Political Music

[vijayjohn]

This (from 10:06 to 15:23 in the video) is a Malayalam communist campaign song from a 1985 movie with the same title (it's the third song in the list). I feel the musical style changes abruptly four times (it starts with a quick march, then changes to a Muslim folk song, then goes back to the quick march, then changes again to...I'm not sure what to call it, but that fast-paced drumming style that's so common in South Indian music, and then back to a quick march again). I remember listening to this song (and the first one in the list) ever since I was a child and know the lyrics by heart:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cgt-NFb ... u.be&t=606

This Hindi song was the regimental quick march of the Indian National Army (INA) and is now used in the same capacity in the Indian Army. It is also the only song my grandfather specifically mentions in his memoirs (well, unless something changes in the last 15 pages ) because one day, he and his colleagues had some INA soldiers as visitors and one of them played a violin as the others sang and danced to this song all evening:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQxWFawxbqc
EDIT: See here for some more information on the second song.

[wochenweise]

The anti-Brexit-Song from Last Week Tonight is maybe more historical than political:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQtd9X4UO8k

[vijayjohn]

This is a song in Tok Pisin about corruption performed by a couple of journalism students from Papua New Guinea, with a brief introduction in English:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BQX7o_GVck
And this is another song in Juba Arabic called "Election Ja Kalas." Juba Arabic is an Arabic-based creole spoken in Juba, the capital of South Sudan (and not spoken in other major cities in that country):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0nOeVslgZg

[vijayjohn]

Here are the two Malayalam songs I mentioned on the Random Language Thread yesterday along with my attempts at a translation of the lyrics. They're songs that seem to be criticizing religion as a whole and I think were meant to help promote communism (IIRC, by this time, Kerala was ruled by a communist government already). One is "Manushyan Mathangale Srushtichu" from Achanum Bappayum (1972). My mom knows this song I think entirely by heart:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nn1toEsNc1A
Lyrics: http://www.malayalasangeetham.info/s.php?2743 (click on "language" and then "English" to see the lyrics transliterated into Roman letters. Note that "India" in the lyrics should be "lokam")

Man created religions.
Religions created gods.
Man, religions, and gods
Divided up the land,
Divided up minds together. [Repeat from beginning]
Man created religions.

He became Hindu;
He became Muslim;
He became Christian.
We became unrecognizable to each other.
The world turned into a mental asylum. (He became Hindu...)
Thousands of human hearts
Turned into arsenals.
God is dying in the street;
The devil is laughing.
Man created religions.

Where is truth?
Where is beauty?
Where is independence?
Where are our blood relatives?
Where are the types of(?) everlasting love?
Where are those prophets(?) that come
Once in a thousand eons?
Man is dying in the street;
Religions are laughing.
[Repeat first verse]

And this is another similarly themed song called "Eeswaran Hinduvalla" from Postmane Kananilla, released the same year. I don't think I'd ever heard this song at all until I discovered it yesterday:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_RRhzLOJFo
Lyrics: http://www.malayalasangeetham.info/s.php?2862

CHORUS:
God isn't Hindu.
He isn't Muslim.
He isn't Christian.
He is neither Indran nor Chandran.

Oracles on white-smeared tombs,
You built temples, built ashrams,
And invented a thousand masks.
God invented a thousand masks.
(Chorus)

You betrayed Krishna.
You betrayed Buddha.
You betrayed Lord Jesus.
You betrayed the Prophet [Muhammad].
You betrayed Marx.
You pretended to be good people,
Pretended to be good people.
New moons following the dusk
Tinged with red ochre,
You hid the Vedanta of India [i.e. ancient Indian school of philosophy],
The Advaita Vedanta,
With the Bhagavad Gita.
You hid it with the Bhagavad Gita for so long.
(Chorus)
God isn't Hindu.
He isn't Muslim.
He isn't Christian.

[opipik]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAIZIPvuKrE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=suX1ohDW8tk

[vijayjohn]

I just remembered today that this is also a political song and that I might as well post it here to avoid cluttering up the Spanish songs thread as much as possible. It's by Argentine folk artist Atahualpa Yupanqui (this was his stage name, made up from the names of two Incan emperors. His birth name was Héctor Roberto Chavero Aramburu; his father was mestizo and his mother was Basque). This is one of his most famous songs, from 1971, where he satirizes American neo-imperialism. This is another one of those songs I first heard an excerpt of on Encarta (in this case, the last verse about the Vietnam War):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-kkhnfw0E8

[Michael]

Here are a few videos of performances from late Socialist Albania. My Albanian is not that great yet, but I get the gist that these are in praise of Enver Hoxha and the Communist Party.

[flag=]sq[/flag] Sazet e Delvinës - Moj, e bukura si hëna! ("Ah, beautiful like the moon!")
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BB9OwKuBuHk

The song above ends with the phrase shëndeti i Pari Partisë which means "the health of the First Party".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PpVraMlO_Qw

[flag=]sq[/flag] Sali Mani këndon në Kongres ("Sali Mani sings in Congress")
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OacJbNMyqXA

[vijayjohn]

Thanks for those songs, Mike! They sound so beautiful, kind of like some Soviet, North Korean, and Khmer Rouge songs. Oh well.

Libyan music also seems to be seriously underrated.

This is a rap song in Libyan Arabic supporting anti-ISIL military and civilian efforts in Benghazi during the Operation Dignity Battle there (part of the Libyan Civil War of 2014):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbMb3a9VE5k
See here for more information in English about what the song is all about and how it was made. This article is also accessible in French and Arabic.

I'm guessing the rapper's pseudonyms "Volcano" and (in Arabic) "Al-Burkan al-Rap" are a direct reference to this.

[Michael]

Thanks for those songs, Mike! They sound so beautiful, kind of like some Soviet, North Korean, and Khmer Rouge songs. Oh well.

I haven't seen this post until now, but s’ka përse ("¡No hay de qué!).

The next performance is a very salient example of why Communist Albania was known as "the North Korea of Europe". Enver Hoxha and the Partia e Punës (the Labor Party) sure were skilled at co-opting products of traditional Albanian culture into the official Communist culture. However, the one good thing I can say about it is that it's a traditional dance of Northern Albania sung in the Gheg dialect, which is relevant because otherwise, the Ghegs were very much discriminated against by the Tosk-favoring dictator himself and his party—you see, Tosk was seen as the "working-class" vernacular, so that likely had something to do with it. Prior to that, it was Gheg that was the basis of Standard Albanian, and Gheg is predominant in the poetry and prose of the most famous Albanian poets.

Festa e Madhe e Shqipërisë ("The Great Celebration of Albania")
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ycNDDqY0tw

(English translation courtesy of the on-clip annotations.)

O festë e madhe
O ka sot Shqypnia!
O kângë e valle
O për jetën e re!

Oh, [what] a great celebration
Albania has today!
Oh, songs and dances
For a new life!

O qesh e gëzohu
Moj Shqypnia e jonë
Se bace Enveri
Neve na drejton.

Oh, smile and be glad!
You, Albania of ours!
Because comrade Enver
Is leading us.

Oh kërce moj çike
Mori çik malsie
Oh ti po kërcen moj çike
Besa bukurie!

Oh, dance girl!
You, girl from the highlands
You're dancing, girl
I swear it's so pretty!

O rrofsh sa malet
Moj parti kreshnike
Me Enver Hoxhen
O zemër celiken.

Live as long as the mountains,
You, heroic party!
With Enver Hoxha
We have a heart of steel.

[vijayjohn]

The next performance is a very salient example of why Communist Albania was known as "the North Korea of Europe".

Speaking of North Korea...

In North Korea, it is almost impossible to find a non-political song. Or even when a song is non-political, it's accompanied by a music video with obvious political references (our wonderful, efficient transport system! The Great Leader's picture pinned onto the main actor's shirt!). This is why one user - and that too while simultaneously admitting some amount of sympathy for North Korea - expressed his fear that South Koreans could get scared off by all the North Korean songs I posted in the Korean Music thread.

So here are two North Korean songs. One is about Chongryon, Koreans in Japan with ties to North Korea (and IIUC responsible for most if not all of the North Korean government's online communications):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5k0Dowv3Sxs
And this is a North Korean pop song about how important it is for young North Korean (men) to study (to make the country great, etc.) with subtitles in Korean and Simplified Chinese:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16S_M58M2GA
One comment below someone else's post of the same video offers the following translation into English of this particular song:

► Show Spoiler

Go study! go study! go study!
For our motherland

Time is running out, therefore we should not let time be used in meaningless way
Cherish time precious as gold Catching hour minute second

Go study! go study! go study!
For our motherland

Go study! go study! go study!
For our motherland

Using our way to build this wonderland

Go study! go study! go study!
For our motherland

Contribute our lifetime deep and extensive knowledge to our motherland enthusism!

Our science and and technology blossom like flowers


Go study! go study! go study!
For our motherland

Go study! go study! go study!
For tomorrow

Using our way to build this wonderland

Using our way to build this wonderland

Nothing is more important than our motherland, motherland is the happiness and blessing of you and me

Every moment immersed in study, the charm is glowing

Go study! go study! go study!
For our motherland

Go study! go study! go study!
For tomorrow

Using our way to build this wonderland

Go study! go study! go study!
For our motherland


Go study!

[Osias]

If someone from there, somehow, manage t record a "normal" pop song and upload it to youtube, it will be still a political statement of sorts.

how important it is for young North Korean (men) to study

Maybe there is somewhere a song sang by gorgeous boys telling to North Korean women to study. Google harder.

[iamblu]

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=A_2Gtz-zAzM
Brazilian song against Military Regime (1964-85)

[iamblu]

how important it is for young North Korean (men) to study

Hevisaurus is a Finnish heavy metal band which does song to kids, a song by Hevisaurus talks about doing homework. If we go by your logic, just headbanger kids do homework in Finland.

[vijayjohn]

Hevisaurus is a Finnish heavy metal band which does song to makes songs for(?) kids., a One song by Hevisaurus talks about doing homework. If we go by your logic, just only headbanger kids do homework in Finland.

Wait, what? When did I say North Korean women don't study? I meant that I'm pretty sure this song is supposed to be catering to men in particular (and encouraging them to study hard).

[iamblu]

If we go by your logic, just headbanger kids do homework in Finland.

Wait, what? When did I say North Korean women don't study? I meant that I'm pretty sure this song is supposed to be catering to men in particular (and encouraging them to study hard).

Just because it's recorded with female singers?
Apparently (well, any information we recieve about North Korea is uncertain), the song is very popular there and Noeth Koreans sing it, males and females.

[vijayjohn]

If we go by your logic, just headbanger kids do homework in Finland.

Wait, what? When did I say North Korean women don't study? I meant that I'm pretty sure this song is supposed to be catering to men in particular (and encouraging them to study hard).

Just because it's recorded with female singers?

No, because as far as I can tell, it's recorded by women in slightly more revealing outfits than usually seems to be the case in North Korean music videos. I could be totally wrong, though; if I'm not mistaken, this video is also newer than most of the others I've seen, so maybe it's just that North Korean fashion has changed or something.

Apparently (well, any information we recieve about North Korea is uncertain), the song is very popular there and Noeth Koreans sing it, males and females.

I'm honestly not sure this matters. If a song is popular, of course all kinds of people are going to sing it no matter what the original intent of the song (or its performance) was. (It's not like most people in the US remember that "Oh Susanna" was originally supposed to be part of a form of theater with hideous stereotypes about black people, either).

[vijayjohn]

If someone from there, somehow, manage t record a "normal" pop song and upload it to youtube, it will be still a political statement of sorts.

"Dançando Lambada" by Ri Kyong Suk of the Pochonbo Electronic Ensemble (possibly from around the same time the original song by Kaoma came out):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DP8IVwrL4T4

[Osias]

Minha infância é uma mentira!

[linguoboy]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNi__fnadTM

A.T.C.R. = A Tribe Called Red, a First Nations electronic music group.

[vijayjohn]

In 1968, a Malayalam movie called Thulabharam was released based on a play by Thoppil Bhasi, Kerala's leading advocate of communism. The next year, a Tamil version of this with minimal changes (and the same title) was released, but so was a Telugu remake with a lot more changes under the name Manushulu Marali. The year after that, a Hindi version of the Telugu remake(!) was released under the name Samaj Ko Badal Dalo. All four versions list the same lead actress before all the others in the opening credits and also have similarly themed songs in more or less the same order. In particular, each one has a socialist song, which I've posted here in each language. It seems likely that all versions of this movie contributed to Indian sympathy for socialism in general:

Malayalam
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKLllHsv9eg
Tamil
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDA_QfJwXF0
Telugu
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWhz3sDqXNs
Hindi
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QoaiNElEL3Y