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…)