The rock and roll scene was more in the 1960s, before the civil war began in 1970, partly affected by the Vietnam-American war spilling over into Cambodia. I’ll come back to that in a moment.

There were a few factors contributing to the music scene in the late 1950s-1960s; the king at the time Norodom Sihanouk was a patron of the arts and invested a lot in films (including several he directed(; the royal ballet and theatre. Newly independent Cambodia’s capital of Phnom Penh was thriving at the time, and was known as the “Pearl of Southeast Asia”.

By comparison Vietnam was already in the beginning of the Second Indochina War ( what we usually call the Vietnam War, or in Vietnam the American War). Interestingly, the US military ships based off the coasts of Vietnam and Cambodia played music like the Beatles, Motown, surfer music... and this was all picked up via radio in Cambodia, so this popular music from the West influenced the music scene in the country. Sometimes this was in translating songs like “house of the rising sun” but also creating unique music.

Sihanouk managed to keep Cambodia out of the Cold War / Indochina War for a time, but eventually in 1970 he was overthrown and the country broke into civil war. The new government of the Khmer Republic pressured musicians and radio stations to create propaganda music, and in. 1975 when the Khmer Rouge took control of the country that was the end of Cambodian rock and roll. It’s estimated only 10% of the musicians and artists survived the Khmer Rouge regime.

Fortunately, in the last 20 years or so, the younger generations have reconnected with the lost music and it’s common to hear the famous singers from the 1960s.

I can’t speak as much to Laos or Vietnam by comparison at this time.

Apologies for formatting, I’m on my mobile. There is of course much much more to say about the war in Cambodia as well as the Indochina Wars, but trying to focus my reply on the question about Cambodian rock and roll.

Sources: I am living in Cambodia and research peace and related topics, this is a topic that comes up frequently,

On the music: Don’t Think I’ve Forgotten: Cambodia’s Lost Rock and Rock (documentary) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksyFB6eCcTM

General history & overview of the war: History of Cambodia by David Chandler