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| Lessons from Britpop |
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| Written by Ted Reyes | |||||||||||||||||||
| Tuesday, 16 December 2008 | |||||||||||||||||||
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IN the late 80’s and early 90s, the British music scene burst into the world scene once again. In a time when the charts were being dominated by American grunge bands like Nirvana and Pearl Jam, a handful of British artists took it upon themselves to counter the American grunge assault and invented, Britpop. While the term Britpop was not coined by any of the founding British artists but rather by the British tabloids, it would become the name that would define a movement that had far reaching influence. Fed-up by the grunge invasion British alternative rock bands decided to shun the “Yankee music” from across the Atlantic and came up with a counter-assault. The music, first and foremost did not tackle any of the prevalent grunge themes of alienation and despair, instead, it was all about being a Brit. In other words, it was British music for British people. Bands like Blur, Suede, Pulp, St. Etienne, and later on, Oasis wrote and sang songs about what is important in the Britain the they were living in. Most of these bands even employed thick cockney accents to expound the fact that music can be as British as the Queen. Their subjects are often small town British stories or anything common in their culture. It was “Nationalist Rock” at its rockiest form. Damon Albarn of Blur once said that their music is anti-Grunge. It was everything that Kurt Cobain was not. It was about their “British-ness.” All Brits young and old admired these Britpop bands’ adherence to their national identities. Perhaps they realized how rich their musical tradition is. After all, their musical heroes are equal, if not, greater than their American counterparts: The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Who, The Kinks, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath–these are not lightweight artists but generation defining groups that happen to be British. Most appealing, however, is Britpop’s resolve to sing about what they really are, instead of abstract and heavy emotions as perpetuated by grunge. It is appealing because it makes sense for Filipino-American artists as well. Filipino-American artists should represent and bring forth their “Filipino-ness” to the American audience. Like the Britpop bands, we as a people have a lot to tell, and if we put these stories to words and music, it would introduce Filipino culture to foreign ears more than any medium there is. Nothing is too mundane and too trivial in representing our heritage. Yes, we could sing in English, but with Filipino concepts. In the rock scene, The Kuwagos did this in their debut album back in 2007 and it is a marvel to behold. Chicago’s Bagwis did this too when they released Imulat Mo. Now, my band the Happy Analogues will follow suit with our new album, School Tales, which will tackle school life in the Philippines. I know there are many Fil-Am rap artists like Deep Foundation and Apl De Ap, who propagate Filipino ideas through their music and we should all emulate them. If we write music that comes from what we really are, then everything will fall into place and we will be recognized and not be seen and judged as just a bunch of brown-skinned Asians trying to be American or British.
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3.26 Copyright (C) 2008 Compojoom.com / Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."Tags: britpop grunge nirvana pearl jam blur suede oasis the kuwagos bagwis the happy analogues |
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