The Rotting Solo Filipino Artists

My countrymen have always been known as music lovers. We are fond of gatherings, parties and special occasions and most of the time the indispensable videoke (or karaoke for some) is always present. Anyone who can sing the high notes are regarded as 'good singers', although this is not the only criteria that will earn a person a recording contract. Most of the songs performed on singing contests are usually what people generally call 'love songs'. Most of these are released during the '80s and '90s, while some have been playing in the radio stations for more than 3 decades. I do not claim to be an expert on such things or to have had the luxury of time to do a research, only that these observations are based on experience.

The current trend (and it has been going on for quite some time) in the Filipino music industry is to revive the old love songs. I do not know who started this but I remember M.Y.M.P. got me into this new trend. It is a great thing to try and remake some of the familiar songs and therefore would bridge the gap between different music generations. Bring the young and old together through music. However, as this trend progressed, everyone else stopped making original songs. What was worse is that majority of the songs being revived are foreign songs. Several local compositions have been remade but the bulk are English love songs. Even the movies released during this time go their titles from some of these songs. After maybe a year of listening to such songs, I never considered buying a Filipino album again.

I think they had some success at first but it became an excuse for artists who cannot compose songs to push their careers forward. Even those who can actually write started to ride this trend. I think this is why the Filipino music industry is a failure. I cannot say the same thing for Pinoy rock bands however because they have been successful for the past few years. I hope this infection does not get to them.

When Willie Revillame topped the charts it was no surprise to me. When K-pop music successfully invaded the country, it was not a news anymore. I do not blame if the majority of the listeners prefer new music even if the artists cannot sing as well as Rachel Ann Go or Erik Santos. Willie Revillame's voice is tolerable yet he sold more records than the self-proclaimed queens and kings of this, and princesses and princes of that.

Why call it Original Pinoy Music (OPM) when it is not original anymore? The more appropriate classification for those artists is 'Professional Videoke Singers'. And these same artists also sang the national anthem at some international events like they wanted to make the rest of the world hear the highest notes they can sing. So Martin Nievera, why are the K-pop artists more popular than you if you can sing so well?

As much as I would love to want to appreciate solo Filipino singers, I still think it is a waste of time, effort and money to listen to people who cannot give me anything new and worth listening to. It really does not matter if you can hit higher notes than the foreign artists than most Pinoys prefer. You don't have anything original. It does not matter if you won an international singing competition if your countrymen cannot remember your songs.