In North Korea, culture, including music, is tightly controlled by the government, most music in North Korea is propaganda of one form or another (usually praising leader Kim Jong-il, his late father Kim Il-sung and communism) broadcast constantly on the radio or playing over public loudspeakers. Listening to South Korean music or playing Rock and Roll "can be considered a crime".[2] Foreign music is lumped into one genre which the North Korean government calls "jazz" (note: this is a definition of the word peculiar to North Korea), and which is considered barbaric because "it has no melody".[2]
North Korean pop music is also normally a form of propaganda, usually performed by a young female singer in front of a large bank of electric organs. It is primarily influenced by Russian and Chinese pop music and songs have titles like "Our Life Is Precisely a Song", "We Shall Hold Bayonets More Firmly", "The Joy of Bumper Harvest Overflows Amidst the Song of Mechanisation", and "Our dear general contracts space using magic".[3]
North Korean propaganda songs are influenced by Soviet and Chinese propaganda, frequently using military bands and male choirs.
BBC radio DJ Andy Kershaw noted, on a visit to North Korea, that the only recordings available were by the pop singers Jon Hye-yong, Kim Kwang-suk, Jo Kum-hwa and Ri Pun-hui, and the groups Wangjaesan Light Music Band, the Mansudae Art Troupe and the Pochonbo Electronic Ensemble, who play in a style Kershaw refers to as "light instrumental with popular vocal".[3] There is also the State Symphony Orchestra, the Sea of Blood Opera Company, two choruses, an orchestra and an ensemble dedicated to Isang Yun's compositions, all in Pyongyang. The Pyongyang Film Studios also produces many instrumental songs for its films.