COPIED EMO-TIONS

I saw this report on Kapuso Mo Jessica Soho about Filipino Emo. Emo is from the word Emotional Hardcore – a form of rock that derives its power from extreme emotions usually sadness, disappointment, and lust (marketed as love). Pinoy Emo lovers are literal carbon copy of their Western counterparts. Some even go as far as to cut themselves (encouraged by the music). What a sad development! I listen to emo but I have no plans of hurting myself or copying the lifestyle – there is a limit to my admiration. I don’t take the music seriously as this comes from rich white kids with nothing better to do. Let me remind you they are the offspring of a people that routinely insults us in their TV shows. They are definitely not fooling me with their pseudo-rebellion. Please don’t swallow everything whole – think about it. Have the right perspective - our color is brown and we live in third world country not USA.

To get a proper perspective of our standing in the world, please listen to other forms of music esp. to Filipino-American hip-hop music, which they sing about racial discrimination, our people’s struggle and FILIPINO PRIDE. Do not get caught in issues not our own. The last things we need are Filipinos with alien perspective: physically Filipino, emotionally and mentally white. In the past, I thought hip-hop is the most foreign American cultural import to reach our shores but Fil-Ams like Apl.de.ap and MC Aero (local MC) showed me that convergence of hip-hop with nationalism and ethnic pride is possible. Taking a Western cultural import molding it according to our needs and temperament and finally producing a form, very much our own should be our goal always – e.g. the Puerto Ricans did it with their Reggaeton. Although we haven’t done something of that magnitude yet it would come soon and it would be a victory against massive Westernization.