kultura

Some wishin’ for original Pinoy music and musikero*

I’m a fan of original Pinoy music, always have been, and I grew with a Kuya who spent good money on cassette tapes of The Dawn and Neo Colours, Gary V. and Randy Santiago, Ogie Alcasid and Francis Magalona. I was enamoured with Smokey Mountain, loved “Ryan Ryan Musikahan,” and thought the world of Ryan Cayabyab. When Kuya left for Holland, he’d come home to buy every local CD he could get, rip them and leave most of them with me, and here I found that I owe it to Kuya really this breadth and scope of music that I have the capacity to appreciate, and the value given to talent: he’d buy these acoustic CDs and his appreciation would be contagious – hello, Nyoy Volante and Christian Bautista. And more recently Julianne. Of course on this recent visit we listened to Cathy Go’s CD until I memorized it, and we were still on listening to Peryodiko, as we did Gloc-9’s MKNM.

But also there is my Tatay, from da orig rakenrol of the 60s, with bands like Bawal Umihi Dito and Birth of the Cool (yeah), which Tita Mitch Valdes would affectionately call The Birds of the Cool. In one of the first stagings, if not the first one, of “Jesus Christ Superstar” in 1971 the Tatay played Pontius Pilate if I’m not mistaken Simon of Cyrene, with Boy Camara as Jesus.

In high school I would happen upon local rakenrol, and I mean the Juan dela Cruz band on cassette – Kuya wasn’t going to have any of that, and the Tatay would shake his head.

Meanwhile, in the past two decades or so, I’ve found that when it comes to culture in general, music in particular, I will give everything a chance. It’s a lot of money put out on local music and culture, but knowing the landscape, to me at least, is the only way to even talk about anything that is painfully complex and dangerously diverse. Here, some wishful thinking for Pinoy music, in memory of the kind of non-scholarly but absolutely grounded love for Pinoy cinema that was in the practice of Alexis Tioseco. (more…)

kultura

buddha blues you, baby!

Jun Lopito’s launching a new album tomorrow at B-Side! :)

because OPM ain’t dead. and neither is pinoy (pop) culture.
and unless you are, i’ll see you tomorrow!

kultura

Notes on OPM: Lea & Anne, and the curse of celebrity

Because it was waiting to happen, wasn’t it, where the industry of show is finally called out for creating the monster of the talentless making money out of singing. Of course this isn’t new: many a-non-singer have signed record deals, and we’ve talked about them before. But what is different about Anne Curtis is not just that she is a non-singer, it’s that she can’t even carry a tune, and yet she’s got a CD and a sold-out Araneta Coliseum concert tucked under her belt.

It is the height of absurdity. But also it is a sign of the times for the industry of show and celebrity. It’s at a point worse than reality TV stars becoming celebrities – at least those we’ve proven just die their natural deaths, and the Kim Chius are as rare as they come. It’s worse than Paris Hilton doing a record – at least her record didn’t become a hit at all, and the bad singing isn’t happening on television everyday.

With Anne, this industry has proven that it can take someone who cannot sing to save her life, and make money out of the fact that she cannot sing. (more…)

kultura

Notes on OPM: Music by the tingi

The question of supporting Original Pilipino Music (OPM) is one that isn’t simple anymore, not in these times when cultural systems are so intricately intertwined, and television networks and cultural empires are kings. In this series I look at contemporary Pinoy music’s production(s) and unpack the contradictions and discriminations inherent in, and the context(s) crucial to, the fight for OPM as we know it.

In the book Culture and History first published in 1988, National Artist Nick Joaquin asserts in his essay “A Heritage of Smallness” how our notions of greatness and grandness and complexity, is represented precisely by our seeming inability to even think on that scale:

“Society for the Filipino is a small rowboat: the barangay. Geography for the Filipino is a small locality: the barrio. History for the Filipino is a small vague saying: matanda pa kay mahoma; noong peacetime. Enterprise for the Filipino is a small stall: the sari-sari. Industry and production for the Filipino are the small immediate searchings of each day: isang kahig, isang tuka. And commerce for the Filipino is the smallest degree of retail: the tingi.”

When Mang Nick talked then about our heritage of smallness, he might not have been able to imagine these times for Pinoy music. These times when, for P99 pesos, you can get a prepaid digital album card, much like a prepaid phone card, scratch the back for your PIN, enter that on a website, and get to download four pre-selected songs in lieu of getting the whole CD.

It’s Original Pilipino Music by the tingi.  (more…)

kultura

Notes on OPM: Re-considering pop

The question of supporting Original Pilipino Music (OPM) is one that isn’t simple anymore, not in these times when cultural systems are so intricately intertwined, and television networks and cultural empires are kings. In this series I look at contemporary Pinoy music’s production(s) and unpack the contradictions and discriminations inherent in, and the context(s) crucial to, the fight for OPM as we know it.

It is often said: Original Pilipino Music (OPM) needs more support because it is suffering in the face of piracy, good songs don’t get radio airplay, great CDs don’t sell well in record bars. We talk about globalization and the cheaper foreign CDs it brings, we talk about colonial mentality and the preference for what isn’t local it continues to wreak.

Except that when we say OPM has no chance of winning against the big bad foreign artists, that isn’t really true. Since Sarah Geronimo’s recent CD came out, it’s been in the Top 10 Best Selling Albums list in most local record bars, battling it out with Lady Gaga, Bruno Mars, and J Lo, recently even topping those lists.  (more…)