Bhutanese pop is melody first. Glossy synths and programmed drums sit under guitar-driven arrangements, and the tracks run from upbeat dancefloor material to slow ballads. Most of the lyrics are in Dzongkha, and they keep returning to love, everyday life and national pride. Rebellions Bhutan calls itself the country's premiere hip-hop collective, "pushing boundaries and breaking norms," and its Boomplay page shows about 99k current listeners. Gemtracks' newest list pulls in Kenny Lhendup's "Namkhoe", Chogo's "Vibes Like Shrooms" and K3Nbeatz's "Mo Dang Kho".
This month the WorldWidePop playlist stands at 51 videos. Nothing new was added in October. Instead, the playlist was expanded by merging in a large batch of videos from another list, so the shelf is bigger but no fresher picks have arrived. Rebellions Bhutan leads the playlist by video count, followed by GYELSEY ENT. and Yeshi Lhendup Films, whose music-video channel is one of the main places local clips get seen. Sonam Wangchen's "Gadem Chi Bay" fits the mood well: it is a single about loved ones people never had the courage to ask out, which is the scene's love-song side in a nutshell.
Listeners are writing in from India, Nepal and Bangladesh, which suggests the sound is reaching neighbouring audiences. To watch next, keep an eye on VMUSIC BHUTAN, which has just put out a fresh single, and on RecentMusic's count of 57 Bhutanese pop artists with 514 releases, a sign that new material keeps coming.
