One of many Vietnamese pop cassettes I've found in North Austin and Round Rock is this compilation entitled Hung Ho, #111 in the Làng Văn catalog. I've gathered that few, if any, of these are from Vietnam directly, but instead produced by Vietnamese expatriates. Làng Văn is one such label, founded in 1985 in Orange County, California. The label is still very active, although I can't seem to track down any list of their older discography and this is most likely out-of-print. I picked this one first for digitizing because of it's eye-catching purple j-card and the convenient fact that much of it is written with western script.
Hung Ho appears to be a sampler of then upcoming releases on the label, some of the more prominent Vietnamese-American pop singers are on here, including the late Ngọc Lan and Hương Lan. The former was "known for covering nostalgic French-language pop hits of the 1970s." Most of the tracks are ballads, poppy but not exactly upbeat; no bubblegum pop or dance singles on this tape. There's clear sense of sentimentalism in these songs, parallels to Enka music immediately come to mind. With the context of post-1975 Vietnamese diaspora considered, the source of the nostalgic, melancholy tones of these songs are quite obvious. Makes for odd juxtaposition to the valley girl-esque glamour shots on the cover, which clearly screams late 80s American pop culture.
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