The music of Thailand reflects its geographic position at the intersection of China, India, Indonesia and Cambodia, and reflects trade routes that have historically included Persia, Africa, Greece and Rome. Thai musical instruments are varied and reflect ancient influence from far afield - including the klong thap and khim (Persian origin), the jakhe (Indian origin), the klong jin (Chinese origin), and the klong kaek (Indonesian origin).

Though Thailand was never colonized by Western powers, pop music and other forms of European and American music have become extremely influential. The two most popular styles of traditional Thai music are luk thung and mor lam; the latter in particular has close affinities with the Music of Laos.

In Phuket Town across from the Phuket Garden Hotel, Kon Thai Pub can be found with features of what’s called Thai Country Rock which has been influenced by the music of the American South. Kon Thai Pub is a favourite among local Thais and resident Westerners. The music is not only familiar but not too loud and it’s definitely a great place to relax. Also, there are many singers who used music as an entertainment. For example, Joey Boy, who has released 11 bakery music and 2 independent releases. Including Myria Benedetti who released 14 albums! This has enough evidence that Thailand uses their music as entertainment.

Thai classical music (dontri Thai doem) was originally played at court and was based on Khmer models. There are three types of orchestral groups for Thai classical music

: a percussion-dominated ensemble, pi phat, which performs at court ceremonies and in the theatre; a string-dominated ensemble, kruang sai, typically heard in indoor instrumental settings; and mahori, a mixed ensemble that often accompanies vocalists, sometimes in the context of theatre. Thai classical music is also often used as an accompaniment to classical dance such as khon. The music played by the classical orchestras essentially uses a scale of seven equidistant tone-steps, although vocalists and instruments without fixed pitch may sometimes use additional tones.

Since ancient times Thai music has played an important part of everyday life for Thai people. The songs were taught from one person to the next aurally. Rather than providing notes and history to songs, as western music did, a teacher would play a simple melody to the student. He would then play that melody back to the teacher. Once this was done the student would memorize the melody. As the student developed more complicated melodies were taught. Over time more melodies are learnt and combined together until traditional songs are created. It has only been in the last half a centaury that musical notation has been used in schools. In fact in some traditional schools the method of memorising melodies is still taught. Not only is the traditional music played at buddhist ceremonies but the principles of learning the music follow a principle of buddhism.