WHO’S AFRAID OF A POP SONG?

I never entertained the idea that there could be an elite circle in the underground circuit since it is, well, a striving industry so there’re enough drinks and parties for everyone. The prerequisite as I see it is perfect your art and in the process, help each other out. I have seen some good servings of humility and genuine support being passed around, people giving you the good word and encouraging you to keep doing what you are doing (whatever it is…). To balance the yin with the yang, I had my share of naysayers who kept questioning my real intentions behind my music from way back I forgot when. To explain your intentions? I didn’t even think it’s worth explaining.I did not know that in the music scene (and disappointingly the underground scene –albeit how small and limited it is), you have to answer to someone because you write the way you write or you sing the way you sing.

 

I am not affected. I am simply amused (to the extent of puking my own guts out) by the fact that people tendto set a criteria on who belongs in their circuit (spell schizo please?). It was actually understandable in Bicol since there’s no such thing as a by-genre scene there so there were clashes of interests. And, most listeners are ignorant to the reality that radio is not the sole basis of good music. But to find out that it’s worse here was such a downer.

 

These people are much worse than religious fanatics who seem to find pride and extreme contentment in condemning everyone to hell since they claim to be the purer one. PURE? SAID WHO? SAID YOU (and obviously the poor minions who are hiding behind the robes of the self proclaimed “Pure Ones’)!

Purity for me in art form is a non-existent category simply because no one is. I think close-mindedness would be the suitable term.

 

HERE’S A THOUGHT: Does it take away the purity of something you do when someone who’s not really in the scene or your listening circle got hooked on your experiment?  Radio maybe is an outlet of an overt commercialist agenda but music being accessible doesn’t changethe quality of the song unless you are an unhealthy Type 4 personality (consult the enneagram-look it up!) who has antisocial tendencies and refuses to go with any flow simply for the fear of being mainstream. They live in a skeptic reality that they own the criteria of true purity in whatever art form. That must be a weighty crown to bear.

 

Music is music. Yes, some are slightly more intelligent than the others and most are simply crap. Radio airplay maybe is a tainted tool but I don’t judge a song by accessibility or popularity. That would be too shallow.Yes, Shallow!It’s like being convinced that all blondes are dumb. Those do, are the ones so safe in their circle that they resort to stereotyping to up their status which is actually just a façade of bitterness. I respect musicians who tend to go the road less traveled and do more than what their fans, label and genre or even they can even achieve.

 

And yes, radio does change the audience and listeners but to filter? For what?  Be a punk and not care. Fuck you if you like my music, fuck you if you don’t. It doesn’t really matter. Music is the whole point anyway,not the promotion, genre or image.

 

Clem Castro (of The Camerawalls.) earned my respect for how he went back to his roots and stood by his music. Here’s a guy who’s earned his status by writing good tunes. He had his share of crabs determined to pull him down the bucket and he had his share of “giving in” to the masses’ (lack of) taste but what’s funny is, major or indie, he still sings and writes the same (or maybe, better.).

 

 So fuck mainstream, and fuck indie. My friend Duke is right : Genre is a cage.

I can’t say it enough,

In the end it’s all about music.

In the end, no band or artist is bigger than their songs

Except of course if you’re John Lennon or maybe, Lou Reed.

 

But obviously we are not. You are not. Shallow fuck.

 

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