What we learned from Son Tung MTP’s banned There’s No One At All Music Video

Two years of preparation and hundred thousand dollars proved futile as There's No One At All, the latest single from Son Tung MTP, the leading Vietnamese pop star, has been clamped down on all social platforms. The artist is facing the biggest crisis in his brilliant career.

At 8PM on April 28th, Son Tung MTP officially released his long-awaited There’s No One At All (NOAA) music video on YouTube. NOAA storytelling, said Son Tung MTP, was about an abandoned child who was remote from society, yet he always yearned for love and wished to be treated heartily like a normal kid. Empowered by a restless fandom, the video soon amassed 7M views within 22 hours.

As the initial triumph seemed smooth, the numbering records allured everyone to believe that NOAA was another V-pop hit from the talented performer. At 12.29PM on April 29th, things started to take their artists’ nightmare turn for the worst, Vietnam’s Government Portal has requested Google to pull down NOAA on all popular platforms, including YouTube, condemning the video as “bypassing the Vietnamese traditions, negatively affecting society’s mental health and social values” (VNExpress, Tuoi Tre).

At 7.30PM on April 29th, finding himself being thrown against strong public and government backlash, Son Tung MTP barred all Vietnam IPs from accessing NOAA on YouTube. He wrote his remark on Facebook, admitting the immediate takedown and the resulting disturbance. Yet, he firmly testified that it was not, by all means, his intention to provoke such vehement censure.

Social media became disjointed. Some praised his actions as courageous and wise, while others criticized him for being nonchalant and lacking sincerity. Some denounced the government ban as a scathing oppression of the arts and creativity; others believed this was the law coming into effect.

(Update: On May 5th, at 18.00PM, the government ordered Son Tung MTP to pay 70 million VND for his infringement, remove the video on all platforms, and hand over his ads revenue on YT!)

Then what really happened? And what could be learned?

Background revisiting with NOAA

From the high-status artist with big dreams

While the dark art theme (suicide, vandalism, mental health problems) is no longer an oddity in music, it is still a novelty in Vietnam. It is usually welcomed by a small, selected audience. Take a peep at Ca Hoi Hoang's Lan Thu Hai (2021) track, one of their tacitly suicidal indication videos. Deemed as the healing therapy for lost souls with meaningful lyrics, Lan Thu Hai received support from fans who were long familiar with Ca Hoi Hoang’s nostalgic melancholy vibe.

Son Tung MTP, in stark contrast, enjoyed his national fame as a soloist and a media attention-grabber. Moreover, his performance and style were regarded as ingeniously off-trail and always on an experiment, from the chart-topping Em Cua Ngay Hom Qua (2013) through the record-breaking Lac Troi (2017) and finally, the debatable There’s No One At All. Son Tung MTP reinvented himself with every performance, shifting from a disruptive to a historical and soft-boy vibe. Now with NOAA, he took on the mental health issue with a rebellious storyline, a great leap of faith to enlist his name for the new music theme.

The NOAA video was also his stepping stone to conquering the world, another ambition to establish his own brand on the global music chart following his 2020’s Give it to me track with Snoop Dog. NOAA was created in collaboration with great sound engineer Chris Gehringer and talented video colorist Jacob Mckee, who have contributed to the success of Drake, Lady Gaga, Rihanna, Billie Eilish, and others. For Son Tung MTP, there was more than just stacking bills invested in this video.

To the confused direction

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(1) The scene opened with a young man, played by Son Tung MTP sitting in a garbage truck and turning on a portable cassette (2) The flashback brought him to the date he, as a newborn was left to a church (3) Back to the present he ran on an aggressive and disreputable life

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(4) When he saw a young child, the flashback rushed through his mind, he remembered being bullied and isolated during school (5) The video continued through an array of his incomprehensible emotional upheavals

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(6) He tried to run away from his self-destructive self, unsuccessful (7) Hopeless, he took a high jump off, ending his life

As I was scrolling the Internet for perspectives and commentators, these questions hung on me:

To whom Son Tung MTP wrote this song? The currently sick? The normal people? The one who got over depression? Or the public as a whole?

Which message and story did he want us to believe in? Was the story about a destructive vagabond or a misguided and lone child? Was he depicting the fall-off as the gateway, or was it just a metaphor for a fervent wish for a new painless world?

I soon realized that the video was talking to all of us. We all were his audience, and without a doubt, Son Tung MTP was fully and plottingly aware of the multiple narratives the story could render. Just as usual, he counted on us and left the void for his massive audience to fill in. He then played the role of “a dead author” and let video interpretations take on their own life. Only this time, Son Tung MTP miscalculated.

And the bitter end

Weeks before NOAA's expectant release, one Vietnamese student from the prestigious Amsterdam High School ended his life by jumping off the balcony to his father’s appalled and terrified eyes. The entire nation was in utter shock and deep grief. The media loomed in the blame game on education, the social system, rank race, and parenting methods.

This event left an ever-lasting impact on suicidal issues communication, and NOAA was its first victim. If only everything had been as Son Tung MTP's plan, the media would have broken with debates and controversies, making NOAA views soar on all ranking charts. And if only there had been no heartbreaking incident of the student, the inextricable link between the two jump-offs would never have been made.

The only narrative Son Tung MTP has never prepared unfolded in its most deadly form: the government’s removal pressure and the disgraceful following fine. The blocking was a booming thunder to his rising newborn. Has he done something wrong? Has he deserved the ban? Was the government too aggressive to kill? The social media kept broiling with questions. But one thing was certain, Son Tung MTP's old strategy was no longer effective, at least for NOAA.

What are the lessons learned?

1. Music and the public must find common ground

Music is the medication for the soul; its ultimate mission is to serve. In the terror of the Amsterdam incident, society needed that magical melody more than ever to heal and to help with its illness. And it seemed like NOAA fell short of this expectation. In fact, it was another “slap in the face” to the parents and the social system. And the cancellation was their revengeful and furious backfire.

After all, Son Tung MTP was neither the savior nor the preacher in our folklore. He had always been an artist, a true performer haunted by his global vision. He might have been too obsessed with his unearthly mission to mind the local's grave pain. Music, like art, could be anything but hurt, and for the Vietnamese public, NOAA crossed this very thin line.

This issue once again raised the never-ending chicken and egg question. Wasn’t the artist freely reflecting on his/her worldview and creativity? Or did he/she have to carry some healing and protective mission to society? The answer might be lying in the artist’s deepest innermost. What was his/her true calling? What did his/her music represent? No matter how varied the answers were, all artists must accept this stingy truth: the arts could not escape social consensus, especially in turbulent times. The public interest would always be the artist’s first creative concern.

2. A thoughtful strategy is required for educational music video

The embargo of NOAA has drawn us to the fact that musical products should be taken care of as any communication campaign. All elements, including timing and objectives, must be considered strategically. Wrong release timing when the public was not ready, and you kissed your ill-fated child goodbye. Unclear objectives coupled with a poor rollout plan and your career was doomed to a fatal failure.

In his statement, Son Tung MTP affirmed his foremost objective was to ignite empathy and understanding towards the depressed, the outliners, hence inspiring joint actions within the community. In my opinion, how he handled NOAA, its storyline, and its execution did not live up to his high hopes. Rather, it was more like a hurried Midwesterner gearing up for his California Dream.

If Son Tung MTP's intention had been sole to reflect the real mental issue and trigger community sympathy, we would have had an epic, moving story no one could ever doubt or deny (I am sure he has got several scripts under his sleeve). He could have even gone further by cooperating with government agencies to entail a mental consultation service hotline or a call-to-action post on his page. In reality, what we saw was the complete opposite.

3. Audience to embrace and tolerate artists’ mistakes

Suicidal issues should be demonstrated through art, and artists should earn the right to show the issue how they view it. We, as audiences were entitled to point out where things went wrong and test if the so-called arts stood for their intended values. In the case of NOAA, we had to admit that the government’s intervention was too brutal to defend (they could have pulled it more respectfully, but who knows if Son Tung MTP would have stood up for his mistake or remained silent as usual, I guess everything happened for a reason here).

NOAA represented how flawed we were when it came to social issues. It was a wake-up call for society to change how we reacted to mental health problems and dark-themed arts and start looking for the root cause. It was a lesson learned for artists who wished to impact social issues, that was, for them to seriously take into account society’s most desirable longing. The people could only protect the artist if he/she inspired them through mutual belief.

So what's next?

Overall, the ban on There’s No One At All video served as a poignant reminder for artists and society when faced with social issues. For artists, the bigger the name, the heavier the responsibility to produce widely acceptable art with a wise plan. And for society to engage in sensitive topics in a thoughtful and respectful manner. Although the window of opportunity is small, Son Tung MTP still has fans willing to support him and is waiting for his next big move. He will need time to reflect on his future mission, goal, and music. The pressure and tension are all up, and this is not a simple game. Yet we know he will find his way back, recovered and ready to shine again.

(Update on Aug 2022: He has released "another version" of There's No One At All, 3 months after the shutdown. Gentle, romantic, yet brave and determined. Bravo!)

All photos in this essay are captured from There's No One At All original Music Video