music- a different take

A lot of igorots have been uploading their videos to the internet, presumably to showcase the igoy's talent in music. Some of the performances are nice- one might even say that these musicians could easily find success in the national music arena, given the proper exposure. Still, some of the videos were probably uploaded just for the fun of it, or maybe to simply show to outsiders that igoys can rock, too. Or yodel. Or go country. Or for whatever reason… The problem with this is that if the aim of the igorot musician is to Hit It Big in the music industry, we, igoys are simply far behind, not only in terms of the technology that goes along with the music which we are trying hard to copy- think of the jumbo jet that the band Metallica had to charter(?)(Maybe, they owned the jet. I’m not sure) just for their musical instruments when they came to the Philippines for a concert, (although if one has got talent, a simple acoustic guitar will do)- but also, the kind of music which we try hard to duplicate is simply not us. Whether we like it or not, the best Benguet country singer will never find a solid niche in the national music scene or if he did, he will always be considered a poor copy of the original. Sure, we can pretend to be cowboys, but we won’t reach beyond the boundaries of Baguio. Of course, music transcends race, color, language, economic status or whatever differences humans have with their fellow humans but I would like to think that the transcendence is merely in the enjoyment or the appreciation of the sound. Whites get entertained by the black man's music and vice versa. But as I mentioned, igoy country singers won't have a chance when pitted against the likes of Alan Jackson, Keith Urban, etc. Competition for recognition in the United States is stiff for that matter. We only need to watch tv or read magazines to learn or realize that thousands of country musicians never get their music to be heard past their own neighborhoods and the same thing goes for the other music genres. But the beauty in all these is that we, Cordillerans, have our own brand of musical entertainment. Maybe, our music would have to be reconfigured to suit a broader audience but, I’m sure that if we did it right, it will lead our musicians to higher ground, or break barriers, or go beyond borders, as a South African band- Ladysmith Black Mambazo has accomplished. I have downloaded from YouTube some performances by this band which has enjoyed popularity, not only in Africa but outside of it. They have performed with the Corrs, went for concerts in the US, appeared as guests in popular tv shows, etc., etc. This band demonstrates how sticking to one’s roots could eventually spell out tremendous growth and success. Watch them perform and you’ll see what I mean.


One video should be enough to illustrate the point but the next one really reminds me of the Kalinga students who I went to school with in the middle 80s. They performed an "exercise song" during the evening programs of our school's foundation's celebrations and I think that if they performed together with Mambazo in a single venue, no group will be upstaged. The level of talent should be almost the same.