Thai folk music, Mor Lam and Luk Thung

Mor Lam and Luk Thung are the two main styles of Thai folk music.

The Mor Lam (in Thai หมอลำ)

It is the main traditional music of Issan, the northeastern region of Thailand (bordering Laos). It includes several regional variations and modern forms.

Mor lam originated between Laos and Isan, although its origins likely stem from the musical traditions of the historic Tai tribes who migrated south from China.

There has been much crossover with indigenous music, Chinese, Mon-Khmer and Indian and Malay influences which have also had a marked effect on the dances, instruments and melodies of mor lam .

Since the late 1970s, it has been performed more often outside of Issan thanks to migrant workers in Bangkok .

Many mor lam also sing the luk thung of central Thailand, and have produced the hybrid form "luk thung Issan" .

The traditional instruments of Mor Lam are:

• the khène: a mouth organ, composed of about fourteen bamboo tubes;
• the Nimp: a lute, normally with three strings;
• the Ching: small bells that look like cymbals;
• the pan flute, and the tambourines.

Most modern artists now use at least some electric instruments, most often a keyboard configured to sound like a Farfisa (organ style) and electric guitars.

Other Western instruments are also becoming popular, such as the saxophone and drums.

Example of mor lam:

Luk thung (in Thai ลูกทุ่ง)

Literally "luk thung" means "child of the fields," and is the most popular form of Thai "country music."

This term is an abbreviation for "Pleng luk thung" (in Thai เพลงลูกทุ่ง – song of a child of the fields).

These songs are a testimony to the hard daily work of the poor peasants.

The tempo is slow, and the singers tend to use expressive singing based on many vibratos.

This style developed in the first half of the 20th century, although the term luk thung was not used until the 1960s.

Ponsri Woranut and Suraphon Sombatjalern were the first stars of the genre, mixing Latin American, Japanese, Indonesian, Malaysian and, in particular, American film songs and country music influences.

luk thung stars hail from the city of Suphanburi, such as megastar Pumpuang Duangjan, who adapted the luk thung from 1980s Thai pop the string ) by creating a dance music called electronic lunk thung .

When Pompuang died in 1992, many thought that luk thung would pass with her. This was not the case, and with the creation of the first radio station dedicated to lunk thung in 1997, the style came back in force.

Example of Luk Thung music:

The mixture of genres

Since the 1990s there have been many interactions between luk thung string music ( Thai pop ) and mor lam .

Thong artists began singing luk thung, luk thung singers increasingly came to be seen as pop singers, with a clear emphasis on youth and physical appearance.

Mor lam produced a new genre called luk thung Isan or luk thung Prayuk , which incorporates the faster rhythms of mor lam .

Source: Wikipedia