1 - The Creators of Burmese Pop Music

Summary

Gita Studio is located in a nine-story building on one of Yangon’s major thoroughfares. The building is only a few years old and boasts an elevator that works virtually every day, thanks to the enormous, noisy generator that squats in front of the entrance. The owner of the building, who built it as an investment, now lives in Singapore. The rumor is that he is laundering money for the military junta, and that the building is a respectable front for his seamier activities. The building is located in the heart of one of the city’s Karen Christian neighborhoods, and it serves as a focal point for professional Karen musicians living in the area. They gather in the ground-floor café to eat and talk; they record their series (albums) in the Gita Studio upstairs; and they even have their music videos edited by the movie editing business located on the eighth floor.

The building also contains apartments, some of which are occupied by members of this musical community. Aung Shwe, who works full-time in Gita Studio as an engineer, keyboardist, and arranger, lives there, as does one the country’s most famous “pretty boys” (handsome young models and actors), who recently launched a singing career. Pretty boy Taylor’s star is on the rise, but he continues to live with his parents in a modest apartment near the top of the building. Like most young adults in Burma, he respects the idea of a family home and expresses no desire to reside by himself, though he could well afford to do so. His apartment, like so many others that I visited while living in Yangon, is a small space where multiple generations live together, seemingly in harmony.

The recording studio itself, which occupies an entire floor of the building, is an active but not frenzied space. Though the heavy doors to the various rooms are clearly marked with “Do not open while recording is in session” signs, people merrily disregard the instruction, wandering in and out frequently. Clearly, they know each other well. Morale seems high; people greet each other happily and settle into their work quickly.