PRIMER ON THE PROPOSED LOCAL LAW REQUIRING THE RADIOPLAY OF DAVAO SONGS
By Paolo A. Claudio (January 7, 2008)
There a lot of ways to tell whether a song is good or bad. But the most obvious criterion is by looking at the substance of the song. Substance covers the melody, lyrics, message, general feel, expression and content of the song. If it moves a person, such person will consider the song as good music.
Unfortunately, one person's musical preference is oftentimes different from another person. We don't generally like the songs of our parents and vice versa. It still surprises us that our close friends have a special liking to songs that we honestly cannot bear. Who can also deny the common practice of changing radio stations when driving?
This only proves that measuring the quality of a song based on substance is very subjective and can be frustratingly difficult. Exact science cannot be applied to the study of what makes good music. Music is art. Like any other art, music depends on volatile human emotions that vary from person to person.
POPULARITY: THE OBJECTIVE STANDARD
Since a song's substance is difficult to measure, people had to settle with the criterion of popularity. If the majority of the community loves a particular song, typically measured by record sales and radio requests, then there is something to that particular song that makes it good music.
But before a song can be appreciated by a large number of people, it has to undergo some sort of mass marketing for it to reach the consciousness of listeners. Gigs, television and taped performances on regular TV, cable and internet are some of the mass media that offer wide exposure to the songs and the artists. But above all, radio still remains the most effective and viable mass medium for songs.
The payola practice gave unsigned Davao artists a hard time presenting their songs to the general public, for the latter to accept or reject as good music. Heavily-played payola songs monopolized airtime, thereby robbing the listeners the chance to hear Davao music, which had the potential of becoming popular.
With only an exclusive pool of songs dominated by Manila and Western songs to choose from, the payola practice christened Manila and American songs as the norm for “good music”.
Payola grabbed the power of determining "good music" from the ears of the listening public and handed the power down to the hands of radio stations. Because of payola, radio unknowingly became the sole holder of such power. Payola appointed radio to become today’s objective measure of "good music". The general listening public, which should have been the objective arbiter for popular good music, had to take a backseat from then on and take whatever radio plays.
Payola is now an illegal practice under Philippine law because payola-based radio play tends to mislead the listeners into believing that the songs were chosen because of their artistic merit and popularity, when actually they were not.
When payola was finally declared illegal by law, its demise nevertheless left radio with the lasting complex that Davao music is almost always inferior to Manila and foreign music, hence the reluctance to support Davao Music.
INFERIORITY COMPLEX
Between (date) and (date), (group or individuals) tabulated the frequency of radio play of Davao songs from 5 Davao FM stations (5 stations) with pop and rock formats. It was discovered that ___% were OPM and____% were foreign. ___% of OPM are Manila songs, while ___x% are Davao songs, roughly representing ___ Davao songs per ___ hours. A detailed report of the tabulation is herewith attached as Annex A.
Understandably, radio merely wants to play it safe. It just makes good business sense to play Manila and foreign songs that have nationwide appeal to the exclusion of local songs. Radio justifies itself by assuming that Davaoenos are not ready for their Davao music-- that Davao music in radio is a major turnoff for Davaoenos.
The assumption is not entirely accurate.
To a certain extent, it can be argued that Davaoenos are not yet ready. But radio should not be held blameless for this unpreparedness. The common observation among the above-mentioned Davao artists is that they made it big in Manila. This means that these artists either got signed by a major record label and/or their songs got played on Manila radio and TV stations.
The revealing fact is, before they hit it big in Manila, their songs were virtual unknowns here in their own territory. Their songs, like any other local songs, receive no, if not limited and reluctant radio support. The only time stations take notice is when these very same songs get recognized in Manila. Why the reliance on Manila's stamp of approval before these songs receive radio support?
Sad to say, radio bias cascades to the listening public as well, who gets brainwashed into believing that a good Davao song worthy of appreciation is something that has Manila’s blessings.
In achieving a healthy
By regulation, we propose a local ordinance requiring radio stations to play 2 Davao songs per hour.
Our group has thrown this idea in the open, and as expected, such was met with the following concerns which are each addressed accordingly:
1. Lack of songs. There are not that many original songs to play from and would make the 2 Davao songs per hour unenforceable.
Answer: On the contrary, there are a lot of original songs from local artists. Attached is a data CD with ____ songs (in mp3 format) from Davao artists. Time, effort, hard work and hard earned money were spent in making these songs yet will only face rejection or apathy when submitted to stations. Even more plenty are unrecorded materials performed live. Due to lack of radio support, musicians are unwilling to record them. Therefore, we believe that if the 2 Davao songs per hour rule will become law, there will be an influx of more recorded materials for the radio to choose and play from. The more songs, the more choices. The more choices, the better the quality gets due to constructive competition.
2. “2 Davao songs per hour” is too much.
Answer: EO 255, a national legislation, requires radio stations to play 4 OPM songs per hour. The Whereas/Purpose clauses already discussed the importance of retaining the Filipino culture in radio. Our group is merely proposing a local law consistent with the national law. If an average song is 4 minutes in length, 8 minutes an hour is sufficient to achieve audience recall, yet is not that prohibitive to limit management prerogative. Furthermore, radio stations are still given the free hand to choose what Davao songs to play.
3. Why require? Why not just reward?
Answer: Requirement will give the law teeth. Stations that will not abide will be dealt with penalties. This is the only way to guarantee radio support, as contrasted by the voluntary nature of a reward system, which oftentimes carries a retarding effect. Besides, if some stations are already playing 1 or more Davao songs per hour, the proposed law won't be a compelling requirement at all.
4. The quality of recordings sounds dirty and harsh compared to polished Manila and foreign recordings.
Answer: Davao offers local artists a number of fine recording facilities to choose from to give their original songs an acceptable polished mix worthy of radio play. Recording rates are dropping through the years as gear, technology become cheaper and recording know-how are readily available in the internet. Nowadays, its commonplace to see records entirely produced in the rooms, garages, and homes of musicians, without necessarily sacrificing acceptable radio quality mixes. Nevertheless, the group proposes that a committee shall be formed to be the arbiters of what a quality recording is, and to make minimum technical standards (e.g. multitrack recording almost always renders cleaner and pristine mixes).
