Abstract:
North Korea, throughout its history, has had four representative pop music bands that
frequently appear on broadcast media to propagate Juche philosophy and represent the
political stance of the government: the Bochonbo electronic band, the Wangjaesan light music band,
the Moranbong band, and the Chongbong band. The first two were formed during the Il-Sung-Kim
regime and gained popularity during the Jung-Il-Kim regime; and the latter two are representative
of the Jung-Eun-Kim regime. These bands always appeared at special occasions of North
Korea and are used as mouthpieces for the government and the supreme leaders.
This study explores the characteristics of North Korean pop music in conjunction with
political implications by examining performances of these representative four bands. The
aims are to interrogate how pop music in that country has been presented under governmental
control, to ascertain what perception the North Korean governors have about pop music, and to
delineate specific features in the music that can be identified as political. Certain aspects of
the current Jung-Eun-Kim regime and its pop music are appearing for the first time in
an academic context and existing research on the earlier regimes of Il-Sung Kim and
Jung-Il Kim are posited in relation to this.
The genesis of the Wangjaesan light music band and the Bochonbo electronic music band is closely
connected to Jung-Il Kim’s directive that North Korean music had to be modernised. The Wangjaesan
band concentrated more on traditional music, while the Bochonbo band did on modern trends and life
songs. Their performances provide evidence of an un-detachable relationship with Jung-Il
Kim’s politics and his perspective on music, “artistry without ideology is worthless”. The
Moranbong band and the Chongbong band were formed by Jung Eun Kim himself and they can be
regarded as symbolic musical groups of his regime. Demonstrating the earlier Juche ideas
of the previous regimes by performing older songs from that era, the bands also
illustrate new ideologies of the current regime. It would seem that none of their music was
created purely for the artistic and cultural demand of the public. The political use of the bands
has been totally intentional since their formation.
