Thread by @BonicMichael

Rock music is seen as a creative musical genre in North Korea, a country that reveres and excels in fine arts. Before the creation of the all-girl fusion group Moranbong Band, Funky Sueysho,
discogs.com/artist/561164-…
Japanese drummer and author, broke ground in “The North Korea

2/Rock Project,” which resulted in the drummer visiting the DPRK five times between 2006 and 2012.

https://twitter.com/nknewsorg/status/1327884040867885056?s=20

Every culture celebrates music as a form of creative expression of sound through instruments. It is a universal language that easily transcends language,

3/national, cultural and ideological barriers. Rock music has always been a medium for freedom of musical expression, individuality and the art of instrumentation. From Celtic drum circles to medieval fugues to classical music to jazz, blues, rock, hip hop and rap humanity

4/wouldn’t be sane if we didn’t express ourselves through music, dance & other art forms. F. Sueyoshi brought knowledge and love for rock music to DPRK students:

“This is the first ROCK SONG in North Korea that is recorded in 2007 PyongYang.” - F. Sueyoshi

5/北朝鮮初のオリジナルロック曲「Murumpyo (Question mark)」
nknews.org/2020/01/how-a-…
“Question mark,” one of the songs recorded by Funky Sueyoshi and his North Korean students

6/I recommend fans of Funky Sueyoshi to subscribe to his Aramaki Project YouTube channel. You won’t be disappointed. Here is:

Pyongyang:Slapping Bass - North Korea 北朝鮮でチョッパー·ベース(平壌の世界201)

[Mar 6, 2020]
“School of Rock in Pyongyang. The

7/"technique of the bass. Teaching a Slapping Bass to a schoolgirl!!”

Pyongyang:Rock Lesson 16beats - North Korea 北朝鮮でロックレッスン(平壌の世界187)

[Jan 27, 2020
“Rock in North Korea! Drum lesson by famous Japanese rock drummer (Bakufu-Slump) Funky

7/"Sueyoshi begins. He is also called a "rock evangelist." He brought 16 beats to an 8-beat North Korea ... how did the kids react? ? ? His first game begins in North Korea.”

Pyongyang: First iPad impact on NorthKorea 北朝鮮 iPadの衝撃(平壌の世界134)

8/"More positively, he considers groups like the Moranbang Band - believed to be personally organized by leader Kim Jong Un - to be a forward-thinking development for the DPRK culturally.

“They’re attractive and have a true performance quality to them,” he praises. “They perform

9/"music from foreign movies and other stuff, so I think that for the average North Korean who can’t experience that kind of media, they can at least listen to them.”

Sueyoshi is right. While perceived as an isolated "hermit kingdom", in DPRK's cultural stratosphere of academia

10/and the fine arts students learn about the fine arts of other countries. While shunned by Western nations, DPRK is steadfast in learning about the people, cultures and world it lives in. Just as students

Pyongyang University of Music and Dance
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyongyang…

11/in every country attend University to broaden their knowledge & understanding of areas of the world that interest them, the same applies to North Korean Universities. Members of

Moranbong Band - Medley of world famous songs 2013

[Oct 20, 2018]

12/Moranbong Band are virtuosos of their instruments, from classical violin and cello to electric and bass guitar, keyboards and drums. Just a guess, they probably graduated from Pyongyang University of Music and Dance.

Paradoxically rock music in the DPRK isn't part of any

13/countercultural movement. Just the opposite: Eager to learn new musical genres of the West, Funky Sueyoshi was welcomed as a "Rock Evangelist" who taught NK students in the Music School setting. Younger DPRK students w/ musical aspirations will no doubt pioneer a North Korean

14/rock music scene reminiscent of Japanese Rock in the 1970s & 1980s.

Says F. Sueyoshi: “They’ve created a militaristic system where protests can’t happen, so any places rock got into would be labeled as anti-revolutionary,” he says. “I think it would be quite difficult.”"

15/North Korea's music history has no Blues Period, which led to Rock-n-Roll's British Invasion, Woodstock & Monterey Pop. From their Asian standpoint and perspective they can skip those Western musical-history landmarks, like

North Korea Guitar Master!!

16/an undergraduate student taking a course as an elective, not as a required course. I.e. rock music to DPRK (University/teachers/students) from the get-go is just a creative Western music genre with no counter-cultural revolutionary strings attached. Kim Jong Un's openness to

17/Western cultural influences - shown in Disney characters on stage accompanying Moranbong Band's debut coinciding w/ his introducing his wife Ri Sol Ju as DPRK's Respected First Lady - reveal

https://twitter.com/BonicMichael/status/1328080127679287296?s=20

The Moranbong Band: North Korea's domestic cultural juggernaut

18/a side to North Korea that, while clear to the people of North Korea, is blurred to Westerners thru the lens of propaganda/misinformation DC uses to control the narrative on DPRK.

Closed off from the world?? North Korea celebrates Western music & dance

https://twitter.com/BonicMichael/status/1328077018848587776?s=20

19/It's overly simplistic, but it's something a child can understand:

If in this world love can conquer hate, truth can triumph over lies and peace can win over war, then now is the time for the International Community to welcome the North Korean people even as a nuclear state.

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