North Korean Music

SPRING BREAK!!! FINALLY!!! I must say, though, even though I am so glad to be home, this is probably the first break that I actually miss my friends form school and that I actually miss just being at school! Well, I do have a lot of fun plans for the week though that I am really looking forward to!

Anyway! Midterms are over! I just need to write one more paper for next week! So that means, moving onto this months new country and its music post! This month’s country is North Korea!

There are, like in many other countries, various genres of music in North Korea.

• ·      Sanjo – entirely instrumental with varying rhythms and melodies
• ·      Pansori- single vocal and single drummer of one of five stories that is modified by the individual artists; encourages audience participation
• ·      Nongak – rural percussion music played by more than 20 musicians
• ·      Taejung Kayo- patriotic, march-like music, female singer is accompanied by bands, choirs, and/or orchestras

Music abides by the Juche (self-reliance) principles that are march-like with socialist content. The North Korean state controls all music composition and performance.

This is most of what I was able to find on North Korean music. There is a good bit about South Korean music with the genre of K-Pop and such, but there are extreme differences between the two countries so I do not feel that it would be ok to try to pass South Korean culture off as North Korean culture.

Well, I am going to go watch the Academy Awards! So enjoy you’re week!

"Princess" - by Melnitsa

"Nochnaya Kobila" - by Melnitsa

Music in Russia

Hello!

This month, my weekly posts will be revolving around Russia because of the Olympic games that will be held in Sochi later this month!

So for this week, I am going to talk about music in Russia. I have written an academic paper on this topic before and there is so much to talk about especially the battle musicians and composers had with the government during the Communist Regime. I will try to touch on as much as I can without making this post to ridiculously long and without taking away too much of my studying time.

Now to start off with, there are many different ethnic groups in Russia, so like in many other countries, the music differs depending on where in the country you are.

Music in Russia, like in many countries, can be traced back to the beginning of the people living in that area of the world. And, like in most cases, the original consisted of folk music. By the 18^th and 19^th century Classical music began to come to Russia with composers like Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Anton and Nikolai Rubenstein, and Sergei Rachmaninov. By the 20^th century and the Russian Revolution, a group called the Association for Contemporary Music emerged. This organization was supported by the government and sort of acted as the police officers of music. They wanted to prevent any western influence from entering Russian produced music. They wanted to exterminate any signs of genres such as jazz. They supported the usage of classical sounds and sounds that the masses would be able to interpret. Therefore, experimentation was not allowed. Composers like Dmitri Shostakovich tried to push the boundaries with their compositions and many faced the wrath of the government for it, losing their careers and in some cases being criminally punished. After Stalin’s reign ended, however, there was a shift to a slightly less strict system and western music began to enter the Soviet Union.

While much of the Top 40 in Russia are songs that do not come from Russia, one popular Russian folk rock musician is Melnitsa from Moscow. This group combines Russian, Irish, and Northern European folk music. They began as a cult/ teenage sub-culture band, but when their song “Nochnaya Kobyla” was released in 2005 it went to number one becoming the best song of the year and bring the group up with it.

Well, that’s all I have time to write today. I have a load of homework to still get done for tomorrow. But I hope you enjoyed this post. I will be putting a link to “Nochnaya Kobyla” up following this post if you were interested in listening to it. Let me know what you think and if you know any other Russian artists! Have fun watching the Super Bowl tonight!

You Need to Download This Song!!!!

U2 is releasing their new song "Invisible" for free download on iTunes for a short time and with each download Bank of America will be donating a $1 to (RED) to help fight the AIDs epidemic in Africa.

Here is the link: (RED)

PLEASE TAKE A LOOK AT THIS! IT IS SO INCREDIBLE!

Joseph Gordon-Levitt Brings His HitRecord Website to TV
by Rolling Stone Magazine's Kory Grow and includes the first episode of the series

Also, Take a Look at hitRECord.org

Queen Zee - "Referendum" Music Video

Trailer of War Child and website of the documentary

Emmanuel Jal- "We Want Peace" Music Video feat. Alicia Keys, George Clooney, and Peter Gabriel

Emmanuel Jal- "Emma" Performance at Nelson Mandela's Birthday Concert

Emmanuel Jal- "Gua" Music Video

South Sudanese Music feat. Emmanuel Jal

Hello again, everyone! Happy New Year! 

My first post of each month will be on the first Sunday of the month and will discuss musical traditions of that given country, as well as a particular artist from that country. 

There have been recent issues in the South Sudan, so I have decided to switch around the calendar that I had originally posted so that now the South Sudan is the country that I will be discussing in this month, January.

The musician that I will feature in this post is Emmanuel Jal, who was born in Sudan in the early 1980s. He is a recent discovery for me. In fact, I didn't discover him until I began researching for this post. However, he has quickly become an artist that I am drawn to listen to very frequently. He one of few Sundanese musicians that have pages on Spodify and Pandora and therefore making him very accessible. He was even asked to perform at Bob Geldof's Live * concert and Nelson Mandela's 90th birthday celebration as well as record John Lennon's "Mother" on the "Instant Karma: The Amnesty International Campaign to Save Darfur" album.

First off, I will start by providing some background information on music in the Sudan. 

Music in the Sudan has mostly been connected in one way or another to Islam, which is the most influential characteristic of the country except in southern Sudan (now South Sudan), but each ethnic group within the Sudan has its own unique musical identity.1  A cultural element that is unique to the South Sudan was the cultural influences by surrounding countries such as Ethiopia, Kenya, or Uganda where many South Sudanese fled to during the civil war. Those who stayed and did not leave during the civil war were influenced by the Arabic culture of Sudan and Egypt. Languages were important influences other countries have had on South Sudan and therefore have influenced the traditional folk music of the South Sudan. The Languages that can be heard in much of the music are English, Kiswahili, Arabi Juba, local dialects, or a combination. 

Genres that are popular in the South Sudan: 

• Afro-beat- defined by the New Oxford Dictionary as a musical genre that incorporates “elements of African much and jazz, soul, and funk.” 
• R&B
• Zouk- defined as “an exuberant style of popular music combining Caribbean and Western elements and having a fast, heavy beat.” 
• Reggae 
• Folk 
• Jazz 
• Pop 
• Rap 
• British military band music also had a large impact on Sudanese music and there political usage of music within the Sudan that was viewed as defying Sharia law and therefore the musicians were punished. 
• Hip-hop is more than a popular musical genre in the South Sudan. Many of the current South Sudanese hip hop artists are former child soldiers and the music talks of empowering people towards civil action through education so that peace can be achieved.

Music in the South Sudan is used to celebrate and empower.

Popular Artist:

Emmanuel Jal- A former child soldier, who at about age seven was sent to fight in the civil war. His job was carrying an AK-47. He was eventually taken in by Emma McCune, a British aid worker who took him to Nairobi. In order to deal with his violent childhood, Jal turned to music. He fell in love with hip hop and rap, but uses many Afro-Beat elements. He was asked to perform at Bob Geldof’s “Live 8” as well as Nelson Mandela’s 90th birthday concert.2 His first album was called “Gua” (“peace” in his dialect- Nuer) and was released in 2005. He has released three other albums. “Ceasefire” was released in 2005 as well. “Warchild” was released in 2008. “See Me Mama” was released in 2012. A song called “Emma” from the “Warchild” album was dedicated to the woman who rescued him, Emma McCune. He performed this song at Nelson Mandela’s birthday celebration. His song “We Want Peace” calls for everyone to reach for peace in the world and integrates worldwide social justice issues into the lyrics of the song. The music video features Alicia Keys, George Clooney, and Peter Gabriel. A documentary was made, called War Child, depicts the life of Emmanuel Jal.

Other popular artists:

• Yousif Fataki- was punished for by the current Sudanese regime for his music and whose tapes were erased
• Queen Zee
• Yaba Angelosi- an Afro-beat, R&B, and Zouk artist
• Dynamiq- a reggae artist
• Emmanuel Kembe- a folk, reggae, and Afro-beat artist
• Abu Araki al-Bakheit- a singer banned from performing political songs
• Abdel Gadir Salim- a big bandleader that achieved international recognition
• Abdel Aziz El Mubarak- a big bandleader that also achieved international recognition
• Kamal Kayla- inspired by James Brown
• Abdel Karim el Kabli
• Mohammed el Amin
• Mohammed Wardi

Popular foreign musicians in Sudan:

• ·  Bob Marley
•   Michael Jackson
•   James Brown

[1] Artur Simon, Garland Encyclopedia of World Music (New York: Routledge, 1997), 550

[2] “About Emmanuel Jal,” War Child, January 4, 2014, http://www.warchildmovie.com/about/ .