My Favorite Thai Music (Running List)

[Sylvie von Duuglas-Ittu]

Thai music may be an acquired taste, I don't know. But I've really come to love some artists and genres. It ranges for me between morlam, which is basically Thai Country music from Isaan (Siripon further below is a prime example), to pop music and rock ballads most of which aren't favorite genres for me in the west. You can add your own too, if you have some too, but just Thai music please.

This guy is my favorite, Maleehuana:

[Sylvie von Duuglas-Ittu]

And Siripon's voice is my favorite. Thai videos do these mini-movies and scenarios all the time, so you have to wait a bit (or skip ahead 1:50) for the song. But these trucks that drive around with a loud speaker, telling you how much their stuff costs, and the good girl who is overshadowed by the sexy girl... SO Thailand:

And this song is probably her most famous. But when you hear me talk about "Festival Fights" and the stage of dancers that's always near the boxing ring - this is what it's like.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fApgxP3dLuU

[Sylvie von Duuglas-Ittu]

Baowee is awesome. He's all about love ballads and he often sings them atop airplanes because he used to be in the Airforce. Someone realized he kicked ass at Karaoke night and he got a record deal. Seriously.

This one is about the lonely moth being in love with the flame.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gP0ptTgyHkY

And this one is about asking the moon to tell this chick he loves her.

[Kevin von Duuglas-Ittu]

I have to say that Thai morlam country music has really surprised me. It often has oddly hypnotic Reggae-like beats, and a crooning voice. When it hits the sweet spot it is very good. Contemporary Thais tend to see it as old person music, or red-neck music. It's kinda incredible.

[WaffleNinja]

I tend to like the old stuff

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEf4uQc2qvU

[maybethestars]

I'm going to go out on a limb and say I actually really enjoy the stupid/ridiculous thai generic pop songs. I enjoy them more for the silliness itself over the actual song value.

[Sylvie von Duuglas-Ittu]

I'm going to go out on a limb and say I actually really enjoy the stupid/ridiculous thai generic pop songs. I enjoy them more for the silliness itself over the acutal song value.

I know this song, hahaha.

There's this AMAZING video I see on TV sometimes where the singer arrives at the festival and this super sexy chick asks him to sign her breast. He gets a nosebleed as he does so. The song is so great but I don't know the lyrics, the singer, or the name :(

[Cilla]

I just like this whole post! haha

[Sylvie von Duuglas-Ittu]

I could not find this song on Youtube because I didn't know what it was called, but we just found it on a mix-CD we bought at a gas station on our last fight trip. I love this song. The video cracks me up, every damn time (mostly the nose bleed at the beginning) but it's so catchy I'd make it my "walkout song" in a minute.

It's pretty much about this guy taking his girlfriend home and her "bouncing" and dancing in front of the stage gets all the older, higher-status men of this dude's family to blush and be... excited. It's basically "Super Freak" for Isaan, hahahaha.

 

[Sylvie von Duuglas-Ittu]

A Siripong Ampaipong Playlist of 15 songs. She's called the Mother of Morlam, Kevin calls her the Patsy Cline of Thailand.

https://youtu.be/tFgJ_szO4wE?list=PLKIAzkeMKlfMZv3r9wiRVV-yFc9m5kW46

[Ling Bah Nick DC]

I also just love Morlam ,  it gives me a lil feeling of holiday....when I hear it  I dream away...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gT3BfpheyIA

people often think it's my wifes music but its mine ;-)

[NewThai]

We basically listed to Labanoon and Justin Bieber in the truck while I was in Thailand ... I appreciated the Bieber so I could sing along haha but some of the Labanoon ballads are stuck in my head and I need a mixtape stat:

 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2dg9oc78Kv4

[emma]

Yellow Fang are my fav.

 

Also, deungdutjai.com is a really good site for learning lyrics to Thai songs. 

[Pat Cornett]

This is something you don't see a lot of. I like Christy. Her and Jonas Anderson make some really good music together. 

 

[Pat Cornett]

I really like this retro kinda stuff by the royal sprites too. I think it's 70s/80s thai gangster music lol. 

 

[Kero Tide]

When I was Thailand there was almost always Thai music put on during training at the gym. Usually the same CD over and over again - but also some pop music when the kids synched their phone with the speaker and put their playlist on. It's Lamnammoon Muay Thai Gym in Isaan so possibly a lot of morlam style on the CDs.

Now the only song that stayed with me up until now is this rap song that made the buzz on the internet while I was there - a worldwide kind of buzz I think, not just in Thailand. One of the Thai boys at Lamnammoon's actually put it on that one time at the end of a morning session. Heavy political song. I don't know the real impact it had in the country and couldn't speak to the Thais about it because I don't speak Thai - even if I did I'm not sure I would've dared lol.

There's English subtitles to the clip so we can get a little what's going on. Apart from being moved by this kind of message, I just really like the beat and the flow of their voices.

 

After hearing that song I looked up some other Thai rap songs - I didn't really go deep in my research at all. The most famous rapper in Thailand seems to be "Rapper Terry" (his YouTube account has millions of subscribers). I like this song of his he did featuring another rapper called Chee Genozide. No idea what's being said though.

 

[emma]

 

 

 

2

On 5/8/2019 at 8:33 PM, Kero Tide said:

When I was Thailand there was almost always Thai music put on during training at the gym. Usually the same CD over and over again - but also some pop music when the kids synched their phone with the speaker and put their playlist on. It's Lamnammoon Muay Thai Gym in Isaan so possibly a lot of morlam style on the CDs.

Now the only song that stayed with me up until now is this rap song that made the buzz on the internet while I was there - a worldwide kind of buzz I think, not just in Thailand. One of the Thai boys at Lamnammoon's actually put it on that one time at the end of a morning session. Heavy political song. I don't know the real impact it had in the country and couldn't speak to the Thais about it because I don't speak Thai - even if I did I'm not sure I would've dared lol.

There's English subtitles to the clip so we can get a little what's going on. Apart from being moved by this kind of message, I just really like the beat and the flow of their voices.

 

 

Rap Against Dictatorship was huge, and it was really cool to see. The government threatened to arrest not only the people who made it, but anyone who liked or shared it. But as the millions of likes started to accumulate, that idea went out the window. They did respond with their own song, 'Thailand 4.0', which is basically an embarrassingly lame pro-junta song. It was like some strange rap battle. 

 

[T. Vitayanuvatti]

I want to listen to all your favorites but I thought I’d add one first. I really like Thai country which doesn’t even crack my top 3 over here but I found a Thai rapper named IllSlick. He sings in Thai and English is some of his songs but also does ballads also. He’s my favorite artist at the moment. This one is on my playlist.

 

[Kero Tide]

On 5/12/2019 at 4:40 PM, emma said:

Rap Against Dictatorship was huge, and it was really cool to see. The government threatened to arrest not only the people who made it, but anyone who liked or shared it. But as the millions of likes started to accumulate, that idea went out the window. They did respond with their own song, 'Thailand 4.0', which is basically an embarrassingly lame pro-junta song. It was like some strange rap battle. 

 

I find it funny that the government responded with a rap song. Thanks for the infos. I had wondered whether the members of RAD ended up in jail or worse. Since they got so popular maybe the government didn't want to make martyrs out of them? Like in the movie Gladiator lol...

 

On 5/22/2019 at 2:54 AM, T. Vitayanuvatti said:

I found a Thai rapper named IllSlick. He sings in Thai and English is some of his songs but also does ballads also. He’s my favorite artist at the moment. This one is on my playlist

Nice ballad you shared, thanks! I will check out his rap songs too.

[emma]

On 6/5/2019 at 2:19 AM, Kero Tide said:

I find it funny that the government responded with a rap song. Thanks for the infos. I had wondered whether the members of RAD ended up in jail or worse. Since they got so popular maybe the government didn't want to make martyrs out of them? Like in the movie Gladiator lol...

So far, so good. Some of them recently flew to Norway to pick up a 'Creative Dissent' award for the song. 

http://www.khaosodenglish.com/politics/2019/05/27/anti-junta-rappers-awarded-creative-dissent-prize/

[Snack Payback]

This song was huge back in 2004. Reminds me of Songkran in Bangkok. Great times!

 

[emma]

On 5/22/2019 at 7:54 AM, T. Vitayanuvatti said:

..I found a Thai rapper named IllSlick. He sings in Thai and English is some of his songs but also does ballads also. He’s my favorite artist at the moment. This one is on my playlist.

I started listening to Thai rap as a new way to learn Thai and ended up really getting into some of it. Illslick isn't the kind of artist I'd usually listen to back home but some of his songs have become earworms for me. Youngohm is the same, he's kind of ridiculous but I love this song:

 Also this one by OG-ANIC:

 Anyway, the real reason I came to this thread was to add Milli, a 17-year old female rapper I recently read about in BK Magazine. 

 

[Deny]

https://shrinke.me/svAdM6FJ

[Midlifecrisisguy]

On 10/26/2020 at 7:32 PM, Tom Riddle said:

This thread has to be the best thing on this forum so far. 

I agree, some awesome stuff here. I’m in a YouTube black hole now.

[emma]

Revisiting this thread to add Rasmee. She has an amazing voice, and her Isan Soul album is really beautiful. Here are 2 of my favourite tracks from it: