Nhạc trẻ ('youth music') is band music — electric guitar, organ, drums — that adapted and covered Western rock and roll and pop in Vietnamese. It took up the twist, go-go and at times a psychedelic edge, and was bright and modern in deliberate contrast to the sentimental nhạc vàng. It captures the energy of urban Saigon in the 1960s and 70s.

Against the backdrop of the Vietnam War, the U.S. military presence and the inflow of Western pop culture, young people in Saigon performed and translated British and American hits. Phạm Duy wrote adapted lyrics, and singers like Elvis Phương and Thanh Lan carried the songs. The 1975 fall of Saigon cut off the scene at home, but it lived on in exile and fed directly into later V-pop.

Half the fun is spotting which Western song a track is adapting. Listen for how a Western rock beat accommodates the tones of the Vietnamese language — the slight friction and the comfort coexist.

Elvis Phương's 'Tôi Muốn' (1971) is an accessible example of the Western-rock-adapted pop sound.

The singer Elvis Phương took his stage name straight from Elvis Presley — a small but telling sign of the era's worship of Western pop.