K Pop has roots in the resistance

I saw Massive Attack in Melbourne a few nights ago (life-altering experience), and they covered a 1995 track, "Regret of the Times" by Korean group Seo Taiji and Boys.

Massive Attack set their version to visuals of South Korea’s 1980 Gwangju Democratisation Movement, where martial law troops brutally suppressed student-led pro-democracy protesters and hundreds - possibly thousands - were killed.

The song itself was a historic battleground for free expression: when censors demanded its political lyrics be cut, the band released an instrumental version in protest. The resulting fan protests ultimately helped overturn South Korea’s pre-censorship music screening system in 1996. A major milestone in the country's transition from military dictatorship to democracy.

All of this felt particularly fitting given that just weeks ago, Massive Attack were detained after their show in Singapore for displaying the Palestinian flag.

They dedicated their entire live show to educating and disturbing the audience, speaking out on socio-political issues like the genocide in Gaza, AI and surveillance, cobalt mining in the Congo that powers our devices, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and the Korean labour strikes and 1980 uprising.

It was heartening to witness a band capable of selling out arenas actually using their platform to speak out. It’s sadly rare for artists of that scale to take real risks these days, but real art has always been and will always be political, whether people choose to acknowledge it or not.