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Pan Ron
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While Pan Ron was the second lady of Khmer music during the the 60s and 70s,
little is known about her life. What we know of her comes from her music, a
delightful mix of the playful and the soulful. During her life she created
a great treasure - hundreds of songs, many of which she both wrote and
performed. Tragically, her career and life was cut short; she is not known
to have survived the Khmer Rouge years. |
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| During the
late 60s and early 70s, Pan Ron was the second most famous and popular
female singer in Cambodia. She had some success in the early 60s, but her
career really took off when she began recording with Sinn Sisamouth in 1966.
After that, she had many hits, sometimes singing alone, but often paired
with Sisamouth, Meas Samon, Ros Serysothea, or some of the other stars of
the era. |
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Pan Ron was instrumental in the creation
and popularization of the thriving Cambodian rock and roll scene of the 60s
and 70s. Khmer musicians of the era were influenced by western rhythm &
blues, rock n' roll and music from Latin America. Musicians like Sinn
Sisamouth studied these musical styles while travelling abroad, and many
Cambodians were also hearing these songs on US Armed Forces Radio during the
Vietnam War. |
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Artists like Pan Ron took these genres of
music and combined them with classic Khmer music to produce a new sound -
Cambodian rock 'n roll. With her singing, she infused these songs with her
electric spirit, both crazy and cool, soulful and fun. Perhaps more than
any other female singer of the time, Pan Ron embodied the spirit of this new
Cambodian rock music. The reason is simple - She rocks! |
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The Cambodian rock 'n roll scene ended on
April 17, 1975, the day the communists took over Phnom Penh. Along with
nearly all the singers of the 60s and 70s, Pan Ron did not survive their
genocidal rule. But the Khmer Rouge failed to silence Pan Ron - her
powerful voice lives on, a priceless treasure to Cambodia and the world that
will last forever. |
   
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