Music makes me lose control

Music, to this day, remains one of humanity’s greatest assets. But like many of its counterparts, the music industry is at a serious crossroads. Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke recently shared, “It will be only a matter of time — months rather than years — before the music business establishment completely folds.”

I’m no music connoisseur and I’m probably not the best person to go rhetorical on the matter. But at “Music NOW,” a forum recently held at Fully Booked, Bonifacio High Street to culminate its month-long music campaign, there were eight more than capable individuals to take up the cudgels.

Moderated by Young Star editor-at-large Erwin Romulo, the panel, whose purpose was to engage the audience and each other in a discussion on the current state of the local music industry, banded together for a night of insight, collectivity, postulating and artistic enlightenment.

The Internet Killed The Radio Star

Sarah Meier-Albano furthers the cause of local independent hip-hop in the country

The gauntlet is thrown down. Ricky Ilacad, managing director for MCA Music Philippines, opened the forum with startling facts and even more startling figures. He said that if you searched the web for articles on how the music industry is dying, you’ll probably find about 20,000 of them. And if you searched for articles saying that the music industry is already dead, you’d probably stumble upon a good 7,000. On hits alone, those figures are way too intimidating to try and grapple with, though not for an industry that continues to fight back.

Lizza Guerrero Nakpil, current manager of Wolfgang, segues, “Before, a select few would decide on who’s the next big thing. Now, we’re at a confusing stage, with record labels not being able to create superstars like Madonna or Lenny Kravitz. Audiences now have to decide for themselves, based on what they hear on the Internet.” Ilacad shares, “Digital has definitely changed the landscape of how we do our business. When I started in the industry, a gold record was achieved with 25,000 album sales.” Over the years, this has declined to 20,000, then 15, then 12.5, then 10, and now it takes a modest 7,500 albums to achieve gold status.” Probably the unstoppable juggernaut that is the Internet has a not-so-invisible hand in this decline. And despite lowered benchmarks for success, artists would be lucky nowadays to even sell 7,500 copies, what with widespread online piracy and Internet sharing.

Indie Killed The Rockstar

Raimund Marasigan raps about the music business

Andre Alvarez, founding channel head of MYX, sheds further light on the situation, “(The way music is consumed today) has become so individual. It has splintered into so many things.” Even superstars like Michael Jackson, or Gary Valenciano, or Martin Nievera — three artists who enjoy blanket patronage from their listeners — are just no longer feasible given our A.D.H.D. generation that buys singles instead of albums, or worse, who buys singles instead of artists. Andre adds, “I’m surprised that even as a music channel, we now play an active role in discovering artists (referring to unsigned artists who send him demos or even music videos for cable consideration).” You will remember that the music television landscape here changed drastically after the closure of MTV Philippines in February of last year, followed by NU Rock going off-air many months later.

Francis Reyes, former guitarist of seminal pop rock outfit The Dawn and musical director of the defunct radio station NU 107.5, shares in Andre’s lament. “As for the Internet component, I got into it because there seemed to be no space for rock music in analogue radio anymore.” A huge portion of the pie, according to him, has been eaten up by masa radio stations, though it’s not to say that what they’re doing is wrong. “It’s more that the masa radio stations aren’t aware that they’re doing — which is conditioning the people to think, ‘Eh eto ako eh’ instead of ‘I wanna be better than this.’” He claims, “If there was a little more insight and enlightenment in this whole process instead of proliferating novelty or formulaic radio tunes, then the people would be more empowered to make better choices.”

Andre Alvarez gives his two cents on the evolving OPM industry and the role that music channels like MYX play

The traditional avenues by which music has been purveyed over the years may have shrunk for local artists. But according to rock legend Raimund Marasigan, with the advent of the Internet and the new media, getting one’s foot in the door and putting your work out there has never been easier. “Maganda nga ‘yun kasi may choice ka eh. May choice ka maka-release ng art mo, ng music mo through the Internet independently, or you can go super corporate, being signed to the label.” When asked by Guerrero-Nakpil if the ease by which music is made nowadays lessens the quality of the songs that are put out, Marasigan retorts, “At the end of the day, pag trinabaho mo at pinaghirapan mo yung kanta, dun lumalabas yung quality.” Consequently, quality is not something that is necessarily compromised by quantity, Marasigan insists.

Angeli Valenciano, president of Manila Genesis Entertainment who also manages the career of her husband Gary V. and that of her two sons Paolo of the band Salamin and Gabriel, shares, “It gets really frustrating sometimes. In Japan, you hear Japanese music all over. And here, you don’t.” She shares that government support for OPM is critical and for the industry to stay afloat, there has to be staunch collaboration between the government, the artists, and the business community.

Minority Report

Boom Dayupay, hiphop pioneer and Angel Jones-Dayupay, formerly of Kulay, Vic Valenciano of Sony BMG and his son

While artists like Marasigan have the liberty to harness corporate support via his rock outfit Sandwich, or go the indie route playing small clubs with his other endeavors, hip-hop proponent Sarah Meier-Albano and house music specialist DJ Manolet Dario claim that the genres they represent have not had the necessary support over the years. Meier-Albano shares, “There is corporate support for rock but hip-hop hasn’t gotten any.” Similarly, Dario shares, “I always felt that (house music) would’ve exploded even bigger if we got more support from radio. But no one took after it, maybe because it’s not as commercial-sounding and digestible as other genres.”

Dario shares that in London, they would have radio stations specific to the genre. There was one for rock, one for hip-hop and one for dance, while here, it’s “one size fits all, except for NU but it’s now defunct. Bottom line, it’s all about economics. We have a very weak middle class,” he notes, which in more developed nations have the power to consume with freedom and thought. “Blame it on the educational system,” Reyes adds, which he cites as one of the reasons why NU ultimately closed down. “A lot of the masa are falling in love with rehashed versions of songs they heard 20 years ago. Beyond government trying to help the arts, they should really start by fixing up the educational system in the country. Maybe then, magbabago yung way of thinking ng mga tao.”

Esquire editor in chief Erwin Romulo moderates the Music Now forum

Meier-Albano tries to bridge the gap in relation to filling the void of hip-hop journalism in the country, “We find ways. We’re a creative nation, a creative people. That sort of resourcefulness has to be applied in anything that we’re passionate about. As hip-hop journalists, we can create bridges from the artists to the media, to the people, to the corporations and brand managers.”

Think Tourism And Education

Despite OPM’s rapidly changing landscape, all is not lost. Valenciano shares, “I believe that the best export of the Philippines is still the Filipino musician.” In fact, this writer believes that if we could only pay off our national debt with talent and talent alone, we would’ve been in the black a long time ago. She continues that artists are essentially brands and have to be promoted accordingly. “But they are brands with heart. I encourage everyone to think tourism-wise.” She also commended the government for the direction they’ve taked in abolishing the entertainment tax which was a great relief to the industry, and also for appointing Mon Jimenez, a top advertising executive, to head the Department of Tourism.

Alvarez gamely relates, “I’ve been exposed to K-Pop for quite some time now (via MYX). And I found out that management groups that run K-Pop artists get grants from the government. I-pu-push nila para sumikat ng husto yung singer, i-pa-package nila nang maayos. And then when it’s payback time for tourism, K-Pop groups actually volunteer their services to promote Korea as a tourist destination. Such that when Super Junior and Girls’ Generation get together, they have a song called Seoul and it’s about as commercial as it can get.” In the way that Korea was able to engineer its music to serve its purpose, OPM is now approaching a similar window of opportunity for re-growth.

Whether it’s Pinoy hip-hop, house music, rock ‘n’ roll, or OPM in general, it’s fair to assume, as reiterated in the forum, that the music industry is nowhere near dead. In fact, Alvarez stresses, “It’s not dead in how we define the industry today but it’s probably dead in how we defined the industry 10 years ago.” Maybe the old rules just don’t apply anymore. Perhaps the standards by which we measure the industry’s success are no longer relevant. Certainly, the industry is evolving. As Alvarez noted, “We just need to get our act together and really push for something that will be worthwhile.” Reyes ends, “The industry is just going through a system shift. It’s scary but it’s also very exciting.”

What was the last great OPM song/album that you heard?

Ricky Ilacad: The last, biggest-selling OPM album that I was able to do was “Nina Live” which sold over 200,000 units which was diamond. That was the last.

Lizza Nakpil: As far as Wolfgang is concerned, we’ve had the privilege to have our own independent label. And our last album was consistently on the record charts.

Sarah Meier-Albano: In terms of the genre that I love, I know I miss Francis M dearly but I’m going to have to say Kulay. To seal that Pepsi commercial, to hit the Billboard UK charts, to revolutionize the music video in a perception of music in that sense.

Angeli Valenciano: Whenever You Called, which is a song that he wrote. Nobody knows about it, but it’s a great song.

Raymond Marasigan: If I’m not mistaken, the song is called Halik (by Kamikazee) — yun yung magpapatuloy ng daloy ng alon.

Manolet Dario: Betamax.

Francis Reyes: Ang Huling El Bimbo. It just makes me cry. And Di Bale Na Lang.

Andre Alvarez: The last OPM track that really struck me was Yugto by Rico Blanco.