Two seconds. Two seconds was all it took for me to be able to identify a couple of songs that played on the radio yesterday that featured all Filipino music. From 00:00-00:02, a drum machine’s initial beats already told me that it was Sana by UDD, and I was proven correct as the song inched further. The same thing happened when another tune came up later on; a high pitch guitar part at 02:02-02:04 triggered my memory and recognized it as part of Stonefree’s Listen. While what I did was no big achievement, I must admit that I myself got impressed with how quickly I was able to pinpoint what songs they were. (My useless talent #37! Raise your hand if you get the reference.) Unfortunately, I don’t think I would fare as well as I did had those songs been released recently or even in the last several years. Sad to say that my connection to the current world of OPM isn’t as strong as it used to.
Just like what I’ve mentioned in a previous entry, that connection sort of weakened because of a number of factors. One is that I eventually stopped going to gigs. I used to go to a lot of them when I was young, but as years marched on, gig buddies became busier with their lives, and I, on the other hand, found fewer bands that really interested me. Yes, there have been a lot of talented young bands and artists who have emerged over the years, and I’ve listened to some good tracks, but generally, their style just didn’t jive much with my taste enough for me to follow them completely. Also, heavy or intense rock/alternative became less prominent and yielded to upbeat tunes that were heavy on synths, which I can appreciate, but not in large quantities. Although initially, I got a bit tired of heavy music towards the 2010s and decided to pivot to happier sounding tunes, by the time I wanted go back heavy sounds, they had become scarce.
Another thing is that I got steeped in foreign music more later on. Technology had a big hand in this as it further allowed me to discover all sorts of artists coming from different corners of the world. But perhaps the major reason for this detachment is due to the demise of the local rock station NU107. NU exposed me to a huge amount of Filipino rock music, so when it shut down in 2010, I gradually lost contact. NU’s torch was sort of unofficially passed to Jam88.3, but the latter didn’t play OPM as frequent as the former did. Of course, there were other radio stations that played Filipino music, but they didn’t exactly match my taste (with the exception of KZ Tandingan after discovering Imposible last year). Even though I can easily access music online now, they simply do not stick to me unlike the ones I hear on the radio, for some reason. I don’t know why it is so; maybe it’s an age thing, or maybe because there’s just too much music online nowadays that it’s easier to get drowned in it and forget it. Whatever the case may be, I still find listening and discovering music, particularly OPM, more effective when I hear it on the radio.
Over the last several months, I stumbled upon some nice new OPM tracks, all of which are also set in Tagalog (yes!) All of them I discovered through Jam’s Republik program, which airs on Sundays. Most of them are not technically new as some were released as back as two to three years ago; they are, however, new to me. Some of them I’ve already heard before, but I just had a bit of difficulty of knowing them since there were no DJs who introduced them. I sometimes forgot their lyrics too, so I was unable to search for them online. And no, I don’t have Siri or Alexa to help me identify them on the spot either.
So, here is a select number of Filipino tunes that made an impression on me this first half of 2021.
Love the lyrics!
Although Republik features a lot of OPM songs, many of the songs aired there are also from many years ago, so I don’t think I’ll discover a lot of new new songs there, but it’s a good place for me to get reacquainted with OPM rock and alternative somehow.
theedgeofsound.wordpress.com 
Pingback: Bring It Back (Sing It Back to Me)* |