Cambodian pop music rebounds after Khmer Rouge
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In the 1960s, Cambodia enjoyed a flourishing pop music scene with singers like Sinn Sisamouth becoming national icons, but the Khmer Rouge regime of the 1970s violently ended this era, killing nine out of ten professional musicians.
Despite this devastation, Cambodian pop music has experienced a significant revival. Ethnographer Stephen Mamula observed a “musical vitality” in Phnom Penh between 2004 and 2006, noting the widespread availability of CDs and the role of television in circulating both traditional and popular music.
Contemporary musicians rebuilt the music scene by using surviving cassette recordings of older songs from the 1950s and 1960s as inspiration. Cambodia Television Network broadcast covers of these older songs alongside traditional Cambodian music like pin peat and mohori (court and folk ensembles respectively). Artists such as Preap Sovath, a popular singer, have blended various genres including folk, disco, and rap, performing on shows like Best of the Best which featured imitative interpretations of Western musical styles.
However, Mamula found that modern Cambodian pop music, while broad in style, lacks the compositional depth and creative blending of influences that characterized the golden age. Musicians in the 1960s uniquely combined Khmer heritage with Western genres like French cabaret and bossa nova.
Mamula believes the Khmer Rouge’s genocide disrupted the transmission of musical knowledge and skill from one generation to the next, but remains optimistic that mass media will help Cambodian musicians reconnect with their musical past and create a unique cultural identity.
