North Bling and the Suburban Urbanism of Music

In the 2000s, every family in the North probably had a few Xuan Hinh CDs at home.

Artist Xuan Hinh in MV Bac Bling - Photo: NVCC

Xuan Hinh goes to see a doctor, Xuan Hinh goes to sing karaoke, Xuan Hinh goes to ask for a wife, Xuan Hinh practices for a beauty pageant...

Xuan Hinh can do anything, makes us laugh out loud and his satirical lines and "tongue-twisting" words are naturally stuck in our minds.

So Xuan Hinh appearing in a music video of a young singer like Bac Bling naturally made everyone excited. Indeed, as soon as Xuan Hinh's voice sounded, time seemed to rewind.

Of course, the success of Hoa Minzy's Bac Bling is not only in the feeling of rewinding time or evoking memories.

The timeline in the MV is multi-linear, there is a rewind in time and a return to the present, there are lyrics with graceful, stirring six-eight poetic nuances, the melody of the song also has very spontaneous, humorous, surprising, and gen Z wordplay.

The interweaving of "timelines", between legendary memories and new creations, creates a constantly shifting, surging energy in the song.

Moving the theme to satellite urban areas, the gateway area of ​​the capital instead of the core area, the central area is also a very smart "investment" decision of Hoa Minzy.

Big cities are always whirlpools that sweep away most of the cultural life, no matter which country, the most prosperous metropolises - whether New York, Paris, London, Shanghai or in Vietnam, Hanoi.

Or if not prosperous, then it must be cities that attract artists like Hue, Da Lat - always music centers and following each of those cities is a whole music stream revolving around it.

The neighboring provinces are like the suburbs, still deserted and sparse, but because of that, they are full of potential. Over the years, we have also witnessed the shift of cultural landmarks in youth music.

For example, even when writing music about Hanoi, Wren Evans also translated from the historic Long Bien bridge to Vinh Tuy bridge, or In the middle of the East-West highway, a composition by Hua Kim Tuyen performed by Uyen Linh, also moved away from familiar images of Saigon to attach the romantic feeling of the contemporary city to a modern traffic structure.

As for Hoa Minzy, she went even further, she translated the story far away from the center to her hometown, Bac Ninh.

Hoa Minzy can even think about creating her own pop music "kingdom" about Bac Ninh and only Bac Ninh, not stopping at a single MV and turning that place into a part of her creative "identity".

There is no shortage of musicians/singers in the world who have become associated with a place name and even immortalized a local, provincial land through their music. 2025 also marks the 55th anniversary of the composition of John Denver's folk classic Take Me Home, Country Road.

When thinking of America, how many people think of West Virginia first? America is so big, the landscape is so rich and West Virginia is just a state located in the mountains.

Yet thanks to John Denver's song, even those who have never been to America can sometimes engrave in their minds the "almost heavenly" image of the Blue Ridge Mountains, of the Shenandoah River, where "life is old, older than the trees, younger than the mountains, soaring like the wind" and listening to that song, they imagine the vastness of America.

And since Take Me Home, Country Road has seen a wave of tourists come here, sometimes just to understand the feeling of longing to go home that John Denver expressed in the classic melody.

While the comparison is lame, Denver's song is more than just a piece of entertainment; it has lived through half a century and will live on for many more. It has proven itself to be more than just a passing phenomenon.

But as always, before dreaming of a new, "bling bling" cultural center, there must be the first people to come and fumble around, explore, and build the first structures to see how they are.

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/bac-bling-va-do-thi-ngoai-o-cua-am-nhac-2025030909232778.htm