This is a very fine book and, in many ways, the culmination of the author's distinguished career. As Howard himself notes, it took him around 25 years to write (p. ix), which might be fitting as ‘a good jigsaw takes a devotee many hours to assemble’ (p. 1). This is in a context where researchers of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) face numerous methodological problems. Discovering what is actually happening in the country often relies on ‘attempting to read tea leaves’ (p. 1) in a situation where ‘access to materials is often restricted’ (p. 1). Even a routine research task such as conducting a literature review can be challenging. For example, elsewhere the written text may be considered to be the definitive source for a citation. However this is much less so in the DPRK where, at any point, ‘a text by a specific author may be republished in a very different form, reflecting ideological changes’ (p. 1). Moreover, ‘meeting North Korean scholars and artists is not easy’ (p. 2). While Howard partly overcomes this via undertaking both interviews and detailed textual analysis, he is also honest enough to admit that ‘this volume is, and by necessity must be, far from a complete account’ (p. 3).

While readers will doubtless have their own ideas about the DPRK, it is likely that few will have visited the country. Since its establishment in 1948 the country has admitted comparatively few tourists and it remains technically at war with its southern neighbour as, despite a ceasefire in 1953, no peace treaty has ever been signed. Often portrayed as a ‘hermit’ state, the country has opened up a little since 2011 under the leadership of Kim Jung-Un, but remains a curiosity to most. Images of the mass dancing and gymnastics – in which ‘The people are the spectacle’ (p. 188, emphasis in original) – and pictures of the mass weeping which accompanied the death of the former leader Kim Jong Il are likely to form many outsiders’ images of the country, and this book is not without parts which bolster these somewhat stereotypical representations. Certainly song titles such as ‘Song of General Kim Il Sung’ and ‘The Country of Orchards the Leader Unfolded’, and lyrics such as ‘How can we cover the long distance but for the faith planted by our mother Party?’ (p. 31), ‘The General's Star rose high to shed the light of liberation’ (p. 31) and ‘How great is socialist reconstruction’ (p. 41) appear unlikely to encourage many readers to seek them out. To call them clichéd seems to somewhat understate the case.

So, if the book confirms some previous images of the country, what else does it do? It contains nine chapters which cover ‘Songs for the great leader’, ‘Instruments for the people’, ‘Pulling at harp strings’, ‘Opera for the Revolution’, ‘Contextualising Revolutionary Opera’, ‘What Revolutionary Operas do’, ‘From spectacles to dance’, ‘Composing the nation’ and ‘Songs for new leaders’.

As such the book contains material on texts, instrumentation, choreography and audiences. All of this is valuable on a number of levels, of which I will pick out three overlapping areas: knowledge of North Korea, questioning the popular and notions of creativity. However, it should be noted that so rich is this book that this means missing out a number of areas which other readers will want to delve into (such as Howard's detailed analysis of how the choreography and music of the mass games actually work and of the careers of various Korean composers).

In terms of North Korea, Howard illustrates the key role that music plays in supporting the country's totalitarian regime. Importantly, musicians in the DPRK are part of a military which has a leading role in society (p. 6). What becomes clear is that music is not merely incidental to the governmental apparatus, but central to it. In a country which Howard describes as being a theatrical performance in itself, ‘songs form much of the soundtrack to the theater of daily life. Songs embed messages that tell the official history of the exploits of leaders, and of the socialist utopia yet to come’ (p. 4). In addition: ‘Songs rehearse ideology, announce state policy and memorialize history’ (p. 12). Readers unfamiliar with the country will gain insights into the ways in which music forms a soundtrack to daily life, but all serving the sole purpose of reinforcing the regime. While initially this involved aiming the music largely at local audiences, now North Korean songs can be heard around the world via YouTube and other platforms.

In terms of the popular, a recurring theme is the difference between music of the people and music for the people in the DPRK. Put simply, music of the people encourages active participation and inspires feelings of community, whereas music for the people is designed to be more didactic and to teach lessons. So citizens can join in singing songs celebrating the victory over the Japanese, the Kim family or the Korean nation, while on other occasions watching a Revolutionary Opera and heeding its lessons. Here: ‘Revolutionary operas speak for the patricentric state. They promote Kim Il Sung while demoting anybody who might threaten his leadership’ (p. 138). In fact Howard suggests that the operas blur the differences in approach as they contain both songs which the audience can join in, with more complex pieces where the role of the audience is to listen and learn. Thus ‘operas became spectacles of and for the people’ (p. 175, emphasis in original).

However, what is clear is that in North Korea all music has to be popular, in the particular sense of serving the people, by such means as showing their true feelings (of dedication to the regime and its leaders), celebrating their achievements and victories, and foretelling their bright future. Perhaps the biggest error would be to make music about people as indifferent. Ideally the reaction by audiences to a piece of music should not be ‘do I like this?’, but ‘does it serve the people or articulate their feelings?’ Thus to be popular is not to amass individual approvals, but to show that the art serves all of the people.

Talk of ‘the creative industries’ has become widespread in the West, and this book raises interesting questions about what it means to be creative. A great amount of creativity is on display here, but also within constraints which Western musicians would find unbearable. The continual job of North Korean musicians is to create and play national music under the guidance of the country's leaders, including the first, Kim Il Sung (1912–1994), who claimed to be a self-trained musician and was prone to offering advice on how to make music, as well as allegedly being the composer of Revolutionary Operas.

A speech he gave in 1955 on juche ideology (in essence a doctrine of self-reliance which Howard explains elegantly) utilised ‘the dogma of yutil sasang (single/unitary ideology) which made Kim's actions and statements identical to the wishes and desires of the people’ (p. 34). Following this, folk songs were collected, analysed and then utilised to reflect the all-embracing juche ideology. Sung's successor Kim Jong Il cautioned that ‘music without politics is like a flower without scent’ (p. 20) and, with regard to folk songs, said that:

This involved retaining the good elements of the past which linked the instrument to the people, while making ‘improvements’ so that they could capture the modern feelings. As Howard notes: ‘Work … was required to create national style’ (p. 36). The sort of creativity involved here included removing too much ornamentation, ignoring vocal quality and using transcriptions to generate a theory. Where old songs were found to be lacking, new ones were composed – but in strict accordance with ideological requirements. One musician told Howard that the aim was ‘to follow our own national history, while creating something modern’ (p. 84).

Perhaps the apex of creativity here is the remaking of national instruments, so that they become able to reflect the tastes of the people (for which read the Party). By the mid 1960s, the juche ideology ‘had become a totalizing mechanism for production, requiring all art and literature to be popular, representative, and revolutionary’ (p. 105). Howard shows how, under a Five Year Plan announced in 1961, a number of instruments were recast to serve the ruling ideology. This involved standardising instruments, retaining the best elements of foreign instruments (an approach taken from Mao), reintroducing some traditional instruments such as the Konghu harp, introducing new educational programmes and reshaping instruments such as the shawm and zither. One musician Howard interviewed in 1992 explained that: ‘If we followed old customs and kept old music, we would fall into nihilism and would wrongly celebrate the aristocracy who once controlled Korean music’ (p. 73). Here Howard is excellent on the etymology of instruments.

It is important to note that while North Korea is monolithic, it is not unchanging. Political tensions mean that political songs can be more or less popular and artists’ stars may rise and wane. If the country began its life under a Soviet influence, it then moved closer to China before settling on its somewhat idiosyncratic lone path. At each stage the relative influence of the outside and the need to produce from the inside changed. In this sense, the Revolutionary Operas which began to appear from the early 1970s represented something designed to be uniquely Korean. As Howard was told: ‘They match the tastes of Korean people. Our genre is a new form that did not exist before’ (p. 160). The fact that this is obviously not true – the form builds on earlier model – does not stop it from being fervently believed.

The main feeling one is left with after reading all this is claustrophobia. There appears to be no space in North Korea for the sort of artistic freedom which is cherished in the West, no space for critique (except of Americans and other imperialists), no space for innovation and no space to breathe artistically. The stifling conformity is everywhere. The book is not totally dystopian (the humanity of the citizens of the DPRK is clear enough), but it is not always an easy read. When one reads that: ‘Songs … normalize authority’ (p. 241), it is reasonable to ask whether that is what we want songs to do.

As a critique, Howard gives the regime a relatively easy ride, seeking more to understand than condemn, especially humanising North Koreans in the process. The result of relying on 25 years of material is that it can seem dated and this is particularly true of some of the interview material. It would also have been good to see more photographs, although the ones from Howard's own collection are welcome. However, these are comparatively minor criticisms of a book which will cause all close readers to think about music and its role in society.

The subtitle is ‘Ideology and Creativity in North Korean Music and Dance’, and it is no surprise which word comes first. It is impossible to understand North Korean music without reference to the regime's dominating ideology. Bob Dylan once wrote that ‘You gotta serve somebody’, and in the DPRK music's role is to serve – its musicians know exactly who.