Yellow Music is a genre of

popular music Popular music is music with wide appeal that is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. These forms and styles can be enjoyed and performed by people with little or no musical training.Popular Music. (2015). ''Fu ...

. The term has been used in China and

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making ...

to describe types of music that have separate origins.

China

Yellow Music () or Yellow Songs () was a label used to describe early generations of Chinese popular music in Shanghai, China during the 1920s to 1940s; the color yellow is associated with eroticism and sex in the country, since 黄, huáng, the Mandarin character for "yellow", also means "erotic". The

Communist Party of China The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), officially the Communist Party of China (CPC), is the founding and sole ruling party of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Under the leadership of Mao Zedong, the CCP emerged victorious in the Chinese Ci ...

saw pop music as sexually indecent and labeled the

C-pop C-pop is an abbreviation for Chinese popular music (), a loosely defined musical genre by artists originating from mainland China,Hong Kong and Taiwan (the Greater China region). This also includes countries where Chinese languages are used by ...

genre as such.Jones. Andrew F. 001(2001). Yellow Music – CL: Media Culture and Colonial Modernity in the Chinese Jazz Age. Duke University Press. These restrictions prompted many Shanghai artists to flee to Hong Kong, where it reached its height in the 1950s until the late 1960s, when it was displaced by Mandarin-languaged Taiwanese pop (and later by

Cantopop Cantopop (a contraction of "Cantonese pop music") or HK-pop (short for "Hong Kong pop music") is a genre of pop music written in standard Chinese and sung in Cantonese. Cantopop is also used to refer to the cultural context of its production ...

). The term was used continually up to the

Cultural Revolution The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a sociopolitical movement in the People's Republic of China (PRC) launched by Mao Zedong in 1966, and lasting until his death in 1976. Its stated goa ...

. By the early 1980s, however, Yellow Music could be performed again.

Vietnam

Yellow Music (''Nhạc vàng'') refers to music produced in

South Vietnam South Vietnam, officially the Republic of Vietnam ( vi, Việt Nam Cộng hòa), was a state in Southeast Asia that existed from 1955 to 1975, the period when the southern portion of Vietnam was a member of the Western Bloc during part of th ...

during the Vietnam War and also referring to its flag being mostly yellow, named in opposition to "Red Music" ('' Nhạc đỏ'') endorsed by the Communist government of

North Vietnam North Vietnam, officially the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV; vi, Việt Nam Dân chủ Cộng hòa), was a socialist state supported by the Soviet Union (USSR) and the People's Republic of China (PRC) in Southeast Asia that existed f ...

during the era of the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...

. The genre contained topics and characteristics considered decadent and was banned in 1975, with those caught listening to it punished, and their music confiscated. Most Yellow Music has been associated with the

bolero Bolero is a genre of song which originated in eastern Cuba in the late 19th century as part of the trova tradition. Unrelated to the older Spanish dance of the same name, bolero is characterized by sophisticated lyrics dealing with love. It has ...

genre. After the

Fall of Saigon The Fall of Saigon, also known as the Liberation of Saigon by North Vietnamese or Liberation of the South by the Vietnamese government, and known as Black April by anti-communist overseas Vietnamese was the capture of Ho Chi Minh City, Saigon, t ...

, many Vietnamese artists emigrated to the United States to pursue their careers and industry there instead. The ban on Yellow Music was lightened in 1986, but by then the music industry had ceased to exist. In the 1990s, Vietnam's Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism promoted the "nhạc xanh" genre (literally "green music", which refers to music for young generations) to divert people from listening to yellow music, but with little success.Taylor, Philip. tr 150–154. At the beginning of the 21st century, various yellow music concerts were held in Vietnam. In August 2010, two singers –

Hương Lan Hương Lan, real name Trần Thị Ngọc Ánh (Saigon , population_density_km2 = 4,292 , population_density_metro_km2 = 697.2 , population_demonym = Saigonese , blank_name = GRP (Nominal) , blank_info ...

and

Tuấn Vũ Nguyễn Văn Tài (born 16 December 1959), stage name Tuấn Vũ, is a Vietnamese singer. Biography Tuấn Vũ was born in Bình Thuận Province, Vietnam. He migrated to the US in 1979 and settled in San Francisco, California. He then f ...

– performed at the

Hanoi Opera House The Hanoi Opera House (french: Opéra de Hanoï), or the Grand Opera House ( vi, Nhà hát lớn Hà Nội, french: Grand Opéra) is an opera house in central Hanoi, Vietnam. It was erected by the French colonial administration between 1901 and 191 ...

for half a month.Trần Củng Sơn. ''Một thoáng 26 năm''.

San Jose, CA San Jose, officially San José (; ; ), is a major city in the U.S. state of California that is the cultural, financial, and political center of Silicon Valley and largest city in Northern California by both population and area. With a 2020 po ...

: Hương Quê, 2011. Trang 474-7.

References

{{Reflist C-pop Chinese words and phrases Vietnamese music Culture of South Vietnam

China

Vietnam

See also

References