Dance of Life: Popular Music and Politics in Southeast Asia

3. Philippines: Pinoy, Protest, and People Power

114 3 Philippines: Pinoy, Protest, and People Power I hope that in due time the enchantment of Western civilization shall gradually wear off and in its place a truly integrated Filipino consciousness will develop ever more richly as the spirit of a proud and sovereign people that it must be. Felipe Padilla De Leon, Filipino critic.1 Few societies have been as drenched in music as the Philippines. Pop star Freddie Aguilar describes the ubiquity of singing in his country: It’s a part of everyday life. Street vendors sing a song about the excellence of their goods; in the country the people you pass washing in a stream will be singing; a cook in his kitchen, a laundrywoman, they’re always singing. . . . Even when things are bad, instead of becoming depressed and quiet, they sing to forget their problems.2 Visitors will note the prevalence of T-shirts with messages like “Where There Is Music There Can’t Be Misery” and “Music is the Medicine of a Troubled Mind.”3 Music has also been integral to the continuous dialogue about Filipino national identity and the extent of neocolonialism in daily life. This chapter traces the rise of a politicized pop music style known as pinoy and examines its leading performers such as Freddie Aguilar. It then examines the role of Aguilar and pinoy in the popular agitation and mobi- PINOY, PROTEST, AND PEOPLE POWER 115 lization leading to the end of the Marcos dictatorship. Finally it explores musical developments in the aftermath of the Marcos era. The Roots of Politics and Music The Philippines boasts a mixed sociocultural heritage deriving from indigenous , Spanish, and American influences.4 American historian David Steinberg refers to the Philippines as “both singular and plural,” meaning that within a distinctive society are a multiplicity of cultures, regions, religions , and ways of life.5 The population has scattered across seven thousand islands, although the majority live on the two largest islands of Luzon and Mindanao. Except for a small but economically influential Chinese minority, most Filipinos speak one of nearly a hundred Malay languages and dialects that developed in the archipelago. Over three centuries of Spanish colonial rule, during which the Catholic religion and many aspects of Spanish culture were imposed in a process known as Hispanization, some 85 percent of the Basic Data6 Population (1994): 69,000,000 Urban Population: 44 percent Capital: Manila (metro population: 8,000,000) Life Expectancy: 65 (63 years for men, 66 years for women) Adult Literacy: 90 percent Religions: Roman Catholicism (83 percent); Protestantism (9 percent); Islam (5 percent); Other (3 percent) Economy: Per capita GNP: U.S. $770 Radio Ownership: 7,388,000; 321 commercial and noncommercial stations Radio Receivers Produced (incl. radio–cassette tape players): 544,000 (1983) Television Ownership: 3,399,000; 5 Manila-based commercial television channels People Per Television Set: 20.5 Television Receivers Produced: 300,000 (1987) Media: 20 daily newspapers (11 in English, 9 in Pilipino, regional languages) Major Recording Companies (1995): Abel (7 local labels incl. Able, AMS, Cebuano; distributes 3); Alpha (8 local labels incl. Alpha, Fame, Kinamaham, Mayon); Dyna (2 labels; distributes 5 incl. EMI, Chrysalis); Ivory (6 labels); OctoArts (3 labels; distributes 33 incl. Blue Note, Capitol, EMI, Narada, Rap-A-Lot); PolyCosmic (3 labels; distributes 11 incl. A&M, Decca, Island, Motown, Philips, Polydor); Quantum (2 labels; distributes 5 incl. Warner); Universal (3 labels; distributes 7); Victor (1 label; distributes Victor) Music Publishers (1995): BMG, Bayanihan, Bell, OctoArts, Polycosmic, Victor 116 PHILIPPINES population adopted the Roman Catholic religion. Islamic minorities occupy the southernmost islands, while hill peoples, many of whom still practice animism , live in the mountain districts. Although the Spanish created a country—and ultimately a nationality—they did not construct a cohesive society. The Philippines came to be a cluster of groups organized along vertical lines between superiors and subordinates, patrons and clients. The colonial economic system, especially the emphasis on sugar, forged a rural society based on plantation agriculture and tenant farming, implanting a permanent chasm between the extraordinarily rich and the impoverished, a stunted economic development dependent on the international market.7 Regional and ethnic loyalties , as well as a primary orientation toward the family, also remained dominant. Music of all sorts has played a stronger role in Philippine life than in most other Asian societies, and this pattern can be traced back centuries, certainly predating the Spanish period. The folk tradition...