Visayan pop | |
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Other names | Vispop, Vis-pop, Bisaya pop, Bispop, V-Pop, Cebuano pop |
Stylistic origins | |
Cultural origins | 20th century, Visayas, Philippines |
Other topics | |
Visayan pop, better known as Vispop (not to be confused with the Scandinavian musical genre), is short for Visayan popular music. Despite its name, it usually refers to popular music in the Cebuano language; pop music sung in other Visayan languages is known by other terms. For instance, a separate pop music movement for Hiligaynon emerged in the late 2010s, called Ilonggo Pop. The genre is popular in the Visayas and parts of Mindanao in which Cebuano is spoken. Bisrock, an abbreviated form of Bisaya rock music, may sometimes overlap with Vispop, as with the band Oh! Caraga. Although many Cebuano-speaking artists from Mindanao consider themselves to be Vispop artists, others prefer to align themselves with the nascent Mindanao Pop or Minpop music movement.
In the early 20th century, the popularity of zarzuelas in Cebu led to a boom in original Cebuano music. Modern Cebuano music flourished until the 1970s to 1980s. From the 1980s to 1990s, Cebuano interest in local music waned. Bisrock bands briefly revived Cebuano-language music in the 2000s. In the 2010s, with the launch of the Visayan Pop Songwriting Campaign, a new crop of Vispop talents renewed the industry's hope in the genre. The genre established a fresh pop sound for modern Cebuano music. Various Vispop songs written partially in Cebuano and partially in other languages, primarily English and Tagalog, achieved mainstream success in the 2020s. In January 2023, Careless Music's Wavy Baby Festival in Cebu sparked backlash when they removed most of the Cebuano musical acts from their lineup. In light of the controversy, some individuals, such as Vincent Eco from the Vispop band The Sundown, decried the mainstream culture's perceived lack of respect towards Vispop artists.
Vispop is characterized by simple melodies and emotional, poetic lyricism. A November 2022 study by Mesiona et al. credits the balak, a traditional Cebuano art form, for the poetic qualities of the genre. Balak refers to spoken poetry, often used in courtship. Although it has largely fallen out of use among younger generations of Cebuanos, who deem the art form "cheesy", its legacy can be felt in the eloquence and sweetness of Vispop.
The term "Vispop" is simply derived from Visayan pop or Visayan popular music. [1] [2] Lorenzo "Insoy" Niñal, a member of the Visayan Pop Songwriting Campaign committee, said in 2019, "We have different languages in the Visayas. We accept that. We are sensitive to nuances, that's why it is [called] Bisaya, not Cebuano pop." [3] In practice, however, the term Vispop is mainly used in reference to popular music written in the Cebuano language, not all Visayan languages. [4] [5] [2] [6]
In an interview with Kara Angan of Billboard Philippines , Boholano singer-songwriter Joseph Gara identified a "distinct Bisaya melody" common to Vispop songs. He said that the melody was simple and did not have many complicated elements. He attributed it to the loose structure of traditional Cebuano songs from which the genre evolved, noting that such songs lacked the rigid song structures of Western music. [7] Ruben Almendras of The Freeman described Cebuano musicality as "a mixture of Asian, Spanish and Chinese influences". [8]
A study published in December 2023 found that Cebuano lyrics in Vispop songs avoided using noun-forming suffixes, favoring noun-forming prefixes, although both inflectional morphemes exist in Cebuano. Cebuano lyrics in Vispop songs also avoided using adverb-forming affixes and negative affixes, but used verb-forming suffixes. Again, all of these morphemes exist in the language itself. [9] Many Vispop songs, especially from the 2020s onward, use a mix of Cebuano and other languages, mainly English and Tagalog. In 2021, Maris Racal attributed her mixing of Cebuano lyrics with Tagalog to her fear that "not everyone would understand it" if she wrote a song exclusively in Cebuano. [10] On the other hand, singer-songwriter Shoti, who is known for mixing Cebuano and English in his discography, said that he simply wants his songs to stand out from music that is wholly in either language. [11]
Lyricism in Vispop songs, particularly in the oeuvre of Cebuano singer-songwriter Therese Villarante-Langit, has been described as poetic. [12] [13] Mesiona et al. identify contemporary Vispop lyrics' poetic qualities as the legacy of balak (spoken love poetry) culture in Cebu. [12] In a feature about the largely Cebuano song "Day and Night" by the pop group Alamat, Acer Batislaong of Nylon Manila wrote that the Cebuano language adds "an extra touch of romance and allure" to music. [14] Although she has not written any songs in Cebuano, the popular singer-songwriter Mrld credits the Vispop genre for molding her emotionally resonant lyricism and folksy artistry. [15]
Spanish colonization of the Philippines introduced the Visayans to Western musical traditions. In the 17th century, the Spanish historian Francisco Ignacio Alcina wrote that the Visayans learned to play Spanish musical instruments with "notable skill". Spanish musical instruments such as the Spanish guitar and harp became widely used in the Visayas, supplanting indigenous instruments. The Spaniards influenced the musical styles within the region. [16]
Modern Cebuano music first took shape in the 20th century. Its production began to flourish in the early 1900s, owing to the rise of zarzuelas (Spanish-style musical plays) written in Cebuano. In the 1920s to the 1970s, the release of songs such as "Kasadya Ning Taknaa" (lit. 'Happy is This Hour') in 1933 and "Matud Nila"(lit. 'They Say') in 1941 further bolstered modern Cebuano music. [17] In 1938, [17] the song "Rosas Pandan" was originally written for one such zarzuela, composed by Domingo "Minggoy" Lopez, with a libretto by Pio "Piux" Cabajar, [a] son of Cebuano revolutionary Justo Cabajar. [18] [19] In the 1970s, Levi Celerio translated "Rosas" into Tagalog, removing the non-lexical vocables "ayay", "ayayay", "tigadong", and "tikadong" from Cabajar's original Cebuano lyrics. [18] In an opinion piece, journalist Ruben Almendras remarked that the song lost its "oomph" and cadence as a result. [8] Pilita Corrales first officially released the song in Tagalog. However, a Cebuano version was later released to honor Corrales' Cebuano heritage. Although the Cebuano version was officially released later than Celerio's Tagalog translation, many people now recognize "Rosas" as a Cebuano or Visayan song. [18]
Cebuano musicians were highly sought after by Manila-based music labels such as Villar Records. [16] Max Surban, dubbed "the King of Visayan Song", and Yoyoy Villame, who both produced songs in Cebuano, were at the height of their fame in the 1970s. [17] In the same decade, Cebuano musicians Tony Blanco, Cacal Blanco, and Mel Libre made it to the top ten of the First Jingle Magazine Songwriting Contest. According to Libre, a Cebuano rock band called Odds & Ends pre-dated Pinoy rock. [20] In the 1980s, the popularity of MTV, an American musical channel that exclusively played American and non-Cebuano songs, shifted music preferences among Cebuanos. Patronage towards Cebuano music declined. The 1990s saw the formation of Cebuano rock bands Local Ground and Mango Jam. However, they wrote their songs in English, not Cebuano. [17]
In the early 2000s, Bisrock bands who sang in Cebuano grew in popularity. Local radios played their songs frequently, contributing to a brief rise in patronage towards Cebuano-language music. [17] Missing Filemon, a band described by Nile Villa of Rappler as "one of the pillars of the Bisrock community", released their debut album in 2003. [1] In 2009, the prolific composer Jude Gitamondoc pitched the idea of the Visayan Pop Songwriting Campaign, a contest for original compositions written in Cebuano, to Ian Zafra, Lorenzo "Insoy" Niñal, and Cattski Espina of Artists and Musicians Marketing Cooperative (Artist Ko), a creative collective based in Cebu. The inaugural contest took place in 2013, in cooperation with the Filipino Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (Filscap). [21] [22] In addition to the contest, Artist Ko offered songwriting workshops. In an interview for the event, Espina said, "I was alarmed at the realization that by default, local songwriters write in English." The festival outlined the following objectives: [22]
The festival helped introduce fresh Vispop talents to the region, including Kurt Fick, Lourdes Maglinte, Mandaue Nights, Jerika Teodorico, [6] and Therese Villarante-Langit. [b] [12] These popular new Vispop artists brought "new hope" to the genre. [6] [17] Many Cebuano-speaking artists from the Mindanao region, such as the band Oh! Caraga, whose members hail from Caraga, Maris Racal from Davao, and KZ Tandingan, also from Davao, consider themselves to be Vispop artists. [23] [24] [2] In the late 2010s, however, a distinct pop music movement emerged in Mindanao, simply called Mindanao Pop or Minpop, with the goal to "hyper-localize" songs to the region, although some Minpop songs still use the Cebuano language. [25]
In 2017, the Filipino-American artist Karencitta released the single "Cebuana", a dance pop song with lyrics written in a mix of Cebuano and English. The song had a transformative impact on the Vispop genre. [26] The 2020s saw a significant increase of Vispop hits in mainstream Philippine music, most of which are written in a mix of Cebuano and other languages, primarily English and Tagalog. In September 2021, Maris Racal released a pop-rock single about heartbreak titled "Asa Naman" (lit. 'Where'), which featured verses in Tagalog and choruses in Cebuano. She explained that Rico Blanco, her partner at the time, encouraged her to write a full song in Cebuano. However, she was "worried that not everyone would understand it", so she decided to write the song partially in Tagalog. [10] The song won "Best Regional Recording" at the 35th Awit Awards in 2022. In her partly Cebuano acceptance speech, Racal said, "We all know that when we write songs, we should write our truth, and part of my truth is that I'm born in Tagum, Davao. I grew up Bisaya!" She encouraged musicians to stop being afraid of writing songs in Philippine languages beyond Tagalog. [27] Also in September 2021, Felip made his solo debut "Palayo" (lit. 'Walk Away'), a Vispop song about ending a toxic relationship. [26]
In 2022, the English chorus of the song "LDR" by Jared Almendras, better known as Shoti, went viral on social media across the globe. In an August 2024 interview with Juno Reyes of Rappler , Shoti shared that he was shocked to hear the audience singing along to the Cebuano lyrics as well when he performed the song in Manila, assuming that they were only familiar with the English chorus that went viral. He said, "I'm always gonna be putting Bisaya and English together in all my songs." [11]
In October 2022, Gitamondoc alluded to "Manila organizers[...] gearing up their machinery to stage multiple music festivals during Sinulog Week", and urged Cebuanos to stand by the Visayan Pop Songwriting Campaign despite their lack of "clout" and funding. He wrote, "We will not be forever relegated to the sidelines. We will not be a mere afterthought in a scheme to please the locals. We will not remain just front acts to Manila's main event." [28] On December 6, 2022, Careless Music announced that it would stage the Wavy Baby Festival in Cebu amid Sinulog festivities in January 2023. [29] The festival was marketed as "the first of its kind" for Sinulog. Kara Angan of Rappler noted that the Cebuano music acts were billed at the bottom of Wavy Baby's promotional poster, below foreign and Manila-based acts. [28] The festival sparked backlash on social media when they removed most of the Cebuano music acts from the lineup. Vincent Eco from The Sundown, one of the Cebuano bands whose performances were canceled, was quoted as saying, "Yet again, [brands] will hold concerts in Cebu but Cebu bands were made disposable." [30]
James Reid, co-founder of Careless, issued an apology to Cebuano music acts The Wonggoys, Three Legged Men, The Sundown, and Sepia Times on Instagram. He said, "Thank you for allowing us to come to your hometown and throw this amazing experience. I promise to make it up to you." The company released a separate statement, saying that they personally reached out to the Cebuano acts involved. Eventscape Manila, one of the festival's producers, issued another statement blaming the removal of Cebuano acts from the lineup on inclement weather and logistical difficulties. [30] Writing for Rappler , Kara Angan criticized Wavy Baby for "capitaliz[ing] on [Cebuanos'] cultural festival yet remov[ing] a platform for Cebuanos to showcase their experiences through music". Angan suggested that the incident illustrates how the cultural, economic, and social divide between Manila and the Visayas and Mindanao regions manifests in all aspects, even music. [28]
In June 2023, the multilingual P-Pop boy group Alamat released "Day and Night", with lyrics in Cebuano, English, and Tagalog. [14] The song was co-written by the famed Vispop singer-songwriter Villarante-Langit. [31] In August 2023, Maymay Entrata released "Tsada Mahigugma". The title is a Cebuano phrase that translates to "It feels great to be in love", and is prominently featured throughout the song. Billboard Philippines included it in their end-of-year "Top Filipino Releases of 2023" list, a curated list of reader picks. [32] In January 2024, Cebuano actor-singers Juan Karlos Labajo and Kyle Echarri released "Kasing Kasing" (lit. 'Heart'), a Vispop ballad that is fully in Cebuano. Labajo and Echarri initially planned to write the song in Tagalog, but decided to write it in their native language instead. They shared that they felt Cebuano music lacked representation in the Philippines' mainstream music industry. In an interview, Echarri said, "We wanted to show how Bisaya people are with our language with how we express our emotions[...]," adding that the two hoped to normalize using Cebuano in songs. [33] [34]
The Visayas, or the Visayan Islands, are one of the three principal geographical divisions of the Philippines, along with Luzon and Mindanao. Located in the central part of the archipelago, it consists of several islands, primarily surrounding the Visayan Sea, although the Visayas are also considered the northeast extremity of the entire Sulu Sea. Its inhabitants are predominantly the Visayan peoples.
Cebu City, officially the City of Cebu, is a highly urbanized city in the Central Visayas region of the Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 964,169 people, making it the sixth-most populated city in the nation and the most populous in the Visayas and in Central Visayas Region.
The music of the Philippines includes the musical performance arts in the Philippines and the music of Filipinos composed in various local and international genres and styles. Philippine musical compositions are often a mixture of Indigenous styles, and various Asian styles, as well as Spanish/Latin American and (US) American influences through foreign rule from those countries.
Cebuano is an Austronesian language spoken in the southern Philippines by Cebuano people and other Ethnic groups as secondary language. It is natively, though informally, called by its generic term Bisayâ or Binisayâ and sometimes referred to in English sources as Cebuan. It is spoken by the Visayan ethnolinguistic groups native to the islands of Cebu, Bohol, Siquijor, the eastern half of Negros, the western half of Leyte, and the northern coastal areas of Northern Mindanao and the eastern part of Zamboanga del Norte due to Spanish settlements during the 18th century. In modern times, it has also spread to the Davao Region, Cotabato, Camiguin, parts of the Dinagat Islands, and the lowland regions of Caraga, often displacing native languages in those areas.
Visayans or Visayan people are a Philippine ethnolinguistic family group or metaethnicity native to the Visayas, the southernmost islands of Luzon and a significant portion of Mindanao. They are composed of numerous distinct ethnic groups, many unrelated to each other. When taken as a single group, they number around 33.5 million. The Visayans, like the Luzon Lowlanders were originally predominantly animist-polytheists and broadly share a maritime culture until the 16th century when the Spanish empire enforced Catholicism as the state religion. In more inland or otherwise secluded areas, ancient animistic-polytheistic beliefs and traditions either were reinterpreted within a Roman Catholic framework or syncretized with the new religion. Visayans are generally speakers of one or more of the distinct Bisayan languages, the most widely spoken being Cebuano, followed by Hiligaynon (Ilonggo) and Waray-Waray.
The Bisayan languages or Visayan languages are a subgroup of the Austronesian languages spoken in the Philippines. They are most closely related to Tagalog and the Bikol languages, all of which are part of the Central Philippine languages. Most Bisayan languages are spoken in the whole Visayas section of the country, but they are also spoken in the southern part of the Bicol Region, islands south of Luzon, such as those that make up Romblon, most of the areas of Mindanao and the province of Sulu located southwest of Mindanao. Some residents of Metro Manila also speak one of the Bisayan languages.
The Hiligaynon people, often referred to as Ilonggo people or Panayan people, are the second largest subgroup of the larger Visayan ethnic group, whose primary language is Hiligaynon, an Austronesian language of the Visayan branch native to Panay, Guimaras, and Negros. They originated in the province of Iloilo, on the island of Panay, in the region of Western Visayas. Over the years, inter-migrations and intra-migrations have contributed to the diaspora of the Hiligaynon to different parts of the Philippines. Today, the Hiligaynon, apart from the province of Iloilo, also form the majority in the provinces of Guimaras, Negros Occidental, Capiz, South Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, and Cotabato Province. Hiligaynon is also spoken in some parts of Sarangani Province particularly in the Municipality of Malungon.
The Cebuano people are the largest subgroup of the larger ethnolinguistic group Visayans, who constitute the largest Filipino ethnolinguistic group in the country. They originated in the province of Cebu in the region of Central Visayas, but then later spread out to other places in the Philippines, such as Siquijor, Bohol, Negros Oriental, southwestern Leyte, western Samar, Masbate, and large parts of Mindanao. It may also refer to the ethnic group who speak the same language as their native tongue in different parts of the archipelago. The term Cebuano also refers to the demonym of permanent residents in Cebu island regardless of ethnicity.
Roman Tesorio Villame, better known as Yoyoy Villame, was a Filipino singer, composer, lyricist, actor, politician and comedian.
BisRock is a subgenre of Pinoy rock, propagated by the Cebu rock music industry in the Philippines. The term, which is in the blended form, comes from the Cebuano words Bisaya, referring the Visayan languages, and "rock", for rock music. The term was coined by Cebuano writer Januar E. Yap in 2002 and was first applied to Missing Filemon's first album. Earning wide reception among the young in the Visayas and Mindanao, Bisrock is a fairly recent cultural phenomenon. The style started around the 1980s, when Cebu's rock scene was beginning to be labeled as "Bisrock". During this time, a group of musicians from the University of San Carlos coined the local music scene as Bisrock in support of patriotism for the Cebuano music scene. However, this genre is debatable as Bisrock seems to be popular only in Cebu. As it is, the movement died down around 2009, as even Missing Filemon themselves distanced itself from the term "Bisrock".
Cebuano literature includes both the oral and written literary forms Cebuano of colonial, pre-colonial and post-colonial Philippines.
Bisaya Magasin is a weekly Cebuano magazine now published by the Manila Bulletin Publishing Corporation, Philippines. It has the record of being the oldest magazine in Cebuano which is still published, and "the most successful periodical in Cebuano".
Imperial Manila is a pejorative epithet used by sectors of Filipino society and non-Manileños to express the idea that all the affairs of the Philippines, whether in politics, economy and business or culture, are decided by what goes on in the capital region, Metro Manila, without considering the needs of the rest of the country, largely because of centralized government and urbanite snobbery. Empirical research finds that Imperial Manila and its persistence over time has led to prolonged underdevelopment in Philippine provinces.
Bisalog, also Tagbis, is a portmanteau of the words "Bisaya" and "Tagalog", referring to either a Visayan language or Tagalog being infused with words or expressions from the other. It can also be an informal term for Visayan languages spoken in Mimaropa, or Tagalog dialects infused with words from Visayan languages spoken there, such as in Marinduque.
Pinoy pop refers to popular music in the Philippines originating from the OPM genre. With its beginnings in the late 1970s, Pinoy pop is a growing genre in the 2020s. Through the 1990s to the 2000s, Pinoy pop was regularly showcased in the live band scene.
Malay spoken by a minority of Filipinos, particularly in the Palawan, Sulu Archipelago and parts of Mindanao, mostly in the form of trade and creole languages, such as Sabah Malay.
Jude Gitamondoc is a Filipino songwriter, record producer, musical director, and stage director based in Cebu, Philippines. He had won several awards including two Awit Awards, ABS-CBN's Himig Handog TFC Choice Award, StarStudio Reader's Choice Award, Cebu Pop Musical Festival, Golden Screen Awards, and Gawad Urian Award. He had composed, arranged, produced and/or contributed songs for Filipino singers and artists including Regine Velasquez, Piolo Pascual, Toni Gonzaga, KC Concepcion, Gary Valenciano, Eric Santos, Kyla, among others. In addition, he was commissioned in the production of several musical plays both original and adaptations, including the Philippine Daily Inquirer's best musical play of 2017 Gugmang Giatay. He also co-founded the Visayan Pop Songwriting Campaign (Vispop), a yearly songwriting competition for songs written in the Cebuano language.
Visayan Pop Songwriting Campaign, also known as Vispop or Visayan Pop Music Festival, is a Cebuano national songwriting campaign and competition for pop music compositions launched in Cebu City, Philippines on 2012. The competition is under the auspice of Artists and Musicians Marketing Cooperative. From 2013-2017, it was staged in cooperation with the Filipino Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (FILSCAP). The 2019 edition was organized with the partnership of Sacred Heart School for Boys - Batch 1985 Foundation, but the project was later shelved.
Alamat is a Filipino boy band formed in 2020 by Viva Artists Agency and Ninuno Media. The group consists of six members: Taneo, Mo, Jao, Tomás, R-Ji and Alas. The members hail from different regions of the Philippines and sing in their own respective languages.
"Day and Night" is a song recorded by the Filipino boy group Alamat. It is an upbeat song about a blossoming romance, intended to evoke the summer season. The lyrics use three languages, Cebuano, English, and Tagalog. Therese Langit, a renowned songwriter in the Visayas, and Thyro Alfaro wrote and composed "Day and Night".
He also talked about the Visayan Pop Songwriting Campaign, a competition launched in Cebu in 2013 for songs written in Cebuano...