Real Men, Rapping for their Country

It's compulsory for South Korean men in their late teens or 20s to serve at least two years in the military, and it's not a lot of fun. The discipline can be intense: earlier this year, a whistle-blower accused a captain of ordering his troops to dip their fingers into a dirty toilet bowl and then stick them in their mouths. In June, a young conscript stationed near the DMZ allegedly threw a live grenade into a tent full of sleeping comrades and sprayed it with his K-1 semiautomatic, killing eight. It's still unclear what caused the incident-his court-martial started last week-but civic groups have complained for years about grim conditions and high suicide rates in the armed forces. Says human-rights activist Park Won Suk: "Military life and the treatment of soldiers are still stuck in the 19th century."

To lighten things up, the Ministry of National Defense said last week that it's recruited pop stars currently in uniform to cut a CD of new military anthems geared to the MTV generation. Love You, Love Me is an ode to the bonding that occurs among soldiers. Let's Go, Let's Go and My Comrades, are long on patriotism ("If we retreat, our country will fall") but sung to a beat 50 Cent would dig. A traditional marching song, Real Men, is sung by rising female singer Jinjoo—the only performer on the recording who isn't a soldier. The ministry says recruits will be given the CDs "to enjoy during leisure time." Barracks culture may still have a whiff of the 19th century, but its background music will be 21st.