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How Does Hanoi Rock? The Way to Rock and Roll in Vietnam

The origins of rock music are nearly coincident with Vietnam's 1954 partition ing; Elvis Presley's first single was reaching the radio airwaves as the French agreed to withdraw from Indochina (James 1989, 122). Not long afterward, American advisors and military personnel were arriving in South Vietnam bringing the latest American popular music with them. Rock was the music of the Cold War and was an often unwitting combatant in a larger ideological war. In the West it was seen both as an enemy from within and as an expression of freedom and peace. The Soviet block dreaded it because of its possible ability to focus youth and their rebellion. These confusions of cultural and ideological viewpoints have influenced the reception of rock music in Vietnam. From 1954 there was an embargo on all Western entertainment in the Demo cratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam) and its capitol, Hanoi. Rock entered Vietnam through Saigon, the capital of the Republic of Vietnam?better known as South Vietnam. Though subject to the scrutiny of a society at war, it was not subject to heavy censorship and was even incorporated into the propaganda engine of the southern state. After the fall of Saigon and the reunification of Vietnam in 1975, the victorious Communists banned the South's music includ ing rock. Nevertheless, rock remained a part of Saigon's collective memory and its influence traveled north to Hanoi. Although it has always been a minority taste, rock has long found a devoted audience among Vietnam's elite youth at tending private schools and universities. In this paper I trace the development of rock music in Vietnam, starting with its origins in the South and a similar evolution in the North.