Manila Sound
| Manila Sound | |
|---|---|
| Stylistic origins | |
| Cultural origins | Late 1960s – early 1970s, Manila |
| Typical instruments | |
| Derivative forms | |
| Other topics | |
| Worldbeat - OPM | |
Manila Sound is a musical genre in the Philippines that began in the early 1970s in Manila, flourished and peaked in the mid to late 1970s, and waned in popularity by the early 1980s. It is often considered the "bright side" of the Martial Law era and has influenced all modern genres in the country by being the forerunner to OPM.
Manila Sound is typified and was popularized by the pop rock band Hotdog with its many hit singles: "Ikaw Ang Miss Universe Ng Buhay Ko" ("You Are the Miss Universe Of My Life"), "Panaginip" ("Dream"), "Langit Na Naman" ("Heaven Once Again"), "O Lumapit Ka" ("Oh, Come Closer"), "Bitin Sa Iyo" ("Left Hanging Over You"), and "Dying to Tell You", among others. The name "Manila Sound" may have been derived from Hotdog's hit single "'Manila'", which has come to epitomize this genre. Manila Sound is characterized by catchy melodic phrases. In its later period, Manila Sound was dominated by the disco mania that swept the Philippines, led by groups such as VST & Co., The Boyfriends and Hagibis, among others. Alternately described as "the marshmallow sound", Manila Sound generated a string of calculated radio hits by groups such as Cinderella, VST & Co., Apolinario Mabini Hiking Society, Florante, Rico J. Puno, Sharon Cuneta, and many others. Manila Sound's unprecedented and meteoric appeal provided viability to a Philippine recording industry that until then had relied on cover versions and imitation of foreign hits to entice consumer acceptance. Unfortunately in its later years, formula-addled lyrical bias toward camp humor and parody eventually caused the Manila Sound to devolve into an explicitly theatrical, if not juvenile, subgenre as exemplified by Hagibis (a parody of the Village People) and The Boyfriends, until it diminished in the late 1970s under a wave of disco and dance-oriented hits from American films such as Saturday Night Fever, Grease and Footloose. But perhaps more importantly, by the early 1980s, disco had waned in popularity, mirroring disco's serious backlash and decline that occurred earlier in the United States. Moreover, musical tastes had changed, moving away from soft rock into newer musical forms, particularly adult contemporary, and to a lesser extent, punk rock and new wave, and radio airplay reflected these changes.
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