-^-for posterity-^-

what kind of music do vietnamese youth enjoy? well, they are fed a steady diet of pop songs that deal with love. they should be experts on the subject.

they sit in coffee shops all over southern vietnam staring at televisions. they sit next to each other. they never sit across from each other. they sit in lawn chairs in dimly lit places. they watch music videos. they do this for hours.

the videos are really quite a variety. sometimes it’s a young man with blonde streaks in his hair singing about how he lost his girlfriend and how much he misses her. sometimes it is a woman with blonde streaks singing about how much she misses her old boyfriend. sometimes it is a group of girls singing about how they just can’t get the thought of one boy or another out of their head. sometimes it’s a group of boys singing about how they can’t get the thought of one girl or another out of their head. sometimes the group is a combination of boys and girls singing about love in one form or another.

a few of the songs are bitter towards love. one chorus cries, “cry, cry, cry! i don’t care.” (translation). other songs talk about how love makes some people resilient. one chorus cries, “some day i’ll sing. i’ll sing and we’ll be together again.” other songs are just silly and about love. one chorus happily chants (in english), “forget me, forget me not!” i’ve never used the phrase “forget me not” but it has become quite a popular song over here.

young people don’t like rock or rap or anything like that. it actually doesn’t exist. i went to buy a vietnamese rap cd and was told to head up to saigon and find it in some shady corner shop. young people devour songs about love. most of them will admit that they’ve never been in love before. they will also spend hours expounding on the awesome power of the stuff.

i personally can’t stand the music. the songs are repeat constantly. jack, julie and i have half of them memorized already.