Gotye and Thai Pop: They’ve Got Something in Common

Gotye, the Australian artist of Belgian descent , has had a zillion hits on his youtube video for the song “Somebody I Used to Know”, which features a singer named Kimbra, who comes into the song to say why the two lovers really broke up. The guy wanted friendship if the romance soured but got cut off completely; The gal’s version is that she got screwed over by him and wasn’t about to take it anymore.

Usually you don’t get two points of view in a love song. But in Thai music, you often do. Here are two videos, Gotye’s much-viewed one, and one of a Thai pop song where two singers sing the story of the love affair, while two actors act out the story. So in both videos you get both sides of a love story, the only difference is that there are four characters performing it in the Thai version.

Gotye:

and the Thai song: