King of Khmer Music: Part 1

June 6, 2025
By Aathreya Kadambi

Why do you like music?

Is it because of the pleasant melodies? The deep harmonies? Steady tempos? Syncopated rhythms? Technical stunts? Soulful pauses?

Or perhaps relatable lyrics? Clever rhymes? Meaningful themes?

There are too many reasons to enjoy music—it’s no wonder why it’s such a universally appreciated art form. What I appreciate most about it, though, is how well it can capture emotion, meaning, and culture.

During a class I took on Buddhism, we had the luxury of hearing directly about Khmer music from researcher and musician Trent Walker. Ever since then, I started listening to 20th-century Cambodian music. In particular, I’ve been listening to one Cambodian artist the most: Sinn Sisamouth, the “King of Khmer Music”. Living from the 1930s to the 1970s, Sisamouth had a prolific career, performing on the national radio station, at royal receptions, and traveling to nearby countries. His career ended unfortunately during the Khmer Rouge rule when he went missing.

I like the tranquil nature of the music without feeling overly glum, and the lyrics to some songs feel fresh and different from what I’m used to. It is said that Sisamouth spent a lot of time searching three different dictionaries in Khmer, Sanskrit, and Pali for the right words for a particular song. I’m not sure that I can fully appreciate that aspect of his songs as a linguistically limited person, but it’s certainly worthy of respect, and YouTuber DMKhmer has translated some of his songs into English.

In addition, his music features instruments with interesting sound qualities. While I haven’t fully identified the instruments I find most appealing, I do like his use of mandolin and something that sounds like an organ. Check out this playlist on Spotify with many of his songs:

as well as this playlist on SoundCloud:

Sunny Kong · Khmer Music

In a future post, I may try to better understand the influences and inspirations that made his music what it was! In the meantime, I enjoyed checking out these articles about Sisamouth:

1. https://thebettercambodia.com/king-of-khmer-music-sinn-sisamouth/
2. https://8inside.wordpress.com/2016/03/21/sinn-sisamouth/
3. https://oldsongs-khmer.blogspot.com/2019/07/sin-sisamouth.html
4. https://www.cambodgemag.com/en/post/history-tribute-sinn-sisamouth-and-ros-serey-sothea-icons-of-cambodian-pop-music
5. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/09/obituaries/overlooked-sinn-sisamouth.html