Ulaanbaatar is the capital of Mongolia, a country of 3.3million people which despite this relatively large number is one of the least densely populated countries in the world. Outside of the capital, the landscape of the country is largely made up vast and rolling grasslands known as the steppe where nearly 30 percent of Mongolia’s population still live a nomadic or semi nomadic lifestyle, moving around the country with their livestock, travelling on horseback and living in large round tents called Yurts. Apart from these remaining nomads, 50% of the population live in Ulaanbaatar itself in relative modernity so it makes sense that there is a busy nightlife and music scene.
It hasnt always been like that though. Between the 1920s and 1990s Mongolia was ruled by the Mongolian Peoples Revolutionary Party a communist, soviet aligned government that tried to use music as an ideological tool. Under their reign, all traditional forms of music had to be stripped of any religious or spiritual associations and any diversity in instruments or distinctive musical traditions associated to one ethnic group or the other had to be eliminated so a that all music in the country followed a nationalist and socialist agenda in form and content. Western music was of course completely forbidden but in the 1960s and 1970s it was impossible to stop the infiltration of pop and rock influences seeping into the country.
Soyol Erdene are known as the first ever rock band in Mongolia. Soyol Erdene, which roughly translates as Cultural Jewel were formed in 1971 when the Minister of Culture gathered four young musicians and said “England has a band, the beatles of four young men. Why shouldn’t we have a similar band?”. And so was born Soyol Erdene. During the years under the communist regime the band worked hard performing at official events and concerts. Their music consisted of Mongolian Folk songs in a rock style arrangement and their lyrics were often lifted from famous mongolian writers. Despite this they were often criticised by the government’s censorship department for promoting western music styles and fashions.
In the early 1990s, Mongolia transitioned from a Communist regime to a multi-party system with a market economy. All of a sudden, the Western music that had previously been forbidden was now available, and young musicians started to gravitate to the sounds of western pop music and use it in their own music, reproducing the sounds of their favorite bands with Mongolian lyrics.
All of a sudden it was also ok to celebrate pre-soviet Mongolian musical traditions and this has led to a fascinating phenomenon of Mongolian bands blending the traditional music of the country with modern western music forms. One of the first bands to do that was a band called Altan Urag, a pioneering band in the genre of Mongolian Folk Rock which blends modern rock music with the traditional instruments and most notably the technique of Mongolian throat singing, a very unique vocal technique where one vocalist produces two pitches simultaneously.
Magnolian is a Mongolian modern indie folk artist who has already found success outside of Ulaanbaatar, he sings his songs in both Mongolian and english, recording separate versions of each song. He recently played at the famous south by southwest festival in the united states and his style is described as Ulaanbaatar’s answer to leonard cohen meets the nation.
The Hu is another band that have shot to huge global success since they appeared on the Ulaanbaatar scene in 2016 that, like Altan Urag, fuse elements of traditional mongolian music like throat singing but this time with the style of heavy metal.
Bodhikuu is another artist from ulaanbatar who is bringing traditional mongolian music into the future, blending samples of traditional music and recordings from the mongolian soviet era with hip hop beats.