That is to preserve traditional materials but change the way of storytelling, turning folk songs from exploited objects into musical languages bearing personal imprints.
Do not repeat a formula of success
Vu tru co bay" was once an important turning point in Phuong My Chi's career. The album released in 2023 helped the female singer escape the limits of the "folk girl" image, and at the same time proved that seemingly familiar materials still have the ability to reach young audiences when placed in a new musical structure. But success also creates another pressure.
When an artist already owns a formula that is well-received by the public, continuing to use that formula is often much safer than starting over. For Phuong My Chi, the easiest thing after "The Flying Star Universe" is probably to continue to choose literary works, folk materials, coordinate with pop, electronics and then build strong visual products.
But it can be seen that "Folk Players" shows that she and DTAP did not choose like that.
The album still has 10 songs, still taking tradition as the foundation, but the creative focus has shifted. If "The Flying Star Universe" takes the audience into the world of Vietnamese literature, the new project goes through many cultural regions to tell a story closer to the life of a young girl herself: vibrations, choices, love, challenges, attachment and even heartbreak.
This change is important because Phuong My Chi does not give up what created her identity, but also does not let that identity become a mold.
When folk songs become a language of storytelling
The most notable point of "Folk Players" is not the amount of traditional materials included in the album.
The project goes through Phu Tho Xoan singing, Xam singing, Thai folk songs, Thai Xoe, Hue folk songs, cai luong - classical opera, Khmer culture of the South and many other musical materials. The crew also invited People's Artist Bach Tuyet, People's Artist Thanh Ngoan and artisans and researchers to participate as consultants.
But if you only gather many heritages into one album, the product can easily become a "cultural display". The difference of Phuong My Chi lies in the way she finds a thread to connect them as people.
From North to South, from mountains to plains, different cultural spaces are placed into the emotional journey of the female character. Traditional materials are therefore not separately for listeners to recognize that this is Xam, that is Cai Luong or Hue folk songs, but participate in the way the character loves, is sad, chooses and grows up.
Most of the story told from the first person also changed Phuong My Chi's position.
She no longer stands outside to "introduce culture" to the audience. She steps inside, becoming a person living in those stories.
With "Folk Players", Phuong My Chi's answer is first of all love and youth.
The album title also reflects this approach. "Folk Player" can be both understood as people "playing" folk songs together, and evokes the image of someone who is knowledgeable enough to step into the folk world and be creative with it.
The wordplay is somewhat mischievous, but behind it is a not small problem for young artists: making culture without turning the product into a lesson, maintaining respect for tradition but not making creativity become reserved.
The establishment of a professional advisory council shows that the crew understands that boundary. With an album exploiting many communities and art forms, creative freedom needs to go hand in hand with the process of understanding the origin, context and spirit of the material.
More importantly, Phuong My Chi is gradually building a clear enough line between projects.
At the age of 23, she did not run away from folk music to prove herself to be modern. On the contrary, she sought to expand folk music to contain the world of a young artist.
This is a noteworthy choice in the context that the Vietnamese music market is constantly changing according to short-term hits and social media trends.
