hello so to buy nothing off me here oh
I’ll come down that dock near some home
way buddy oh okay okay okay you need
some energy so umm yes my name is Laura
ma’am I am Laura mom actually and I’m
gonna talk to you guys a little bit
about original music how many of you
like original music please raise your
hands
oh okay so a lot of you do and I want to
tell you a little bit about it because
I’ve had a very unique expect about it
but before I do that I kind of want to
talk about why it’s important and I hope
you guys really enjoy what I have to say
so what are the two things that tourists
know about Cambodia more than anything
else can anybody tell me what they know
Khmer Rouge what else do they know this
is the only thing people know about
Cambodia and it’s a sad thing because of
course it’s wonderful what we have we
have beautiful temples and we have this
terrible history with the Khmer Rouge
but we have more than that and this is
the thing that’s sad about this to me is
that this story is about loss suffering
sadness and devastation there’s nothing
positive about this story so I want to
challenge this story and I want the
reason I wanted to come out on Ted today
is because I want to challenge this
story because I think that there’s
something much more positive that’s
happening so I’m gonna tell you the same
story of Cambodia but I’m gonna tell it
to you in a totally different light
okay so let’s move to the next slide um
I was my mom here is she must be here
hey mommy can we get a home oh yeah my
yeah that’s my mommy all right so I was
born in America my parents were both
refugees they went through the entire
war it was a terrible time for them but
they got to America and they decided
they were going to thrive for me and my
brother so my mom didn’t teach me come
on this is why I gave pylon pilum all
the time but they didn’t teach me come
on because she was afraid I would have
an accent when I was in America and she
wanted me to be American she didn’t want
anybody to look at me and be like not an
American so she didn’t teach me but the
way that she kept me interested and the
way that she preserved identity of
Cambodia for me is by putting me in
kamae dancing and teaching having me go
to some kamae schooling I learned about
God call go go go all that good stuff
right but she pulled me aside one day
and she said to me Laura you’re an
American but you cannot forget
completely that your blood is kamae and
this one thing she said to me would kind
of change my life forever and it kind of
marked the entire narrative of my entire
life so far so what ended up happening I
don’t know if any many of you know this
but I didn’t plan to be a pop star in
Cambodia that was not my plan I was
planning to study dirt I wanted to be an
archaeologist I wanted to be a you know
digging up stuff finding stuff find a
pot and uncle Watt and that’s all I
wanted to do I had no plans and so after
college I went to UC Berkeley I studied
anthropology with a focus on Cambodian
history and this really made me fall in
love with Cambodia this is where I found
my passion for Cambodia and afterwards I
ended up going and basically joining an
NGO called global heritage fund and I
started working in preservation and
conservation but unfortunately I got
fired and that sucks because in 2008
we suffered some economic devastation in
America and basically my boss said Laura
I’m sorry I have to let you go because
there’s just no more money for you but I
feel so bad for you and I like your
YouTube videos I’m gonna give you a
three thousand
dollar check so you can go to Cambodia
and do your music and I was like sweet
okay cool
whatever I lost my job but maybe I’ll go
to Cambodia and see what happens things
went very well in Cambodia and I got to
become a part of this movement called
the original music movement and I got to
do all this fun stuff I went on all
these stages and I went to all these
different things and it was really
exciting and the original music movement
swept me up into this magical music
adventure that I’ve been on and
basically afterwards what I decided to
do is start a production label cut
bottom like how many of you know quaint
mines some homeboy yeah was my boys that
was me but I started a label and I
wanted to support other original artists
because we were struggling so I wanted
to I I want to tell you that you know
this movement is unique in Cambodia no
one else no other country has an
original music movement everybody just
has normal music every time I say
original music to a foreigner they’re
like what do you mean original music
it’s just us so I’m gonna tell you a
little bit about that history so that
you can understand it and you can
appreciate your artists more and I hope
what you get out of this conversation
that we have today is basically more
love more appreciation and more
excitement and hope when you think about
the exciting times of Cambodia through
the lens of original music so when we
started in Cambodia before we even
started during the Khmer Rouge they did
not allow any music how many of you know
this they did not allow any music that
didn’t support um gasps so with no music
that didn’t support the communist regime
but when they left this left this huge
void this huge void in Cambodia and you
guys were either babies at this time or
you were not yet around so but at this
time there was this massive void in
Cambodia and it was quite sad so they
had to fill it so people like rusty Hong
mia and all these productions that you
know and have known since you were a
young person they came in and they
filled the void what they did is they
kept covering old songs as a form of
preservation and as a form of keeping up
with the rest of society they started
copying songs how many of you have
listened to a
we saw what is your hand how many of you
liked a copied song okay hey so a few
right let’s be honest it did entertain
us but what ended up happening as a
result of this is that we ended up not
making any new music whatsoever and it
turned out because we had such high
levels of piracy in Cambodia no
copyright enforcement it became
impossible to make original music so
they didn’t support it whatsoever so
that’s what you get here we got say
close so take me to your heart Bridge
survive these are all these songs that
we know but this is how we stayed kept
up with some of them out of modernity
for me I didn’t understand this when I
was in the United States I saw both Navy
I saw these beautiful images of Sapir
very sweet my girls but I didn’t
understand it because I was watching
people like Lauryn Hill and she was
playing guitar and she was talking about
her generation and she was saying yeah
screw the man I’m gonna I’m gonna speak
up for my people and I loved it so what
ended up happening when I did come to
Cambodia is this I became the sweet
chick the nicer pip nice girl but I also
wanted to be the edgy Lauryn Hill I’m
gonna speak my voice and this is what
got me to come to Cambodia I kind of got
tired of saying to people I tried to
explain why don’t we have original music
I I couldn’t explain I had no
explanation so I had to come myself and
I decided to just go for it and find out
what’s going on so I came and I said to
people hey I want to do original music I
went to speak to a TV head and he said
Laura
nobody cares about original music and I
was like really because I don’t know
long people care about original music
and he’s like now they just care if your
face is pretty and I was like mm-hmm
okay so that made me angry so I was okay
forget it I’m not gonna even try on that
side I went to a production company and
I said ah Laura you’re separa monkey
cool I like it let’s do something
together I said okay my condition is
that we’re gonna do original music
I said look I cannot support you I
cannot support you doing original music
you must copy songs because I can’t fell
a disc at more than $1 50 so I can’t I
can’t get I can’t have you only doing
one album a year
what would I make I would make no money
I would close down tomorrow so I said
mmm I don’t want to be a part of this so
at that time the word I kept hearing is
it’s impossible it’s impossible to do
commode Cambodian original music but me
and a few other artists quite a few
other artists didn’t believe that so
what happened next was Facebook I love
Facebook how many of you use Facebook
how many people watch music off YouTube
yeah how many people love YouTube more
than Facebook see Hasse okay yeah that’s
cool um but it was this incredible thing
that happened when you guys were
starting to grow up so Facebook and
YouTube came and suddenly you didn’t
have to go to a TV station or you didn’t
have to go to a production and get put
out in a V CD or a DVD you didn’t have
to do that anymore you could just get
yourself up on the internet and you
could connect with any fan in Battambang
or Sam rip okuu punk school you could
connect and this changed everything this
brought out some of the artists that you
know and you love so this is where we
found people like ADA and Hank P do and
we had clap your hands doing hip-hop do
you guys remember these guys how many of
you love at home or if you love these
guys and I want to make a special note
how many of you know Mississippian raise
your hand yeah
how many of you love her some homeboy
okay missus appear did something really
revolutionary and she nobody no
newspaper or anybody has done anything
to say that what she did was cool she
was in the system she was a karaoke star
she was doing what she was told and at
this time she said no I’m gonna do
original music so she came out with all
lives first original album from what I
heard the company was upset they didn’t
want to support it they didn’t want want
to do it but she fought for it so
the next time you see mystics appear you
better love her a little bit more
because she fought for original music
she fought for her right to do it and
she said I’m gonna do it
so these revolutionary guys came out and
did some really really cool stuff and it
even gave me an American Cambodian a
chance to come here and connect with all
of you guys but it wasn’t enough we were
still struggling no one was calling us
for concerts or anything like that we
were making no money we’re very poor it
was very sad so what had to happen next
sponsors love sponsors give it up for
sponsors a bunch of sponsors came out
and started to support us and they
started to say hey you know what my
brand is international I’m Pepsi I can’t
take a copied song to pepsi regional
headquarters and if it’s copied I can’t
play that that’s not legal we follow
international standards so all of a
sudden I was like oh so you mean you can
support us right and he’s like mhm yeah
let’s start doing that I was like yeah
we’re good so it was really exciting
these guys came out and started
supporting it a lot of artists started
getting different things it kind of
ripped open the whole thing what it’s
signal to Cambodia was that you don’t
have to join a production anymore you
can do it yourself you can go out there
and talk to a sponsor by yourself build
yourself a PowerPoint presentation and
be like look it I’m awesome give me
money so so that happened but something
really major happened and that was smart
music so I want do you guys to
understand why smart music this is not a
promotion for smart music but I want you
to understand why it’s important smart
music came out and started to say
publicly and said hey if you’re an
original music artist I’m gonna give you
money I’m gonna give you money to make
your music nobody ever gave us money
nobody ever ever did if we did something
for anyone else we had to do a
commercial we had to do a jingle or
whatever here was a company I said I’m
gonna fund your music just put it up on
a streaming platform what did this do
this totally ripped open a hole in the
whole entire market and this is why you
guys all think original music is cool
because what happened was organic it
started from the ground and it came up
all these artists came out of nowhere
and now you know how many artists so
many artists because they had a chance
they had a chance to make some cash to
fund their music and
should go out and do some concerts so it
was really exciting when this all
happened what smart did also is bring
Jessie J and Demi lavato do you guys
remember Jessie J and Demi Lovato how
many of you went it was fun right and
who got to open the stage for Jessie J
in Demi Lovato that was me it was great
but it was not just me it was quite a
few more people and we got a chance to
show Cambodia and also get permission
from an international artist which is
very hard to do to open the stage for
them you need to get permission all the
way to Hollywood to get that and we did
that with them and it changed everything
for us because it was a national symbol
saying hey we’re getting started so our
movement was starting to get up there we
were getting sponsors we were starting
to go forward and then the public sector
and our government started to support us
too they put us alongside alex ikonn
Kenya and provide our legends
at the National Games opening and that
basically was a symbol
I believe it served as a symbol to say
to Cambodia yep we have our old legends
and we have our new people and they’re
both acceptable and that’s wonderful so
the public sector said actually the
ministry came out and said you know we
should have our own original music it’s
important we can’t just copy foreigners
we need our own identity it’s important
so that gave us a big fat push and
finally what happened next is we went on
the first all prevention it was a
provincial tour all original music I’m
not sure if you guys realize how
important this was before this you could
not get on a provincial stage if you
weren’t like a sexy girl doing something
for beer and doing karaoke it was a
monopoly we were not allowed in we were
not getting called but smart decided to
take us to the provinces and now let me
tell you the back story every marketing
agency in Cambodia said no one is gonna
come watch a bunch of YouTube kids
they’re not that good they’re whatever
why are you putting money why you’re
wasting money usually just put it over
here and that was what we were up
against so there was a lot of disbelief
leading up to this I know you guys got
to see the outside it’s just like yay a
concert no there was a lot of fighting a
lot of fighting that went to make this
happen
and what happened when we went to the
provinces
we kick ass that’s what happened people
came out and they sang our lyrics they
screamed for us I don’t know if any of
you have been to a provincial concert
before but for the most part what
that’s usually what happens but at these
concerts you would have thought it was a
music festival in the United States you
woulda thought it was Coachella they
were screaming it was so intense the
screaming and the support was so good
that role in who everybody knows right
everybody knows Roulin turned to me and
go bong spoon said Laura mom poster Bala
she said I’m goose bata I have never
seen go punks poo I’ve never heard
coupons blue like this this is crazy
this is awesome this is amazing so this
is kind of what happened this solidified
our movement people in the provinces
people in the city sponsors and public
got to see what we were doing and that
was because of you guys because you guys
decided to support us so what I want to
ask you before I go on with this
presentation is to give yourself a round
of applause for doing that thank you
[Applause]
all right so now I’m gonna take a little
bit of a closer look about what’s gonna
happen what’s good what is happening now
in the music and what is going to happen
so the most common question I get is why
are Cambodian people so obsessed with
love songs does anybody know why we’re
so obsessed with love songs anybody have
an idea that’s please we are loving
people yes we are very loving people I
think that’s absolutely true and I want
to add to that because it’s kind of a I
think it’s a bit of a funny story so
let’s take a look at this really quickly
so the kamae population in 1975 before
the war started basically we were at 7.5
million Cambodians after the war we lost
about 2.3 million people artists
intellectuals everybody all the talent
we lost them all and we don’t even know
what the real number of how many people
died actually is we don’t know that yet
went down to five to six million in
about nineteen 1980 but from 1980 until
now the population has gone from five to
six million to 16 million
my mom says in the words of my mom she
busy with love and busy with babies
right that’s all we’ve been doing all
day long we’ve just been making babies
all day long so is it any wonder that
the most common subject we talk about is
love it’s the most pressing thing we are
very busy with this action and we need
to deal with it okay but I think there’s
something really interesting that I want
to show you that’s that gives me hope
and that gets me excited about what’s
gonna happen in your generation so this
is what we call a baby boomer generation
after a war people come back and they’re
like okay our priorities are to be safe
and to make babies and to repopulate our
our nation so we have a baby boomer
generation so I want to take a little
quick look at a comparative situation to
give you a sense of what might happen in
Cambodia going forward so in the United
States in 1945 World War two ended
people came back and a baby boomer
generation started in 1960 which is one
of the most famous international music
periods in the world we had artists like
the Beatles Jimi Hendrix David Bowie
Bob Dylan Nina Simone these people
changed everything
by getting Cambodians to think about not
commodians I’m sorry Cambodians too but
they got Americans to think about their
identity they promoted peace love unity
they were fighting against a really
rigid conservative Society and they got
everybody to start thinking even bigger
that’s what they did at this time from
1960 to 1970 it was a baby boomer
generation and the average GDP rate of
growth was 7.5% fluctuating in between
so let’s take a look back at Cambodia
Cambodia right now is in a baby-boomer
period
our average jaded GDP for ten years for
a decade has been seven point five just
like the United States and we have an
original music movement that is starting
to speak about things beyond what we
talk about every single day so it’s my
belief these numbers it’s these things
that have
me believing that Cambodia is on the
verge of another golden music period
home oi if you agree so to conclude this
I want to say that you know I really
believe in your guys’s generation I’m
gonna continue to stay here I’m gonna
continue to work with Cambodian music
original music industry and I hope that
you guys now that after you’ve seen this
you kind of understand how much people
have struggled to make this happen and
how wonderful it is and that every time
you now listen to songs on Facebook
YouTube smart music whatever whatever
you use to listen to the music every
time you click like every time you
comment it is one more step into the
future so I want to leave you with one
lyric that is from one of my favorite
songs and I think it’s a amazing piece
of lyric that’s not about love and it’s
about the reality that your generation
is facing and I think that I don’t know
when I listen to this this lyric it
completely just blew me away and I felt
inspired for the rest I feel inspired to
keep working here for another decade or
two so this song is my crank my it’s
called compromise heard combi Rama some
people have okay cool so it’s a
beautiful lyric written by Pan Lou and
I’m gonna I’m gonna translate it in
English for the sake of video but it’s
beautiful
I loved what he wrote and he said far
from my family I miss them I just want
to see my father and my mother happy
meeting and parting is always short your
child here can only say goodbye for now
please don’t cry my good-natured parents
I’ve almost reached my goals your child
cannot turn back now my destiny is about
to answer me my dreams are finally
closed and I believe that this is the
story of you guys and I am so very
inspired by all of you and I hope you
continue to support original music and
you realize that this is the same story
that involves the Khmer Rouge
involves the temples and all that stuff
but this time we’re coming back and
we’re gonna do something awesome and it
won’t be a sad story so thank you guys for listening
I’ll come down that dock near some home
way buddy oh okay okay okay you need
some energy so umm yes my name is Laura
ma’am I am Laura mom actually and I’m
gonna talk to you guys a little bit
about original music how many of you
like original music please raise your
hands
oh okay so a lot of you do and I want to
tell you a little bit about it because
I’ve had a very unique expect about it
but before I do that I kind of want to
talk about why it’s important and I hope
you guys really enjoy what I have to say
so what are the two things that tourists
know about Cambodia more than anything
else can anybody tell me what they know
Khmer Rouge what else do they know this
is the only thing people know about
Cambodia and it’s a sad thing because of
course it’s wonderful what we have we
have beautiful temples and we have this
terrible history with the Khmer Rouge
but we have more than that and this is
the thing that’s sad about this to me is
that this story is about loss suffering
sadness and devastation there’s nothing
positive about this story so I want to
challenge this story and I want the
reason I wanted to come out on Ted today
is because I want to challenge this
story because I think that there’s
something much more positive that’s
happening so I’m gonna tell you the same
story of Cambodia but I’m gonna tell it
to you in a totally different light
okay so let’s move to the next slide um
I was my mom here is she must be here
hey mommy can we get a home oh yeah my
yeah that’s my mommy all right so I was
born in America my parents were both
refugees they went through the entire
war it was a terrible time for them but
they got to America and they decided
they were going to thrive for me and my
brother so my mom didn’t teach me come
on this is why I gave pylon pilum all
the time but they didn’t teach me come
on because she was afraid I would have
an accent when I was in America and she
wanted me to be American she didn’t want
anybody to look at me and be like not an
American so she didn’t teach me but the
way that she kept me interested and the
way that she preserved identity of
Cambodia for me is by putting me in
kamae dancing and teaching having me go
to some kamae schooling I learned about
God call go go go all that good stuff
right but she pulled me aside one day
and she said to me Laura you’re an
American but you cannot forget
completely that your blood is kamae and
this one thing she said to me would kind
of change my life forever and it kind of
marked the entire narrative of my entire
life so far so what ended up happening I
don’t know if any many of you know this
but I didn’t plan to be a pop star in
Cambodia that was not my plan I was
planning to study dirt I wanted to be an
archaeologist I wanted to be a you know
digging up stuff finding stuff find a
pot and uncle Watt and that’s all I
wanted to do I had no plans and so after
college I went to UC Berkeley I studied
anthropology with a focus on Cambodian
history and this really made me fall in
love with Cambodia this is where I found
my passion for Cambodia and afterwards I
ended up going and basically joining an
NGO called global heritage fund and I
started working in preservation and
conservation but unfortunately I got
fired and that sucks because in 2008
we suffered some economic devastation in
America and basically my boss said Laura
I’m sorry I have to let you go because
there’s just no more money for you but I
feel so bad for you and I like your
YouTube videos I’m gonna give you a
three thousand
dollar check so you can go to Cambodia
and do your music and I was like sweet
okay cool
whatever I lost my job but maybe I’ll go
to Cambodia and see what happens things
went very well in Cambodia and I got to
become a part of this movement called
the original music movement and I got to
do all this fun stuff I went on all
these stages and I went to all these
different things and it was really
exciting and the original music movement
swept me up into this magical music
adventure that I’ve been on and
basically afterwards what I decided to
do is start a production label cut
bottom like how many of you know quaint
mines some homeboy yeah was my boys that
was me but I started a label and I
wanted to support other original artists
because we were struggling so I wanted
to I I want to tell you that you know
this movement is unique in Cambodia no
one else no other country has an
original music movement everybody just
has normal music every time I say
original music to a foreigner they’re
like what do you mean original music
it’s just us so I’m gonna tell you a
little bit about that history so that
you can understand it and you can
appreciate your artists more and I hope
what you get out of this conversation
that we have today is basically more
love more appreciation and more
excitement and hope when you think about
the exciting times of Cambodia through
the lens of original music so when we
started in Cambodia before we even
started during the Khmer Rouge they did
not allow any music how many of you know
this they did not allow any music that
didn’t support um gasps so with no music
that didn’t support the communist regime
but when they left this left this huge
void this huge void in Cambodia and you
guys were either babies at this time or
you were not yet around so but at this
time there was this massive void in
Cambodia and it was quite sad so they
had to fill it so people like rusty Hong
mia and all these productions that you
know and have known since you were a
young person they came in and they
filled the void what they did is they
kept covering old songs as a form of
preservation and as a form of keeping up
with the rest of society they started
copying songs how many of you have
listened to a
we saw what is your hand how many of you
liked a copied song okay hey so a few
right let’s be honest it did entertain
us but what ended up happening as a
result of this is that we ended up not
making any new music whatsoever and it
turned out because we had such high
levels of piracy in Cambodia no
copyright enforcement it became
impossible to make original music so
they didn’t support it whatsoever so
that’s what you get here we got say
close so take me to your heart Bridge
survive these are all these songs that
we know but this is how we stayed kept
up with some of them out of modernity
for me I didn’t understand this when I
was in the United States I saw both Navy
I saw these beautiful images of Sapir
very sweet my girls but I didn’t
understand it because I was watching
people like Lauryn Hill and she was
playing guitar and she was talking about
her generation and she was saying yeah
screw the man I’m gonna I’m gonna speak
up for my people and I loved it so what
ended up happening when I did come to
Cambodia is this I became the sweet
chick the nicer pip nice girl but I also
wanted to be the edgy Lauryn Hill I’m
gonna speak my voice and this is what
got me to come to Cambodia I kind of got
tired of saying to people I tried to
explain why don’t we have original music
I I couldn’t explain I had no
explanation so I had to come myself and
I decided to just go for it and find out
what’s going on so I came and I said to
people hey I want to do original music I
went to speak to a TV head and he said
Laura
nobody cares about original music and I
was like really because I don’t know
long people care about original music
and he’s like now they just care if your
face is pretty and I was like mm-hmm
okay so that made me angry so I was okay
forget it I’m not gonna even try on that
side I went to a production company and
I said ah Laura you’re separa monkey
cool I like it let’s do something
together I said okay my condition is
that we’re gonna do original music
I said look I cannot support you I
cannot support you doing original music
you must copy songs because I can’t fell
a disc at more than $1 50 so I can’t I
can’t get I can’t have you only doing
one album a year
what would I make I would make no money
I would close down tomorrow so I said
mmm I don’t want to be a part of this so
at that time the word I kept hearing is
it’s impossible it’s impossible to do
commode Cambodian original music but me
and a few other artists quite a few
other artists didn’t believe that so
what happened next was Facebook I love
Facebook how many of you use Facebook
how many people watch music off YouTube
yeah how many people love YouTube more
than Facebook see Hasse okay yeah that’s
cool um but it was this incredible thing
that happened when you guys were
starting to grow up so Facebook and
YouTube came and suddenly you didn’t
have to go to a TV station or you didn’t
have to go to a production and get put
out in a V CD or a DVD you didn’t have
to do that anymore you could just get
yourself up on the internet and you
could connect with any fan in Battambang
or Sam rip okuu punk school you could
connect and this changed everything this
brought out some of the artists that you
know and you love so this is where we
found people like ADA and Hank P do and
we had clap your hands doing hip-hop do
you guys remember these guys how many of
you love at home or if you love these
guys and I want to make a special note
how many of you know Mississippian raise
your hand yeah
how many of you love her some homeboy
okay missus appear did something really
revolutionary and she nobody no
newspaper or anybody has done anything
to say that what she did was cool she
was in the system she was a karaoke star
she was doing what she was told and at
this time she said no I’m gonna do
original music so she came out with all
lives first original album from what I
heard the company was upset they didn’t
want to support it they didn’t want want
to do it but she fought for it so
the next time you see mystics appear you
better love her a little bit more
because she fought for original music
she fought for her right to do it and
she said I’m gonna do it
so these revolutionary guys came out and
did some really really cool stuff and it
even gave me an American Cambodian a
chance to come here and connect with all
of you guys but it wasn’t enough we were
still struggling no one was calling us
for concerts or anything like that we
were making no money we’re very poor it
was very sad so what had to happen next
sponsors love sponsors give it up for
sponsors a bunch of sponsors came out
and started to support us and they
started to say hey you know what my
brand is international I’m Pepsi I can’t
take a copied song to pepsi regional
headquarters and if it’s copied I can’t
play that that’s not legal we follow
international standards so all of a
sudden I was like oh so you mean you can
support us right and he’s like mhm yeah
let’s start doing that I was like yeah
we’re good so it was really exciting
these guys came out and started
supporting it a lot of artists started
getting different things it kind of
ripped open the whole thing what it’s
signal to Cambodia was that you don’t
have to join a production anymore you
can do it yourself you can go out there
and talk to a sponsor by yourself build
yourself a PowerPoint presentation and
be like look it I’m awesome give me
money so so that happened but something
really major happened and that was smart
music so I want do you guys to
understand why smart music this is not a
promotion for smart music but I want you
to understand why it’s important smart
music came out and started to say
publicly and said hey if you’re an
original music artist I’m gonna give you
money I’m gonna give you money to make
your music nobody ever gave us money
nobody ever ever did if we did something
for anyone else we had to do a
commercial we had to do a jingle or
whatever here was a company I said I’m
gonna fund your music just put it up on
a streaming platform what did this do
this totally ripped open a hole in the
whole entire market and this is why you
guys all think original music is cool
because what happened was organic it
started from the ground and it came up
all these artists came out of nowhere
and now you know how many artists so
many artists because they had a chance
they had a chance to make some cash to
fund their music and
should go out and do some concerts so it
was really exciting when this all
happened what smart did also is bring
Jessie J and Demi lavato do you guys
remember Jessie J and Demi Lovato how
many of you went it was fun right and
who got to open the stage for Jessie J
in Demi Lovato that was me it was great
but it was not just me it was quite a
few more people and we got a chance to
show Cambodia and also get permission
from an international artist which is
very hard to do to open the stage for
them you need to get permission all the
way to Hollywood to get that and we did
that with them and it changed everything
for us because it was a national symbol
saying hey we’re getting started so our
movement was starting to get up there we
were getting sponsors we were starting
to go forward and then the public sector
and our government started to support us
too they put us alongside alex ikonn
Kenya and provide our legends
at the National Games opening and that
basically was a symbol
I believe it served as a symbol to say
to Cambodia yep we have our old legends
and we have our new people and they’re
both acceptable and that’s wonderful so
the public sector said actually the
ministry came out and said you know we
should have our own original music it’s
important we can’t just copy foreigners
we need our own identity it’s important
so that gave us a big fat push and
finally what happened next is we went on
the first all prevention it was a
provincial tour all original music I’m
not sure if you guys realize how
important this was before this you could
not get on a provincial stage if you
weren’t like a sexy girl doing something
for beer and doing karaoke it was a
monopoly we were not allowed in we were
not getting called but smart decided to
take us to the provinces and now let me
tell you the back story every marketing
agency in Cambodia said no one is gonna
come watch a bunch of YouTube kids
they’re not that good they’re whatever
why are you putting money why you’re
wasting money usually just put it over
here and that was what we were up
against so there was a lot of disbelief
leading up to this I know you guys got
to see the outside it’s just like yay a
concert no there was a lot of fighting a
lot of fighting that went to make this
happen
and what happened when we went to the
provinces
we kick ass that’s what happened people
came out and they sang our lyrics they
screamed for us I don’t know if any of
you have been to a provincial concert
before but for the most part what
that’s usually what happens but at these
concerts you would have thought it was a
music festival in the United States you
woulda thought it was Coachella they
were screaming it was so intense the
screaming and the support was so good
that role in who everybody knows right
everybody knows Roulin turned to me and
go bong spoon said Laura mom poster Bala
she said I’m goose bata I have never
seen go punks poo I’ve never heard
coupons blue like this this is crazy
this is awesome this is amazing so this
is kind of what happened this solidified
our movement people in the provinces
people in the city sponsors and public
got to see what we were doing and that
was because of you guys because you guys
decided to support us so what I want to
ask you before I go on with this
presentation is to give yourself a round
of applause for doing that thank you
[Applause]
all right so now I’m gonna take a little
bit of a closer look about what’s gonna
happen what’s good what is happening now
in the music and what is going to happen
so the most common question I get is why
are Cambodian people so obsessed with
love songs does anybody know why we’re
so obsessed with love songs anybody have
an idea that’s please we are loving
people yes we are very loving people I
think that’s absolutely true and I want
to add to that because it’s kind of a I
think it’s a bit of a funny story so
let’s take a look at this really quickly
so the kamae population in 1975 before
the war started basically we were at 7.5
million Cambodians after the war we lost
about 2.3 million people artists
intellectuals everybody all the talent
we lost them all and we don’t even know
what the real number of how many people
died actually is we don’t know that yet
went down to five to six million in
about nineteen 1980 but from 1980 until
now the population has gone from five to
six million to 16 million
my mom says in the words of my mom she
busy with love and busy with babies
right that’s all we’ve been doing all
day long we’ve just been making babies
all day long so is it any wonder that
the most common subject we talk about is
love it’s the most pressing thing we are
very busy with this action and we need
to deal with it okay but I think there’s
something really interesting that I want
to show you that’s that gives me hope
and that gets me excited about what’s
gonna happen in your generation so this
is what we call a baby boomer generation
after a war people come back and they’re
like okay our priorities are to be safe
and to make babies and to repopulate our
our nation so we have a baby boomer
generation so I want to take a little
quick look at a comparative situation to
give you a sense of what might happen in
Cambodia going forward so in the United
States in 1945 World War two ended
people came back and a baby boomer
generation started in 1960 which is one
of the most famous international music
periods in the world we had artists like
the Beatles Jimi Hendrix David Bowie
Bob Dylan Nina Simone these people
changed everything
by getting Cambodians to think about not
commodians I’m sorry Cambodians too but
they got Americans to think about their
identity they promoted peace love unity
they were fighting against a really
rigid conservative Society and they got
everybody to start thinking even bigger
that’s what they did at this time from
1960 to 1970 it was a baby boomer
generation and the average GDP rate of
growth was 7.5% fluctuating in between
so let’s take a look back at Cambodia
Cambodia right now is in a baby-boomer
period
our average jaded GDP for ten years for
a decade has been seven point five just
like the United States and we have an
original music movement that is starting
to speak about things beyond what we
talk about every single day so it’s my
belief these numbers it’s these things
that have
me believing that Cambodia is on the
verge of another golden music period
home oi if you agree so to conclude this
I want to say that you know I really
believe in your guys’s generation I’m
gonna continue to stay here I’m gonna
continue to work with Cambodian music
original music industry and I hope that
you guys now that after you’ve seen this
you kind of understand how much people
have struggled to make this happen and
how wonderful it is and that every time
you now listen to songs on Facebook
YouTube smart music whatever whatever
you use to listen to the music every
time you click like every time you
comment it is one more step into the
future so I want to leave you with one
lyric that is from one of my favorite
songs and I think it’s a amazing piece
of lyric that’s not about love and it’s
about the reality that your generation
is facing and I think that I don’t know
when I listen to this this lyric it
completely just blew me away and I felt
inspired for the rest I feel inspired to
keep working here for another decade or
two so this song is my crank my it’s
called compromise heard combi Rama some
people have okay cool so it’s a
beautiful lyric written by Pan Lou and
I’m gonna I’m gonna translate it in
English for the sake of video but it’s
beautiful
I loved what he wrote and he said far
from my family I miss them I just want
to see my father and my mother happy
meeting and parting is always short your
child here can only say goodbye for now
please don’t cry my good-natured parents
I’ve almost reached my goals your child
cannot turn back now my destiny is about
to answer me my dreams are finally
closed and I believe that this is the
story of you guys and I am so very
inspired by all of you and I hope you
continue to support original music and
you realize that this is the same story
that involves the Khmer Rouge
involves the temples and all that stuff
but this time we’re coming back and
we’re gonna do something awesome and it
won’t be a sad story so thank you guys for listening
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