The show must go on

Music, movies, theatre, television: what happened in 2015 and what to look for in 2016.

Music

Streaming

Next year, music streaming will kill more radio stars. Growing popularity in streaming services like Apple Music, Deezer, KKBox and Line Music are changing the game in this tech-savvy era.

"Because music streaming is convenient and easily accessible on any device," said Sarun Pinyarat, co-founder and CEO of Fungjai, an indie-oriented music streaming website and application, which boast 120,000 and 15,000 monthly users, respectively, "listeners can get free access to curated playlists or individual songs from a huge collection of songs or even create their own playlists right at their fingertips".

Fungjai's co-founder and community manager Piyapong Muenprasertdee added that streaming platforms may contribute greatly to the death of radio, while the bright side of it is that it provides a gateway to discover new artists and creates opportunities for independent artists to reach a wider audience.

Social

"With almost 4 million followers on Genie Records' YouTube channel, it's become our own channel and direct tool to communicate with the fans," said GMM Music executive vice-president music production and promotion Wichian Rerkpaisarn.

He cited how social media was here to stay and how it had become part of the core curriculum to the success of the music business.

Not only have Facebook, Instagram and YouTube made an imprint in control of content and connected fans with artists, but social ads also serve as one of the more tangible moneymaking platforms record labels can rely on.

Segmentation

In the deluge of artists and music genres, a more targeted segmentation helps pinpoint and fill gaps in diverse music markets.

Music powerhouses like GMM Music are gearing towards a stronger segmentation in 2016 with current and new record labels specialising in a certain niche and targeting a specific group of listeners. "Hitting the right spot leads to success," said Wichian. "GMM Music is segmenting strategically into more specific categories to cater to all niches in the market. We've recently introduced new imprints, Halo Society and MBO, to serve the teen market, for instance."

Small-scale events

With the economy expected to remain sluggish next year, it's likely that big brands will spend less on events. The consequences are that small artists and small-scale events will be the next big thing.

According to Piyapong of Fungjai, this will lead to a resurgence of self-organising promoters and small-scale gigs whereas independent artists with a strong fan base will increasingly be chosen to perform.

Still, music matters

Even though economic and political backdrops are expected to be depressing next year, music is still a vital element that will cheer up people's spirits. As three music industry experts, Wichian, Sarun and Piyapong, all agree, music is still essential to life and all social functions, no matter how big or small the event is.

Against the physical and digital music downturn, fans are nonetheless opting for new ways to support their favourite artists by going to their live shows and buying band merchandise.

-- Pimchanok Phungbun Na Ayudhya

Television

Hormones 3 The Final Season 

At first, many fans were sceptical how the final season of this popular teen series would fare. Their old, beloved cast members were graduating and a new, relatively unknown cast were to replace them.

But Hormones 3 proved the knockout television experience of the year. Presenting heavy, sensational and honest stories of high schooler's lives, the series was not inferior to its forerunners despite its inexperienced -- yet talented -- new cast. All episodes raked in millions of views each online. If there is a show that can claim itself to be the teen drama of our generation, Hormones The Series is undoubtedly the one.

To the dismay of loyal fans, the show recently aired its finale on television after a successful three-year run. Many kept their fingers crossed for a fourth season, though the possibility seems small. Our Saturday nights will never feel the same again.

The Face Thailand Season 2

How do you adapt a Western reality TV show to please Thai audiences? Licensee Kantana Group managed to spice up The Face with a Thai-style soap-opera catfight and won phenomenal ratings, as well as positive audience reactions.

A reality show in search of supermodels hadn't done well in our country before (Thailand's Next Top Model aired in 2005 to bad reviews), and The Face Thailand Season 1 made its debut in October last year to moderate fame. But then came Season 2 and its weekly high drama. Each episode -- airing on Saturday with an intermission by the junta's show -- sparks weekly online debates and controversy as the audience is divided into different teams, siding with their favourite mentors and contestants. One internet uproar included a mentor kicking out the show's high-potential contender, while another mentor trying to steal a contestant from another team.

The fans can turn savagely fierce if the contestants they're rooting for get eliminated. Many have made rude comments against the mentors. All these have proven one thing: the success of The Face Thailand Season 2 is fanatical. The final episode is to be aired in January.

Sood Kaen Saen Rak

In our nation of soap operas, none left as memorable a trace as Sood Kaen Saen Rak on Channel 3. The drama tells the story of three generations of intertwining lives and the family grudges that befall them. Loaded with melodrama, and the over-the-top physical and verbal fights between female characters that became the show's iconic scenes, it became very popular with Thai viewers.

Aside from random catfights, the intense plot also served as a catalyst to boost the show's ratings. Yam (played by actress and stage diva Radklao Amaradit) is a mother who despises her daughter-in-law so much that she decides to break her son's relationship apart, and keeps the grandson to herself. Her hate then fuels a series of mishaps that tears apart generations of families. It doesn't get anymore dramatic than this.

-- Melalin Mahavongtrakul

Rak Ti Khon Kaen, a film by Apichatpong Weerasethakul.

Film

Best Thai Films

Sixty-three Thai titles were released in 2015, a robust number that keeps the industry healthy. While we saw the usual glut of subpar efforts and forgettable inanities, there have also been a number of notable films worth remembering. In the mainstream arena, Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit's Freelance impressed with its odd humour; the film about a graphic designer and his dermatologist was also a box office hit (though the highest grossing Thai title was Legend Of King Naresuan 6).

But again, it is the independent film sector that has produced more relevant and quality titles: Josh Kim's How To Win At Checkers (Every Time) is a brotherly drama with a critique of the military draft; Anucha Boonyawattana's Onthakan (The Blue Hour) is a low-budget teen horror taking place in hellish limbo; Kongdej Jaturanrasmee's Sa-nap (Snap) is a romantic nostalgia set in the aftermath of the 2014 coup d'etat; Jakrawal Nilthamrong's Vanishing Point is an experimental film about loss and memory.

Still, one of the best Thai films of 2015 is one that hasn't been released: Apichatpong Weerasthakul's Rak Ti Khon Kaen (Cemetery of Splendour), a splendid ode to our post-coup somnambulism. Hopefully the film, which the director withholds release due to his concern of censorship, will find its way back home soon.

GTH break-up

The biggest shake-up in the Thai film industry was the dissolution of the most successful movie studio, GTH. It was a business decision to realign partnership and creative force -- and not the end of an era as some feared. GTH is the producer of the country's biggest hits in the past 11 years, notably the all-time high of Pee Mak, in 2013. But top executives decided to part ways, though the studio's in-progress projects will continue unimpeded while their directors and creative heads will regroup and soon return. What they will unveil in 2016 will be big news to the always-unpredictable Thai film industry.

The Arpat scandal

No news on Thai cinema is complete without censorship news. In 2015, the film Arbat (later renamed Arpat) spawned front-page headlines on many consecutive days after the film, a horror about misbehaving monks, was originally banned by the censors, citing that the content "shames Buddhism".

The reaction was split. Some people criticised the censors for being narrow-minded and dictatorial, while the other camp agreed that the film shouldn't portray the dark side of monks. The film's producer, Prachya Pinkaew, re-edited, changed the title, cut out some sensitive scenes, and resubmitted the film. This time it passed. The issue reignited the controversial Film Act and how the censorship committee chose to interpret the content of each film.

The balancing act between freedom of the arts and official control will continue to be debated.

What to watch in 2016

Some of the films we're looking forward to in 2016: Pen-Ek Ratanaruang's Samui Song is a murder story involving a religious cult, starring Cherman Boonyasak; Anocha Suwichakornpong's By The Time It Gets Dark, a drama starring Arak "Pae" Amornsupasiri; Prabda Yoon's Motel Mist, an erotic trip and directorial debut of one of Thailand's best-known writers.

Meanwhile, we're still waiting for Kongkiat Khomsiri's Khun Pan, a long-awaited supernatural action film.

-- Kong Rithdee

Theatre

B-Floor

This experimental physical-based theatre group continues to be a force, with its expressed desire and tenacity to speak -- through movements, fragments of words and production designs -- the unspeakable. Take the much-talked-about Bang La Merd by Ornanong Thaisriwong to Jarunun Phantachat's recreation of this political atmosphere in The Test Of Endurance. Around midyear, B-Floor's creative director Teerawat Mulvilai staged the third episode of his Satapana trilogy, this time picking the immediate context at the time, and in October, Manoland in which six performers basically showed us, through sketches of dialogues and movements, what is wrong in our society. To finish the year off, it was Jarunun's interactive Ceci N'est Pas La Politique, in which, despite what the title claims, the interactive part was that audience got to vote for how the story should move on and yet we were never sure if our voices were counted. So there's Thai politics for you.

Productions from abroad

Aside from Dance Dance Asia -- Crossing The Movements at M Theatre, the Unfolding Kafka festival and Bangkok's International Festival of Dance and Music, there was Sodsai Pantoomkomol Centre for Dramatic Arts where exciting productions from abroad regularly took turns to treat us, such as EXTension(-) by A.lter S.essio at the beginning of the year, Notte By Compagnie 14:20 as part of La Fete to Mahabharata Chapter 2.5 by Hiroshi Koike Bridge Project last month. One of the most notable ones being Shakespeare's Globe touring Hamlet as part of the 400th anniversary of the bard's death and La Metamorphose by Seinendan Theatre Company.

-- Kaona Pongpipat 

The rise of English-speaking theatre companies

It's never easy starting a theatre company in Thailand. It's even more difficult when most of the audiences of small theatre companies in Bangkok are more accustomed to Thai-language theatre. But, in the past year, Peel the Limelight and Culture Collective Studio have not only been producing weighty English-language works, they have also been reaching out into the Bangkok theatre community by bringing together Thai and expat artists and attempting to make their work feel relevant to Thai audiences. At this year's Bangkok Theatre Festival, both companies won several awards, including Best Play and Best Direction.

A new benchmark in international collaborations

No small number of theatre productions in Thailand that resulted from collaborations between Thai and foreign artists feel like exotic cultural showcases. At least two productions this year, Girl X and Something Missing, moved beyond surface cultural exchanges. While Girl X took a bold departure from its original source, Something Missing was a powerful outcome of a complementary artistic relationship. Both were challenging and daring political artwork. What's more encouraging is the excellent new annual platform, Low Fat Art Fest, where more adventurous, small-scale international collaborations can take place on a regular basis.

The young, creative type

Some of the most interesting works this year come from the new faces of the theatre scene. Case in point: Splashing Theatre Company.The active new troupe that's just over a year old produced two memorable works this year that were bold in both their messages and styles.

The strange and touching Whaam!: A Brief History Of An Unknown Astronaut depicts realistic gay characters. The Art Of Being Right realistically portrays a contemporary romance. Through their art, these artists demand that young people, their love and their problems be taken seriously. Well, so far so good.

-- Amitha Amranand