Nhạc vàng is a sentimental South Vietnamese ballad style sung over a slow bolero or rumba rhythm. Its hallmark is a nasal, ornamented vocal delivery full of sighs and slides, backed by guitar, electric guitar and later synthesizers. The lyrics, in plain everyday language, speak of parting, poverty, a soldier's fate and unrequited love.

The style spread across the South, centered on Saigon, after the 1954 partition of Vietnam. The name 'nhạc vàng' ('yellow music') marked it as decadent, sentimental popular music; composers like Trúc Phương, the 'king of bolero,' produced it in great quantity. After reunification in 1975 the northern government banned it as decadent, but people kept listening underground, and the diaspora preserved it abroad.

Follow the slow, triplet-feel bolero pulse and the singer's heavy use of vocal ornaments and breathy phrasing. The point of the genre is not polish but how everyday sorrow is rendered through the voice.

Chế Linh's 'Thành Phố Buồn' (1970) is a signature recording and a clear example of the genre's aching, ornamented vocal style.

The 'yellow' of 'yellow music' was set against the revolutionary 'red' — the genre's name is the deliberate opposite of the North's 'red music' (nhạc đỏ).