Thai folk music, Mor Lam and Luk Thung

Mor Lam and Luk Thung are the two main trends in Thai folk music.

Mor Lam (in Thai หมอลำ)

It is the main traditional music of Issan, the north-eastern region of Thailand (bordering Laos). It has several regional variants and modern forms.

The mor lam was born between Laos and Isan, although its origins probably lie in the musical traditions of the historic Tai tribes who migrated south from China.

There was a lot of crossover with indigenous, Chinese, Mon-Khmer and Indian and Malay influences which also had a marked effect on the dances, instruments and melodies of the mor lam.

Since the late 1970s, it has been performed more often outside Issan thanks to migrant workers in Bangkok.

Many singers of mor lam also sing the music luk thung of Central Thailand, and produced the hybrid form the "luk thung Issan.

The traditional instruments of Mor Lam are :

• the khene: a mouth organ, consisting of about fourteen bamboo tubes;
• the Nimp: a lute, normally with three strings;
• Ching: small bells that look like cymbals;
• the pan flute, and tambourines.

Most modern artists now use at least some electric instruments, most often a keyboard configured to sound like a Farfisa (organ style) and electric guitars.

Other Western instruments also became popular, such as the saxophone and drums.

Example of mor lam :

Luk thung (in Thai ลูกทุ่ง)

Literally "luk thung" means "the child of the fields" and is the most popular form of Thai country music.

This term is an abbreviation for "Pleng luk thung (in Thai เพลงลูกทุ่ง - song of a field child).

These songs are a testimony to the hard daily work of the life of the poor peasants.

The tempo is slow, and the singers tend to use expressive singing with many vibratos.

This style developed in the first half of the 20th century, although the term luk thung was not used until the 1960s.

Ponsri Woranut and Suraphon Sombatjalern were the first stars of the genre, mixing Latin American, Japanese, Indonesian, Malaysian influences and, especially, American film songs and country music.

Many stars of the luk thung are from the city of Suphanburi, such as the megastar Pumpuang Duangjan, who adapted the style of luk thung to the Thai pop of the 1980s (the thong) by creating a dance music called lunk thung electronics.

When Pompuang died in 1992, many thought that the luk thung was to pass with it. This did not happen, and with the creation of the first radio station dedicated to the lunk thung In 1997, the style came back in force.

Example of Luk Thung music:

Mixing genres

Since the 1990s there have been many interactions between the luk thungmusic string (Thai pop) and the mor lam.

Artists from string began to sing luk thung while singers from luk thung were increasingly seen as pop singers, with an obvious emphasis on youth and physical appearance.

The mor lam produced a new genre called luk thung Isan or luk thung Prayukwhich incorporates the fastest rhythms of the mor lam.

Source: Wikipedia