His mother, a tailor who passed away when he was 13, began grooming him via in-home performances at age five. Some may call it luck, but Arnel was well-prepared for this opportunity. He insisted that his birthplace was “a big sponge that’s open to world music.” No stranger to smiling, he added, “We grew up breathing music, it’s in our veins.” Only a few days after his tryout, it was supernatural to witness this still unknown would-be star rock out in a random, smoky Manila bar.īefore Arnel was launched out of obscurity and into the world spotlight, the youthful, unassuming 40-year-old was armed only with standard Filipino politeness. He sat with me and explained that Journey’s guitarist admired his covers of the band’s hits on YouTube and flew him to California. I sat in the front row and introduced myself to Arnel between sets. Still hunting for the history behind the Filipino love of music, I was unaware that their irrepressible musicality was about to storm America until I caught wind that the iconic 1980’s rock band, Journey, had just auditioned a Filipino named Arnel Pineda as their new lead vocalist-and that same singer was fronting his Manila-based rock cover band, The Zoo, in a few hours. Modern Manila, a mega-city of 15 million, is traditional yet faddish, Asian in character, but Western in disposition. Turkey may have claimed the world’s “East Meets West” slogan, but it also justly describes the Philippines’s music scene. Hundreds of collectors’ guitars-mostly Gibsons-found permanent homes in the Philippines. American soldiers also left behind a legacy of vintage guitars. Base towns became hubs for live Western music, which inspired many to pick up a guitar and sing.
The Vietnam-era military bases needed entertaining, so Filipino rock, jazz, and lounge bands surfaced and thrived. Hollywood was also delivered to their doorstep. built schools in practically every village and taught the Filipino people English. While American-style signs of affection play out as pricey gifts, horse-drawn carriage rides, and scoreboard proposals-most American men sing to their women only to humor them-Filipinos still sing to theirs as if their futures depend on it.Īfter Spain’s rule gave way to American colonization, the U.S. Then, jukebox-style videoke began booming from street corners, bars, and malls. It overtook the Philippines and modernized the serenade. In the 1980s, karaoke was invented by a Filipino man and then sold to a Japanese investor. That birdlore vocabulary continues to bond men and women of the jungle. They imitated the singing of insects and birds and created a bird scale that mimics musical notation. Palawan’s indigenous lowland Aboriginals, the Tagbanuas, expressed feelings of love in singing poems inspired by the inexhaustible variety of sounds in nature. Music wriggled its way into the Philippine heart long before the Spanish towed in stone cannonballs and religion. by her eventual husband, who wasn’t put off by her underwhelming appearance at the window-her face at the time was encrusted with otherwise beautifying talcum powder. One of 7,017 Philippine islands, this is where I met Bing, a charming mother of five.
My musical mission first led me to sand-and-ungle fringed Palawan, a narrow 250-mile-long island bisected by an imposing spine of limestone mountains. Nearly every Filipino man I met born before 1960 had vivid recollections of serenading his eventual wife-or being shot down in flames. If she opens her window to listen and sings a song in response, he’s in if the window doesn’t budge, it’s off to voice lessons or another gal’s house. The Filipino serenade was inspired by the old-style Spanish romantic scenario: A guy shows up with his guitar outside his dream girl’s home and croons a love song. Historically, Filipinos have a song for every occasion, such as planting rice, fishing at night, and courting sweethearts. This Eurasian hybrid-linked to the Renaissance-set the stage for a nation hooked on music. The Spanish colonial era that began in 1565 introduced guitars, choirs, and the art of serenading to the Philippines. During my third trip through the Philippines, Southeast Asia’s only Christian country, I sought to answer the question: Why are the Philippines the rock-and-roll engine for the rest of Asia? From Hong Kong to Singapore and back up to Tokyo or Beijing, if there’s a skilled rock band on stage, they’re likely Filipino.
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