Video: Nisvanis Rocks Capital of Mongolian Grunge

By ⋅ March 28, 2012 ⋅ Post a comment
Mongol Grunge (Photo: Lauren Knapp)

Mongol Grunge (Photo: Lauren Knapp)

For today’s combo Geo Quiz/Global Hit, we’re heading for the capital of Mongolia. This central Asian nation is famed for its arid plains and nomadic culture.

Music not so much. Unless you count the odd throat singer.

But the times they are a-changing. The nomadic culture is disappearing, and folks are moving to the cities.

The biggest city is the capital, which is the subject of today’s Geo Quiz.

It’s right in the middle of Mongolia.

Ulaanbaatar, capital of Mongolia (Photo: Wiki Commons)

Ulaanbaatar, capital of Mongolia (Photo: Wiki Commons)

Its name translates as “Red Hero”, which is a throw-back to the days of communist control. Its real name is Ulaanbaatar. Ulan Bator is the old-fashioned Russified pronunciation.

Ulaanbaatar’s nickname today is “Smog Hero”, which, if you happen to speak Mongolian, is a very clever pun: Utaanbataar. But you can still see it from space on a clear day.

Ulaanbaatar from space (Photo: Wiki Commons)

Ulaanbaatar from space (Photo: Wiki Commons)

The end of Communism 20 years ago revolutionized life here, and the music scene in particular.

Ulaanbaatar is the center of that scene.

Fulbright-mtvU Fellow Lauren Knapp introduces the band that pioneered the transformation: Nisvanis.


Discussion

4 comments for “Video: Nisvanis Rocks Capital of Mongolian Grunge”

  • lee_patton

    Ms. Knapp must have tasted some of the Tea Party’s brew, I hope by mistake.  In the radio piece, she stated that Mongolia’s music scene freed up after it transitioned “from socialism to democracy.”  Socialism is not a term in opposition to democracy–the two are doing just fine together, as in Sweden and many other robust democracies.

    I think the phrase she wanted was “from socialism to capitalism.” 

    • rasho_nesterovic

      Ah yes, Tsedenbal’s People’s Republic, modeled off Lenin’s socialist ”dictatorship of the proletariat,” – pretty much synonymous with democracy.

      This lesson is free: Democracy extends individual freedom. Socialism restricts it. Democracy attaches all possible value to each man. Socialism makes each man a number. Democracy seeks equality in liberty. Socialism seeks equality in restraint and servitude. (Tocqueville).

      Or as Friedrich Von Hayek put it: “The French writers who laid the foundations of modern socialism had no doubt that their ideas could be put into practice only by strong dictatorial government.”

      As for Sweden (the free land, incidentally, where criticism of homosexuality is punishable by 2 years in prison and where Jews are fleeing under Islamist persecution), you can have a Swedish-scale government, or a US-size military, but you can’t have both. And when the US defaults on its debt and China eclipses its GDP in 2016 as the IMF predicts, we’ll see how democracy prospers in Sweden.

  • Linn Davis

    As I was browsing through the photo gallery above,
    I couldn’t help but notice that one of head-banging guys has a swastika
    tattooed on his head — and that the Flickr album itself has “skinhead”
    in its title. Yes, the swastika symbol has a long non-Nazi-related
    history, especially in Asia, but a quick Googling of “Mongolia skinhead”
    reveals something else: the recent emergence of neo-Nazism in Mongolia.
    I have no idea whether the heavy metal music scene has any connection
    to it, but given that neo-Nazi subgenres exist within punk and metal
    music in other countries, perhaps there’s some relationship? Or perhaps
    Swastika Guy in the photos was just a one-off coincidence?

    For more about neo-Nazism in Mongolia, incidentally, see these
    fascinating articles in Russia Today (
    http://rt.com/news/mongolia-nationalist-china-nazi/ ) and the Guardian ( http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/aug/02/mongolia-far-right ).

     

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