PROLOGUE

             With the idea of broadcasting the few music videos available on the TV channel and running them 24 hours a day, Warner Communications decided on August 1, 1981, to create a music television channel called MTV (Music Television), which streamed music videos and produced music programs 24 hours a day. The concept of streaming videos continuously was innovative at the time, but unfortunately, the technology was not up to the challenge. Since there were few music videos at the time, many music videos were shown repeatedly on the channel. To boost album sales and reputation, many artists and record labels used music videos as promotional tools. In addition, brand new music video stars such as Madonna, Cyndi Lauper, and Run DMC emerged overnight, which increased MTV's profitability due to the channel's popularity with advertisers. Since then, music videos have become increasingly popular, serving many artists as a means to measure their career success. Between 1999 and 2000, MTV saw a sharp decline in music video ratings, down 36.5%, and viewing time dropped from eight hours per day to three hours.

               Later, MTV stopped playing music videos when YouTube and other online music streaming services emerged (Logie, 2020; Supsinwiwat & Setthajit, 2019). The creation of YouTube completely changed the music industry. Since its creation in February 2005, YouTube saw rapid growth; sixteen months after its creation, 100 million clips were being viewed per day (ComScore, 2006). It became the central platform for musicians to distribute their music and made increasing the number of listeners much easier. In addition, YouTube makes it easier for managers and agents to find rising stars such as Tori Kelly, Shawn Mendes, The Weeknd, and Ed Sheeran (Glinn, 2020). Moreover, other music platforms were created, particularly digital music. Digital music defined as audio content is distributed over the internet to consumers. This includes paid digital downloads of professionally produced single tracks or albums/compilations and subscription-based on-demand streaming services (Statista Research Department, 2022).

​

               Regarding the importance of music as a discourse, Machin (2010) noted that a variety of discourses govern the way we think and act about music. They influence our judgments of what music is good and bad, important and unimportant, and how we evaluate it. They have an impact on how we perceive our musical knowledge and tastes, making us assume that they reveal something about our personalities and, in turn, that others' musical preferences reveal something about those individuals. The significance of music, however, lies more in the discourses we have for comprehending it than in the sounds themselves. Moreover, Frith (1996) has said about music that ‘to understanding cultural value judgment we must look at the social context in which they are made, at the social reasons why some aspects of a sound or spectacle are valued over others’.   

               Among the various genres of music, pop music is a genre of popular music that emerged in its modern form in the mid-1950s. The terms popular music and pop music were often used interchangeably, but most of the music that appeared on the record charts was referred to as pop music. Factors that distinguish pop music include repeated choruses and hooks, and short to medium-length songs written in a simple format. In addition, pop music borrows elements from other styles such as rock, urban, dance, Latin, and country. Many pop songs did not contain themes of resistance, opposition, or political issues, but rather focused on love and relationships between women and men as a universal theme ("Pop Music," 2022).

               In Thailand, pop music artist, Eve Pancharoen, known by her stage name Palmy has recorded and released several albums. Palmy has explored a variety of popular music styles on each of her four solo albums and has collaborated with Thai ska band T-Bone to create experimental interpretations of their hits. She released her first album 'Palmy' in December 2001, which was a huge success and made her a well-known artist in no time since her first single 'Yak Rong Dang Dang' which was Palmy's official debut in the Thai music industry. She was the only Thai artist to perform at MTV's Asia Awards in Singapore in 2003. In 2018, she released a song called Son-Klin (ซ่อนกลิ่น), which she named after the flower called Son-Klin or tuberose, which represents the memories of the past that do not fade from memory even after a long time.

               In the music video, actress Ranee Kampen, who at that time was becoming known for television series, performed with Kan Sawasdiwat Na Ayutthaya.  Since its release, this song has become very popular. According to Matichon (2018), this song on YouTube has a total of 12.9 million views or 1.6 million views per day during October 19 to 27, 2018. In 2022, the song has a total of over 180 million views. The song won the 2019 JOOX Thailand Music Awards in the Song of the Year category and the 2019 Guitar Mag Awards in the Most Popular Single of 2019 category, while Palmy won the 2019 Female Vocalist of the Year award in the Female Artist ("อีฟ ปานเจริญ", 2023).

               Another famous pop music artist, Pongkool Suebsaung or Pop is a Thai singer that became popular from the First Stage Show in 2004. He was a member of the duo Calories Blah Blah. Later in 2012, he announced that he departed from Calories Blah Blah to pursue his solo artist dream. In 2010, he started to debut as a solo artist under White Music Record, a subsidiary of GMM Grammy. Since then, he has released several singles and albums. In 2022, he released a new single called “สลักจิต or Salak-Jit” featuring Da Endorphine another famous Thai singer. This song represents nostalgia for the listeners’ past relationship which is unforgettable and has been engraved in their hearts. Since its release in July 2022, this music video has had a total of over 79 million views on YouTube (Newsroom, 2022.; “ปองกูล สืบซึ้ง,” 2023).

               According to Pop Music (2022), the characteristics of pop music did not pose a social challenge to its audience and did not lead to political activism, which may cause people to overlook other aspects hidden in this type of music. It may be true that the nature of pop music and its lyrics may not focus on social issues (e.g., racism and gun violence) but rather on the love relationship. Although a romantic relationship is considered a matter between two persons, their relationship and perspectives on love are shaped by cultural and social practices. Hence, romantic relationships might be considered in relation to social issues.

               This study aims to explore the connectivity between lyrics which contain the song's contents, and the music video and whether the lyrics that are transformed into the music video are social-issue-free. The objectives of this study are thus to investigate how the lyrics of the song are transformed into the music video, how the music video helps reinforce the meaning of the lyrics, and whether there are any social issues represented in the music video as the interpretation of the lyrics. To achieve those objectives, the following research questions are established.