Popular Music of Vietnam: The Politics of Memory & Economics of Forgetting - Routledge Ethnomusicology Study | Perfect for Music Scholars, Cultural Researchers & Southeast Asian Studies

book is way too expensive: it's is pretty much a compiling of singers. his engagement of the music and vietnam is limited and done so through translators and translation. i think he should have invested more time in learning the language, cultural immersion, and establishing a better relationship with the community before he pursue his research, because it reflects in his superficial presentation of the pop music life in HCMC. his project is overly invested in tourist sites such as over-pricde night clubs in the 1st district. moreover, if the bulk of his project is to compile singers background info, then Dam Vinh Hung should have in it. --Also need to include more stuff dealing with transnational, gender, and race politics.that being said, Olson is brave and attempting to do what that many people has no done. he's dealing with the music that more contemporary. Jason Gibbs publish an article on VN rock music not to long ago, but mostly the scholarship on VN pop music in English needs to be updated. in the diaporic community, only a few have published stuff on VN music or music related...Reyes, Phong Nguyen, Deborah Wong... it's a shame that Valverde never turned her dissertation into a book. wish there was more action.