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of the era known as pleng pêua cheewít, Filipino music, as well as a healthy dose of Western-style rock and roll. Since their first album, Chut Khii Mao (Drunkard’s Album), and in the 24 that have followed, Carabao’s lyrics have remained political and occasionally controversial. Ganchaa (marijuana), a song from their second album, was promptly banned from Thai radio – the first of many. In 2001 Carabao dedicated an album in support of Shan rebels in Myanmar, a source of consternation for the Thai government. When not generating controversy they are almost constantly performing, and have also played in most Southeast Asian countries, as well as Europe and the US.

Through the years, the band has inspired countless copycat acts, but it’s unlikely that few acts of any genre will ever equal the influence and popularity of the brothers Carabao.

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Another genre more firmly rooted in northeastern Thailand, and nearly as popular in Bangkok, is mǒr lam. Based on the songs played on the Lao-Isan kaan, a wind instrument devised of a double row of bamboo-like reeds fitted into a hardwood soundbox, mǒr lam features a simple but insistent bass beat and plaintive vocal melodies. If lôok tûng is Thailand’s country-and-western, then mǒr lam is its blues. Jintara Poonlap and Pornsak Songsaeng continue to reign as queen and king of mǒr lam. Tune into Bangkok radio station Luk Thung FM (FM 95.0) for large doses of lôok tûng and mǒr lam.

Songs for Life

The 1970s ushered in a new style inspired by the politically conscious folk rock of the US and Europe, which the Thais dubbed pleng pêua chee·wít (literally ‘music for life’) after Marxist Jit Phumisak’s earlier Art for Life movement. Closely identified with the Thai band Caravan – which still performs regularly – the introduction of this style was the most significant musical shift in Thailand since lôok tûng arose in the 1940s.

Pleng pêua chee·wít has political and environmental topics rather than the usual love themes. During the authoritarian dictatorships of the ’70s many of Caravan’s songs were banned. Following the massacre of student demonstrators in 1976, some members of the band fled to the hills to take up with armed communist groups. Another proponent of this style, Carabao, took pleng pêua chee·wít, fused it with lôok tûng, rock and heavy metal to become one of the biggest bands Thailand has seen (see the boxed text, Click here).

T-Pop & Thai Rock

In recent years, Thailand has also developed a thriving teen-pop industry – sometimes referred to as T-Pop – centred on artists who have been chosen for their good looks, and then matched with syrupy song arrangements. Labels GMM Grammy and RS Productions are the heavyweights of this genre, and their rivalry has resulted in a flood of copycat acts. For example, after RS released Parn, an artist meant to appeal to 30-something female listeners, Grammy countered with the nearly identical Beau Sunita. Likewise with Grammy’s Golf-Mike and RS’s Dan-Beam – two nearly indistinguishable boy bands.

One pop artist seemingly able to subvert genres altogether, not to mention being one of the most popular Thai stars of the last two decades, is Thongchai ‘Bird’ McIntyre. Born to a half-Scottish father in a musical family, Pêe Béut (big-brother Bird), as he is affectionately known, is one of the country’s few genuine musical superstars. Many of Bird’s songs have become modern Thai pop classics, and in recent years he has expanded his repertoire, working with the likes of mǒr lam legend, Jintara Poonlap.

In an effort to bring in more listeners, many of the big labels have also formed smaller imprints. The most influential of these was Bakery Music, a subsidiary of Sony BMG, and a platform for several quasi-alternative, lite-rock and easy listening acts such as Bo, Groove Riders, PRU and Boyd. Many of these artists later went on to form Love Is, currently the ‘in’ independent label.

In the rock arena, late ’90s crowd pleaser Loso (from ‘low society’) reinvented Carabao’s Thai folk melodies and rhythms with indie guitar rock. Grammy