Pungmul

Pungmul is a Korean folk music tradition that includes drumming, dancing, and singing. Most performances are outside, with dozens of players, all in constant motion. Pungmul is rooted in the dure (collective labor) farming culture. It was originally played as part of farm work, on rural holidays, at other village community-building events, and to accompany shamanistic rituals, mask dance dramas, and other types of performance. During the late 1960s and 1970s, it expanded in meaning and was actively used in political protest during the pro-democracy movement, although today it is most often seen as a performing art. Based on 1980s research, this kind of music was extensively studied on Chindo Island.