The Philippine Popular Music Festival (PhilPop) Experience Part 2

The Bloggers' Night

Ryan Cayabyab delivers an impromptu lecture

The time is almost up for aspiring songwriters to submit their entries for the upcoming Philippine Popular Music Festival (PhilPop) as the deadline on May 10, 2012 at 11:59 PM (GMT +08:00) is just a day away. This songwriting tilt aims to revitalize the Philippine music industry by highlighting and celebrating the Filipino songs (OPM) which has been taking a backseat to foreign material for many years. The competition will have its finals night on July 14, 2012 at the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC) where the winning song will be awarded P1 million in cash while the second and third place winning songs will take home P500,000 and P250,000 respectively.

The festival’s executive director Ryan Cayabyab has been very enthusiastic about this project since it was formally launched about two months ago. And his enthusiasm has been felt online world through his tweets as he offer tips on songwriting while also reminding people not to wait until the last minute to upload their entries via the competition’s website at www.philpop.com.ph. Recently, Mr. C himself hosted a dinner at Napa Restaurant & Bar for bloggers to help spread the word and to promote PhilPop. The bloggers not only savored great food, an intimate performance by The Ryan Cayabyab Singers but they also the maestro in action as he even delivered an impromptu lecture about music.

Ryan Cayabyab and the Ryan Cayabyab singers

I thought that Ryan Cayabyab would inform us of things that I already knew from the launch but he said some stuff that I didn’t know before. First, he mentioned that the fourteen finalists will be included in a PhilPop album under Ivory Records. Another thing he said that I find very interesting was that this competition is all about finding new expressions and new forms. His short lecture that I mentioned earlier talked about melody, rhythm, dynamics, texture and timbre and how all of these figure in the songs that we usually hear. He said that a lot of OPM songs so far focused mainly on the melody and that he hopes that many of the entries would offer something new. He couldn’t stress enough the importance of finding new expressions in music through this competition. He wishes that the finalists in this competition will make up the music that will define this generation.

Ryan Cayabyab said that many of our singers have found fame and recognition abroad but sadly, the only song to penetrate the foreign market so far has only been Anak by Freddie Aguilar. He remains hopeful that PhilPop will be that spark, encouraging songwriters to come up with new material that will not only make it big here in the country but also in other markets as well. And it seems that this spark has already turned into a huge blaze as over a thousand entries have already been entered with the organizers expecting a huge amount of entries opting for a photo finish right before the submission closes its doors.

RAd plays the keyboard as Mr. C looks on

In the past year, I’ve noticed the rise of new singer/songwriters and also veteran recording artists coming up with more new and original material. Radio Republic has also recently launched and they are committed in playing OPM. And now, PhilPop comes in giving this golden opportunity for songwriters. All of these make for a very exciting time to be part of the Philippine music industry.

The Philippine Popular Music Festival is jointly presented by Maynilad, Meralco, PLDT, Smart Communications, Sun Cellular, North Luzon Expressway, Metro Pacific Investments, PICC, Philex Mining Corporation and TV5.

The Philippine Popular Music Festival (PhilPop) Experience Part 1
The Philippine Popular Music Festival (PhilPop) Experience Part 3
The Philippine Popular Music Festival (PhilPop) Experience Part 4
The Philippine Popular Music Festival (PhilPop) Experience Part 5
The Philippine Popular Music Festival (PhilPop) Experience Part 6