Cambodian rock (1960s–1970s)
Due to its unique sounds and the tragic fate of many of its performers, the Cambodian rock scene has attracted the interest of music historians and record collectors, and the genre gained new popularity upon the international release of numerous compilation albums starting in the late 1990s.
[8][13] Sisamouth was also instrumental in launching the career of Ros Serey Sothea, who had been singing at weddings and quickly became the leading female singer in the Cambodian rock scene after her emergence in 1967.
[14] Sothea was also one of many female singers in the rock scene to utilize the traditional "ghost voice" Cambodian singing technique, featuring a high register with quick jumps among octaves, creating an effect that has been compared to yodeling.
[14] In a reflection of her popularity with the Cambodian people, Sothea was honored by Head of State Norodom Sihanouk with the royal title of Preah Reich Theany Somlang Meas, the "Queen with the Golden Voice".
[17] She became a popular singer as well, known particularly for highly personal lyrics that subverted the social expectations placed on Khmer women,[18] and a melancholic voice that Sihanouk compared to Édith Piaf.
[4][20][21] In March 1970, Sihanouk was deposed by the Cambodian National Assembly and replaced by military leader Lon Nol,[22] thus forming the right-wing, pro-American Khmer Republic.
[26] The Khmer Republic's increased relations with the United States, plus the prevalence of U.S. Armed Forces Radio that had been broadcast to troops in nearby South Vietnam and could be picked up in Phnom Penh, allowed new musical influences to infiltrate the Cambodian rock scene.
[10][29] Pou Vannary, unusually for a female singer in the genre, was also an instrumentalist who could accompany herself on acoustic guitar in the mode of an American singer-songwriter, displaying a vocal style that was much more relaxed and intimate than her contemporaries.
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.
[36] In order to build and protect their utopian goals, the Khmer Rouge perceived enmity in anyone tied to the previous Cambodian governments, ethnic and religious minorities, intellectuals, and members of certain professions.
[4] Other musicians like Pen Ran, Yol Aularong, and Pou Vannary simply disappeared sometime between 1975 and 1979 with no information available about their fates, as is the case with most of the ordinary Cambodians who perished during the genocide.
For example, Drakkar guitarist Touch Chhatha was among many professional musicians who were forced to play traditional and patriotic music every day to Khmer Rouge troops.
[4] The only Cambodian rock records to survive were the few that citizens managed to hide in personal collections, and many of those were damaged to the point at which artist names or song titles had been lost.
[44] Vietnam launched a full-scale military invasion of Cambodia in December 1978[45] and captured Phnom Penh the following month, thus ending the Khmer Rouge regime and the Cambodian genocide.
[49][50] The post-Khmer Rouge government made specific moves to re-establish the country's radio industry, allowing surviving singers and musicians to resume their careers by creating new entertainment content.
[49] For example, Drakkar drummer Ouk Sam Art and guitarist Touch Chhatha were able to return to music work at Cambodia's national radio station.
[15] In the ensuing years, fans of Cambodian rock music found and reproduced the few records and master tapes that survived the chaos of the Khmer Rouge regime.
[49] A black market in remixed and reprinted works by popular but now-deceased (and some still-living) musicians developed, with little regard for intellectual property rights, which were not enforced in Cambodia until 2003.
[12] This unauthorized marketplace allowed Cambodian rock songs to remain popular well into the 1990s; original and authentic master recordings are highly sought by collectors and preservationists, though few are known to have survived the Khmer Rouge regime.
[11][54][56] Wheeler made no effort to discover the song titles or the names of the artists, and Cambodian Rocks was released with no supporting information, thus giving it the appearance of a bootleg.
"[57] Further illustrating the unique nature of the music to Western ears, writer Nick Hanover called the album "a continuous surprise, a fusion of elements that should be contradictory but somehow strike a balance of West and East.
[9][55][57][60] The 2002 film City of Ghosts, a crime thriller that takes place in Cambodia, featured songs by Sinn Sisamouth, Pen Ran, Ros Serey Sothea, Meas Samon, and Chhuon Malay on its soundtrack.
[61] American filmmaker John Pirozzi, a production assistant for City of Ghosts, was given a copy of Cambodian Rocks while working in the country and decided to research the musicians on the album and their fates at the hands of the Khmer Rouge.
[66] After ten years of research in conjunction with Cambodian-born artist and sociology professor LinDa Saphan, Pirozzi completed the documentary Don't Think I've Forgotten in 2015, featuring in-depth profiles of many of the Cambodian rock scene's most influential performers.
[72] In 2001, the brothers formed the band Dengue Fever with Cambodian-born Chhom Nimol, who had previously been a well-known singer in her native country before emigrating to the United States.
"[14] Cambodian-American singer Bochan Huy is one of a new generation of musicians from that culture who are revisiting 1960s–1970s Cambodian rock with the goal of preserving the music and addressing its troubled history.
[80] Singer-songwriter Sin Setsochhata, a granddaughter of Sinn Sisamouth, has gained international notice for combining Cambodian rock influences with modern pop sounds.
