Vietnamese singers don’t do “singles”
Sunday, April 25, 2010 (GMT+7)
A single (a disk recording only 1-2 songs) has proven very popular in the international music industry but it was imported into Vietnam very late. In 2002, the ‘single’ was warmly welcomed by Vietnamese singers but now has been all but “boycotted”.
Originally, singles were used “advertisements” or “promotional products”, and were released before singers issued their newest album. This introduced the best songs of new albums. Musicians develop among brutal competition and singers cannot wait to have ten or more songs to produce an album, so singles have become the popular choice to introduce their latest songs.
The advantages of singles have been proven internationally. Firstly, It is easier and faster to release a single than an album. Singles are the best and the shortest way to advertise new ,hopefully, hit songs. For the public, singles satisfy fans’ demand for a the latest hit song. In addition, the price for a single is just a half of a normal disk with ten songs.
My Tam and "Student guitar" single.
Since the first selection of the best single in 1952, they have become a trend in the countries with a developed music industry. Some singles have brought fame to singers, for example Britney Spears’ Baby One More Time sold many copies.
In Vietnam, My Tam and Thanh Thao were the pioneers who issued singles in 2002, including “Student guitar”, “Early Morning of Love” and “Love at First Sight”. These first singles were very successful, encouraging other singers and producers to invest in singles. It was these singles that helped some young singers become new stars.
However, this trend doesn’t seem to be long lasting. The number of singles produced has declined in the next three years. Sometimes a single was released for charity or to deliver propaganda messages, for example songwriter Minh Khang’s “The child” single to raise fund for orphans, singers My Linh and Carlos Carosa’s “For a world of tomorrow” to raise fund for the poor, Ho Quynh Huong’s “Ho Chi Minh Song” to celebrate President Ho Chi Minh’s birthday or My Linh’s “Singing for the Green Planet” to call for protection of the environment.
What has happened for singles in Vietnam?
A simple reason is Vietnamese singles went in a wrong way. My Tam’s “Early Morning of Love” single had three songs which are completed different from each other. It was like a “shortened” album, not a single produced in the traditional way. Finally, the successful song in this single is not the theme song “Early Morning of Love” but another song.
Other singers produced singles just to introduce their new songs, not to advertise for the upcoming albums. Industry leaders wonder if perhaps audiences are simply too lazy to change the disks after only 1-2 songs. Singles are also “victims” of piracy. Buying one pirated disk, the audience can enjoy ten songs collected from several singles.
It seems that singers don’t want to produce singles anymore.
Vietnamnet