Some people have been asking me that question in the past few days, and I always replied 'I dunno'.  Often I try to get out of the discussion with a little joke like 'well, good we didn't send Lady Gaga to represent Western music', whatever 'Western music' might be.  By the way, Lady Gaga is an Iron Maiden fan, that's pretty cool.  So yes, I avoid that discussion because it would be another one of those stupid dialogues of what is right and what is not.  I know Laibach got a lot of criticism bacause of these concerts and I get it, it's not really a good idea to send a band with a fascist image to a country that seems to be a fan of a totalitarian regime.  

However, everybody is a fan of a totalitarian regime if he can be the leader of it, right?  

I actually know too little of North Korea to form a decent opinion about the country.  One on hand, they are said to be a war mongering nation with ballistic missiles and nuclear weapons.  Yet, aren't we exactly the same?  On the other hand they would be a stubborn nation trying to protect the culture norms and values which seem lost in the rest of the world.  However, they were very fond of 'The Sound Of Music', a movie about a family escaping from Nazi Germany.  

Personally, I care less about Laibach than about North Korea.  Sure, it's a cult band with a huge following of people who claim that others 'do not understand what the band is all about'.  Sure, I danced my ass off to 'Tanz With Laibach' and I played it often when I was a DJ in the goth-subculture.  Yet, that song is the best one in their arsenal.  I listened to several others of their own songs and none of them was anywhere near interesting.  Their covers are gruesome versions of songs no one in that specific subculture even likes.

I've seen them live at Incubate, for two minutes, then went to another concert before watching two more minutes.  I couldn't be bothered with their sound, nor image.  I'm not even going into the discussion whether they are fascists or a parody on fascism.  That's the exact same discussion as the ones about professional wrestling and just as useless.  "Either you 'get' Laibach or you're an idiot", that's the fans version.  "You like Laibach so you're fascist scum" is the general opinion.

I think for Laibach themselves, this was first and foremost a commercial opportunity.  They didn't go to North Korea for free, that's for sure.  Maybe they'll wrap it into a 'cultural unification' blanket or something but believe me, there was a lot of money involved in this deal.  They were quite polite as well by not mentioning the nuclear program or the second world war.  In fact, they were so friendly they didn't even play their own songs. 

According to a list I found on BBC, they played covers from 'The Sound Of Music', and their own horrendous versions of 'Life Is Life' by Opus and 'The Final Countdown' from Europe.  Oh, and a traditional Korean folk song.  Man, I would be insulted if Laibach comes over here and plays 'Al Die Willen Te Kaapr'ren Varen'*, especially in their own, 'unique' style.

Like every band, Laibach is trying to find new ways to attract an audience for their music and if that includes shocking the world in an Andy Kaufman-like fashion, so be it.   In a way, this is quite similar to 'shocking' behaviour Miley Cyrus' twerking or Janet Jackson's 'nipplegate'.  Just a way to attract attention. 


They now got the attention of the international media who spent pages about this whole deal while there's so much other news that people want to, and should, know.  The whole media frenzy for this deal has gone so out of hand that it looks like they're trying to derive our attention from other, more important, things.  Or is that the conspiracy-theorist in me speaking again?

*(this is a Flemish folk song about bearded people on boats.  You can listen to a version here)