Posted on 05/04/2024 5:33:47 PM PDT by algore
When North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un released his latest song two weeks ago, surely he couldn’t have foreseen it becoming a hit on TikTok.
But the propaganda tune has gone viral online with Gen Z users bopping around to the synthy-electro pop.
“Let’s sing Kim Jong Un, the great leader/ Let’s brag about Kim Jong Un, our friendly father,” the song goes.
It’s just a really great tune, TikTokkers say.
“Taylor Swift was not expecting to get blown out of the water right after dropping her new album,” one fan joked online.
“Wait, this slaps”, “This song needs a Grammy”, “It’s so dystopian in the catchiest way” – they are just some of the enthused comments under TikTok videos.
But the sunny pop hides something more sinister, experts say. How to craft a propaganda hit
Friendly Father is just the latest in a line of propaganda pop songs churned out by the Communist state in the past 50 years.
It’s peppy, bright-tempoed and dangerously catchy – not that much different from Western pop hits.
But there is a certain Soviet-era tinge to it; Gen Z users describe it as “Abba-coded”, a reference to the Swedish superband.
“In this case, the song has Abba written all over it,“ says Peter Moody, a North Korea analyst at Korea University.
“It's upbeat, it could not be more catchy, and a rich set of orchestral-sounding sequences could not be more prominent,” he says.
But there’s more than just commercial considerations at play when writing a chart-topper in North Korea - authorities want an earworm that penetrates minds.
There’s no space for abstract phrasing or timing that’s overly complicated , says Alexandra Leonzini, a Cambridge University scholar who researches North Korean music.
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.com ...
North Korea is Best Korea!
Applaud or you and family die
Aw shucks, I was hoping Great Leader Kim would be singing it.
Wow! Such enthusiastic, happy people!
I wonder if Biden has plans to smuggle them across the border.
I wonder how long Kim Jong Un would have to wait in line for an organ transplant if he had an organ fail?
Let’s just say that I wouldn’t want to be in the room when the doctor told him he needed a new organ of some type.
NK is Fantasy Island?
“Smiles everyone,, smiles....”
I prefer the k-pop of South Korea to this. Cuter girls for one thing.
Photo of 북한 밴드스탠드 with 형사클 라크.
(”North Korean Bandstand” with Dick Clark.))
Teenager:
좋은 비트를 가지고 있습니다.
춤추는 건 좋은데
It’s good to dance to. It’s got a good beat.
Caption for photo of Korean teenagers:
Our euphoria over the glorious music of our godlike leader is unrestrainable.
Go, cat, go.
Clearly Cambridge has too many people on their payroll since that have a scholar in North Korean music.
Black American music critic:
It’s the bomb.
Photo....
Chains
My baby’s got me locked up in chains.
The Cookies (1962)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41r2ivquAzM
The Cookies, who were friends of Carole King and Gerry Goffin’s babysitter, “Little” Eva Boyd. After they wrote “The Loco-Motion” for her, they wrote this for her
friends.
Peaked at # 17 in 1962.
Later covered by the Beatles as an album track in 1964 and also by co-songwriter Carole King in 1980 .
And everyone who smiles gets a Chrysler Cordoba. With rich Corinthian leather.
——Ricardo Montalban
For younger FReepers who missed those great years.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfKHBB4vt4c
P.S. If that’s a “small” car then what about the Smart I just saw a young woman driving this afternoon? Admittedly haven’t seen another for maybe 6 months. Woman who lives near me has a Fiat 500 though.
Wow with a MiG no less
MiG-19 maybe?
It’s actually very sad to see so many people forced to live under a dictator like that.
Sorta like....
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