Music of Bhutan - Popular Music

Popular Music

The modern popular rigsar genre (Dzongkha རིག་གསར་; Wylie: rig-gsar; "new idea") emerged in the 1960s. Rigsar can be contrasted from most traditional music in its updated electronic instrumentation, faster rhythm, and vernacular language, especially Dzongkha and Sharchop. Its context can also be contrasted, as rigsar is a common feature of Bhutanese television and film. Some of the earliest rigsar tunes were translations of contemporary popular Hindi songs. The first Bhutanese rigsar hit was Zhendi Migo, covered the popular Bollywood filmi song "Sayonara" from the film Love in Tokyo. Since the 1960s, a great number of Bhutanse artists have covered or produced a staggering volume of rigsar music.

Rigsar gained popularity on the Bhutan Broadcasting Service, making way for the rigsar band Tashi Nencha to established the first recording studio in Thimphu in 1991. Prior to this period, Bhutanese people primarily listened to filmi and other kinds of Indian pop music. Rigsar is the dominant style of Bhutanese popular music, and dates back to the late 1980s. The first major music star was Shera Lhendup, whose career began after the 1981 hit "Jyalam Jaylam Gi Ashi".

By the end of the 1980s, rigsar was no longer so popular, its detractors citing repetitive, simple tunes that were often copied directly from foreign music. Since 1995, with founding of the Norling Drayang recording label, rigsar has returned to relative popularity as a fusion of elements and instruments from English language pop, Indian and Nepalese music. Rigsar remains ubiquitous in Bhutan, heard in on public streets, in taxis, and on buses, and even used by the government to deliver health and sanitation education.