Cambodians have a different take on this one. Their version is closer to, "I do not say anything when you bother me so you should not say anything when I bother you."
Drunk Moto Driver For Hire
A while back I needed to hire a moto (think "moped taxi") to take me to a famous place in Cambodia called Toul Sleng Prison. I thought, "This is a great chance to give some business to that guy I see everyday on my way to school." So, I walked down the street to where he normally loitered (these guys just wait in one spot all day long hoping to catch a fish; not too ambitious). Anyway, I got there just in time to see him finishing peeing on a nearby wall (normal practice). When he came back to his normal fishing hole, I asked him "Toul Sleng?". "Baat (Yes), Baat (Yes), Toul Sleng."
Question: Why don't we hear more Cambodian pop music in the states?
Answer: We did. In the 1980's thanks to Richard Marx and others.
Question: What is worse than Cambodian pop music?
If you said Mexican pop music, you are correct. Polkas are musical torture to begin with and when you feature the accordian and sing about an aching corazon, it only adds insult to injury. Modern Cambodian music, on the other hand, sounds like a crooning 1980s vintage ballad with gratuitous guitar solos played way up on the neck, and, thus, is clearly superior, but still impressively bad. Granted, I cannot confirm what they are singing about since I can only speak 20 words of Khmer (12 of which are numbers), but my strong hunch is that it involves "un corazon roto". Ok, back to the original question. Though "Mexican pop music" is a correct answer, there is actually a better answer: KARAOKE of modern Cambodian music. I was forced to listen to this one night a few months ago, as it emanated from a nearby house, and it was painfully bad. The singing woman clearly suffered from chronic tone deafness, but had unfortunately robust lungs and vocal chords and an unfortunate lack of performance anxiety - a perfect storm of sorts.