SUMMARY
In this series documenting the MOLAM culture of the Esan people (Northeastern Thailand) and the international scam selling "an fake idea of it" to tourists. I describe how some people from Australia, Japan, France,Thailand and USA... manage their filthy business without any kind of respect and with very little clue about THE MOST IMPORTANT POPULAR MUSIC SCENE IN HISTORY!
Many album covers and photos from my personal archives as well as some fun videos illustrate and document each parts... None of the "self claimed specialists" of course ever showed any photos they took at molam concerts in Esan as they generally DON'T attend any!
Those scammers also never promoted live Esan music and never supported Esan musicians in any way! It's purely a business and there is no time for respect in such business. As you will notice, I don't have much respect for such people while I deeply respect Esan people and their amazing cultural Heritage!
Those scammers also never promoted live Esan music and never supported Esan musicians in any way! It's purely a business and there is no time for respect in such business. As you will notice, I don't have much respect for such people while I deeply respect Esan people and their amazing cultural Heritage!
ประเพณี ศิลปะ วัฒนธรรม มรดก อีสาน
Traditions, arts, cultures, Esan heritage!
This introduction feature for the first time a description of the molam scene. Nothing here is anywhere close to anything that spread in western medias during the last 10 years...
PART 2: THE GENESIS "HOLIDAY IN CAMBODIA"
How could a simple tourist despoiled the musical culture of the victims of the Khmer Rouge genocide, started a business selling and performing this music... An inspiring business.
PART 3: R.A.T.S IN JAPAN "EM records"
A duo of Japanese tourists offer their very own revisionist point of view on Esan music.
PART 4 PART 4: THE MISANTHROPE: "Dj MAFT SAI"
How could a man with no clue about Thai culture and music and no links with Esan people at all created an international scam business... And pretends to be the specialist of Esan music!
PART 5: BACK STABBING AT THE ZOO "peter doolan"
From blogger to human zoo promoter... How could some random amateur musicians became a tourist attraction.
PART 6: CTRL C / TRANSLATE / CTRL V: "james leonard mitchell"
A pioneering description of a pioneering university teacher selling a pioneering book...
PART 7: WHAT THE FUNK? "edouard degay delpeuch"
A self claimed "ethnomusicologist" offer "mindblowing" descriptions of his friends scamming business... Partner in crimes or fooled idiot?
VOCABULARY:
R.A.T.S: As there are many respectable westerners who documented music, I avoid any confusions and use the acronym for "Researchers on Asian Traditional Sound" to describe the self claimed specialists I mention here.
TOURISTA: As many surrealist terms such as "INSTRUMENTAL MOLAM" are used by scammers to describe the fake Esan music they produce, I suggest to call the distinctive "music" genre they sell TOURISTA. Tourista is the french word for "Traveler's diarrhea". As it basically smells like it, looks like it and sounds like it... As it's the kind of troubles tourists easily get in Thailand it's a perfect description and a good way to avoid confusion between molam and some simple minded crap for tourists!
Feel free to message me if you have any questions on the subject.
3 comments:
Hi Phatyamkan
Well, such label already exist, it's available to all and full of free music... it's named youtube. I haven't been to Shan state but sure they have some great music like everywhere in Myanmar (I'm more into Karen stuff). Lots of new and vintage Burmese music on youtube. I don't consider youtube to be the best option but right now, nothing is easier to use and that's how locals distribute and "consume" music. Most popular Southeast Asian musicians try to get rid of record companies... Burmese people stop to buy music since they can access smartphones. I saw lots of 1$ cd shops closing within 5 years.
If you want to sell music available for free online, you'll have to lie to people like those scammers I described and say "wow. look at what I found" and If you you want to sell it to more than 10 people you'll have to standardize it as much as possible like R.A.T.S do... Burmese music have little to no potential commercial audience outside of Myanmar and youtube already offer options to donate directly or via advertising on videos.
Yes, youtube is where i get 98% of my music these days. However, it's not the best platform for a number of reasons. Not even counting that it's owned by google, and there is NO permanence whatsoever, or the fact that things can be deleted, etc... Also, youtube has stopped being a reliable way for me to find new music. Their search algorithms are awful, and it is only getting worse everyday. There is also the fact that outside of locals, westerners dont seem to even look on youtube. also, none of the musicians i met made any money off of youtube, nor have i seen the option to donate to them.... that money goes to the people who upload their music on their profile and gain the benefit of advertising...im not going to suggest that any of these artists are "incredibly rare" (in fact, the artists we want to feature first are well known in both shan state and myanamr as a whole), but there is the fact that their early music (outside of the "famous" recordings) are difficult to find. i was able to find a few of the older cassettes, and played them back to some of the artists themselves. they havent heard these songs for years, or at least that's what they said. most shan people i played the older songs to (even one's on youtube from famous artists) never heard of them or had any idea it was the famous musicians who sung them...there is also the fact that many of the older recordings were recorded privately and distributed privately due to the political situation at the time. these are the type of recordings we want to focus on. mostly from the 1970s and 1980s.
trying to avoid the "scammer" part by being very open about the project itself. yes, the project will need money to exist. it is a way of life, unfortunately. it is not going to be the way i make money. i've reserved the fact that (unless it becomes very popular) that i will be loosing money this way. however, the best way is to release the music for free with donations that goes directly to the artists themselves, and make this very clear it's going to them directly. avoid the middleman that kept them from making any money at all in the past. each musician i spoke with never made any amount of money that was substantial at all. i already have contacts with most of the musicians already, and they seemed happy to participate. there will be a link to donate to the label itself as well, to pay for the back end of things such as costs of running site, various banking fees, taxes, etc... from sending money to the artists. our goal is not necessarily to make money (not to lose money is a goal tho!), but to find a way that will compensate these artist directly for their art. and hopefully it can become a platform for everyone to support the artists directly and, have a strong community to keep the project alive.
also, this music will likely have a lot of "westerners" interested. it's not "traditional" music (i hate that term, but i suppose you know what i mean). the problem is exposure. most westerners that i know only seem to get their music from western labels exploiting these artists for compilations, and a smaller amount go to blogs like yours. outside of that, i doubt many search on youtube.
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