Musician Quoc Trung has a frank and overview perspective on the current Vietnamese music market. Accordingly, Vietnamese music has had positive changes, but still needs more to break through.
Musician Quoc Trung has experience as the organizer and main director of the Muoi Muoi International Music Festival for many years.
Vietnamese artists do not have a global influence
With the show Anh trai say hi held a concert in the US on July 26-27, how do you evaluate the performance industry and the model of organizing music shows of Vietnamese stars when entering the world?
- In my opinion, this is a concert for overseas Vietnamese audiences in the US, with the influence of the program from Vietnam and the support of entertainment complexes in Las Vegas (USA) for Vietnamese customers.
Like other concerts at famous theaters organized by artists from Vietnam, the concerts are aimed at audiences who are overseas Vietnamese or have fans from Vietnam. That is not enough to assess that our performance industry has entered the world.
- To build a performing industry in the current Vietnamese music market, what do you think?
- The performance industry must be started with talents. When our artists do not have a global influence, even if they have millions of listens on digital music platforms, the market share of Vietnamese artists is still only in Vietnamese audiences.
Moreover, we still do not have any specific plans or strategies towards the international market, so it cannot be said that we are ready for this.
No success comes on its own if we do not try to surpass it.
- In your opinion, what additional factors do Vietnamese artists as well as Vietnamese music show organizers need and how much longer does it take for Vietnamese music to be able to step out into the world more?
- I am just a creative practitioner, an artist, no matter how experienced I am, but I am not an expert in cultural industry strategy planning to assess how long and how far it takes, but I know exactly what is needed.
We need a visionary strategy, a sustainable plan and a deep, broad determination to build a Vietnamese music industry capable of competing in the international market.
First of all, we must arouse great aspirations in the people who make music in the country. We also need at least 5 to 10 years to realize our aspirations.
The only formula is: Talent
- In your opinion, what trends and strategies should Vietnam learn from to move closer to international standards?
- No trends or shortcomings. To train top artistic talent in general or music in particular, it requires hard work, time and perseverance.
We need to learn the common processes and strategies of the world, apply them appropriately to the context and characteristics of Vietnam.
We still lack many managers and manufacturers with knowledge and experience working in international markets.
Recently, we have had some initial changes, but please don't rush to admit it, we need to learn more modestly.
- In your opinion, what factors are we lacking (in terms of production, human resources, technology, communication, management, etc.) to be able to compete internationally?
- I think we currently have almost all the necessary factors, even a little surplus in communication.
The only thing that is missing - and also the core - is top-notch musical talent, truly capable of competing in the international market.
People with experience in international cooperation all understand that they are also very generous in compliments, especially when coming to the Vietnamese market.
They are very good at winning the hearts of fans to bring them economic benefits.
But until they pay for our products, don't rush to accept the somewhat "geekish" compliments you receive about yourself.
- In your opinion, when coming to the world, how do Vietnamese artists need to affirm their identity?
- I feel that we are so obsessed with preserving Vietnamese identity that we forget that identity is a process created from musical personality and summarized by the talent and creativity of artists.
No artist in the world is successful without identity. So when we succeed, identity will appear.
Instead of thinking about identity like a child who is not strong enough and has to carry too many things on his shoulders, we need to clearly recognize: Finding identity without creativity and talent will not have success or identity.
And to have Vietnamese identity in the international arena, there needs to be a single formula, which is Tai Nang.
- Thank you for the musician's sharing.
