Vietnamese music: a beginner's guide

Vietnamese music covers several very different worlds: centuries-old folk and court traditions, sentimental bolero ballads from the mid-20th century, and today's V-pop, rap and indie scenes. The easiest way in is to pick one of those worlds, listen to a handful of songs and branch out from there.

This guide gives you a simple map so the different names you hear start to make sense.

What are the main styles of Vietnamese music?

Think of Vietnamese music in five broad families:

• Traditional and folk music: village songs, work songs, lullabies and regional singing styles, often with traditional instruments.
• Court and theater music: music from the old royal court in Huế and from stage forms like chèo, tuồng and cải lương.
• Bolero and older popular ballads: slow, emotional songs that became popular in the South in the 1950s and 1960s.
• Nhạc Trịnh and songwriter ballads: poetic songs, especially those of the composer Trịnh Công Sơn.
• V-pop, rap and indie: modern popular music, heavily shaped by YouTube and streaming.

These are loose groupings. Plenty of modern artists mix them, and the boundaries are blurry on purpose.

Traditional and folk music

Vietnam has many regional folk styles. In the North, quan họ is a form of call-and-response love singing associated with Bắc Ninh province. Ca trù is an older chamber style with a female singer, a long-necked lute and a percussion player. In the South, đờn ca tài tử grew out of amateur musicians playing together at gatherings.

Both quan họ and ca trù are recognized by UNESCO as intangible cultural heritage. If you want to go deeper, read Vietnamese folk music: quan họ, ca trù and more.

The instruments are a big part of the sound. The đàn bầu, a one-string instrument that bends notes with a flexible rod, is probably the most recognizable. There is a full guide to traditional Vietnamese music and instruments.

Bolero and nhạc vàng

Vietnamese bolero is slow, melodic and unashamedly sentimental. The songs are about lost love, homesickness, poverty and separation. Bolero is part of a wider body of pre-1975 Southern popular music often called nhạc vàng, literally "yellow music."

After 1975, much of this music was discouraged inside Vietnam for years, while it stayed popular in overseas Vietnamese communities. Today it is widely loved again and is a fixture of karaoke nights. See what Vietnamese bolero music is for the full story.

Nhạc Trịnh: the poet-songwriter tradition

Trịnh Công Sơn wrote hundreds of songs with gentle melodies and dreamlike, philosophical lyrics about love, time and loss. His work is often just called nhạc Trịnh ("Trịnh music"). Many singers have recorded it, and it is a good choice if you like quiet, acoustic songs where the words matter.

V-pop, rap and indie

Modern Vietnamese pop, or V-pop, draws on Western pop, K-pop, EDM, R&B and, increasingly, Vietnamese folk sounds. Sơn Tùng M-TP is one of the best-known names, and his music videos regularly draw huge view counts on YouTube.

Vietnamese rap has grown fast too. A televised competition called Rap Việt helped bring many rappers to a mainstream audience, and artists like Đen (often called Đen Vâu) are known for laid-back, storytelling lyrics.

There is also a lively indie and singer-songwriter scene. If you want a gentle entry point, read what V-pop is and then try the V-pop starter playlist guide.

Where can you listen to Vietnamese music?

• YouTube is the center of the scene. Official music videos usually premiere there.
• Spotify and Apple Music have large Vietnamese catalogs and curated playlists.
• Zing MP3 is a popular Vietnamese streaming service.
• Karaoke channels on YouTube show lyrics on screen, which is handy for learners.

Search in Vietnamese with diacritics where you can, because song titles are often only listed that way.

Tips for learners

Music is a good way to tune your ear to Vietnamese tones. Songs bend tones to fit melodies, so do not treat lyrics as pronunciation lessons, but they help with vocabulary and rhythm.

• Start with slow songs. Bolero and nhạc Trịnh are easier to follow than fast rap.
• Turn on lyrics. Many videos have Vietnamese subtitles.
• Pick one song and listen to it repeatedly until you can sing the chorus.
• Notice the Northern and Southern accents of different singers. It is a free accent lesson.

If you only try one thing this week, pick a single style from this list, search for a well-known song in that style and listen with the lyrics on screen.