iNSOYMADA » cebuano music

Air Supply is safer

Lorenzo Ninal — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 07:58:57 +0000

A NEWS item that came out in this paper last Sunday had me googling the words “videoke” and “killings.” Just when I thought videoke violence is nothing but media exaggeration caused by a dearth of newsworthy events on weekends, this story about a stabbing inside a videoke bar in my hometown of Pinamungajan convinced me the Aquino administration should now create a task force to investigate videoke killings in the country.

If it happens in Pinamungajan–or Timbuktu, or Ittoqqortoormiit, Greenland–it happens everywhere.

The task force should be handled not by policemen or NBI agents but by musicians, particularly lyricists. You call the police or the NBI when it’s about drugs, or alcohol, or guns, or Joavan Fernandez. But when it’s about videoke violence, call the songwriter. Unless our law enforcement institutions include “Lyrics as Cause of Violence” in their training, drug raids and checkpoints will never solve videoke killings.

This is Google Research I’m talking about, the most reliable source of information for very serious researchers, like college freshmen and humor columnists. My comprehensive Google research told me video killings are intimately linked to the lyrics of the song that caused the fight. Take “My Way” for example.

A dozen articles dissecting the lyrics of “My Way” crop up when you google “videoke killings.” If you think I’m making this up, here’s an excerpt: “The number of killings connected to singing of the song (My Way) may simply reflect its popularity in a violent environment…The song’s ‘triumphalist’ theme might also be a factor.”

“The lyrics of ‘My Way’ increase the violence,” the study continues. “The lyrics evoke feelings of pride and arrogance in the singer, as if you’re somebody when you’re really nobody…It covers up your failures. That’s why it leads to fights.” The typical Filipino irritates.

It makes sense. Remember the last time you went videoke-ing with your friends, and there’s this guy in the next table singing “Making Love Out of Nothing at All” with all the braggadocio he could muster and you were so damn annoyed by it? Of course you don’t blame the lyrics. “I know just how to whisper/ And I know just how to cry/ I know just where to find the answers/ And I know just how to lie” is down pat annoying but only because you hate Air Supply to begin with.

You want to blow Hitchcock and Russell and their legion of fans to smithereens, not that drunk in the next table. And we’re not talking about the Bee Gees yet.

Now, imagine that same guy screaming, “For what is a man? What has he got? If not himself–Then he has naught…The record shows I took the blows. And did it my way.” Man, that guy’s annoying!

In fairness to Sinatra, he didn’t write “My Way.” It was Paul Anka, who re-wrote it from the original French, which he described as “a bad record, but there was something in it.” That “something” is murdering videoke singers all over the country. Creepy.

The Pinamungajan incident offers an additional twist to the videoke rage phenomenon. The song is not “My Way,” thank God, but Fred Berame’s Cebuano classic “Samtang May Kinabuhi.” In the context of the videoke rage in the country, the song sounds equally creepy.

No, we won’t dissect Berame’s lyrics right now. We’re running out of space. Besides, I hear somebody singing “My Way” at the videoke bar outside, and I have a mission to fulfill. Give me that gun now.

By Insoy Niñal
Sun.Star Cebu, July 20, 2010

Rock Your Pride!

insoymada — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 11:12:34 +0000

Songwriting workshop

insoymada — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 10:37:53 +0000

We’re organizing a songwriting seminar-workshop to raise funds for TSINELAS. It’s going to be held this coming May. It’s going to be a four-day (two weekends) event to be held at the Tsinelas headquarters at the Saint Theresa’s College compound along Gen. Maxilom Ave.

We’re going to talk about the basics of melody writing, lyrics writing, musical arrangement and recording.

Award-winning musicians and recording artists Ian Zafra, Jude Gitamondoc and Brian Sacro have initially agreed to join us as speakers. I also invited myself as speaker, and myself said yes (haha).

We’ll be inviting other established musicians to join us as interactors during the open forums.

Anybody can join the workshop as long as he brings with him an original composition – in Bisaya, Tagalog, Cebuano and in whatever genre.

As a bonus, we might – i repeat, we might – choose a song or two from among the entries to be recorded for free.

Number of participants is limited to 25. You can’t learn anything in a crowd.

The workshop is not for free. We need to spend for the seminar kits and honorarium for speakers. Not a centavo will go to the pockets of the organizers. Proceeds will be used to fund various projects of Tsinelas, especially since another school year is opening.

We’ll soon be posting more details.

Join. Not only you will learn a lot from the workshop, you will also get the chance to help poor kids stay in school.

Rakenrol, Bisayang musikero!

Who’s writing the songs, who’s singing them

insoymada — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 08:08:54 +0000

EVERYTIME Mr. Ryan Cayabyab opens his mouth, the country’s music buffs listen. They know that if they don’t, there’s no more reason left to respect each other.

“Hey, we just snubbed Ryan Cayabyab. Now let’s snub Levi Celerio, too, and Jose Mari Chan, and Rey Valera.” And so on, and so forth, until the younger generation follows suit and murders Ely Buendia, Vennie Saturno, Ogie Alcasid and Rico Blanco, in that order. It’s going to be the Stupid Noontime Show of the Philippine music industry. Imagine listening to Lito Camo songs all your life.

That’s why it came as a surprise that the Cebu media ignored Cayabyab when he said in a visit to Cebu that the country’s songwriters are found in Manila while the country’s balladeers are found in Cebu. “Yes, OK sir. Sir, how is it working with the Philippine Dream Academy scholars?” Topic changed.

Cebuanos are quick to defend their dignity against the slightest sign of aggression, especially if the attack traces its origin in Manila, be it Cayabyab or “Sakal, Sakali, Saklolo.” Maybe Cayabyab’s gentle manner of speaking prevented the Cebu entertainment press that time from violently insisting that Cebuanos are as gifted in writing songs as in singing them. But then again, maybe it’s because the Maestro was speaking a truth. And the truth was that while Manileños are the better songwriters, Cebuanos are the real belters.

The Cebuanos’ talent for singing, however, may not have happened naturally. They could have developed it over time for lack of choice, maybe they were plain bored. Few pop-crazy Cebuanos would disagree that for the past three decades or so, the radio has been filling the airwaves with nothing but songs made in Manila, so much so that Cebuanos born between 1970 and 2008 virtually share the same musical awareness (which theoretically means that a 38-year-old man and a one-year-old infant can snap up a Christian Bautista-Rachelle Ann Go duet right any minute).

This 1970-2008 generation of Cebuanos may have realized that it won’t get them anywhere if they choose a career in songwriting. The country’s music capital is in Manila. It’s Manila who controls the country’s music industry. It’s the Manila-based music labels that dictate the radio stations in the provinces what songs to play and how often. It’s pure business necessity that the songs have to be written and recorded there.

Cebuano singers could have started out as passive radio listeners until they decided they had enough, and started asking their grandpas to buy them a karaoke set, and include a lyrics sheet, please. By then, their familiarity with all the right notes had been so polished they could tell if their pet dog was barking off key. The rest is musical history with Sharon Magdayao (Vina Morales) as heroine.

What about the Cebuano songwriter? We have nothing but love and respect for Ben Zubiri (Matud Nila), Nitoy Gonzalez (Usahay), Vicente Rubi (Kasadya), and many others of their era. But for sure they would now want us to move on and write songs that speak of today’s generation. If they were born of this generation, they wouldn’t definitely be writing Balitaw. They would probably be cranking up an electric guitar and smoking grass. (And quit that stupid grin, Mr. Bisrocker, because they would rather shift to ballet than be caught writing the kind of crap that you feed us with today.)

That’s why any songwriting competition that aims to produce the next “Sa Kabukiran” (Manuel Velez) had better escape the time warp because the 1970-2008 Cebuanos are really laughing at them.

Speaking of which, why is it that the songs of the Apo Hiking Society and the Eraserheads seem like they were written just yesterday?

Well… Ok. Can we just talk about our singers? We have Susan Fuentes, we have Pilita Corrales, we have Vernie Varga, we have our call center agents doing videoke on weekends. We have them and they are all in the Capital Manila. Well, except for the call center agents.

(BY LORENZO P. NIÑAL)