When the Khmer Rouge came to power in 1975, artists were among those viewed as a threat to the regime's agrarian socialist vision, and several of the performers on the album are believed to have been among those killed during the ensuing Cambodian genocide of 1975–1979.

[1] The Khmer Rouge regime, led by Pol Pot, wanted to return the nation of Cambodia to an idyllic notion of the past by implementing a radical form of agrarian socialism while simultaneously shunning outside aid and influence.

[2] To build and protect their utopian goals, the regime perceived enmity in anyone tied to the previous Cambodian governments, ethnic and religious minorities, intellectuals, and members of certain professions.

[4] When re-issued in 2003, reviewer Mack Hagood criticized Parallel World for reifying its bootleg status by retaining the anonymous track list rather than working to look for surviving artists or their families, who would likely benefit greatly from royalties.

[9] The recordings reflect the influence of Western rock and pop music in general and that of the United States in particular due to its heavy involvement in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War.

[1][4][5][12][13][14] Several reviews describe the uncanny quality of the songs using words like "mystery" and "familiarity", to help account for the album's wide appeal at the time of its release when such compilations were less common.

[1] Reviewers also noted similarities between Sinn Sisamouth's "Srolanh Srey Touch" and Santana's cover of Fleetwood Mac's "Black Magic Woman".

[17] As a solo artist in the 1960s he performed with a rock band rather than traditional wind instrument backing, experimenting with combining Khmer music with Western sounds.

[17][23] Under the Khmer Rouge, she was allegedly forced to perform for political leaders and to marry a party official, though accounts of her fate differ and no specifics have been confirmed.

[1] Nick Hanover called it an "unpredictably playful" mix with "each track ... a continuous surprise, a fusion of elements that should be contradictory but somehow strike a balance of West and East – organ hooks swerving between fierce guitar riffs that antagonize vocals that frequently sound closer to ghostly siren wails than traditional pop melodies".

[4][15][25] Like Paul Wheeler, Dengue Fever founding member Ethan Holtzman discovered the 1960s–70s music while traveling in Cambodia and formed the band upon his return to California.

Eventually, he tracked down material to create Don't Think I've Forgotten, a 2015 documentary about pre-Khmer Rouge Cambodian music which takes its name from a Sinn Sisamouth song.