that time. So how will Made in Vietnam of the younger generation tell about Vietnam?
The album's greeting, "Hello Vietnam", is the sound of selling banh chung and banh gio in the North and the sound of selling banh giay in Saigon for 1,000 VND/loaf in the South, with the background sound of the zither and flute mixed with electronic sounds.
The choices are not too new, because many Gen Z musicians have already incorporated the sounds of daily life and the sounds that are common memories of the city into their compositions, but that choice immediately sets the atmosphere of the following songs: a Vietnam that is both old and new, a Vietnam that is both familiar as on tourist postcards and also a Vietnam with a lot of contemporary energy.
Made in Vietnam , an album about Vietnam, named in English, that detail alone is enough to make us wonder: How will Vietnam appear in that album? Or rather, what is Vietnam in the eyes of musicians born in the second half of the 1990s, close to Generation Z?
There are many currents in Made in Vietnam : the current of heroism through songs like Nam quoc son ha or Mau do da vang, the current of lyricism through Mua gio bong tren roof or Nha toi co hang mot con co, the current of rusticity and joy like playing a game like Ho vong minh and Bai ca tom ca.
But in general, the images of the country in these songs appear clearly and sharply, with large but also very simple color blocks, reminiscent of propaganda paintings that have become a unique aesthetic part of Vietnam for a long time.
An image in Made in Vietnam
It seems they are becoming more international?
Compared to previous products inspired by Vietnamese literature that DTAP has worked on with Hoang Thuy Linh or Phuong My Chi, the new album sometimes shows a bit of limitation in language.
Lacking classic literary works as consistent inspiration, musicians sometimes fall into a somewhat general and impersonal depiction of Vietnam.
That's also why the songs featuring rappers, who rarely restrain their egos, are the standout tracks of this album, like Nam quoc son ha, with the opening part being a lullaby and the recitation of a seven-word quatrain poem from the Tien Le period, followed by Phao's always intelligent, strong-minded, and even witty rap.
People often question the identity of contemporary creatives: do they seem to be becoming more international? Do they seem to be less Vietnamese? Do they seem to have more and more diverse cultures and languages?
Maybe DTAP's album is an answer to those doubts: it's true that they are still international, they still play EDM music, they still put English in the album title, but in fact they are still very Vietnamese, just Vietnamese in a different way.
Tuoitre.vn
Source: https://tuoitre.vn/made-in-vietnam-cua-nhom-san-xuat-dtap-viet-nam-theo-mot-cach-khac-20250824091959804.htm#content-2
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