Westernization of OPM Rock - intro

the westernization issue that i presented is definitely a prevailing topic that concerned local artists are trying to pinpoint and make a stand on.

a staunch critic is jim paredes, whose interview for am-tv that i was able to watch where he gives a detailed outlook on the status of opm today. i am echoing a lot of views that he presented that i can still recall (this serves as an acknowledgement for his ideas that came out in my previous entry). i wish i will be able to interview him and get his views regarding opm westernization as a whole. i believe he was talking more about the song revivals of foreign music by our local singers/performers (not artists, mind you!). i believe he didn't name drop, so i'm doing it here. when was the last time you heard martin nievera or gary valenciano or regine velasquez released an all-original opm album?

that perspective can be likened to OPM rock. but this is a tricky inquiry because the whole idea of Original Pilipino Music Rock must be put into definition, and i admit i do not have that kind of present study yet.

the whole definition can be tackled this way, can we say that there is a definition for a real OPM rock? or is it that rock music is a universal theme and all the local rock bands which release rock songs are derivatives from that universal rock theme? or is it that the derivatives we make from that universal rock theme can be called our own?

with regards to that comes the question, are the juan dela cruz band, asin, plus other rock bands from the 70's the truest OPM rock?

this type of inquiry came out when the question of "what are your musical influences?" is asked. our local bands will definitely say FOREIGN acts as influences.

listening to the emerging acts from the local band scene, parallels on popular international/foreign bands can immediately be identified. can this be already classified as westernization?

is it that this inquiry is due to globalization? or are we american-brainwashed so long ago that it reflects in our music?

PS

i will tackle the english or tagalog songs' OPM-ness in a different entry.

parallel to filmmaking, a friend asked me why filipino movies always have slums on their context. can we not make films that shows the beauty of the islands? the thing is, i believe that our international acclaimed movie director that goes by the name of lino brocka showed this context of filipino movies and this has been the identity of our movies ever since, so deriving from this is a changing of directions for filipino films. the parallel is (if it exists), what is the identity of our opm rock? as shown by the identity of filipino films that attributes itself to the slums.

i just realized: i blog so that i can talk to myself.