player Awad Ahmoudi has been known for his distinct style of playing the oud in his typical style and pentatonic scales. Another musician, who started his career in the late 1980s and also suffered from harassment by the military government, is Omer Ihsas. A native of southern Darfur, he and his band have played and spread their message of peace and reconciliation both in camps for internally displaced people in Darfur, as well as in Khartoum and on international stages. Foreign musicians, who became popular in Sudan, included reggae superstar Bob Marley and American pop singer Michael Jackson, while the funk of James Brown inspired Sudanese performers such as Kamal Keila. The spread of international pop music through radio, TV, cassette tapes and digital recordings also prompted a growing number of Sudanese musicians to sing in English, connecting their music with the outside world. – Even though the government of the time discouraged music, dance and theatre, the College of Music and Drama of Sudan University of Science and Technology in Khartoum, in existence since 1969, continued to offer courses and degrees, thus giving young people a chance to study music or theatre. 2000s – present Protest songs, reggae, hip hop and rap Songs with political messages have been popular in Sudan since at least the 1960s. Political lyrics by poets and musicians such as Mohammed Wardi's "Green October" or Mohammed Al-Amin's song "October 21st" became famous in the context of the October 1964 Revolution. Ever since the third Sudanese Revolution started in December 2018, musicians, poets and visual artists have been playing an important part in the mainly youth driven movement. Referring to its impact at the sit-in outside the Sudanese army headquarters on April 25, 2019, 'Dum' (trans. 'blood'), a song by Sudanese-American rap musician Ayman Mao was called the "Anthem of Sudan's Revolution". According to Sudanese blogger Ola Diab, "young urban musicians have used their musical talents and creativity to express the revolt of protesters against President Al Bashir and his regime." As in other countries, reggae, rap or hip hop music combines local talents and international, young audiences, both in live performances as well as on the internet. In 2018, Sudanese journalist Ola Diab published a list of contemporary music videos by upcoming artists, both from Sudan and the Sudanese diaspora in the US, Europe or the Middle East. One of them is the Sudanese–American rapper