A Study on the difference between

Filipino Music
And Foreign Music
 Chapter I

Introduction:

Music is an essential part of the daily lives of the people, it gives so much joy, and it
encourages people and gives inspiration that gives hope. Wherever we are, there is music, we can
hear music in just simple sound of our environment, the humming of the birds, the breeze of the
air, the sound of the splashing sea and in anywhere that there is sound.

Music is a form of art and a cultural activity. It gives identity to one’s race and culture.
Music crated with Melody, Rhythm and Harmony. This study aims to seek the difference
between Filipino Music and Foreign music.

Statement of the Problem:

1. What are the difference between Filipino Music and Foreign Music?
2. What music is more liked by many?
3. How can these music affects the listeners?

Conceptual Framework

Input Process Output

Examples of Filipino Music Survey Questionaire Studied the difference

Examples of Foreign Music between Filipino ad Foreign
Surveys Music

Hyphotesis
Scope and Delimination

Definition of terms

1. Music- is an art form and cultural activity whose medium is sound organized in time.
2. Art- is a diverse range of human activities in creating visual, auditory or performing
artifacts (artworks), expressing the author's imaginative or technical skill, intended to be
appreciated for their beauty or emotional power.
3. Culture- is the social behavior and norms found in human societies.
4. Melody- A melody, also tune, voice, or line, is a linear succession of musical tones that
the listener perceives as a single entity.
5. Rhythm- Rhythm generally means a "movement marked by the regulated succession of
strong and weak elements, or of opposite or different conditions”
6. Harmony- In music, harmony considers the process by which the composition of
individual sounds, or superpositions of sounds, is analysed by hearing. Usually, this
means simultaneously occurring frequencies, pitches, or chords.
 Chapter II

Related Studies

Research shows listening to different musical genres leaves lasting

impact on brain

We all think of ourselves as multitaskers. But the ultimate American multitaskers may be the
children of foreign-born parents.

Every day, these hyphenated Americans swing back and forth between cultures — in the food
they eat, the languages they speak and the music they listen to.

Take Jason Vinoles. He grew up in New York City, the son of Argentine immigrant parents.
Like a lot of children of immigrants, he spoke two languages with his family.

“I’d be on the phone with my parents and I’ll just switch back and forth,” Vinoles said. “If I
can’t think of the word right away in Spanish, I’ll say it in English, but then keep on going with
the conversation.”

Vinoles’ family would also switch back and forth between other things American and Argentine:
sports loyalties, cuisines and musical styles. His mom was a big fan of the Beatles.

“Any time a Beatles song would come on the radio on the oldies stations, she’d come grab me
and make me dance,” Vinoles said.

The same kitchen floor dance party would also include more traditional Latino music, like the
popular Mexican song, Cielito Lindo.

They’d also dance along to Madonna, followed immediately by some tango.

A new study from Northwestern University focuses on this ‘bimusicality.’ The author, Patrick
Wong, specializes in how the brain processes sound.

Wong suspected that people who grew up listening to both the Beatles and tango might develop
differently from people who grew up listening to just Western music or just Latin music.
Wong recruited people who grew up listening primarily to Western popular music. And then he
selected another group of people — Indian Americans– who grew up listening to both Western
music and the traditional music of India.

Wong had his subjects use a dial to indicate the amount of tension they felt in the music.

People tend to report that foreign music has more tension. But the people who grew up with both
Western and Indian music felt low degrees of tension with both types of music. They were
equally at home listening to either genre.

Wong called these people ‘bimusicals.’

The study participants listened to the music inside a functional magnetic resonance imaging
(fMRI) scanner, so Wong could track their brain activity.

“If you are bimusical, you tend to engage a larger network of the brain when you listen to the
two kinds of music,” Wong said.

He concluded that people who had grown up with both Indian and Western music had a more
elaborate brain system for listening than those who grew up with just Western music. Wong’s
bimusicals engaged more areas of their brain when listening to music. He says bimusicals looped
in not only the auditory areas of the brain, but also its emotional region.

That led Wong to hypothesize that bimusicals may need to engage the emotional part of the brain
to differentiate the two types of music.

Wong isn’t saying that only bimusical people experience music emotionally. We all do that. It’s
more that bimusicals may tap into that region of the brain in order to toggle between multiple
musical styles.

So does the bimusical brain behave similarly to the bilingual brain?

Gigi Luk, who studies bilingual learning at Harvard, has observed signs of enhancements in the
brains of people who grow up with two verbal languages.
“We found a better performance [among bilinguals] in what we call executive functions,” Luk
said.

Executive function tasks involve things like planning, problem solving, and multitasking. “We
see this advantage across the lifespan from young children to older adults,” she says.

Bilingualism has clear differences from Wong’s bimusicalism. For one thing, speaking a
language is more active and involved than listening to music.

Still, Luk isn’t surprised by Wong’s findings. She believes that all that switching, whether
between languages or musical cultures, leaves a physiological impact.

“Our experiences, whether they’re musical or linguistic, actually shape our brain and give us a
qualitative difference in brain networks,” she said.

There’s still much more to learn about just how that qualitative difference plays out in the
bimusical brain. But Wong believes his research opens a door.

“This is telling us that perhaps being bicultural might change our biology in a fundamental way,”
Wong said.

But does that give the bimusical, bicultural mind the same sort of cognitive edge as the bilingual
mind? That’s for a future study.

Source: https://www.pri.org/stories/2012-07-19/research-shows-listening-different-musical-
generes-leaves-lasting-impact-brain
Foreign Influences on Filipino Culture

by Ethnic Groups Philippines

Long before Magellan reached the island of Limasawa in Southern Leyte located in the
Eastern Visayas, Filipinos have already established trading and diplomatic relations with other
neighboring Asian countries. Chinese, Europeans, Malays, and Arabs were already trading with
Filipinos before the establishment of the Galleon Trade, an annual ship trade between Manila
Bay, Philippines, and Acapulco, Mexico, that journeyed for more than 250 years.

Spanish and American colonization, as well as interactions through trade with other
neighboring countries, has brought a kaleidoscope of cultures to the Philippines. This unique
combination of foreign influences produced a complex but beautiful local culture that somehow
turned out to be distinctly Filipino. Religion is probably the biggest imprint left by the Spanish,
who converted most of the population to Christianity, while the Americans boosted the
Philippine educational system and made English as the second language of the country.

Religion was the focal point for about 400 years during the Spanish period and has
permanently influenced the culture and society of the Filipino people. The church normally
controlled spiritual matters, while the state usually deals with secular issues, but intermeddling
was not uncommon, as there was unification of the church and the state at the time. Spanish
Catholic missionaries taught Filipinos their customs, language, manners, habits, and trades. Even
today, most of the Filipino population carries Spanish family names, such as Reyes, dela Cruz,
and Santos.

Chavacano, the only Spanish-based creole in Asia, is a mixture of two or more languages
mostly borrowed from Spanish words. It is spoken in the Zamboanga Peninsula, Cotabato,
Davao, and Cavite with an estimated one million speakers. Although the number of speakers is
steadily decreasing, this Philippine dialect was undoubtedly one of the many contributions of
Spain. Moreover, many words used today in Visayan and Tagalog languages are variations of
Spanish words we learned from the Spaniards.
While Filipinos have incorporated cuisines from different settlers such as the Chinese, Arabs,
and Malay traders, Spanish foods make up about 80% of the country’s dishes. The Spanish
brought a variety of dishes from the Iberian Peninsula, North, Central, and South America. Well-
loved foods typically prepared on special occasions, such as paella, morcon, and estofado are of
Spanish origin, and so are well-loved desserts like brazo de mercedes and leche flan. Today,
Filipino dishes typically start with sautéing onions, tomatoes, and garlic in oil, which is evidence
of Spanish influence.

Ancient Filipinos were animists who worshipped an array of nature spirits to ensure
prosperity and ward off bad luck. However, the introduction of Catholicism led to the
incorporation of Roman Catholic rituals to the indigenous rituals. Aside from the regular Sunday
mass, the fiesta was also incorporated by priests to encourage the people’s involvement in
religious teachings of the church. At present, hundreds of festivals are celebrated across the
country, and almost every town has its own festivity named after its patron saint. In addition,
Christmas and Lenten seasons are widely observed and since 90% of the populations are
Christians, faith forms an essential part of every celebration.

While Spain had made a hugely significant impact on the Philippines, the forty-five-year-
long colonial tutelage of the United States made Manila one of Asia’s economic powerhouses.
English language was used in schools, government, and business. Thomasites teachers from the
United States were commissioned to facilitate primary institutions for free. Today, English is the
second national language of the Philippines, and many words have been incorporated in the
Tagalog language. “Taglish,” or a mixture of Tagalog and English, has become part of the
country’s culture.
Although Catholicism was, and still is, the predominant religion in the Philippines, the
Americans were more open and permitted Filipinos to join whichever religion they desire.
Protestantism became widespread, since majority of schoolteachers appointed by the Americans
were Protestant ministers. In addition, Jehovah's Witnesses and the Seventh-day Adventist
Church were introduced by their respective American missionaries, both of which are still active
in the Philippines up to this day. Currently, the majority of Filipinos are Catholics, while the
remaining fraction is composed of Muslims, as well as members of Evangelicalism, Iglesia ni
Cristo, Philippine Independent Church (Aglipayan), and various other religions.
Foods like hamburgers, potato chips, hotdogs, and macaroni that are commonly identified as
American have made their way into the Filipino food culture. Fast food establishments are
ubiquitous and a major hit in almost all parts of the country. Plenty of American chains, such as
Burger King, McDonald’s, Shakey’s and Pizza Hut, thrive in the Philippines. Canned goods
were first introduced in the Philippines by American soldiers who brought these non-perishable
food items with them during the Filipino-American War to sustain them during battle.
Nowadays, canned goods are ever-present in every Filipino home as great alternatives for
cooking instantaneous food for unexpected guests, as well as emergencies.

The Philippines has a very unique culture formed from various influences, largely from
Spain and the United States. Filipino culture may have features from various other cultures, but
the fusion of foreign influences and indigenous civilization is what makes the country distinct
from the rest of the world. Just like its 7,107 islands, Philippine culture is so diverse that
Filipinos, wherever they are in the world, can easily adapt to their environment and survive.
Philippine Music, A Historical Overview

By: CORAZON CANAVE-DIOQUINO

The Philippines, an archipelago of 7,100 islands, is made up of 77 provinces grouped into 16

regions. The main groups include Luzon, the Visayan islands, and the Mindanao islands. Based
on religion, the population may be grouped into three broad categories: Christian groups,
indigenous religion groups, and Muslim groups. The Christian groups are the largest and are
concentrated in the lowlands of Luzon and the Visayan islands. Indigenous religion groups are
found in upland northern Luzon, Mindanao and Palawan. Muslim groups are concentrated in
Mindanao, the Sulu islands and southern Palawan.

Although, geographically, the Philippines belongs to the East, its music has been heavily
influenced by the West owing to 333 years of Spanish rule and 45 years of American
domination. Music in the highland and lowland hamlets where indigenous culture continues to
thrive has strong Asian elements. Spanish and American influences are highly evident in the
music of the urban areas. In discussing Philippine music, three main divisions are apparent: (1)
an old Asian influenced music referred to as the indigenous; (2) a religious and secular music
influenced by Spanish and European forms; and (3) an American/European inspired classical,
semi-classical, and popular music.

The Indigenous Traditions

The indigenous traditions are practiced by about 10% of the population. Eight percent of this
minority comprises some 50 language groups of people who live in the mountains of northern
Luzon and the islands of Mindanao, Sulu, Palawan, and Mindoro in southern and western
Philippines. The remaining 2% of these groups are the Muslims from Mindanao and Sulu.

While there is no written information about the music in the Philippines before the arrival of
Magellan in 1521, subsequent reports made by friars, civil servants and travelers include
descriptions of instrumental and vocal music–sometimes mentioned in passing, other times in
greater detail. From these documents, various kinds of interments made of bronze, bamboo, or
wood are cited. These include gongs of various kinds of size and shapes, drums, flutes of
different types, zithers, lutes, clappers, and buzzers. Vocal genres include epics relating
genealogies and exploits of heroes and gods; work songs related to planting, harvesting, fishing;
ritual songs to drive away evil spirits or to invoke blessings from the good spirits; songs to
celebrate festive occasions particularly marriage, birth, victory at war, or the settling of tribal
disputes; mourning songs for the dead; courting songs; and children’s game songs. It is this type
of music that is still practiced today by the indigenous groups.

The Spanish-European Influenced Traditions

With the coming of the Spaniards the Filipino’s music underwent a transformation with the
influx of western influences, particularly the Spanish-European culture prevalent during the
17th to the 19th centuries. The Hispanization during the succeeding three centuries after 1521 was
tied up with religious conversion. It effected a change in the people’s musical thinking and what
emerged was a hybrid expression tinged with Hispanic flavor. It produced a religious music
connected to and outside the Catholic liturgy and a European-inspired secular music adapted by
the Filipinos and reflected in their folk songs and instrumental music.

The American Influenced Traditions

The American regime lasted from 1898 to 1946 during which time Philippine music
underwent another process of transformation.

In the newly established public school system, music was included in the curriculum at the
elementary and later at the high school levels. Music conservatories and colleges were
established at the tertiary level. Graduates from these institutions included the first generation of
Filipino composers whose works were written in western idioms and forms. Their works and
those of the succeeding generations of Filipino composers represent the classical art music
tradition which continues to flourish today.

Side by side with this classical art music tradition was a lighter type of music. This semi-
classical repertoire includes stylized folk songs, theater music, and instrumental music.
The sarswela tradition produced a large body of music consisting of songs patterned after opera
arias of the day as well as short instrumental overtures and interludes.

The strong band tradition in the Philippines, which began during the previous Spanish period
and which continues to this day, produced outstanding musicians, composers and performers.
Another popular instrumental ensemble was the rondalla which superceded an earlier type of
ensemble called the cumparsa. The latter was an adaptation of similar instrumental groups,
the murza of Mexico and the estudiantina of Spain.

American lifestyle and pop culture gave rise to music created by Filipinos using western pop
forms. Referred to as Pinoy pop it includes a wide range of forms: folk songs, dance tunes,
ballads, Broadway type songs, rock’ n’ roll, disco, jazz, and rap.

These three main streams of Philippine music– indigenous, Spanish influenced religious and
secular music, American/European influenced classical, semi-classical, and popular music
comprise what we refer to today as Philippine music.
Foreign music still rules airwaves, concerts in PH
By: Tina Arceo-Dumlao-Business Features Editor

Only about one in 10 songs played on radio, in malls and retail stores, restaurants, hotels and
bars is original Filipino music, according to data from the Filipino Society of Composers,
Authors and Publishers (Filscap).

Filscap president Noel Cabangon said during the recent Pandesal Forum at Kamuning Bakery
that foreign music continues to dominate the airwaves, with foreign catalogue accounting for as
much as 86.39 percent of total monitored music frequency for public performance.
As for Filscap revenues for royalty distribution to copyright owners in 2015, 59 percent was
accounted for by foreign composers and publishers and just 41 percent went to local composers
and publishers.

The revenues totaling P56.392 million came from various sources including live concerts,
TV/cable, digital music and general licenses from radio, restaurants, hotels, bars and other
businesses that use music.
On revenues from live concerts in 2015, Filscap monitoring data showed that 63 percent was
accounted for by foreign acts, again showing the dominance of foreign acts in the Philippines.
Cabangon said during the forum that foreign music had long dominated the local music scene.
This is under the purview of Filscap, the government-accredited collective management
organization that administers the performing rights of copyrighted works of over 1,000 local
composers, lyricists and publishers, and over 50 foreign affiliate societies worldwide as
mandated by the Intellectual Property Code of the Philippines.
It administers over 20 million songs and holds the right to license the public playing or
transmission of at least 90 percent of the popular copyrighted local and foreign musical works.
Television/cable was more even with foreign revenues at 51 percent foreign, 49 percent local.
Cabangon said the fact that foreign music rules the airwaves or public performance is cause for
grave concern as music is part of culture, and the extremely high exposure of foreign music
means that Filipinos have become more exposed to foreign culture than local cultural nuances.
In the 1970s, original Filipino music flourished, which is why that era has been referred to as the
Golden Age of Original Pilipino Music—when local music enjoyed greater airplay than their
foreign counterparts.
The trend shifted, he said, in the 1980s, due in part to the rise in the popularity of American Top
40 and MTV. Filipino music gained back lost ground in the 1990s, when local bands seized the
spotlight. But trends shifted again with the changes in technology that made it easier to download
and stream foreign music.
Popular Music in the Philippines

JONAS BAES

Spanish and later American colonial regimes created a Philippine society whose Western
social institutions were modeled after their respective societal structures. While both Spanish and
American regimes gave their shares of social and cultural influences, it was the American regime
that established institutions that make up some of the present structure of modern Philippine
society. The creation of such institutions and the absorption of Philippines into the global
political economy likewise created a need for forms of leisure that was fit for such a society. This
social condition gave rise to the development of Philippine popular music into the forms that are
known today.

Anglo-American popular music was widely heard in dance halls and cabarets, including
vaudeville shows at the early part of the twentieth century. The well known musical genres at the
time like the cakewalk, thefoxtrot and the ragtime—forerunners of what was to develop
as Jazz—were played by Filipino dance bands in cabarets. Vaudeville shows (bodabil) consists
of a variety of acts that included slapstick comedy routines and tap dance numbers aside from
popular music. Filipino folk songs were arranged into dance rhythms to suit the emerging
American taste. With the introduction of radio, sheet music, live entertainment and movie
themes, popular music found its place in the mainstream of Philippine society.

During the Japanese invasion in the Second World War, American forms of entertainment
were banned along with the suppression of American values. The Japanese branded American
culture as decadent while concealing its own agenda of economic and cultural expansionism.
With this, a pro-Filipino virtue was promoted side by side with a pro-Japanese virtue and songs
were one important medium to disseminate this value.

In the late 1940’s as the world was rebuilding itself after the turmoil of the 2nd World War,
American forms of entertainment re-surfaced in the Philippines. American military presence,
which demanded the forms of rest and recreation, exposed the Filipinos to swing and continued
the proliferation of popular stage shows like thebodabil. Later, in the 1950’s, a popularized
version of the samba was introduced. This was followed by the emergence of the instrumental
groups known as the cumbachero (a local version of a Latin-American band), which became
well-known in fiestas and other social gatherings.

In the 1950’s to the 1960’s, newer genres as rock and roll and country music appealed to a
younger generation of Filipino popular artists. Filipino counterparts of famous Western artists as
Elvis Presley, Jerry Vale, Buddy Holly, Chuck Berry, and the Beatles were heard over the radio
and seen in movies and on television.

While preference for foreign artists prevailed, local artists continued to strive for a distinct
sound that could be referred to as “Filipino”. Conscious efforts to develop that Filipino sound
(Pinoy Sound) came however in the 1970’s with the creation of Filipino rock music, dubbed
as Pinoy Rock, Filipino Jazz or Pinoy Jazz and Filipino pop ballad or the Manila Sound. Those
initial efforts came to a significant development in the late 70’s to the 80’s with the flourishing
of various Filipino pop styles.

In the late 70’s, the Metro Manila Popular Music Festival (or Metro Pop), a song writing
competition for amateurs and professionals, became the buffer for the creation of new pop songs
and the introduction of emerging artists and performers. Other local competitions inspired even
more artists and composers to create more music. These include Likha Awit Pambata (a
children’s song competition), the Himig Awards, and theCecil Awards. It was at about this
period when the Organisasyon ng mga Pilipinong Mang-aawit (OPM), was created to address
the needs of Filipino popular artists. OPM also stood for Original Pilipino Music a handle for
music composed and/or performed by Filipinos, even with its eventual use of English lyrics.

The effort to probe deeper into the search for a Filipino identity in popular music was
attempted in the late 1980’s and the early 90’s by a group of composers who banded together to
form KATHA (write/create). This effort gave rise to the move to create Brown Music, a kind of
counterpart to the African-American “Black Music”. The outputs of multi-awarded composer
Ryan Cayabyab to fuse indigenous musical elements with foreign pop idioms took off to enable
non-mainstream artists like Joey Ayala to surface in the commercial arena. As the decade of the
90’s commenced, more and more alternative artists entered into the mainstream.

Reference/s:
Baes, Jonas and Amapola Baes. (1988) East-West Synthesis or Cultural Hegemony? Questions
on the use of Indigenous Elements in Philippine Popular Music. in PERFECT BEAT 4 (1): 47-
55Constantino, Renato. (1978) Neocolonial Identity and Counter Consciousness. London: Merlin
PressFernandez, Doreen. (1981) Philippine Popular Culture:Dimensions and Directions in
PHILIPPINE STUDIES 29

Lockard, Craig. (1996) Popular Musics and Politics in Modern Southeast Asia. in ASIAN
MUSIC 27(2): 149-199

Mangahas, Fe. (1984) The State of Philippine Music in Politics of Culture: The Philippine
Experience. Manila: The Philippine Educational Theater Association

Molina, E. The Philippine Popular Music Scene in BULLETIN OF THE ASIAN CULTURAL
CENTER FOR UNESCO 15

Reyes, R. The Philippine Sound and the Musical Gold Rush in FAR EASTERN ECONOMIC
REVIEW 17(11)
 Questionnaire

Name (Optional):___________________________________ Age:________

Direction: Put Check on Respective column

1. Strongly Agree
2. Agree
3. Neutral
4. Disagree
5. Strongly Disagree

Questions: 1 2 3 4 5
1. Does listening music relax your mind?
2. Can music must be learned at school?
3. Can all people must have background in music?
4. Does music affects your daily life?
5. Does music is for everyone?
Filipino Music
6. Do you prefer Filipino music?
7. Does Filipino music show our culture?
8. Does the present generation still know the Filipino Music?
9. Is it applicable that only Filipino music must be heard in our country?
10. Is Filipino music is better than foreign music?
Foreign Music
11. Do you prefer Foreign music?
12. Does Foreign Music show our culture?
13. Does the present generation prefers foreign music?
14. Is it applicable if the foreign music is be heard in our country?
15. Is Foreign music is better than Filipino music?