K-Poppin

A few days ago I was watching a local music channel. The program was a top 20 countdown show and shows the 20-2 recap and I noticed a lot of them were foreign and non-English songs. Then they show the number one song for the week voted locally by a lot of fans, behold,  another non-English song performed by a K-Pop group.

K-Pop, or Korean pop is a music genre, just like in the 80s say, where boys and girls look the same. They are popular, probably in their prime. I think the K-Pop and obsession with everything Korean began during the height of Meteor Garden, those F4 guys and that 5566 group, so on and so forth.

The only thing I don’t understand is why the K-Pop is so darn popular. They sound catchy and danceable but 95% of the lyrics is in their native language which obviously a lot of us cannot understand. I think the only words that you can understand are love, heart and more love. Its like the boyband invasion of late 90s all over again, but this time, we cannot understand them.

Then we got a chunk of scary fans, their own fantards, remember not all of them, just a chunk of them, probably more than 50%. They dress like them, wearing fur and other bondage looking outfits, singing their favorite K-Pop songs even they have really no idea what the lyrics were. They might saying bad words about you or something they will eat you while you are sleeping  and you still don’t grasp it because the music sounds good.

Locally, some music executive cashes in with the K-Pop popularity and invents what he or she calls P-Pop, or Pinoy Pop. Hoping to fork more cash by emulating what does a lot of K-Pop does but the advantage is they are local countrymen and we can understand their lyrics. Covered with ridiculous amount of make up that makes Death from Bill and Ted cry in envy and make them look more oriental as possible, with a little hint of  skin retouching here and there. Alas, we got a localized K-Pop known as P-Pop but sounds like K-Pop but we can understand the lyrics which consists of love, heart and more love because they are P-Pop. I think the P-Pop approach failed horribly because I only saw one P-Pop group and already disappeared in obscurity.

Admittedly, the main background music of the most K-Pop songs are good. I actually wish that they remove all the non-English singing parts of the song and just keep the background music, especially the one that sounds like a slow pace electronica music. Even that over abused Nobody song from the Wondergirls, if you managed to ditch all the singing part, will sound better I guarantee you that. The musicians behind the main music do a better job than the real singers.

In the end one of the things that bothered me is sometimes, with all their manufactured glory, I can’t tell if the singers are male or female. I am not an all the way against K-Pop and other similar counterparts, but come on, there are other musicians that are good, looks decent and does not look like slapped together by a fat music executive.

Yup, its different strokes for different folks so I have no right to preach them but I can tell that in few months or even years time, they will say “Oh man, K-Pop sucks, I never knew there are other musicians out there that are good… and whats this? I can understand the lyrics? all those wasted years….ALL THOSE WASTED YEARS!!”

Musicshit

I like music, I love music, music makes me calm, music entertains me. I even mix some sound loops to create electronica sounding music back then and I always turn on the radio whenever I go to work or head home.

Still, there are a lot of music genres and variations that should be destroyed or have the original master copy of that music shove up to the original creator’s body part where the sun does not shine. This is the music genre, crappy variations and other related stuff that I hate…. I really hate… I REALLY HATE.

Remixing songs that should not be remixed in the first place
I like listening to electronica music but when some dick starts mixing songs that are really not for an upbeat tempo, it tend to suck. I remember downloading a Texas song called Say What You Want but what I got, most of them were remixed versions that does not sound right. Here we have a nice slow song but a bunch of annoying beeps and bops intertwine between choruses. Who have thought that slow, awful but memorable My Heart Will Go On by Celine Dion will be remixed by an asshole who wants to remix everything for the sake of… remixing everything? that awful song became more awful.

Novelty songs for the masses
Again, the unnecessary abuse of beeps and bops with ridiculous lyrics written by someone who is probably taking a dump in his company office while writing the damn lyrics, will not make a great sounding music. It is obviously for the masses and it takes away all the hardships for them while listening to it. Unfortunately for me, I endured it for many years, whenever I commute to college and later to work. Buses, FX and jeepneys has an insane fetish with novelty songs. I think most of them probably hate the music but they need the upbeat music to keep them awake while driving in the hellish roads of Manila.

Overuse of chorus with stupid lyrics
“tonight’s gonna be a good night, tonight’s gonna be a good night, YADA YADA YADA, tonight’s gonna be a good night” They are popular, they are everywhere, you probably hear it at least once a day. This is the popular songs with terrible choruses which consists of one to three phrases, although they will insert a few regular lyrics somewhere in between. The bottom line is it is annoying repetitive. They should balance the lyrics properly, and the writing should be better. The beats, the melody and the music itself may sound good but for the love of god have a better lyrics and balance the order of lyrics.

Emo music
Too bad for you if your significant other ditched you for that bonafide asshole and you write and sing your songs with your bird’s nest hair and black colored nails. Emo music is mostly associated with rock music, but please if you are going to do what you written on your songs like jump and do a suicide dive somewhere, well do it if that’s what you want, I am not stopping you. Get the emo out of my rock music.

Most of the current popular singers songs in an album are revivals
Local talents here, usually seen in either ASAP or SOP, are downright talented, no doubt about that, their voices can kick anyone’s ass on American Idol. Sad thing is, most of their materials seen and hear are mostly revivals. 90% of time they will sing something you probably heard when you were just wearing a sando and shorts playing around the house while your father is listening to that old radio with a rotating knob for controls. They released their albums and most of the tracks are revivals and only a handful of original tracks. This artists should venture to higher levels and have more original tracks, better if the new materials were mostly written by them.

Music entertains, not to be a haven for assholes who uses music to be assholes, well except for the talented ones who are in need to have new and original materials.

Musikmusikahan

“Exit light, Enter night, Take my hand, Off to never, never land” and “She’s got a smile that it seems to me, reminds me of childhood memories”. Memories are probably the right words for this. If you don’t know what the italicized words are and I must say, you suck. Nah, I am just kidding, so don’t be an eager 12-year-old that get offended online immediately and starts sending hate mails. The first line came from a classic awesome song called Enter Sandman by one of the slightly late to be crowned as almighty Gods of Rock, Metallica. The other one came from one of the most influential rock bands in history, wherein they are still confused if they are an 80s or a 90s rock band, called Guns and Roses, and the song is called Sweet Child O Mine. And these 2 songs, ladies and gentlemen, were my first 2 songs that I got hooked with music, especially with anything that involves someone singing, someone doing the lead and rhythm guitar work, some person hitting the bass and lastly, some guy or gal hitting all kinds of drums.

Back in the 80s and early 90s, I really don’t have interest with any kind of music, well except for the good old 80s cartoon theme songs like the Real Ghostbusters, Superted, GI Joe, Transformers and other 80s animation goodness. During my grade two days, our old driver introduced me to these 2 bands, by playing them in the cars stereo whenever he brings me to the school. I don’t mind listening to them, but in just a week, I am humming and singing them already and among these 2 album only 2 songs stand out and they were the Enter Sandman and Sweet Child O Mine. I even sing the chorus, well not too loud, but probably can be heard 2 people in my right, while answering post test and mastery exams. These 2 songs, it just doesn’t get out of my mind, I just love those 2 songs.

While growing up in the early 90s as an elementary student, one of my classmates introduced me to other bands, especially the grunge and local bands. They said that both Metallica and Guns and Roses are already past their prime and suggested to listen to other bands. From that point I got hooked listening to bands like Nirvana, Eraserheads, Foo Fighters, Presidents of the USA, Beck, Rivermaya, The Cure, Stone Temple Pilots, REM and more. My classmate had a lot of Cassette tapes; I borrowed, listen the cassettes later to our car stereo everyday while heading to the school. After I return the tapes to my classmates, I immediately buy my own copies, talk about an analog version of listening to music samples before buying the real deal, all this before the internet and digital sample downloads were introduced.

Before MP3s, I-Pod and IPot the pirated I-Pod, there were cassette tapes. There were older audio medium like Vinyl and other alternatives like audio CDs, but this medium, back then, is cheaper and easier to access, it’s everywhere. There were no P2P system, file sharing boards, even the whole internet thing does not exist yet in mainstream. You can only get your music fix in 2 ways, if you have a lot of money, go buy the superior CD format. If your income source is the allowance you receive for school, you buy the cassette format. Believe it or not, cassette tapes have “pirated” versions. Audio CDs can easily reproduce unlike with Cassette tapes, wherein the copy and paste method is not as easy as the way they do with the CDs. Instead, they get blank tapes, find the minus one version of the song and I don’t know how they do it and have someone sing the song and record it using a regular tape deck, manually. Later, have it placed in a colorful, plastic case and have it displayed for selling in a stall, somewhere in Manila. The background music is authentic, the singing part is not the real deal.

Speaking of cassette tapes, my cassette tape collection starts growing in numbers and I want to play it all. Like I said, digital audio players do not exist in mainstream market yet, and I didn’t have my own computer to play music till 1998. The only times I listened to my cassettes is through an old component with a couple of busted speakers and our car’s tape deck. I want to have a portable kind of player, to play my cassettes; I want my music, while walking around. Sony gave us one of the most innovative and awesome equipment ever, the walkman.

The Walkman was introduced back in the 1972; the concept was originally conceived by Andreas Pavel and the device was referred as Stereobelt. Later Sony, created their version of the portable audio player, called as we know it as the Walkman, by Nobutoshi Kihara. Sony was recognized by the public as the one who really invented such gadget, but after lengthy court battles between Sony and Pavel, it all decided in 2003. Sony, in the end, finally acknowledge Andreas Pavel is the inventor of portable music player, the grandfather of every portable music players that exists today, including the IPot music player, which can be found in various malls, wet markets and street vendors.

I never had a Walkman, I always borrow the walkman from my classmate, a rich bastard. Back then if you have a Gameboy, you are a God; if you have a Gamegear, you are a God; if you have a Game and Watch, you are the almighty nostalgic awesomeness; but if you have a Walkman, you are the almighty nostalgic awesomeness of a God, even if you only borrowed the darn thing.

When I entered high school, I still collect new albums of my favorite bands, especially the best local rock triumvirate, Parokya ni Edgar, Rivermaya and of course, the Eraserheads. Me and my old high school buddies, planned to have our own band, with numerous names like the Nocturnal Frolic (hmmm) and the awful Masamang Kuyukots, but it was just a plan and we didn’t actually go forward with it.

Sophomore year, a classmate of mine introduced me to Ghetto Doggs, a local “Gangsta” hip hop group spearheaded by Andrew E. I am not actually into Hip Hop, except for early 90s hip hop acts that I later appreciated thanks to Grand Theft Auto San Andreas, but my classmate insisted to try it. He handed me the cassette, called Ghetto Doggs: Born to Kill the Devil, with a black colored insert. I think I only played it after 2 weeks and just like what I expected, just a bunch of local language swearing, declaring war to everything evil. Days later, I still keep on playing the tape, from Side A and B, I got drawn to the album, I got interested with local hip hop. Later, I went to SM, checked for a local hip hop compilation and I found Rapratan. Here I was oriented with local underground acts like Chinese Mafia, Death Threat, BB Clan and El Latino. The whole year, I primarily listened to local hip hop acts like Madd Poets, IPK, HiJakkk Gloc 9, Rapskallion and more but I later realized that my sudden interests with local hip hop music is only temporary. Still kudos for that old classmate of mine, who is now a bassist of a band, who introduced me the other side of Filipino music.

1998, MTV Asia played a commercial to advertise their new compilation album called MTV Alternative Nation 2. That album, which I immediately purchased, got me reacquainted with my favorite music genre of all, Rock and Roll, in any sub genre. The channel also played another ad for another alternative album called Fresh, which I also acquired immediately. Those albums introduced me to a lot of memorable songs and bands that I still play to my I-Tunes at the office till to this day. Acts like Semisonic, Texas and Beck introduced me to good music and rediscovering past favorites like Blur, Oasis, Suede, Third Eye Blind, Offspring, Green Day and Radiohead.

From that point, I am really quite comfortable with alternative music till today, but since rock has a lot of sub genres, new rock concepts emerged like Nu-Metal or plain rap metal, which had their heydays in 1999 and 2000. Nu-Metal bands like Korn, Limp Bizkit and Deftones paved their way to the new generation of rock fans. We had our local counterparts as well like Greyhoundz, Cheese (now Quezo), Slapshock, Glitch and Chico Science (Chicosci). Good thing is, after the fall of the Nu-Metal concept and another new bunch of bands emerges with different music, the bands from the Rap Metal era manage to survive and introduce fresh sounds to their audience. Many argue that the Nu-Metal bands will be just like what the large sum of new musicians suffered, being labeled as one hit wonders, but I beg to differ, these bands are still here and playing for you because they know how to evolve their music.

College days, with the easy accessibility of pirated audio CDs and MP3s thanks to the genesis of P2P, the Napster, I finally had a chance to hear other unknown songs and bands, both local and foreign. Just in front of the campus lies a haven for everything pirated, including food products, the University Mall. Here almost every stall has pirated audio CDs for sale and here I found numerous bands that I still listen to this day, like Vertical Horizon, Lifehouse, Disturbed, Sandwich, Radioactive Sago Project, Everclear and more.

Later, a classmate of mine, a dance crazed dude, introduced me to Electronica music genre, especially the “House” and “Drum N Bass” kind. At first I only got partially interested since I thought Electronica sound like everything you hear in the Yes FM or Love Radio, with all those crappy upbeat novelty songs, but I was wrong, it was different, it was pleasant to the ears, even with the loud bass thumping and having repetitive beat, but I still love it. I easily get in touched with this genre and co-exist perfectly with my rock music addiction. After having addicted as well to Electronica music in which to the point that I am subtly humming the basic House music that goes “doog tss doog tss doog tss”. Conveniently, another college buddy of mine introduce me to a loop music creation software called the Sonic Foundry Acid series. This awesome and user-friendly software enables you to create original music mixes by combining any kind of sound loops, which you can acquire from purchasing loop packs or recording samples manually. Having my own Acid copy and a bunch of sound loop packs CD later, I became a somewhat Electronica musician known as Ma_Nine, buts that’s another story, but you can listen to my selected mixes at http://manueve.multiply.com/music.

Today, Rock and Electronica music are primarily my favorite 2 genres, but still I listen to other kinds like R & B, Jazz, Pop and hip hop. I just love music, plain and simple, delivered by real artists, with talent, and not the ones manufactured by assholes in the recording industry. Still, there are a lot of untalented piece of monkey feces plaguing our airwaves, I just hope unsigned musicians will be recognized immediately by the public, and I want to listen to them. Why do I want to listen? I just want to listen and absorb good music, that’s it.