Looking around on the Internet I found that Beka Records supposedly only lasted from 1903-1925. This advertisement from Vietnam, however, dates from the 1930s. The “1930” on the image is when I believe it was drawn, but I seem to recall that I found this in a journal from a later year. The text at the bottom says that “I prefer to only listen to Beka records.” The 1930s is when Vietnamese started to make Western-style popular music. Prior to that time they were exposed to Western music through various means, both from performances and recordings.
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My music teacher (a master of traditional Southern chamber music nhac tai tu) recently told me he recorded for Beka in 1938. Much earlier and he’d have been too young. So Beka definitely was active in the 30’s.
Found this blog while trying to see if there’s any trace of that Beka record.
Take care,
D
Thanks for the info. It’s very interesting. There is a book called “Yellow Music” by Eric Jones about popular music in China in the early 20th century. He mentions there that these record labels were recording all sorts of music all across the world. So I’m not completely surprised to hear about your teacher. But it’s amazing that someone from that era is still around and teaching!!
And still w/ an encyclopedic knowledge of happenings in VN from the 1920’s to the present. I’m sure multiple dissertations can be written with him as primary source – in music, history, sociology, etc.
If you’re interested in the music, blogs called Haji Maji and Excavated Shellac posted mp3s of some of these early records from Vietnam from Beka, Columbia, and more.
Thanks for the blog, also. Excellent reading (unfortunately I really ought to be focusing on my own work.)
Thanks for the info about those blogs. I was in Burma recently and kept seeing old records for sale in markets and on the street. I wondered what they sounded like. If I was more enterprising I would have bought as many as I could and digitized them. However, I think that is for someone who actually knows how to do that. So if you know anyone who is interested, tell them to go to Burma.
Here’s a Pathé advert. from 1926
http://taybui.blogspot.com/2011/06/pathe-ung-tuong-ma-lam.html