COUNCIL FOR PEACE AND ORDER (NCPO)
5.4 Factors Affecting the Creation Process
5.4.3 External Factors of the Army 1) The Social and Political Context
All of the four songs of the NCPO would have never happened without the political phenomena and social contexts. Such contexts were used to create the content of the songs continually and were also the drives that pushed the composer to reveal his feeling and ideologies
Therefore, the content and melody of each of the NCPO‟s songs were inspired and accumulated by social and political contexts. In general, the core concept of the songs was “the existence of Thailand.” (Wichian Tantipimolphan, personal communication, March 20, 2017).
Accordingly, in the NCPO‟s songs, the content contained social and political contexts but with different details of different timing or context at a particular time. The settings thus inspired the composer to narrate the settings into words from his emotion and feeling at the time he composed.
2) Listeners/People
Listeners who judged the NCPO‟s musical work were people all through the country. The songs were not limited only in the military circle as a performance to welcome the army‟s guests or the surrounding locals with whom the military interacted, but also the songs were for the listeners with different parties and opinions. Listeners were either those who agreed or disagreed with the coup and the binary-opposition parties (the parties who favored and supported the coup and those who opposed the coup) who triggered or stirred up a disharmony until the military seized power and governed the country, including those neither supporting nor opposing the coup.
“The attitude of each person is different. Some people like the coup and some do not. However, once they hear the song, their hatred may be decreased. Some people dislike or even hate. They feel they hate them and do not want to listen to the song. Therefore, we cannot tell what they think if they do not express themselves. For me, I think the song has some influence as it is a relaxing song and can induce listeners to listen to it. It gives a cool feeling and is also easy to sing along. It can reach people of this time more than the past songs.” (Winai Suatim, personal communication, April 12, 2017).
It was evident that the creation of the NCPO‟s songs is a trial of the NCPO in relieving the hatred of people and reducing the opposition against the coup.
Therefore, the NCPO tried to use a soft and passionate song to avoid increasing the hostility and emphasizing the image of the coup into the song.
“The song helped in terms of people‟s emotion because most people will not accept too restricted rules. They prefer freedom and democracy. Who will like Section 44? Surely, none will. However, once the NCPO came in, they needed to find strategies. What should be done to avoid violence in the country or any protest from Thai people? Foreign countries might not be concerned about this, and they can criticize them. However, the NCPO concern more about Thai people. the NCPO wants to see how fast the country can be peaceful. How do people stop taking sides and killing or shooting one another on the road?” (Winai Suatim, personal communication, April 12, 2017).
Therefore, the most crucial factor in the creation of the NCPO‟s songs is people whom the NCPO wish to expose to the songs. Besides, people are the judge of their songs to evaluate if the songs pass or fail from their feedback reflected by the acceptance and popularity of the songs.
Sugree Charoensook, Dean of Music School, Mahidol University, expressed his ideas about the reason why the NCPO produced the songs in the pop genre, “The objective of composing a song is for whom or Thai people. Who are the majority? Who watches TV? Who listens to this kind of song? (Sugree Charoensook, personal communication, April 27, 2017).
In his opinion, the NCPO should have produced the songs by popular trends of most people and anticipated that pop songs should be able to access the majority of people the most.
“Popular Music is an easy-listening song for the mass of people. I think people can accept that so they are satisfied with it. That‟s all. It is not a matter of being right or wrong but only a matter of acceptance and satisfaction. That is where most people are. Is what the NCPO did correct? I think it is correct.” (Sugree Charoensook, personal communication, April 27, 2017).
Accordingly, listeners factor leads to the creation of songs in the style of populism to be able to connect to and access people as many as they can. Therefore, the majority of listeners is a factor determining the style or genre of the songs created by the NCPO and leading to the emergence of patriotic songs in pop style, which can be considered as a new communication innovation of the military government in the period of the NCPO.
3) Accepted Music Genre
The music style is a subsequent factor determined by the changing taste of listeners in each period. Thus, the NCPO needed to concern about changes in surrounding society, politics, and culture. The dynamic music taste of listeners affected the adjustment of conceptual framework and communication of the NCPO with the mass. the NCPO realized that the traditional patriotic songs in March genre would not be suitable for people in the modern period. Instead, Pop songs represent universality and music taste of the globe.
Atibhop Pataradetpisan describes the power of music over listeners, “If you need to see the effect of either literary or musical work on the cognitive changes of people, you have to assure that it must yield a vast influence that can reach people easily.” (Soravit Runglertmaneepong, 2014)
Music genre that favored by most people in a society is influential in the song creation. It is confirmed by the result of the opening of the Pop patriotic song of the NCPO, “Return Happiness to Thailand,” with the sweet and romantic melody following the expertise of the composer in composing songs for drama or plays.
Superficially, romantic melody and a patriotic song seem to contradictory; however, when all is combined in the patriotic songs of the NCPO on patriotism and military
ideologies, it turns to be perfectly tuned like a drama song. Atibhop Pataradetpisan further explains about this congruency, “The Revolution itself is a romantic story about a struggle and sacrifice.” (Soravit Runglertmaneepong, 2014).
The NCPO tried to distinguish their coup, which is the seizure of power, and define it with different meanings from the past by the arousal of romantic emotion through the soft and passionate songs conveying the feeling of patriotism to help relieve the stressful climate.
“From my analysis of all four songs composed by the Prime Minister, he intends to create a common feeling. The word, “Thailand,” appears in every song and is the word that created my imagination when I composed melodies. Thus, I invented a grand hook and emphasized words that could stir up people‟s feeling.” (Wichian Tantipimolphan, personal communication, March 20, 2017).
The composer‟s intention to write lyrics that arouse listeners‟ feeling towards patriotism might be another essential factor that enables people to get involved in the sense of nationalism through the slow, sweet, and romantic pop songs rather than to remind them of the seized power from the coup.
Table 5.1 Summarizes Factors Affecting the Creation of the NCPO‟s Songs
1. People Involved in the Process
1. Transmitters of Songs
(1) Lyric Composer
General Prayut Chan-o-cha Prime Minister
The leader with supreme power in the creation process and in determining the direction of song patterns.
(2) Producer Major-General Krisda Sarika Director of the Department of Royal Thai Army Band
Who received the order from General Prayut Chan-o-cha in creating the NCPO‟s songs and in selecting the team and composers of Pop music from private sectors to reach people widely
Table 5.1 (Continued)
1. People Involved in the Process
1. Transmitters of Songs
(3) Lyric/
Melody Arranger from the Private Sector
Wichian Tantipimolphan
A song composer in the Pop genre for dramas or plays, and a leading factor in transforming the NCPO songs to be Pop and widely accepted by listeners.
(4) music Arranger and Harmonizer from the Department of Royal Thai Army Band
Major Surachai Thawinprai A military melody and song arranger assigned by the NCPO to coordinate with private composers with no authority in determining music direction but having an opportunity to learn how to create Pop songs from Wichian Tantipimolphan. To have a military officer as a center of the song production enabled a quick operation and a secure monitor and command
(5) Singer Sergeant Major First Class Pongsatorn Porchit
Who was assigned to sing all four original songs of the NCPO as the leader wanted the military to transmit the songs to illustrate musical potentials of the military
However, the factor of the military singer did not make the songs so famous as a private artist, namely, Asanee Chotikul, i.e., the song “Return Happiness to Thailand.”
2 A
Disseminator of Musical Work
The Army/
Directorate of Civil Affairs, Royal Thai Army
THE NCPO or the government. An authorized office in disseminating songs to people widely and monitoring media thoroughly.
Table 5.1 (Continued)
2. Internal Factors
3. Social Condition
The owner of the process:
the NCPO as the leader of the country.
The process factor depended directly on the leader, which made the government as the center and a representative of publicness. Thenabled the creation process to be operated quickly and facilitated the collaboration from all concerned sectors.
4. Knowledge and Skills in Music
Royal Thai Army Band Department
A knowledgeable and skillful department in music in compliance with music art principles, functioning as a supporting unit and in-house production, but short of techniques and experiences like music production companies or songs camps that work to respond to the majority of listeners in the market.
3 External Factors
1. The social and Political Context
The situation after the coup of the NCPO and its governance of the country
A crucial factor is enabling a continual story in the songs and a drive for composers to have the imagination to refine the words into lyrics.
2. Listeners/
People
People of all parties
throughout the country, either supporting or opposing the coup
The judge of the songs and the factor that determined the direction of song creation towards the popularity of people and the widest access to people.
3. Music Genre Pop Music Pop music to respond to the objective of the NCPO‟s songs towards universality and its accessibility to the majority of listeners.
From the documentary research and analysis of the creation of the four songs of the NCPO in four dimensions: background or emergence of the patriotic songs, people involved in the creation process, steps of the invention, and factors affecting the creation process, the significant findings were summarized in the following diagram:
Figure 5.5 Illustrates the Steps and Elements Affecting the Creation Process
From studying the process of creating patriotic songs of the NCPO, it was found that the signification of patriotic songs emerged as a communication tool in creating righteousness for the NCPO as the government.
The subsequence after the coup was a trial of the head of the coup in finding ways to explain to the society his rationales to make people in the nation understand and accept the coup through the use of media to communicate with people. “The creation of popularity towards the acceptance of righteousness or popular legitimating” thus became things to be fixed urgently. (Surachart Bamrungsuk, 2015)
After the coup by the NCPO, no violent happening or movement against the NCPO has been witnessed as Thailand is under the control of the NCPO by military forces and the Martial Law to prohibit all violence. However, the NCPO cannot withhold the criticism against the coup from the scholars or international organizations who expressed their worries about the seizure of power of the NCPO
Background
•General Prayut Chan-o- cha
•Songs for establishing an understanding /
requesting for a collaboration.
Power relations in the steps/ process of creation
•Leader/ The Army/ Royal Thai Army Band
Department
•private sectors
Factors affecting the creation process
•people involved in the process: lyric composer/
producer/ lyric arranger/melody
composer/music arranger/
singer/ disseminator
• internal factors: status of the Army, knowledge and skills in music
•external factors: social and political context/
listeners/ favored music genre
and the censorship of the domestic mass media‟s presentation. Foreign media presented the NCPO‟s coup d‟etat as unrighteous while a powerful country like the U.S.A also declared the NCPO government to return democracy to Thai people urgently. All of these voices were pressure and resistance against the NCPO. (Arm Noppakun & Grace Akkara, n.d.)
From the situation of the NCPO after the coup, congruence between the situation and what the NCPO tried to fix hurriedly to create a popularity and righteousness through media to communicate with people can be explained. The process of communication in various forms is thus needed to develop some Ideological State Apparatus.
Communication through a cause-and-effect explanation was transmitted by General Prayut Chan-o-cha, the Head of the coup, upon his seizure of power. It is a cause-and-effect announcement about his coup as stated, “to keep peace and order effectively and bring back peace and happiness to people and every party urgently.”
(A part of Martial Law announcement no. 2/2014 RE: The Establishment of Peace and Order Maintaining Command [POMC])
A straightforward written communication or a formal announcement may not be enough for hegemonizing the space of thought of people in the society. Therefore, songs were used to access their thought and feeling because a song with well-refined lyrics and melody can create a complying emotion better than an oral declaration or official statement. It can be a gradual hegemony through Pop songs in parallel to the declaration entitled, “Return Happiness to Thailand.”
Several ways can implant the hegemony. In case of the NCPO‟s patriotic songs, the Dominion has been selectively implanted through Pop Music.
With reference to the definition of Gwyn Williams, “Hegemony is a social or political condition in which philosophy and practice is unified or in which one concept of reality is dominant and diffused throughout the society to infuse all institutions in the society through tastes, morality, traditions, religions, or political ideologies at every level of social relations”. (Watcharabon Buddharaksa, 2014, p. 163)
The communication process through songs with people to create the righteousness for the NCPO, which is an innovative communication of the military
with people during the coup plays more roles than just being an official statement broadcast in radio and TV stations like in the past.
Accordingly, the hegemony of people‟s space of thought during the coup through the songs can help create a warmer atmosphere, especially with a begging tone of voice and pop melody. It is evident that the military puts a great effort in the creation of songs to reach the taste of listeners mainly. Therefore, all required factors inducing the songs‟ popularity are adopted into the process. Such factors are the assistance from a successful Pop-song composer in melody composition and arrangement, the use of songs from leading music companies of Thailand to join with the NCPO‟s original songs to create a sense of familiarity, the use of a professional composer who composed the songs. An example of the songs is the song “Tomorrow”
by Prapas Cholsaranon or Pee Jick of Work Point Entertainment Co., Ltd. for the military‟s previous use, etc. All of these help to support the military power and their songs and lead to the people‟s acceptance and an increased image of righteousness for the government by the NCPO.