Monday, November 10, 2008

Archipelago Music: Bringing together the nation's finest

by Ryan Macalandag

It is interesting to know, folks, that there are a few other brave bands, musicians and rockers somewhere else in the provincial corners of the Philippines belting, raving, chanting or rocking it out like crazy and super astig. We just haven't heard of them. I doubt if more than 20 non-Boholanos had even heard of our own BU Rock records.

Enter ARCHIPELAGO MUSIC.

Archipelago Music website

Bitaw, as written in one of the Archipelago's articles, OPM or original Pilipino music has been bastardized by the music biz. Supposedly, a song ain't OPM if it's not in English or Tagalog, and it should - more importantly - be commercially viable. The music industry is a business after all. Thus, all the other songs written in Bisaya, Kapampangan, Ilocano or whatever else, are just plain "ethnic novelty songs" bisan pa ug mas nindut pa sa kang Ogie Alcasid, Sharon Cuneta or Zsa Zsa Padilla.

Shame. It makes Yoyoy quiver and roll in his grave, "Unsa diay ko, dili ko Pinoy? Ako man gani gakanta sa Philippine History!". Budoy would assume na lang that he is the "Original Sigbin" 'coz he can't be OPM.

Pero wala na ta'y mabuhat ana. Thus, Achipelago Music proposes to put together a website dedicated to the regional bands and musicians to promote original pinoy music written in words other than English or Tagalog. The website features bands, artists and industry-related articles.

One cool feature of the Archipelago website is an IMEEM player with a running playlist of different regional bands. Astig. I'm hoping one of our BU Rock bands can submit their songs to Archipelago Music for inclusion in the playlist.

Missing Filemon Featured

Everyone probably knows Missing Filemon with their numerous Bisaya hits like "Sine-sine" or "Suroy-suroy". They are currently featured at Archipelago complete with their band profile and a music video to top it.

Go visit Archipelago Music now.

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