Southeast Asian Folk Music

Southeast Asian folk music gathers the rural and small-town song traditions of Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Myanmar and the Philippines: village repertoires carried by singers with lutes, fiddles, flutes and percussion ensembles, and the popular folk styles that grew from them in the recording era. Javanese kroncong and langgam, Thai luk thung and molam, Filipino kundiman-derived folk song and Vietnamese quan ho singing differ widely in sound, but share strophic song forms, local-language storytelling and themes of courtship, labor, migration and home. Artists such as *Gesang*, *Waljinah* and *Pumpuang Duangjan* turned regional styles into national popular music.