North Korea’s War Music

by meandthestereo

Since North Korea recently threatened to erase the memory of the United States from all future globes sold by UltimateGlobes.com (which really does have some amazing globes), I thought it would be interesting to take a look into what the North Korean military might be marching forward to as they attempt to do their worst.

Editor’s Note: This is also of great interest to me, because, if they do decide to bomb my country, perhaps knowing what music will warn me of their approach would somehow give me some extra evac time. Who knows?

So, I dug into this subject, sniffed around a bit, and found out that, yes, Creed is the Official War-Time Band of North Korea.

Okay, that’s not true. But I WILL SAY THIS. We can learn a very important lesson from North Korea’s music.

Stagnant. No other word can really describe North Korea’s musical realm so well. It’s not that the music itself is not beautiful or well done, it’s just that the music never changes. It can’t. It’s not allowed to.

North Korean musicians are controlled by the government, and they push these musicians to create music which caters to the important themes held sacred by the militaristic regime. This means most of the music you hear has gone through the ears of many censors, has lyrics which glorify the country’s leaders, and praises the ideals of Communism. All in all, that seems to make it a bit easier to get a record deal, doesn’t it?

Take a listen for yourself! It’s very ‘big-band’ type music with lots of male choruses and sometimes a female singer at the forefront. It should be noted that the musicians all seem very good at what they do, and I don’t feel a sense of forced musicianship. In fact, the tunes do a very good job at feeling like they could be uplifting. The only unfortunate thing is, however, that these wonderful musicians may not be able to ever play much else, as Rock and Roll is banned in the country, and all other forms of music are seen as too odd and unconventional to be listened to seriously.

So, before we possibly get wiped off the Earth, Americans, let’s do the world a favor and continue to make exciting and varying forms of music for others to hear. Let’s not allow our music to become stagnant.

Oh, and North Korean musicians, keep playing if it makes you happy. And thanks for the tunes.