Hi all!
Reynold here! I thought it might be interesting to bring up this piece of news I saw recently on the Straits Times North Korean accordion players are a YouTube hit . I find it peculiarly interesting, especially with the limited information I know of the Communist state.
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What I found interesting, was that although the state has been painted as a sovereignty that tightly holds onto its internal media, it is intriguing that these musicians are actually playing a western hit song of the 80's! WESTERN! But what got me thinking, was why and how did this piece of material get the "green light" for distribution.
Could there be an underlying agenda for the permission for its distribution? And why on youtube and the part of the Opening video of a cultural festival? What are they trying to show/ do/ prove/ lead us to think? Could it be a sign/ symbol of a change, especially during the shift of the head of state? (Whether deliberate or not?)
According to the information that came along with the youtube video, this video is part of a multi-genre project, THE PROMISED LAND by director and artist
MORTEN TRAAVIK, which is opening at the international arts and culture festival,
Barents Spektakel in Kirkenes in Norway on February 8th to 12th 2012.
And since it's an international arts and culture festival, then shouldn't DPRK be showcasing its North Korean culture/music?
Here is another video of North Korea's "music scene," (I will presume that there is one cause I cannot be certain of it), which shows a group of talented young children, aged between 7-10 years old, playing a piece together. It is really stunning if you come to think of how young they actually are, and compare that to the music they are playing!
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Do take a look at the comments about the video. People actually find it creepy (why?), and the top comment actually did comment about ideology (which is somehow related to what we are reading about?)
Well, here's my $0.02 worth! what do you think?
Reynold
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ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_YLrYSHM8DY
ReplyDeleteFor me, ideology is more about how the US/Western media is covering the story about the rocket launch. It seems like Pyongyang is demonized as the other. Moreover, as the coverage of these western news with such western perspective is currently so global spreaded to many parts of the world, it seems more so that this is their ideology and their ideological dominance through such media. This differs greatly from Gramsci's concept of cultural leadership/hegemony.
To play the devil's advocate, can were there any instances where instances these western media actually won our trust and legitimize itself as a form of cultural leadership? If not, why do we follow them so willingly and unquestionably?
How is the coverage of Al jazeera and Channelnewsasia on this story? Did they offer a perspective different from the US? And what implications does it have on its viewers if its merely a rehash of media from the west and echoing its ideology?