An Analysis of Singers’ and Fans’ Attitudes Toward Translanguaging in Pop Songs
Shizhou Yang[1]*
& Manichar Aimdilokwong1
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*Correspondence: yang_s@payap.ac.th |
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1
Payap University, Thailand |
Abstract
Translanguaging
in popular music has attracted growing scholarly attention, yet how the
practice is received by the people who produce and consume it remains largely
unexamined. This survey-based study addresses that gap by examining the
attitudes of 15 singers and 617 fans toward translanguaging in the Thai pop
songs of CGM48, a Japanese-franchised idol group based in Chiang Mai, northern
Thailand. Most singers welcomed the incorporation of multiple languages,
including Japanese, English, Southern Thai, and Northern Thai, into their
songs. They saw translanguaging as making the music more interesting, more
distinctive, and more internationally accessible, and they stressed the
symbolic weight of local varieties in constructing the group’s Chiang Mai–based identity. Fans were similarly
positive, valuing the distinctive sound, the stylistic play, and the cultural
depth that multiple languages afford; the great majority also wanted to hear
more Northern Thai in Thai pop. Read together, the two perspectives show how
language ideology, identity construction, and audience reception jointly shape
multilingual practice in popular cultural production.
Keywords:
translanguaging;
Thai pop songs; identity; dialects; attitudes
1. Introduction
Over the past decade, translanguaging in music has
attracted growing research attention (Aliagas Marín,
2017; Alim, 2022; Cru, 2017; Deng, 2021; Kovačič, 2022; Lin, 2014), and recent work has
extended the lens from lyrics alone to the multimodal and intertextual work
that songs perform (Picone, 2024). What remains poorly
understood is how that practice is received socially, particularly when the
varieties brought into a song are not national languages but regional ones that
carry little institutional prestige. This study therefore examines how the artists
and fans of CGM48, a Chiang Mai–based idol group, regard the
(critical) translanguaging that draws together English, Japanese, standard
Thai, and the Northern Thai dialect. In doing so, it offers new evidence on the
social reception of multilingual pop and on the agency that singers and
listeners alike exercise in shaping the linguistic texture of Thai popular
music.
2. Literature Review
Translanguaging refers to the flexible and
holistic use of one’s linguistic resources.
Otheguy et al. (2015) defined it as “the deployment of a speaker’s full linguistic repertoire without regard for
watchful adherence to the socially and politically defined boundaries of named
(and usually national and state) languages” (p. 281). It differs from code-switching, which
proceeds from a monolingual paradigm that treats languages as separable systems
(Goodman & Tastanbek, 2021). Translanguaging can be
spontaneous or planned (Cenoz, 2017). Spontaneous
translanguaging arises as an instinct of multilingual speakers and writers but
can be inhibited by monolingual ideologies (Dovchin &
Wang, 2024). Planned translanguaging, in contrast, is
deliberate and systematic, and it is often intended to disrupt the monolingual
ideologies, policies, and practices that govern educational and academic
spaces. Its ultimate purpose is to decolonize language education (Darvin
& Zhang, 2023; García, 2019; W. Li & García, 2022) and academic writing (Canagarajah,
2022; Christiansen et al., 2025; Xie & Sun,
2024). More recently, Li (2024) has recast translanguaging
as a transformative pedagogy in which co-learning is paired with
transpositioning, a willingness to take up another’s linguistic and cultural standpoint, so that no
repertoire is treated as a deficient version of another.
Embracing a translanguaging vision of the world,
advocates challenge ideologies, policies, and practices that normalize colonial
relations between languages and, by extension, between speakers of diverse
languages (Darvin & Zhang, 2023; Kubota, 2022; W. Li & García, 2022; Tyler, 2023). They problematize the ways
languages are hierarchically named (García, 2019), and they interrogate
English-medium-instruction (EMI) policies in former British colonies in Asia (Fang et
al., 2023). Because translanguaging allows multilingual learners
to participate actively in knowledge-making and knowledge-sharing (Jiang
& Zhang, 2023), advocates often regard (critical)
translanguaging as a pursuit of social justice that raises the social status of
marginalized languages (Sah & Kubota, 2022; Sah & Li,
2020). On this view, decolonization through translanguaging
is a process of liberating multilingual subjects from colonial habits of mind
that lead them to belittle themselves, their linguistic backgrounds, and
knowledge systems (Rajendram, 2022; Wang, 2022). Translanguaging thus may
facilitate the growth of multilingual selves, which requires learners to
balance the relationship between majority and minority languages in their life
journeys (Teng & Zhang, 2025). Li (2022) regards the theorization of
translanguaging as a political act that challenges monolingual pedagogies,
monolingual communication, and de-contextualized analysis, and that therefore
contributes to a decolonizing project resisting racialized ways of relating to
languages and their users.
2.1
Translanguaging in pop culture
Pop culture presents a distinctive social context
for translanguaging. Compared to formal education, pop culture tends to be less
concerned with ideological correctness and favors heteroglossia, encouraging
the use of multiple languages and registers (Lin, 2014). Pop culture originates in
but also counters mainstream cultures, which normalize traditional, orthodox,
monolingual values, views, and expressions. As Fiske (2010) put it, “Popular culture is made by subordinated peoples in
their own interests out of resources that also, contradictorily, serve the
economic interests of the dominant” (p. 2). This simultaneously dependent yet
rebellious character gives pop culture the energy to trespass on linguistic
boundaries through translanguaging.
Translanguaging studies have explored flexible
language use in pop culture such as social media (Dumrukcic, 2020; Lee & Li,
2025; Qi & Li, 2022; Zhang &
Ren, 2020), comic books (DeHart et al.,
2025; Istighfaroh et al., 2022), subtitle translation (Guo et
al., 2025), and hip-hop (Aliagas Marín,
2017; Lin, 2014; Sharma, 2023). For instance, an analysis
of two Little Dim Sum Warrior comic books (Istighfaroh et
al., 2022) shows their verbal, visual, and contextual
translanguaging practice. Although written in English, the books embed words
(verbal translanguaging), clothes (visual translanguaging), and values
(contextual translanguaging) from Chinese language and culture. Similarly, in a
study on the use of Chinese fangyan or dialect in the subtitle translation of
hip-hop songs, Wang and Zhang (2024) found it necessary to
broaden the conceptualization of translanguaging to include the assemblage of
both linguistic and non-linguistic resources, especially through the mediation
of the Internet. Work on music fandom points in the same direction: Li and
Hiramoto (2025) showed that fans of Chinese
popular music take up stances toward artists through finely graded multilingual
address terms, so that the linguistic resources circulating around a song are
as consequential as those inside it. These studies suggest the fertility of pop
culture as a site for translanguaging, although such attempts may be inhibited
by language ideologies (Aliagas Marín, 2017).
2.2
Translanguaging in pop songs
The study of translanguaging in pop songs is
relatively new (e.g., Banda, 2019; Kovačič, 2022; Lumban Batu
& Sukamto, 2020). Several studies have used code-switching or
code-mixing—two related terms—to explore linguistic and
stylistic hybridity in African (Davies & Bentahila, 2006), Latin (Balam
& Shelton, 2023), Nepalese (Saud, 2022), and Thai (Likhitphongsathorn & Sappapan, 2013) pop songs. Analyzing
translanguaging in three Indonesian pop songs, Lumban Batu and Sukamto (2020) found that Indonesian and
English played distinctive roles: whereas Indonesian affirmed the artists’ local affiliations, English helped them construct
a global identity. Adding a third language complicates the picture further. By
using Javanese, Indonesian pop singers also laid claim to a regional identity (Sagimin
& Sapitri, 2023). These studies point to the need to situate pop
song translanguaging in its multiple contexts while attending to singers’ own intentions behind their language choices.
Beyond Southeast Asia, comparable work shows how
popular music becomes a site where regional varieties are re-valued. Chik (2010) documented the creative
multilingualism of Hong Kong popular music, in which Cantonese, English, and
Mandarin are layered for stylistic and identity work rather than out of
communicative necessity, and Sleeper (2025) shows how Welsh-language
rock musicians align code-switching with musical structure to claim a
minoritized identity inside an anglophone market. Picone (2024) argues further that lyrical
code-switching is best read multimodally, as one strand in a wider intertextual
assemblage of sound, image, and persona. Such studies indicate that the
question is not simply which languages appear in a song, but what social work
their co-presence is made to do.
A dual vision is needed. On the one hand,
researchers need to scrutinize how colonization may have assisted the global
spread of pop cultures from the West (Shuker, 2001) or shaped linguistic
hegemony within a nation (Ferguson, 2010). On the other hand,
researchers should recognize that decolonization, with its emphasis on the
emergence of self-affirming local cultural identities, may have influenced
multilingual features in song composition (Alifa &
Degaf, 2024). For instance, Konoshenko’s (2024) analysis shows that Guinean
pop music was heavily influenced by the country’s history of colonization (1898–1958), the Decolonial
Socialist Regime of Sekou Touré (1958–1984), and the Liberalisation
period (1984–present). Today, Guinean pop
singers prefer translanguaging through local languages, particularly Susu,
Malinka, and Pular (Konoshenko, 2024). The global spread of K-pop
is similar. Sinsomboonthong (2020) analyzed its possible
causes as follows:
global recognition
of K- Pop and its transnational linkages are both utilized to reconstruct its
own identity following the Korean War (as the US’s proxy) and the Asian
financial crisis (as one of the most affected countries). The transnationality
of K-Pop music is considered as the key to the national identity. Then, it can
be alternatively understood that, instead of being determined and influenced by
the US, this country’s [South Korea] nationalism is formed in response to
international recognition and transnational linkages. (p. 80)
Translanguaging thus may function as a strategy
through which pop song singers simultaneously construct their local, national,
and international identities in global contact zones (Pratt, 1991).
Social attitudes shape musical translanguaging
too. A study (Ibarra, 2024) compared 50 Spanglish
(translanguaging between Spanish and English) pop songs with 50 Frenglais
(translanguaging between French and English) songs, and found that the latter
attracted more support and popularity on social media and distribution channels
such as Spotify—a difference that mirrors
Canadian acceptance of Frenglais and US rejection of Spanglish. Likewise, an
interview-based study showed that even “monolingual” fans’ presence and attitudes toward translanguaging
play an important role in sustaining K-pop’s translingual practice in online communities (Kwon
& Lynch-Kimery, 2025). Listeners’ expectations are themselves genre-specific:
Squires (2019) demonstrates that hearers
relax their grammatical expectations once they recognize a text as pop lyric,
which helps explain why linguistic mixing that would be censured elsewhere
passes unremarked in song. Studies on translanguaging in pop songs thus need to
take account of shifting social discourses on translanguaging, especially when
dialects are involved (Aliagas Marín, 2017; Howard, 2010).
Although not focusing on translanguaging, several
earlier studies illustrate the diversity of language attitudes among Thai
people toward pop songs. One early study offered valuable insights from a Thai
musician’s perspective, showing the
entanglement between Thai artists’ creative expression and a
national identity in transition (Eamsa-Ard, 2006). Another study surveyed 50
Thai nationals, half of them middle-aged and the other half adolescents (Chairat,
2014). Participants’ attitudes toward the use of both English and Thai
in pop songs were found to be somewhat ambivalent: both groups regarded such
language mixing as “annoying,” yet most of the adolescent participants favored
it, regarding it as a sign of being “knowledgeable,” of showing “a good taste,” and of possessing “a higher social status.” More recently, Ruanglertsilp (2024) studied Thai rap songs from
a World Englishes perspective, while Nitsaisook et al. (2026) traced the language
ideologies that have underwritten four eras of English education policy in
Thailand and that continue to position English above the country’s regional varieties. No study we know of has yet
adopted a translanguaging perspective on Thai pop songs from both artists’ and fans’ perspectives. This study therefore asks: (1) How
do singers perceive and experience the use of multiple languages, including the
Northern Thai dialect, in pop songs? (2) How do fans perceive and respond to
the use of multiple languages, including the Northern Thai dialect, in pop
songs?
3. Material and methods
3.1
Data collection
Data were collected through Google Forms. The
participants were the members of CGM48 and its fans. CGM48 is a Thai franchise
of Japan’s AKB48, a group that has
been described as one of the best-selling girl groups worldwide and that has
multiple branches in other Asian countries such as Indonesia, the Philippines,
and Malaysia. CGM48 has a strong social media presence and fandom: 203k followers
on Facebook, 173k on YouTube, and 63.6k on X. Like its sister group in Bangkok,
CGM48 mostly sings Thai versions of Japanese songs. In translation, however,
English, standard Thai, the Northern Thai dialect, and Japanese are woven
together, so that the resulting songs are themselves multilingual. The group
currently has 30 songs; apart from two “original” ones, 28 were translated from Japanese.
The co-author is the
first-generation lead singer in CGM48, which had 16 members. Her status gave
her easy access to other singers in the group and fans through social media.
Her firsthand experience also provides an insider perspective on translanguaging.
The surveys were bilingual in
English and Thai, and participants could respond in either language. The
co-author, who is proficient in both Thai and English, translated the Thai
responses into English. Fifteen of the group’s 16 members responded, along with 617 fans.
3.2
Data analysis
We used descriptive statistics to summarize
participants’ age, regional identity, and
attitudes toward translanguaging in pop songs. We then analyzed the written
responses through coding and theme development. Initial codes were generated
manually by highlighting significant phrases relating to attitudes,
motivations, or experiences with multilingual and dialect use in Thai pop
songs. These codes were then reviewed and grouped into broader themes that
responded directly to the two research questions. For the artist members,
common themes included “Northern Thai identity,” “challenging,” and “mixing languages to reach more people.” For the fans, common themes included “pride in hearing local language and cultural
identity,” “difficulty understanding,” “creative,” and “reaching a wider audience.” Participant quotations are used throughout to
convey the texture of these perceptions.
4. Results
4.1
Artists’ attitudes toward translanguaging in pop songs
The singers were all young adults. Most (60%) were
aged 18–20, with the remainder aged
21–23 (33.3%) or 15–17 (6.7%). Three regions of
Thailand were represented: northern (53.3%), central (40%), and northeastern
(6.7%).
All singers were
multilingual. Almost all (93.3%) could understand and speak English, and more
than half (66.7%) could understand and speak the Northern Thai dialect, the
primary language used in Chiang Mai. 33.3% of them understand and speak the
northeastern Thai dialect and 20% of them can understand and speak Japanese.
Some of them (13.3%) can also understand and speak Chinese or Korean. However,
only 6.7% of them can understand and speak southern Thai dialect. The group’s linguistic profiles were thus more complex than
their geographical backgrounds.
The survey asked the singers
about their attitudes toward singing songs that include languages other than
Thai. Four options were provided—“Excited,” “Challenged,” “Neutral,” and “Uncomfortable”—together with an open field
for further comment. Nearly half of the artist members (46.7%) chose “challenged,” a quarter (26.7%) chose “excited,” and 20% chose “neutral.” None chose “uncomfortable.” One member (6.7%) wrote instead that singing
multilingual songs makes the songs more interesting (see Figure 1). Since no
singer reported discomfort, and since “challenged” indexes engagement with the practice rather than
aversion to it, the great majority of the group (73.4%) can be read as
favorably disposed toward translanguaging in pop songs.
Figure
1. Artist Members’ Feelings about Singing a Song That Includes Multiple
Languages
Pronunciation was by far the greatest difficulty
in singing multilingual songs, reported by 80% of the artist members.
Memorization followed (46.7%), and emotional expression and grasping the
meaning of the lyrics were each named by 26.7% (see Figure 2). No written
explanations were provided.
Figure
2. Difficulties Faced by Artist Members When Using Different Languages in Pop
Songs
An open-ended question asked
the artist members how they prepare to sing a song that includes languages
other than their first. Almost all reported the same strategy: repeated
practice. One singer explained that she prepared by working out the way words in
an unfamiliar language are pronounced, copying and comparing them with the
sound guide, and deliberately singing them with the correct accent. Another
described using standard Thai, her first language, to transcribe the
pronunciation of lyrics in other languages—a strategy that made those lyrics easier to
articulate. Translanguaging, in other words, was not only what the singers
performed on stage but also how they prepared to perform it.
The artist members were also
asked whether singing a song that includes multiple languages is more appealing
than singing in a single language. The majority (86.7%) found multilingual
songs more appealing, compared with a minority (13.3%) who disagreed (see
Figure 3).
Figure
3. Artist Members’ Attitudes toward Using Multiple Languages in a Song
In their written responses,
the singers explained that multiple languages make a song sound more
interesting, more unique, and more international, and allow it to reach wider
audiences. Using a local language, they added, showcases the local culture associated
with it. One singer observed that much depends on the listener’s personal experience with different languages: if
people can relate to the languages used in a song, they may be impressed by it;
if not, they might feel alienated by the artists’ use of unfamiliar languages. Singing multilingual
songs thus emerged as a deliberate act of connection with the audience.
All members reported that
their fans had responded very positively to the use of the Northern Thai
dialect in the group’s earlier songs, treating it
as a signature feature of CGM48. The same attachment surfaced, in reverse, when
Northern Thai receded from recent releases: fans, the singers said, felt that
the group was ignoring, abandoning, or losing what made it a Chiang Mai band.
Three singers wrote, respectively:
Singer 1: I received negative
feedback from the fans for disusing the Northern Thai dialect in the lyrics.
Without Northern Thai dialect lyrics in the songs, we are losing the identity
of being a Chiang Mai group – making our group no
different from any other typical idol girl group.
Singer 2: Fans have expressed
concern that the band appears to be distancing itself from its original
identity,—trying too hard to create
songs that follow current trends.
Singer 3: Some fans have
noticed that recent singles contain less of the Northern Thai dialect, which
may create a sense that something is missing from the group. Personally, I
think this can be adjusted depending on what suits each song. It doesn’t always have to be all
Northern Thai dialect, nor should the Northern Thai identity disappear
entirely. For example, elements of it can still be incorporated through musical
arrangement, instrumentation or anything else.
Singer 3’s comment especially highlights a dynamic approach
to maintaining the group’s Northern Thai cultural
identity. Besides translanguaging, resources such as “musical arrangement, instrumentation or anything
else” can also index that local
identity.
4.2
Fans’ attitudes toward translanguaging in Thai pop songs
Of the 617 fans who responded, most (84.9%)
reported fluency in Standard Thai, and fewer than one in ten in other Thai
dialects—Northern Thai (7.5%),
northeastern Thai (1.6%), and southern Thai (1.9%). A further 1.8% reported
fluency in English. Almost all fans (95%) said they could understand standard
Thai and most (83.8%) could also understand English; over half (52.2%) could understand
Northern Thai, and close to a fifth (15.6%) could understand Japanese.
Fans reported enjoying pop songs that incorporate
multiple languages, and their feelings about such songs were predominantly
positive (Figure 4). Over half (59.8%) chose the statement “I love it! It makes the music more interesting,” compared with a third (32.9%) who chose “I enjoy it, but sometimes it’s hard to understand.”
Figure
4. Fans’ Feelings about Listening to Multilingual Songs
Together, these two responses mean that 92.7% of
fans took a positive view of multilingual songs, which suggests broad
acceptance of translanguaging in pop. One fan explained: “I feel excited about how the writer would make the
songs with multiple languages, I think it makes the songs more interesting.” Another wrote: “I think it is interesting, even though I don’t know about some words but it is good to get to
learn new words in other languages.” The shared positivity, then, rests on somewhat
different motives. By contrast, and as Figure 4 also shows, only a small
fraction of the fans (3%) felt either ambivalent or negative: 2.8% chose “I don’t mind it, but I prefer songs in a single
language,” and only 0.2% chose “I don’t like it; I find it confusing.”
A further question, which allowed multiple
selections, asked what makes multilingual songs more appealing than monolingual
ones. Most fans (72.1%) pointed to their unique sounds and styles; over half
(59.5%) chose cultural diversity and richness; and almost as many (58.2%) chose
the connections that multilingual songs open up to different languages and
identities.
Fans were more divided about the difficulty of
following multilingual lyrics (Figure 5). Over half (57.9%) reported some
difficulty, whereas the remainder (42.1%) reported either no difficulty at all
or positive enjoyment of the challenge. The difficulties they named concerned
understanding the lyrics and sustaining an emotional connection when unfamiliar
languages are used; a few also stressed the importance of keeping a Thai
identity while integrating other languages.
Figure
5. Fans’ Difficulties in Understanding or Enjoying Multilingual Songs
Open-ended responses revealed what those
challenges consist of. Most fans mentioned understanding lyrics in languages
with which they are unfamiliar. The responses mixed positive and negative
appraisals. For example, one fan commented: “I do not understand the meaning, I can not
translate it and I am not sure if what I understand is correct.” Another wrote, “Sometimes I don’t understand the vocabulary of other languages.” Fans also described occasions on which language
and music failed to sit well together. One critiqued, “When [singers] translating songs from Japanese to
Thai lyrics, some words do not go well with the original melody used with
Japanese lyrics. Making it hard to understand for some parts.” Another observed, “Sometimes it [the translation] doesn’t match the [original] song [in Japanese].” International (non-Thai) fans reported a further
obstacle: Northern Thai meanings are largely unavailable online. As one fan
wrote,
“As a Chinese I just learned
a little bit of Standard Thai. So for me if a song includes some Thai dialects,
and most of them maybe cannot be translated, it will confuse me a bit.
(Example: Song XXX took me almost a month to figure out that it is not all using
Standard Thai till the day I put the lyrics into the translator).” and also “I experienced difficulty when translating Northern
Thai dialect, I have to ask someone who knows Northern Thai dialect.”
For some fans the difficulty lay less in the
language itself than in how it was voiced. One shared, “Some English words that are pronounced in a
Japanese accent on the song are different from the English accent.” Others found it “confusing [to match] the pronunciation and meaning
of a [multilingual] song.”
Nonetheless, fans still expressed positive
feelings toward translanguaging pop songs. They wrote:
“I have fun with listening to multilingual songs, I
have fun exploring the meanings in the songs.”
“I listen due to my preference, guessing the
meanings from the contexts. Sometimes it is not right, I have to find more
meaning about it but overall I still enjoy it.”
“I don’t know the meaning. I focus more on enjoying the
vibe of the songs.”
“If I don’t understand it, I can look for the translation. Multulingul
[multilinguals] can make the songs sound more catchy.”
“Sometimes I have to pause the song and find the
meaning of some words (which are not my native language) in the lyrics to
understand the whole lyrics, but that’s not really a big deal for me.”
Difficulty, however, did not translate into
dislike: 88.3% of fans still found the songs enjoyable. These listeners appear
to treat multilingual pop songs as a genre to be enjoyed in its own right, with
or without full access to the meanings.
Asked whether they would like to see more Thai pop
songs with multilingual features, almost all fans (93.3%) said yes (see Figure
6).
Figure
6. Fans’ Attitudes toward Seeing More Thai Pop Songs Incorporating Multiple
Languages
Open-ended responses show that most fans
associated multilingual songs with greater relatability, personal appeal,
cultural diversity, and international reach. Fans wrote, for instance: “This might bring Thai songs to internationally
easier”; “It increases the diversity and makes the songs
more unique”; “It makes the songs more appealing and gets people
to learn new languages also.” One fan wrote:
Multilingual helps break
barriers in understanding songs and the underlying culture. If we want to
expand our pop songs popularity to a wider audience, I imagine that songs with
both Thai and English lyrics will be easier to adopt by listeners.
From the fans’ perspective, then, translanguaging in Thai pop
songs is not merely welcome but strategic—a means of reaching “a wider audience.”
Some fans also expressed a desire for Thai pop
song lyrics to incorporate more varieties of Thai dialects. For instance, two
fans wrote respectively:
I am not from the central
part of Thailand, for me I would like to see more of local Thai dialects in the
songs. I think it is also lovely to see other languages with local Thai
dialects, it widens our world.
I want people to know that
[standard] Thai language is not [the] only one language in Thai language, there
are also other Thai dialects. Using other Thai dialects in the songs is like
spreading cultural awareness to people and also it is one of the ways to record
the existence of the language.
For the first fan, the use of multiple Thai
dialects alongside other languages signals a broadened worldview. For the
second, incorporating those dialects serves the dual function of raising public
awareness and of documenting varieties that might otherwise go unrecorded. Fans
also showed critical awareness of the power dynamics between standard and
non-standard varieties in Thai society. As one fan put it: “Local dialects, though often marginalized, are
deeply embedded in Thai cultural heritage. Integrating them into pop music
makes them more approachable to the general public, while preserving and
highlighting the aesthetic value of the language.” Northern Thai was singled out repeatedly: “Because I personally really like Northern Thai, I
wish there were more Thai songs that use Northern Thai to listen to”; “Northern girl idol group
blended Japanese lyrics with Thai pop and also added Northern Thai, creating a
distinct and authentic sound of their own. I’d love to see more songs like that.”
A minority of fans disagreed, citing personal
preference or the appropriateness of language mixing. One fan wrote, “I prefer just only Thai language.” Another was ambivalent: “For Thai people, personally, it sounds a bit off,
but it’s also part of what can help
Thai songs go international. Korean and Japanese songs also mix in English all
the time.” A third wrote: “If the aim is to promote cultural diversity,
[multilingual songs are acceptable]; however, many modern songs tend to insert
English in a forced and unnecessary way.” Few though these voices were, they show that
translanguaging in Thai pop is not beyond social critique.
In sum, most fans welcomed Thai pop songs that
incorporate other languages, especially English, which they saw as the main
route to a global audience, and as a way of updating and internationalizing
Thai music. They were equally positive about Thai dialects, and about Northern
Thai in particular, which they regarded as a crucial means of presenting the
distinctive cultural character and identity of a Chiang Mai–based group.
5. Discussion and conclusion
This study explored singers’ and fans’ attitudes toward the use of multiple languages,
including the Northern Thai dialect, in Thai pop songs. The artists were
overwhelmingly positive about multilingual songs, despite the difficulty of
singing them, and most found such songs both appealing and exciting. As in
other studies, the singers believed that translanguaging can help them reach
wider audiences while constructing diverse identities (Banda, 2019; Lumban Batu
& Sukamto, 2020; Saud, 2022). These Chiang Mai–based artists used planned
translanguaging as both a performance tool and a cultural strategy (Pennycook,
2007). By integrating English, they performed transnational
identities in the global cultural contact zones they inhabit (Pratt,
1991), as comparable groups have done (Ahn, 2021); by integrating local
languages, they maintained cultural solidarity with their fans (Kovačič, 2022) while displaying
self-acceptance, as in the case of BTS (Kim, 2025).
Fans perceived translanguaging in Thai pop songs
just as positively. Similar to fans’ attitudes toward Spanglish in Latin rap (Balam
& Shelton, 2023), the fans in this study reported challenges in
understanding multilingual songs but continued to appreciate the creative sound
and the stylistic and cultural synergy that translanguaging affords. As in an
earlier study (Likhitphongsathorn & Sappapan, 2013), fans were positive about
English usage in Thai pop songs. They also believed that Thai dialects,
especially Northern Thai, helped promote Thai cultural and regional identity.
Translanguaging in Thai pop songs can thus be taken as a strategy to preserve,
pursue, and promote cherished cultures, connections, and identities (Dutton
& Rushton, 2021). When multilingual speakers invest in
lesser-spoken languages or language varieties, the motivation is often not
economic but symbolic—the value of those varieties
for constructing identities that exceed monolingual storylines (Canagarajah,
2020; James, 2023). The point is not confined
to popular music. Echeverria and Sparling (2024) observe that song has long
been one of the most effective vehicles of heritage-language revitalization
precisely because it circulates affect rather than instruction, and de la
Piedra and Johnson (2025) show that music-making
assembles linguistic and non-linguistic resources into a single translanguaging
space. The fans’ positive attitudes thus
provide an affirmative environment for the artists’ (critical) translanguaging experiments with
Northern Thai lyrics.
Overall, this study contributes new knowledge on
translanguaging in Thai pop songs. Like other research on dialect use in songs
(Barco, 2025), the artists’ and fans’ positive attitudes toward the use of Northern
Thai in pop songs reflect a general social leniency toward diverse languages in
pop culture, especially among the Thai youth who took part in this study and
who have grown up under policies favoring bilingual education (Howard,
2010). It may also be read as a Northern Thai assertion of
cultural identity against the background of “over a century of Central Thai (Bangkok) cultural
and political domination” (Ferguson, 2010, p. 228)—a hierarchy that, as
Nitsaisook et al. (2026) show, successive Thai
language-education policies have helped to naturalize. The wide acceptance of
English in Thai pop songs by artists and fans alike confirms “Pop Song English” as a transnational phenomenon (Gibson,
2024), drawn on by singers across the globe for their own
artistic and sociolinguistic purposes (Ahn, 2021; Ruanglertsilp,
2024; Sagimin & Sapitri, 2023), and used as a “currency” to enter the global music market (Schneider,
2024, p. 111). The covert translanguaging involved in
translating Japanese pop songs for a Thai audience aligns with the insight that
pop songs are a translocal genre that opens a fertile social space for cultural
and linguistic hybridity (Saud, 2022; Sinsomboonthong,
2020). This study further suggests that (critical)
translanguaging in pop songs may function as a viable strategy for multilingual
communities worldwide to hold the local, the national, and the global in
balance (Fairfield, 2017; Gobodwana, 2025; Howard, 2010). Through their fluid
language use, drawing on extensive and still expanding repertoires, both the
singers and the fans contribute to a shared vision of Thai pop songs that is
decolonizing in its orientation.
These findings should not be generalized to the
whole musical landscape of Thai pop. The sample is drawn from a single group,
participation was self-selected, and the data are self-reported attitudes
rather than observed listening practice; the co-author’s membership in the group, which secured the
access on which the study depends, may also have shaped what singers felt able
to say. Future research should include a wider range of artists and fans from
other groups and communities, and would benefit from pairing survey data with
textual analysis of the songs themselves. Despite these limitations, the
findings have important implications. For musicians and producers, they suggest
that incorporating local dialects and multilingual elements can enhance audience
engagement and cultural relevance. For policymakers and tourism agencies,
supporting such artistic expressions could be a creative pathway to cultural
preservation and economic development. Ultimately, translanguaging in Thai pop
songs—especially through the
integration of the Northern Thai dialect—may not only reshape musical aesthetics but also
offer a vibrant, authentic way of presenting Chiang Mai, a popular
international destination, to the world. The group’s ongoing effort to balance internationalization
against cultural preservation may offer other multilingual communities a model
for surviving and thriving in the global contact zones.
Declaration
of GenAI Use in the Writing Process
The authors used ChatGPT to improve language,
clarity, and readability. The authors reviewed and edited all AI-generated
content as necessary and take full responsibility for the content of the
published article.
Funding
This research received no external funding.
Conflict
of Interest
The authors declare that they have no competing
interests.
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Author biodata
Shizhou Yang, PhD, assistant
professor, is an applied linguist, second language writer, writing teacher, and
researcher. His current interests include translanguaging, Global South
epistemologies, and decolonization. He has published three monographs through
Routledge: Autobiographical Writing and Identity in EFL Education, Literacy
Autobiographies from the Global South, and Decolonizing EFL Writing Education.
His work has appeared in international journals such as System, L2 Journal,
TESOL Journal, and International Journal of TESOL Studies. He currently teaches
writing and research-related courses at Payap University in Thailand. He has
also been serving as an associate editor for MEXTESOL Journal and reviews for
multiple international journals.
Email:
yang_s@payap.ac.th
ORCID:
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8113-4689
Born
and raised in Bangkok, Manichar Aimdilokwong, spent six years as a
member of Chiang Mai’s girl-group idol community, an experience that shaped
her perspectives on multilingual creativity and audience engagement. She now
works as an artist and influencer while continuing to explore the intersections
of culture, music, and self-expression.
Email:
6205010103@payap.ac.th