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North Korean Music from prog rock's viewpoint

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Woon Deadn View Drop Down
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    Posted: December 09 2020 at 10:19
Listening to Moranbong Band in this video I have noticed that they sometimes sound like light progressive something. 

From the political standpoint, I am not a fan of the North Korean regime, have never been. I must say, I kinda respect the countries, the powers, the people who refuse to follow the general trend. Anticonsumerism is great. Not at the cost of labor camps where numerous victims are constantly being tortured, though. 


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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Cristi Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: December 09 2020 at 10:21
ah ffs how does this belong in the prog music lounge. 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Woon Deadn Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: December 09 2020 at 10:28
^ First two tracks made me believe this was it. The rest ones failed in this respect. I hope admins will be kind enough to move the topic or remove it, at all. 

P.S. I am not Svetonio. 


Edited by Woon Deadn - December 09 2020 at 10:29
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote moshkito Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: December 09 2020 at 10:32
Hi,

I'm not one for political stuff, but, honestly, I find this video insulting, and a propaganda film for their government. I guess you could call it a modern JPSouza done N. Korean style, but ... really ... some music doesn't deserve to be called music at all ... even though many of the players will get upset that they were not given credit for their abilities.

If I were PA I probably would remove the post completely, as we are about the music ... not politics, and this video is about the politics and the words even more so. 

Sorry ... I was born in a fascist country, and stuff like this is supposed to make the "people" believe that they are doing the right things ... and in the end, it's just propaganda ... using the western media style!


Edited by moshkito - December 14 2020 at 15:55
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote SteveG Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: December 09 2020 at 10:33
Originally posted by Woon Deadn Woon Deadn wrote:


P.S. I am not Svetonio. 
Must be true, as that's something Svetonio has never said. LOL
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Cristi Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: December 09 2020 at 10:34
Originally posted by moshkito moshkito wrote:

Originally posted by Cristi Cristi wrote:

ah ffs how does this belong in the prog music lounge. 
...

Hi,

I'm not one for political stuff, but, honestly, I find this video insulting, and a propaganda film for their government. I guess you could call it a modern JPSouza done N. Korean style, but ... really ... some music doesn't deserve to be called music at all ... even though many of the players will get upset that they were not given credit for their abilities.

If I were PA I probably would remove the post completely, as we are about the music ... not politics, and this video is about the politics and the words even more so. 

Sorry ... I was born in a fascist country, and stuff like this is supposed to make the "people" believe that they are doing the right things ... and in the end, it's just propaganda ... using the western media style!

so why are you quoting me? Confused What have I done? Ouch
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote SteveG Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: December 09 2020 at 10:37
Originally posted by Woon Deadn Woon Deadn wrote:

Listening to Moranbong Band in this video I have noticed that they sometimes sound like light progressive something. 

From the political standpoint, I am not a fan of the North Korean regime, have never been. I must say, I kinda respect the countries, the powers, the people who refuse to follow the general trend. Anticonsumerism is great. Not at the cost of labor camps where numerous victims are constantly being tortured, though. 


To get back to the music, it's symphonic in nature with a rock beat, but's not really prog, imho. It is a very nice song though, and I enjoyed it.

Edited by SteveG - December 09 2020 at 10:39
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Woon Deadn Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: December 09 2020 at 10:39
Originally posted by moshkito moshkito wrote:

Originally posted by Cristi Cristi wrote:

ah ffs how does this belong in the prog music lounge. 
...

Hi,

I'm not one for political stuff, but, honestly, I find this video insulting, and a propaganda film for their government. I guess you could call it a modern JPSouza done N. Korean style, but ... really ... some music doesn't deserve to be called music at all ... even though many of the players will get upset that they were not given credit for their abilities.

If I were PA I probably would remove the post completely, as we are about the music ... not politics, and this video is about the politics and the words even more so. 

Sorry ... I was born in a fascist country, and stuff like this is supposed to make the "people" believe that they are doing the right things ... and in the end, it's just propaganda ... using the western media style!
 

My idea was to discuss the musical level, compositional level of North Korean propaganda music. I was also born in the USSR that was not that democratical. It's all about music. I think Ritchie Blackmore was a tyrannical figure, but he made some killer songs, played a few killer solos. 

Instrumentals in some of these North Korean propaganda songs tend to sound nice, as for me. 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote chopper Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: December 09 2020 at 11:14
Musically speaking, I don't hear anything vaguely prog in this.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote The Anders Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: December 09 2020 at 14:57
There are prog elements in it in the sense that there are a lot of tempo and key changes throughout the piece. And some of the transitions do indeed make me think of some prog, but overall I think it sounds more like religious music. At times it's rather disco-like, and generally it appears very, very kitsch to my taste. Almost comical.

Lyrically, they are just replacing the word "God" with "Kim Jong-Il", no?


Edited by The Anders - December 10 2020 at 13:36
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote ForestFriend Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: December 09 2020 at 15:12
That part at 2:50 definitely sounds like it could be part of a Rick Wakeman album. I didn't listen to the whole thing, but it sort of sounds like someone wanted to write an orchestral piece with added rock instrumentation - so it's got some similarity to prog. That being said, the music isn't particularly challenging to the ear like some prog bands like to be.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Logan Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: December 09 2020 at 15:16
I find this kind of propaganda disgusting. And yes, it does sound very religious. I'm reminded me of Christopher Hitchens talking about North Korea (which he often did) and he saw it as akin to a theocracy.



And not one short of a trinity one might say now. God the father, Kim Il-Sung, God the son, Kim Jong-il, and God the wholly gross, Kim Jong-un.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote Spacegod87 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: December 09 2020 at 18:49
I was watching interviews just last week of some North Korean defectors talking about their struggles, and while I think this sounds nice, I can't help but be reminded of the darkness surrounding all of it.
It's one thing to separate my hatred for Gene Simmons from his music, but this is a whole different beast.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Woon Deadn Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: December 10 2020 at 17:18
Originally posted by Spacegod87 Spacegod87 wrote:

I was watching interviews just last week of some North Korean defectors talking about their struggles, and while I think this sounds nice, I can't help but be reminded of the darkness surrounding all of it.
It's one thing to separate my hatred for Gene Simmons from his music, but this is a whole different beast.
 

I absolutely hate Ritchie Blackmore and anyone of his kind. Treating colleagues like sh*t does not produce good fruits. Still, I listen to songs like Death Alley Rider with its fantastic solo(s). 

I do not listen to songs by Charles Manson, though. 

Then, here's a question of who those girls' art is closer to?.. The people who made those songs hardly worked part-time at the prisons torturing the innocent. Lyrics, if perceived as kitsch, as nonsense, sound melodic. I remember listening to Queen's albums in my teenage years, not knowing any words they sang. In "Fairy Feller's Master-Stroke" Freddie sang "He's a dilly-dally-o" - I heard "he's in italio". I thought "italio" might have had something to do with Italy, back then. 

I instantly remember the similar type of Soviet propaganda songs. There was, for example, a huge hit "And the battle goes on, again" about Lenin. Certainly, the 1970s' USSR was different from North Korea of any time. Most of the Soviet people in the 1970s did not really believe that much in Lenin or his ideas, they massively pretended they did, and they just lived the way it was possible for them to live. 
It was a song about serial killer Lenin. But considering all the theory behind him, he was also a decent thinker. So, I like this song, it's powerful and emotional: 


Nowadays, female string trio Silenzium (their frontwoman is a member of the Communist Party of Russia) have remade that song: 


I clearly understand that these cases are almost identical. Still, I like Soviet propaganda songs. I do not take their lyrics seriously - so did most of the Soviet people since at least the 1970s... But if it's nice and promotes something good (e.g., fighting for your freedom, for your rights), why not?.. 

After all, we used to listen to the songs of Judas, by Judas. Lenin was Judas, too. 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Woon Deadn Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: December 10 2020 at 17:34
Originally posted by The Anders The Anders wrote:

There are prog elements in it in the sense that there are a lot of tempo and key changes throughout the piece. And some of the transitions do indeed make me think of some prog, but overall I think it sounds more like religious music. At times it's rather disco-like, and generally it appears very, very kitsch to my taste. Almost comical.

Lyrically, they are just replacing the word "God" with "Kim Jong-Il", no?
 

From what I am able to observe concerning their music, the North Korean bands play in the style of the 1950s' USSR. Sometimes reaching as far as the early 1980s' USSR (that disco-like element), but ultimately returning back to the 1950s-1960s' Soviet pop. The lyrical themes totally devoted to the Leader and the Party, though, are unique in their stupidity, because even in the Stalinist time of the Soviet Union, Soviet singers sang a lot about love to women, love to life, not necessarily love to Stalin. 

North Korea itself is a mocking parody of the early USSR, Lenin-Stalin era. In the XXIth century it sure looks imbecile. 

But the melodies, the performing, the techniques are nice. 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Woon Deadn Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: December 11 2020 at 12:06
Originally posted by ForestFriend ForestFriend wrote:

That part at 2:50 definitely sounds like it could be part of a Rick Wakeman album. I didn't listen to the whole thing, but it sort of sounds like someone wanted to write an orchestral piece with added rock instrumentation - so it's got some similarity to prog. That being said, the music isn't particularly challenging to the ear like some prog bands like to be.
 

I kindly thank you for saving me and my thread, sir! Wink 

I have heard two first mnutes of the video and realized the instrumentation resembled something a la progressive pop (progressive music hall, if you like?). Then I have listened to several more minutes and found nothing else than an average orchestrated pop. Then, again, licks of progressive music, appeared here and there. I draw one evident association in my mind - that with the album by David Tukhmanov's music. The album mentioned at GEPR. Called "Po Volne Moyey Pamyati" - (Al)on(g) The Wave Of My Memory, or so. 
In that album you also hear typical pop, unexpectedly experimental prog appears and disappears here and there. Tukhmanov's work is titled as progressive rock (GEPR approves). But if you listen to the first several minutes in the beginning or to the tunes from it like this one below, it is well-arranged, masterfully composed pure plain pop music: 


Awhole, a progressive rock masterpiece: 

So... you know, that's a complex problem. Again, David Tukhmanov's USSR of the 1970s, Brezhnev era USSR was not your poor Stalinist North Korea. Tukhmanov had no reasons to feel unsafe, nobody forced him to write songs about Brezhnev. Though, indeed, some state authority, responsible for the music, very likely told Mr. Tukhmanov afterwards that his experiments are acceptable and the vinyl would be released, but in the future it would be great of Mr. Tukhmanov to compose something... more easy to listen. In the 1970s' USSR nobody would have shot or imprisoned him if he continued writing in the same vein. But in the state-controlled industry he decided for better to create easier music... Because, well, we all have to earn money and feed the families... 

Anyway, there was prog here and there in his aforementioned masterpiece work. 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Hrychu Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: December 14 2020 at 08:25
Holy moly! «По Волне Моей Памяти» is one of my favorite albums of all time. :) The Koren music doesn't do anything for me unfortunately.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote siLLy puPPy Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: December 14 2020 at 08:54
Originally posted by SteveG SteveG wrote:

Originally posted by Woon Deadn Woon Deadn wrote:


P.S. I am not Svetonio. 
Must be true, as that's something Svetonio has never said. LOL


That should be a new requirement for signing up here instead of checking that box that says you're not a robot! LOL

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote moshkito Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: December 14 2020 at 15:55
Originally posted by Cristi Cristi wrote:

...
so why are you quoting me? Confused What have I done? Ouch

Hi,

so sorry ... accidental mistake.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote moshkito Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: December 14 2020 at 15:56
Originally posted by chopper chopper wrote:

Musically speaking, I don't hear anything vaguely prog in this.

Hi,

Which is another reason why it should be removed!
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