Decline of Traditional Burmese Music
The Los Angeles Times reported from Yangon: “U Tin cut his teeth as a musician playing Burmese folk songs for silent movies, which in this time warp of a country remained popular well into the 1950s. The 80-year-old recalls the challenge of playing guitar, watching the conductor and looking at the screen simultaneously, four shows a day. Periodically they'd mess up the sound effects, leaving the audience to wonder why a bang occurred well after the gunfight ended. "Some of the band leaders were quite drunk, particularly by the late show," he said. "But we managed." [Source: Los Angeles Times, December 26, 2010 ]
“Today, he sits on his well-worn floor surrounded by memories and his beloved string instruments lined up like sleeping maidens. With minimal encouragement, he grabs a sort of battered hubcap attached to a cricket bat, his homemade banjo, and croons a folk song about a girl from Yangon worried about keeping her skin fair. It's not about to top the pop charts, and that's part of the problem. U Tin is among the last of a breed of traditional musicians in Myanmar, who are steadily dying off, and along with them, their songs.
“Traditional music's association with the often brutal military regime, not to mention the rising popularity of Korean pop and hip-hop, has undermined its popularity. The music is distinctly old-fashioned, its simple instrumentation overlaid with vocals that evoke great pathos and melancholy. "The younger generation is no longer interested," U Tin said. "If the music is lost, Myanmar will lose a piece of its soul."
Nowadays, one of the few ways folk musicians can earn money is occasionally playing in hotel lobbies for tourists who don't understand the tradition. "They may not understand, but at least they appreciate it," U Tin said. "That's more than you can say for many Burmese."