~ Le Viêt Nam, aujourd'hui. ~
The Vietnam News

[Year 1997]
[Year 1998]
[Year 1999]
[Year 2000]
[Year 2001]

Radio revival

In a breathy, confiding voice, radio disc-jockey Huyen Thanh introduces the latest Vietnamese pop hit----a paean to motherhood. "Songs about mothers always move people's hearts, and that theme never grows old," she assures her audience. That's about as daring as it gets on Green Wave, an hour-long weekly radio show widely credited with setting the pace for Vietnamese musical tastes. Aired on the state-run Voice of Ho Chi Minh City People, the show is targeted at 15-25-year-olds. But while youth radio elsewhere in Asia thrives on banter, this show plays it straight. Songs promoting family values and nationalist loyalties mingle with lush ballads.

Since its launch in 1997, Green Wave has already accomplished its first mission: Weaning tender young ears from the melancholy pop churned out by overseas ethnic-Vietnamese singers. With their tremulous warbling to a plodding drumbeat and mournful guitar riffs, such singers were all the rage when Vietnam started to thaw in the late 1980s and early 1990s. There was nothing particularly subversive about the lyrics, but the downbeat mood and cultural dominance from overseas made officials twitchy. To steer listeners towards local pop, Green Wave found a hook: In a nation that dishes out culture from on high, it became the first radio station to invite audience participation. These days the show gets about 1,500 requests a week, and music-industry heavies credit the show with fuelling a boom in locally produced CDs and cassettes.

Now Green Wave has a new mission: Overcoming the stagnancy of the local pop scene. While Thanh, 32, tries to introduce new singers to the airwaves, her listeners keep requesting their favourites of four years ago. "Emotionally speaking, it takes time for listeners to change their idols," she says.

By Margot Cohen - The Far Eastern Economic Review - December 20, 2001.