Thai pop music

Thai pop or T-pop, is a genre of Thai music roughly equivalent to pop music. It emerged in the 1970s–1980s, during which it was known as string music, before gaining mainstream popularity during the 1990s and has since dominated the Thai music industry. The term is extremely broad, covering Thai rock, dance music, hip hop music and western-influenced popular music in general, though normally excluding the folk and rock-influenced phleng phuea chiwit.

Not to be confused with Hokkien pop, the T-pop from Taiwan.

Thai pop
Other names	String music
Stylistic origins	Wong shadow pop rock R&B hip-hop dance pop
Cultural origins	1950s, Thailand
Other topics
Phleng phuea chiwit Phleng Thai sakon Luk thung

The origins of string lie in American R&B, surf-rock artists like The Ventures and Dick Dale, Exotica, rockabilly and country and western brought to Thailand by American and Australian soldiers serving in Vietnam in the late 1950s and early 1960s. It also drew heavily on genres from the British Invasion, including rock and roll, garage rock and Hollywood film soundtracks. Since the 1980s, it has mixed with other genres, such as disco, funk and dance.

History

1970s–1980s

This era marks the rise of many record labels and artists. While the Thai population still largely enjoys traditional genres like Luk Krung and Luk Thung, there is a surge in interest in Western pop and rock.^[1]

1990s

This era marks the point when Western-styled pop music had penetrated the taste of the Thai audiences, leading to more Westernized beats and melodies.^[1]

2000s–2010s

This era was the transition era from cassette tapes to online music distribution. As a result, T-pop became more widespread than ever. ^[1] The rise of major record labels like Grammy and RS led to a boom in cassette tape sales, reaching into the millions.

Amid the fierce competition between these two giants, Bakery Music, founded in 1994, emerged as a new creative force that changed the direction of Thai music. While most songs at the time followed simple structures, “Khrai” (“Who”) by Boyd Kosiyabong stood out with its R&B arrangement, more complex composition, jazz-style improvisation, and unexpected key changes — elements rarely heard in Thai pop then.^[2]

Not long after, a new culture of listening to music while watching music videos began to emerge with the arrival of Channel [V] Thailand, a 24-hour cable TV music channel that aired Thai, Asian, and international music videos. Before the internet boom, this channel became a gateway for audiences to discover new songs—especially from abroad. However, since it wasn’t broadcast on free TV, international music still remained niche, appealing mainly to a smaller group of listeners.

Around the same period, reality TV shows began to transform the Thai music industry once again. Programs such as True Academy Fantasia and The Star introduced a new level of audience participation — viewers at home could vote directly for their favorite contestants, fostering deeply loyal fan communities.^[2]

Each week’s changing performance themes encouraged contestants to reinterpret older songs, bringing classic hits back into the public spotlight and renewing their popularity. These shows became launching pads for many new artists, some of whom rose to fame even without winning the competition.

The fan culture born from these reality programs continued to grow and evolve, eventually intersecting with the rise of J-Pop and K-Pop, which gained prominence around the same time. Among the two, Korean media ultimately became the most dominant, bolstered by the South Korean government’s active investment in its entertainment industry beginning in the late 1990s — a strategic effort that laid the groundwork for the global “K-wave” that would follow.

2010s–2020s

The success of K-pop groups prompted the creation of many Thai boy and girl groups with increasingly complex choreography as a defining feature. A new cover dance subculture also emerged, where fans imitated idol performances, blending fandom and performance into one. Dance became a key promotional tool, helping songs gain wider recognition. Singers were trained and styled as idols, with their image and choreography as vital to their success as their voices.

One of the most prominent examples of this trend was Kamikaze, a sub-label under RS, which captured the hearts of post-1990s youth with its distinctive, upbeat pop sound. Kamikaze’s style revived the playful energy once seen in earlier Thai bands like Chattri, while aligning with the vibrant aesthetics of contemporary K-pop.

By the early 2010s, T-Pop began adopting similar visual and musical cues — bright, colorful production, English lyric segments, and even rap verses, breaking traditional Thai prosody while staying rhythmically tight.

This era is notable for the acceleration of the Thai music industry as the distribution of music has become much easier with apps such as YouTube, Spotify, and TikTok.^[1] T-pop had begun to gain traction internationally with the rise of Thai BL.^[3] Numerous girl groups and boy groups have also been inspired by K-pop groups.

T-Wind

T-Wind^[4] (Thai Wind) is a term used to describe the phenomenon of Thai pop culture internationally. It mirrors the concept of Korean Wave. In the 21st century, Thailand has been exporting many kinds of cultural products overseas, especially in Southeast Asia,^[5] such as lakhon (television drama), movies and BL series from GMMTV – GDH and lukkwad-pop (Thai teen pop).

See also

• List of Thai pop artists
• List of Thai girl groups
• Music of Thailand
• Thai rock
• Thai hip hop