Much like classical music in Europe at the time, Thai classical music was and is generally reserved for and enjoyed by the upper classes. However, that of course didn’t stop the commoners from using their local instruments to create their own musical stylings. Often this is referred to as folk music. There are three major genres of Thai folk music: luk thung (ลูกทุ่ง), mor lam (หมอลำ) and kantrum (กันตรึม).
Luk Thung
The first time I heard luk thung (ลูกทุ่ง) was during Pre-Service Training (PST) in Suphan Buri when we took a field trip to the museum in the provincial capital. There were listening stations of various, popular luk thung artists. The term luk thung roughly translates to “song of a child of the fields,” since it generally refers to the everyday lives of the rural poor in Thailand. Luk thung developed in the early 20th century and gained popularity in the 1960s.
Luk thung tends to be slower with the vocalists using a lot of vibrato and could be compared to American country music, from which it draws a lot of influence, as well as Latin American, Japanese, Indonesian and Malaysian music. The early luk thung stars came from Suphan Buri, which is why there is a room dedicated to this kind of music in the museum there.
Recently luk thung has been electrified and made dance ready. Additionally it has been mixed with Thai string music and mor lam.
Check out this video of some classic luk thung music; it’s a song by Pongsri Woranuch from the 1950s:
Mor Lam
Of all the different kinds of Thai music, I probably hear mor lam (หมอลำ) the most, which is fitting since I live in Isaan and it is the dominant folk music here. Mor lam started as a singer interpreting poems and being accompanied by a khaen, or a mouth organ. Traditionally the melodies were flexible and fit to the tones of the words in the poem being performed. Now, mor lam ensembles include the khaen but also other electric instruments.
Mor lam was introduced to Siam in the 18th and 19th centuries as the kingdom began to extend its influence over Laos and what is currently the Northeastern region of Thailand. In 1865, performances of mor lam were banned and blamed for the drought. But as people from Isaan migrated across the country, they brought their music with them and it reached new heights of popularity in the 1970s and 1980s.
Contemporary performances of mor lam are really more just an incorporation of lam style music into pop music, but there are lots of different kinds of mor lam that are used for a variety of occasions.
Here is a video of a more contemporary mor lam performance:
Kantrum
Kantrum (กันตรึม) is a type of folk music that is played by the ethnic Khmer in Thailand. It’s a traditional dance music that is upbeat and fast. It’s played using the cho-kantrum, percussion, fiddles and a vocalist. What is most interesting about kantrum is that because the Khmer in Thailand are bilingual, the songs are often song with verses alternating languages, but sometimes will even switch languages in the same verse, which adds to the variety of words and tones that can be used.
Here’s a video of a kantrum performance: