North Korean A-ha accordionists 'destined for stardom'
A group of North Korean accordionists who took the internet by storm with their version of 80s pop tune Take On Me are destined for stardom, a Norwegian impresario says.
I am glad North Korean musicians are finally getting some of the attention they deserve. It is a shame that North Korean music (or music in North Korea) is rarely seen out of the context of other opinions and concerns about the country(both legitimate, or not). More often than not, it seems articles, like Pyongyang Rock City, use music as a segue to discuss the authors’ own shallow understanding of North Korean society (for lack of anything new or better to say?), and/or gloat about their own personal escapades.
Of course, North Korean music can be strange (are not the best musicians by their very nature eccentric?), but poking fun or attempting to write humorous articles on the subject really an injustice as it doesn’t see the music for what it is-music, and not the noise pollution (lovey dovey dovey uh uh uh) that comes out of South Korea. To think North Korean music is weird!
Yes, North Koreans start children playing instruments at a very young age, but name me one society on earth that doesn’t enjoy making their youth do things that are probably best left for adults (or at least teenagers). That said, many of the North Koreans I know are extremely talented musically, and it is no doubt a result of ‘starting ‘em young’.
Anyways, I hope this marks the high water mark of South Korea’s “Korean Wave” as the world realizes Korea is capable of producing better music than K-Pop. Perhaps the defining moment of the “Military First Generation” will be to drive the spawn of “Girl’s Generation” back into the mindless cesspool from which they came. Oh, indeed!
