Showing 1 - 10 of 13
Mourning three legends
Life, John Clewley, Published on 13/08/2019
» Three legends died recently, each one of whom made important and distinctive contributions to their own musical cultures -- molam producer and impresario Theppabutr Satirodchompu, South African musician and bandleader Johnny Clegg, and New Orleans songwriter, pianist and bandleader Art Neville.
Viral clicks that rocked the boat
News, Anucha Charoenpo, Published on 29/12/2018
» In the year 2018, netizens widely used their Facebook pages and other social media platforms to scrutinise matters of public interest ranging from politics and crimes to social issues.
'My country's got' these socio-political ills
News, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 02/11/2018
» The explosive Rap Against Dictatorship music video that has taken Thailand by storm has raised myriad socio-political questions and issues. Known in Thai as Prathet Ku Mee, the sensational music video has been viewed on YouTube more than 25 million times in just 10 days in a country of 69 million people, a feat in its own right and a record for its artistic kind in Thailand. How this five-minute rap song in the Thai language has done so much says a lot about where Thailand has been and where it is going.
Call off rap song probe
News, Editorial, Published on 30/10/2018
» Just as the sun rises every day, the Royal Thai Police and its Technology Crime Suppression Division (TCSD) were predictably quick to pounce on the flash-mob popularity of song sensations Rap Against Dictatorship (RAD).
The kids are all right
News, Alan Dawson, Published on 28/10/2018
» Prathet Ku Mee is no slapped-together concert song. It wasn't made, so much as crafted. The accusatory lyrics are set against the shameful, hovering background of the 1976 dictators' massacre at Thammasat University. The rap song's finale brings the background image of the hanged, beaten student to the front of the picture, before fading out to the hopeful message, "All people unite".
Cops mull charges against viral rap stars
News, Post Reporters, Published on 28/10/2018
» The Royal Thai Police's Technology Crime Suppression Division (TCSD) will conclude within a few days whether an explosively popular rap song perceived to take aim at the military government breaches the Computer Crime Act, the deputy spokesman of the agency said yesterday.
Police threaten young rappers
News, Published on 27/10/2018
» Controversy over a music video, "Prathet Ku Mee" (What My Country's Got), which has been perceived as an attack on the military government, is heating up after police threatened to take legal action against the artists and the production team.
Walls close in on free press
News, Editorial, Published on 06/04/2018
» With news reports and commentaries swapping between praising and criticising the ruling regime, most mainstream media staff survive direct state intimidation. But two senior journalists recently ran foul of the junta.
Peak army
News, Alan Dawson, Published on 29/10/2017
» We have seen Thais come together so many times, but never like that.
First they came for those who 'twerk'
News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 17/06/2017
» The police this week visited several cultural spaces, to appreciate the art and to mete out censorship. Next they'll give out art prizes -- to those who toe the line and serve the official ideology -- like the propagandistic communist states did in the last century.