(Author's Note: I wrote this essay sometime in late December 2009, hence the "Happy New Year" greetings)
Everybody loves Eraserheads.
Well, not really everybody, but most musically sensible Filipinos surely do. God knows how their reunion concert turned out to be a big and successful one, and more delightful is how their “Final Set” songs found their way to PC’s and MP3 players, entertaining folks from the 90’s and beyond.
Everybody misses Eraserheads at least, and the 90’s music scene at most.
Unfortunately, not all 90’s bands savored the same splash of reverence as that of Eraserheads. Some got reunited but did not receive the kind of reception that they deserve, like After Image and Wolfgang. Some have lost their former musical prowess to the mediocrity syndrome of the ultra-mainstream dimensions, best heard in True Faith’s “Dahil Ikaw” exhibiting cliché lyrics at its worst. Rivermaya, another legendary 90’s band, is experiencing a huge headache with their former manager Lizza Nakpil not allowing them to use the name Rivermaya for she has asserted countless times that she IS Rivermaya (okay fine, eh ‘di tumugtog siya mag-isa!), rendering the band practically incapable of getting booked for gigs. And there are countless others who, by pure musical valour I must say, chose to remain standing tall; fine examples would be The Dawn, Parokya ni Edgar, Razorback, and Slapshock among others.
Yup, everybody loves and misses Eraserheads. But you see, the 90’s music scene has a lot of things to boast way beyond Eraserheads. It is something that we, the 90’s folks and the younger generation alike, suddenly craved for during this past decade of musical famine (2000-2009).
Towering instrumentalist standards
There was this one astonishing and somehow disdainful opinion so popular among professional guitarists during the 90’s: Marcus Adoro of Eraserheads was actually one of the worst guitarists at that time!
Whoa! Fast-forward to 2010, say that again and you’ll have to endure a barrage of flying rotten tomatoes for blasphemy! Booo!
But rudeness aside, it reflects the towering standards guiding the music scene of the 90’s. The singing drunkards of the street, self-taught in the art of romancing the acoustic guitar while waiting for their next shot, have already mastered every Eraserheads song that you can name.
And that being the case, the aim of a typical 90’s guitarist was to be more than just an intoxicated slave of the guitar. Same thing goes with the drummers and bassists. For all we know, the 90’s produced the top guitarists (e.g. Perf de Castro, Manuel Legarda, Tirso Ripoll, David Aguirre, Francis Reyes, etc.), bassists (Louie Talan, Buddy Zabala, Nathan Azarcon, Buhawi Meneses, Mon Legaspi, etc.) and drummers (Raymund Marasigan, Wendell Garcia, Harley Alarcon, Zach Lucero, Robert dela Cruz, etc.). The instrumentalists’ aspiration then was to make their instruments partake in the sacrament of musical expression, contrary to today’s conventional practice of confining the instruments to the rhythm section, providing trivial accompaniment to whoever pretty face is on the mic.
How often do you hear guitar solos nowadays? Surprisingly, it is now more often for me to hear guitar solos in drinking sessions than in local rock gigs.
Fads, fads, and more fads
Eraserheads got critics, no doubt about it. They got a lot actually. Same thing goes with popular bands Rivermaya and Parokya ni Edgar. But no matter how strong these critics express their disapproval, the motive is always clear and noble: we must never let any fad get in the way of the growth of the music scene, especially in the identified areas of improvement.
Yet for some reasons, the great anti-fad spirit of the 90’s faded away when the new millennium arrived. All of a sudden, everyone was listening to Linkin Park, even those who used to label themselves as full-pledged critics of rock and hip hop music! I do not have anything against Linkin Park, I have to agree that it is such a very good band, but it already came to the point that even the most musically naïve segments of the society suddenly became self-proclaimed die hard rap metal fans, yet they refuse to listen to other equally proficient rap metal bands like Incubus and Rage Against the Machine!
And the funny thing is these Linkin Park fans have only one Linkin Park CD in their rack: Hybrid Theory. Because in 2003, a year before “Meteora” got released, these very same Linkin Park fans would not listen to Linkin Park anymore. They would instead listen to F4!
Oh, wait a minute, from Linkin Park to F4!? What a shift!
And the shift does not end there. Paolo Santos saved the day by showing everyone the moving and mellow force of an unplugged guitar. It gave birth to the acoustic fad, which virtually became a contest of coming up with the best version of “Overjoyed” by Stevie Wonder. If Paolo Santos saved the day, Lito Camo ruined it through his stupid “novelty” songs that murdered the Filipino language (“matandá” became “matánda” and “gumíling” became “gumilíng”). Good thing Lito Camo’s junk music died a natural death. And years later, my good friend Sitti was able to catch some attention with her samba and bossa nova music. And yet voila, bossa nova singers sprouted here, there and everywhere like wild mushrooms; even Agot Isidro came up with a bossa nova album. Jeez!
And now the bossa nova fad has declined, where have these Linkin Park fans gone? What are they doing now? Reading the Twilight saga and watching its overrated silver screen adaptations!?
Don’t they still have a sense of musical identity after all these years?
Musical identity and sense of ethics
A friend commented that the secret behind Eraserheads is Ely’s songwriting skills. It is Ely’s talent to come up with an original material that has created the unique sound of the band. They may not be technically proficient, but Ely’s musical composition prowess has proven itself to be one of Eraserheads' ticket to fame. Eraserheads is not just a name of a rock band anymore. It has become a musical identity.
Isn’t it on the very grounds of musical identity that a band becomes either famous or infamous? Radioactive Sago Project, Sino Sikat, and Pinikpikan are among the bands that gained the reverence of the music scene due to their musical identity. On the other hand, Orange and Lemons, Cueshe, and Six Cycle Mind are among the bands that became infamous due to plagiarism issues.
But who’s getting the upper hand in the commercial sense? Who gets the wow of the masses? Go approach a common folk out there and ask him if he/she knows Sino Sikat (no puns intended). Probably not, and if the person does he/she must be a music aficionado. But for Six Cycle Mind, who stole melodies from Parokya ni Edgar’s “Don’t Touch My Birdie” and Moonstar88’s “Torete” to create their song “Sige”, they don’t only get regular airplay, but they also became commercial model of Tanduay, with Katrina Halili shaking her hips! Darn!
Not only did we lose our musical identity, but we also lost our sense of ethics in choosing the musicians that should get the spotlight.
New Year, new start (hopefully)
Our present longing for Eraserheads and their music says a lot about our subconscious musical sentiments.
It just shows how much we need them back, or at the very least how much we need musicians that are of equal aptitude and attitude as Eraserheads, for from the year 2000 to 2009, we endured a decade of musical crisis so to speak.
We have now entered not just a new year but also a new decade. As you know, contemporary music periods are now being referred to by decades, like the new wave fever of the 80’s for example. So I think it is proper to say that we have now entered a new musical period, and I deeply hope that this new period will see the new start for the local music scene.
Let’s start this new period right. We cannot kick it off beautifully by again being copycats and imitating Eraserheads. Instead of imitating Eraserheads, let us emulate them. That means we must embed within us the musical virtues practiced by Eraserheads and the 90's music scene as a whole: an intact sense of musical identity and ethics as propelled by a daring mind and an honest heart, shattering all forms of mediocrity and stereotype blandness that the marketing despots of popular culture have always forced into our very concept of entertainment.
Happy New Year everyone!
(Click here to view photo source)
Well, not really everybody, but most musically sensible Filipinos surely do. God knows how their reunion concert turned out to be a big and successful one, and more delightful is how their “Final Set” songs found their way to PC’s and MP3 players, entertaining folks from the 90’s and beyond.
Everybody misses Eraserheads at least, and the 90’s music scene at most.
Unfortunately, not all 90’s bands savored the same splash of reverence as that of Eraserheads. Some got reunited but did not receive the kind of reception that they deserve, like After Image and Wolfgang. Some have lost their former musical prowess to the mediocrity syndrome of the ultra-mainstream dimensions, best heard in True Faith’s “Dahil Ikaw” exhibiting cliché lyrics at its worst. Rivermaya, another legendary 90’s band, is experiencing a huge headache with their former manager Lizza Nakpil not allowing them to use the name Rivermaya for she has asserted countless times that she IS Rivermaya (okay fine, eh ‘di tumugtog siya mag-isa!), rendering the band practically incapable of getting booked for gigs. And there are countless others who, by pure musical valour I must say, chose to remain standing tall; fine examples would be The Dawn, Parokya ni Edgar, Razorback, and Slapshock among others.
Yup, everybody loves and misses Eraserheads. But you see, the 90’s music scene has a lot of things to boast way beyond Eraserheads. It is something that we, the 90’s folks and the younger generation alike, suddenly craved for during this past decade of musical famine (2000-2009).
Towering instrumentalist standards
There was this one astonishing and somehow disdainful opinion so popular among professional guitarists during the 90’s: Marcus Adoro of Eraserheads was actually one of the worst guitarists at that time!
Whoa! Fast-forward to 2010, say that again and you’ll have to endure a barrage of flying rotten tomatoes for blasphemy! Booo!
But rudeness aside, it reflects the towering standards guiding the music scene of the 90’s. The singing drunkards of the street, self-taught in the art of romancing the acoustic guitar while waiting for their next shot, have already mastered every Eraserheads song that you can name.
And that being the case, the aim of a typical 90’s guitarist was to be more than just an intoxicated slave of the guitar. Same thing goes with the drummers and bassists. For all we know, the 90’s produced the top guitarists (e.g. Perf de Castro, Manuel Legarda, Tirso Ripoll, David Aguirre, Francis Reyes, etc.), bassists (Louie Talan, Buddy Zabala, Nathan Azarcon, Buhawi Meneses, Mon Legaspi, etc.) and drummers (Raymund Marasigan, Wendell Garcia, Harley Alarcon, Zach Lucero, Robert dela Cruz, etc.). The instrumentalists’ aspiration then was to make their instruments partake in the sacrament of musical expression, contrary to today’s conventional practice of confining the instruments to the rhythm section, providing trivial accompaniment to whoever pretty face is on the mic.
How often do you hear guitar solos nowadays? Surprisingly, it is now more often for me to hear guitar solos in drinking sessions than in local rock gigs.
Fads, fads, and more fads
Eraserheads got critics, no doubt about it. They got a lot actually. Same thing goes with popular bands Rivermaya and Parokya ni Edgar. But no matter how strong these critics express their disapproval, the motive is always clear and noble: we must never let any fad get in the way of the growth of the music scene, especially in the identified areas of improvement.
Yet for some reasons, the great anti-fad spirit of the 90’s faded away when the new millennium arrived. All of a sudden, everyone was listening to Linkin Park, even those who used to label themselves as full-pledged critics of rock and hip hop music! I do not have anything against Linkin Park, I have to agree that it is such a very good band, but it already came to the point that even the most musically naïve segments of the society suddenly became self-proclaimed die hard rap metal fans, yet they refuse to listen to other equally proficient rap metal bands like Incubus and Rage Against the Machine!
And the funny thing is these Linkin Park fans have only one Linkin Park CD in their rack: Hybrid Theory. Because in 2003, a year before “Meteora” got released, these very same Linkin Park fans would not listen to Linkin Park anymore. They would instead listen to F4!
Oh, wait a minute, from Linkin Park to F4!? What a shift!
And the shift does not end there. Paolo Santos saved the day by showing everyone the moving and mellow force of an unplugged guitar. It gave birth to the acoustic fad, which virtually became a contest of coming up with the best version of “Overjoyed” by Stevie Wonder. If Paolo Santos saved the day, Lito Camo ruined it through his stupid “novelty” songs that murdered the Filipino language (“matandá” became “matánda” and “gumíling” became “gumilíng”). Good thing Lito Camo’s junk music died a natural death. And years later, my good friend Sitti was able to catch some attention with her samba and bossa nova music. And yet voila, bossa nova singers sprouted here, there and everywhere like wild mushrooms; even Agot Isidro came up with a bossa nova album. Jeez!
And now the bossa nova fad has declined, where have these Linkin Park fans gone? What are they doing now? Reading the Twilight saga and watching its overrated silver screen adaptations!?
Don’t they still have a sense of musical identity after all these years?
Musical identity and sense of ethics
A friend commented that the secret behind Eraserheads is Ely’s songwriting skills. It is Ely’s talent to come up with an original material that has created the unique sound of the band. They may not be technically proficient, but Ely’s musical composition prowess has proven itself to be one of Eraserheads' ticket to fame. Eraserheads is not just a name of a rock band anymore. It has become a musical identity.
Isn’t it on the very grounds of musical identity that a band becomes either famous or infamous? Radioactive Sago Project, Sino Sikat, and Pinikpikan are among the bands that gained the reverence of the music scene due to their musical identity. On the other hand, Orange and Lemons, Cueshe, and Six Cycle Mind are among the bands that became infamous due to plagiarism issues.
But who’s getting the upper hand in the commercial sense? Who gets the wow of the masses? Go approach a common folk out there and ask him if he/she knows Sino Sikat (no puns intended). Probably not, and if the person does he/she must be a music aficionado. But for Six Cycle Mind, who stole melodies from Parokya ni Edgar’s “Don’t Touch My Birdie” and Moonstar88’s “Torete” to create their song “Sige”, they don’t only get regular airplay, but they also became commercial model of Tanduay, with Katrina Halili shaking her hips! Darn!
Not only did we lose our musical identity, but we also lost our sense of ethics in choosing the musicians that should get the spotlight.
New Year, new start (hopefully)
Our present longing for Eraserheads and their music says a lot about our subconscious musical sentiments.
It just shows how much we need them back, or at the very least how much we need musicians that are of equal aptitude and attitude as Eraserheads, for from the year 2000 to 2009, we endured a decade of musical crisis so to speak.
We have now entered not just a new year but also a new decade. As you know, contemporary music periods are now being referred to by decades, like the new wave fever of the 80’s for example. So I think it is proper to say that we have now entered a new musical period, and I deeply hope that this new period will see the new start for the local music scene.
Let’s start this new period right. We cannot kick it off beautifully by again being copycats and imitating Eraserheads. Instead of imitating Eraserheads, let us emulate them. That means we must embed within us the musical virtues practiced by Eraserheads and the 90's music scene as a whole: an intact sense of musical identity and ethics as propelled by a daring mind and an honest heart, shattering all forms of mediocrity and stereotype blandness that the marketing despots of popular culture have always forced into our very concept of entertainment.
Happy New Year everyone!
(Click here to view photo source)
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