The Best and The Worst

I first came to The Philippines about 8 years ago for a whopping total of 1 night. I was meant to stay a lot longer by the promise of a potential business partner of the opportunities in Manila for the establishment of an international college.

That partnership never evolved because there was never a business opportunity to be had. But to be fair to him, I may have stayed as a courtesy a second night if it was not for the news the following morning that the TGI Friday's that I had dinner at the night prior had (about 1 hour after I had left) been destroyed by a passing motorcyclist who had thrown into the restaurant a couple of grenades. Perhaps a disgruntled customer but more likely the work of the New People's Army (http://www.philippinerevolution.net/cgi-bin/npa/pwb.pl), the armed group of the Communist Party that has been battling government troops and blowing up soft civilian targets here for the last 40 years. It is because of the NPA that a security guard shoved a stick into my popcorn, padded me down and made me walk through a metal detector before entering a cinema to watch Transporter 3.

I don't remember much of the trip given it was so short but I do remember the music at an open air bar I was taken to for drinks after the yummy deep fried meal at TGI's. The band, comprised solely of Filipino's, were fantastic and anyone who knows me knows I'm not really a fan of the live music scene. All covers of western singers, but truly better than the artists who originally performed the songs.

I have quickly come to learn during my crash course in the SE Asian music scene that the talent on display was by no means contained to that one bar 8 years ago. Filipino singers are remarkable, both because of their raw talent and the sheer number of them flooding every bar, restaurant and cafe in Tokyo, Bangkok, Singapore, Kuala Lumpar, Hong Kong, Jakarta and of course, here in Manila.

That's the best.....now for the worst.

Covers, covers, covers, covers and more covers. Or, to use the local parlance, revivals, revivals, revivals, revivals and more revivals. There is not one local artist on the top 10 list here whose album is not entirely comprised of covers. And not just covers of western artists, covers of local artists too. As explained to me by a half Chinese cousin of my beloved (meaning I could have half of a sensible and productive discussion), Filipino's are afflicted with a serious case of 'LSS', 'Last Song Syndrome.

Whereas we would normally condemn an artist who had made their name through never producing any original music, here it is celebrated.

And here in lies the problem of the failure by Filipino artists (with I hope the exception of one) to cross over into the West; singing Kenny Rogers' classics or a Tagalog love song from the 1980s just doesn't cut it with Generation Y.