TILL ITS ON PAPER - Selling the drama ( 10/19/08 )

Im a couch potato. My typical day revolves around flicking the remote trying to find something worth watching on the idiot box. News, cartoons, movies, sports, sitcoms, news, movies, sports, more news, and the occasional visit to what music channels our cable provider have on.

This morning as i was happily hovering my chopper in the flight simulator, i heard a new song on a local music channel that caught my ear. ( It was the new video from Sandwich "are we good" ) At first, i really didn't bother to turn my head in the direction of the tube. Hell, the riffs weren't that good anyway. But after crashing in virtual space, i took time to take a peak and see what their new video looked like. The first scene that greeted me was a scene of a guy inside a room filled with warning lights and a girl on a bed with a power tool inhand. Whats left of my braincells quickly tried to process the information. My brain could only muster 3 letters to describe what i saw. It was WTF?!. It was followed a millisecond later by HUH?!.

As more information about the video filtered to my head, i slowly understood why the pink matter between my ears reacted as such. The new Sandwich song was more like a commercial. A condom commercial to be more exact. ( a condom commercial with raymund trying hard to act all cool and hip )

A few more seconds later, the lyrics confirmed where the song was leading to. It was either a song made for a certain brand of condom, or a song that was paid by a condom brand.

Bands selling their "souls" to the corporate world in return for a hefty sum seems to be the trend nowadays. Let me point out a few. For the masses, there is that god forsaken band 6 cycle mind that endorses a famous locally made rhum. ( god i hope they die a gruesome death ) For beer, there is the itchy worms. And the most recent, Sandwich and their ode to that little rubber thingy.

Using songs by famous bands or musicians for commercial ads is not a new thing both here and internationally. A friend of mine who works in the advertising industry did tell me that the sales and acceptability by the upper class of Redhorse did go up after they repackaged it as the beer of choice for musicians years ago. All of a sudden, it was "cool" for yuppies to drink Redhorse. Shakespeare once said, "If music be the food of love; play on." I bet local bands who sold their artistry for money tweaked it a bit into, "If music be the food of love; play on. I love money, so we will play as long as you pay on!"

For me, how can you respect these "artists" who would come up with songs because they were paid to do so? Its not as if they are starving or really need the money. I just see it as greed, lack of a well developed backbone and hypocrisy. These are the type of people who preaches about artistic freedom and what have you, and yet do the complete opposite of what they say.

Are manila bands running out of artistic fuel that they are resorting to such tactics to make a few extra bucks before they fade away?

Im a purist when it comes to music. Thus my "elitist" stand when it comes to this issue as pointed out by a former lover. As an artist, music should be played to please yourself first and not to please the masses. If you play to please the masses, then you are not an artist but an entertainer. There is nothing wrong with being an entertainer though. It makes people happy. I mean, watching gays bash each other with giant gloves on a local show cracks me up. Now "thats entertainment!"

I admit, ill still listen to their songs. And its not far fetched that sooner or later, i will praise then for coming up with a good one. But no matter how hard they preach about artistry and self expression, they will always be nothing more to me than a bunch of sellouts.

Sellouts! hmmm...interesting article.... The best things in life are free...ART SHOULD BE FREE then.haha However, although some do this - sell their "souls" to brands, its not really because of the money...because of the fame primarily...Kumbaga, extra na ang money. hahaha

di mo man ma blame totally sa bands...kay usually sa production na nila or recording compnay ang ga muna...like example...ang recording compnay that handles the band may contract sa isa ka business na ang band will endsorse a kind of product...teh no choice ang band...sundon nila ang recording company or their asses will be kicked out kay may breach of contract....at uuwi silang luhaan..ehh...so kis a indi man guid sa band...

pero sa sandwich ya...ambot basi amo lng guid na gusto nila...daw hip and cool stuff band....ehehehe...aw!

Amen to the previous reply. Also, I do think that both ends get to enjoy the perks of working together. For instance, beer brands. They have music equities; Cerveza Negra is Jazz, Strong Ice is Hip-hop, Light is Sexy House, Super Dry is Chill House, Pale Pilsen is Blues, and Red Horse is rock.

Basically, brands target these bands to maintain THEIR music equity and what best way is there than get someone who's famous in that genre?

Plus, as mentioned and I quote " friend of mine who works in the advertising industry did tell me that the sales and acceptability by the upper class of Redhorse did go up after they repackaged it as the beer of choice for musicians years ago. All of a sudden, it was "cool" for yuppies to drink Redhorse". According to what i heard FIRSTHAND , they noticed this brand loyalty thing with drinkers. If you started drinking Redhorse 10 years ago and you were 20 that time...30 ka na...assuming that your generation is the Redhorse generation, what will happen to the following generations? Or rather, what will happen to the target market of Redhorse? Will it change according to the age of these "loyalists"? This is why also they get people, famous people, that the target market knows or could relate to.

+1 sa nice topic...

sa akun naman ya, ang sa redhorse-musician combi nga gna ubra is different than what the condom-sandwich and rhum-6 cycle combis are doing....

sa redhorse ya they get musicians, personalities, to advertise the product... they dont ask bands to write a song for them, or vice versa, kung anu man ang agreement to nila... even sang time nga c kevin roy ga kanta sang ito ang tama nga ad sa radio... it was a musician singing a tag line lang ya....

ang subong ya, they write, or alter- in the case of 6 cycle- a song to make it compatible with the brand... its like gna control na nila ang banda... feeling ko its just a waste of talent ang gna ubra nila... kung fame man lang.... i think these 2 bands were already popular way before they started doing "ad-songs"[?!?]....

...just my 2 cents worth ah...

with regards to 6cyclemind. the first time i heard them a couple of years ago i can already see peso signs in their foreheads...when i heard na c chuck sg afterimage guitarist sg 6cyclemind i know that this is going to be a total BS band.


there are some of our local bands who do those songs for commercial or a song for a teleserye probably because if you look into the music scene of the philippines nowadays. selling your music is really hard and it won't feed you these days but yeah it is still the bands choice.

sugarfree are in promil or something,imago(wtf) are everywhere and it sickens me that they include those songs from ads in their playlist live tsk tsk tsk etc...

sandwich is also following them because that is the only way raimund marasigan can make money. sandwich is his "masa" band and his other projects benefit for those money he gets from that "masa" band and we totally listen to his project bands too (pedicab,squid9 etc...) so its a win,win situation man i guess unless of course if you think his projects suck hehehe...

this is the philippines... i've come to realize na we cannot compare the scene here at all sa states. one way or another an artist has to eat and feed his family. but you do have a point sa 6cyclemind. they were formed to make money out of the masa listeners and yes the song they have for that rhum is more bad tasting than the rhum they endorse.

the only thing cguro na raimund marasigan has is his really long resume with all the works he has done na none of us can beat, thats why no matter what he does... no comment tanan na musicians.

cguro depende naman na sa ads that the band endorse just like what jeezman said, bands endorsing redhorse click kay du pareho ang ila stand. maghinubog kag magtukar hehehe...

it just sucks cguro when the commercial begins getting airplays as a full lenght song and even gets a video. pero all in all for bands endorsing a certain product i think ok man lang na, depende man na sa manager nila dayon ah...

yeah reymund needs money to buy nike dunks, (in various color ways), bapes, vynil figures (futura2000, dunny,), synths (mikroKORG, rolands), and his shutter shades hehe.. I don't know if its just us sang mga migo ko. but it seems nanotice namon daw taga video daw natreat nila as an opportunity to show-off sang mga gamit nila nga bagu ni mong haha..

sang indi pa ko tama g*go, handum ko sang una maging industrial designer. design commercial products and shit for a living. toothbrush, toilet bowsl, stereo, cars.. tanan ah. so for me. in that sense. pwede man maging art ang bskan anu nga bagay done right (whatever right means para cmu eh hehe).

so commercialism is not that bad man para sakon. kind of like what Zach de la Rocha said sang ginpamangkot sya if anti-commercialism sa. then why is RATM signed to one the biggest labels (sony). teh hamblal ya.. ky by signing to a major label like sony. they can get their message heard by a much larger audience. or daw amu na hehe..

but yeah, 6cyclemind sucks ass

I think the main point of this article is "not" band endorsement but bands being "hired" to make "jingles" for products.

I agree with you maladroid sa punto mo about RATM. But the way i see it, RATM wants a broader audience for they have a message they want to get across. What message does sandwich and 6 cycle mind have? hehehe

As for Ultimo, i agree with you too on the point where our scene is different from the US or the EURO scene when it comes to financial returns. So this is what i want to say about it.... If you call yourself an "artist" and you are having a hard time feeding your family, "go get a real job!"... hehehehe

@The Spook. ang message guro sang 6cyclemind based sa ad nila. if you're in a band and you drink tanduay. you'd get to sleep with katrina halili hahaha..

iya ya guro sang sandwich. we're so cool. we can getaway with doing a condom jingle. hahahaha..

kag I agree gid sa getting a job. for me daan. corny man tuod. but music is my life not my livelihood hehe..

nami man tni if you could earn from doing something you love eh. but cguro not to the point nga ibaylo mo na what you stand for or ang kalag mo hehe.. maybe wala lang ta kabalo. basi amu nagid mana ya si reymund marasigan all this time.

yep. disheartening lang galeng like in the case of sandwich nga sang una you look up to them. in the end sell-outs man cla gle hehe.. like in the case man sang RATM except Zach. wtf ballads w/ audioslave? tsk tsk..

mayu pa ang 6cyclemind. napabalu na nila nga bullshit cla halin pagwa nila haha.. it's no surprise to anyone gid guro nga maubra cla tanduay jingle sa ulihi haha..

pero ako I'm guilty of doing jingles man. may ara paid may ara man for the fun of it lang. for politicians kag kaagi man corporate (globe). sadya man pru haha.. sadya if you can make fun of yourself. but if you take yourself too seriously then its not for you hehe

pru kaagi ntouch ko sa isa ka pinoy nga artist. painter. nakita ko sa ANC. ang dw known sa for putting vertical lines sa mga works ya. explain ya kuno sa mga bata ya. sorry if magutman kamo. kay amu ni si tatay nyo. artist. indi ko gusto sa ulihi nga ang apelyido nga nadala nyo mging wala pulos. nga hamblan kamo. ah si tatay nyo wala panindugan na. daw matulo man luha ko kag. gntranslate ko lng to gle sa ilonggo kay indi ko kabalo magtagalog haha..

anyways don't take me seriously. I'm the guy who wanted to design toilet bowls for a living hehehe

hmm, kaso to think about it na lang, pangabuhi na nila... hehehe... muna ga mainstream na ang iban nga underground bands because amo lang na ila nga work. budlay gid kun ara ka sa entertainment nga job, go with the flow...

@mao: thats my point... thats there job... making music for us people to listen and enjoy to or puke if we don't like it hehehe. the perks for them to do adds for brands cguro gina take advantage nalng nila na because of the opportunity. siguro different artist has different agenda man ah... there is just more to take advantage lang gid cguro if you are pang "masa"

just like what gene simmons said "if others do this(music) for art and other reasons, we're here to entertain and make money because this is our business...SHOWBUSINESS" so siguro that's the kind of path in making music other artists chose. because the brand thinks nga this bands ang pinaka-"masa" subong thats why they were asked to do those.

depends sa approach sang isa ka musician sa music...

1. like kung banda kamo then you do jazz music tapos trip nyo lang ya matukar jazz until mapatay kamo as a starving artist teh ok na ya na maskin wala kawarta...inyo na ya direction. coz you love your music and you just love to play.

2. but if some big time recording company will get you kag patukaron kamo jazz and emo and disco (and live concerts together with other big bands, sandwhich, chico sci) and do every liquor commercial and milk, shampoo, body soap, facial wash, but heres the catch "may one million peso contract per band member every year basta di lang ma breach ang contrata...and that is business...teh kung mag kagat ka kag matukar ka sang mga sounds na daw indi mo trip for the sake of money teh imo nana ya. pero i don't think nga muna man ang gakatabo sa states sa mga bands or musicians nila. imagine black sabbath endorsing a brand of toothbrush or socks. eehehe.

i what i have postedd, you cannot blame the bands. its just pure business...well, what do i know about music business...kay sa akon, there are two things, music business and music showbusiness.

weird gani sa aton di. gatukar ta diri for free. mayo nana nga may makwa ta halin sa mga organizers, but we don't demand for something and because we can't. nami lang guid ya magtukar.

kung ako mangkuton. i'll choose number 1 cguro...bwahahahah...i don't need commercial stuff to just make good music.

pero kung may maabot na deal, dira ang budlay nga decision coz you will do the stuff that you don't really like or things that you do't normally do or sing songs that you don't even like to sing but for the sake of money you have o deal with it. pero la pa man and i don' think nga matabo. nasadyahan na ko subong sa guina ubra ko towards music, i influence people, they influence me. la na ko gapangita iban.

OT: daw perception ko dan nga mas mayo nga masikat ang kanta compare sa kung sin o nag kanta. like movies. sikat ang movie what we don't know kung sin o ang director nga xa guid gani ang utok sang movie..ayt?...

here's what I think:

There's nothing wrong if Sandwich decides to promote a condom brand. they're also promoting SAFE SEX right? what's wrong with that? the band has
its own followers and if Raymund and his gang are able to persuade them to protect themselves from HIV, STD, and unwanted pregancies, then I think they're doing a Great Job. the man is selling good music to people who enjoys the stuff he's making.

dba sandwich,6cyclemind,sugarfree,imago?.. dw supergroup na cla?.. i min.. dw under in one label/banner? dw ala tower of doom type nga my mga rooster sang banda... bsta dw batian kona... lipat ko sang "ngalan" sang label... bsta²,.. pangabuhi ngd na nga tawag..

@ninja joi: all i know is 6cycle mind,caillalilly and sandwich have the same manager... so i guess thats answer the question why they do what they are doing...