Popular Music of Burma

The western music gained much popularity in Burma beginning from the 1930’s in spite the government intervention at times, especially during the socialist period, famous Burmese music has become considerably powered by the western music which comprise of the famous western composers rendered in Burmese and pop music similar to other Asian pop tunes. The classical music was also introduced during the British occupation.

source of picture: flavorwire.com

The rock music is called stereo in Brumese has been a famous form of music since the 1980’s having been introduced in the 1960’s. The pop music join in the 1970’s and was stopped by the state-run radio stations. However, several artists avoided this censorship by producing songs in private studios and releasing them in music production shops. During the socialist period, the musicians and the artists were subject to censorship by the Press Security Board and Central Regisration Board, as well as laws such as the State Protection Law, also during this era the arrival of the different groups like the powerful Thabawa Yinthwenge (the wild ones), the leading composer Sai Htee Saing, an ethnic Shan in 1973, made the way for ethnic minority musicians to gain visibility in the Burmese music industry and Sai Kham Leik is well known as a singer.

In 1988, uprising limit loosened several artists started writing music with themes of freedom and democracy, however, after the State Law and Order Restoration Council seize power in 1988, the Press Security Board was changed to censor specific political and social issues, which include the poverty, the sex trade, democracy and human rights. The Myanmar music Asiayon (MMA) was created by the SLORC to further censor Burmese produced music. The famous musicians include the Zaw Win Htut and Sai Htee Saing has produced propaganda albums written by the military officers like Mya Than San.

The hip pop and rap joined in the late 1990 and is now the main genre of music among the Burmese youths today, the groups such as iron Cross, Emperor and BigBag are famous among the middle aged and some orchestras of youth. There are hip pop enthusiasts all over the country with artists like Ye Lay, Sai Sai, and J-me, thus there are several underground rock, inferior and metal core groups like All Else I Fail, Last Day of Bethoven, Yakkadeva, Temper level VIII, Tha Ta Lin Chate, Idiots, Offkeys etc. The occurrence of Burmese cover songs (particularly from the Asia nowadays) has led to the adoption of the copy tune and own tune to describe the coming of a song’s melody.

The current year’s inferior groups has been growing in popularity in Burma, just like several other southeast Asian nations, the modelling from 70s and 80s classic western inferior groups, Burmese inferior groups show a musical defiance that has not been seen before in Burma.

The new website that have popped up in the current year like Myanmar X-groups have been giving attention to the Burmese inferior scene along with other alternative Burmese music. The site has developed into a hub for artists to display their group side affected and turned to rising of funds on IndeGoGo to release their albums. However, other famous Burmese inferior groups like No Uturn or Rebel Riot has turned to self-releasing their demos on famous download sites like MySpace and Reverb Nation.