7 wishes for OPM

MANILA, Philippines - Yes, my friends, it has come to this. There is a current drought in OPM that is so depressing, wishful thinking sounds like a better idea than trying to figure out ways to save it. In the words of Rivermaya, “Kasalanan bang humingi ako sa langit ng…?”

Should a shooting star fly past your window, play Teeth’s 1999 hit song, and wish for the following with me:

I wish we realized that OPM starts with an “O,” as in “Original.”

While Call Me Maybe and Super Bass aren’t half bad (they’re terrible), covering them and posting them on YouTube does not count as a contribution to OPM. As a matter of fact, it’s a disgrace simply because we can do so much better than “boy you came into my life/I miss you so bad.”

Here’s something to chew on: Freddie Aguilar’s Anak has been translated into more than a dozen languages and it topped the charts in six countries for weeks. To think that it didn’t even win first place at Metro Pop. Just for kicks, try searching its English and Japanese versions on YouTube. It’s amazing in a funny way.

I wish no one would start a band without first getting a good songwriter.

We’ve heard it all. We’re tired of hearing “tonight” as the last word in a line, and Facebook relationship statuses on your lyrics make the whole song forgettable. A good songwriter would know that. So get one.

Some of our bands have learned it the hard way. A band without a songwriter is not a band; it’s a group of musicians, regardless of how good they play their instruments. Try taking the songwriter out of the band and you’ll get songs which sound like…

Art.

Time is a song’s greatest critic. Artists, write a song that you’ll still be listening to 10 years from now.

I wish fans would watch their favorite bands live, and not just record them for YouTube.

While watching from the comfort of our homes is all very fine, there’s nothing like the real thing. It’s just pathetic how one can no longer see a band perform onstage. Instead, you see fans’ phones held high like glow-in-the-dark giraffe heads. And they don’t even head bang.

Watching a live gig is God’s gift to man. Make the most out of it. Feel the music. Join the mosh pit. Bust eardrums with your guitar. Punch the jerk who’s been grabbing your butt. In short, rock out.

Come on, YouTube doesn’t have all those buttons installed.

I wish we supported our hometown heroes.

And I’m not talking about “Support Filipino” in general. Urbandub and Junior Kilat aren’t from Manila. Joey Ayala, Cynthia Alexander, and Bayang Barrios are from down South (way down South). There’s more to OPM than the Manila scene (which is pretty much like you-heard-of-this-band-from-some-obscure-land-in-Europe/Canada scene).

If there’s something new and distinctly Filipino that will come out from this country, I’m betting my bottom dollar on non-Manileños. Manila today, aside from being saturated with all kinds of bands, doesn’t have so much of its character anymore. Listen to Urbandub in Cebu and you’ll know what Gabby Alipe meant with “city lights shine like diamonds.”

I wish bands learned how to play well before feeling the whole “I’m in a band” thing.

There are four things we all hate about amateur bands (but all of us just don’t know it yet):

First of all, we hate — no, abhor — instruments that are out of tune. It’s a wonder how and why so many bands still continue to play with their guitars sounding like a music class for boys undergoing puberty.

In line with this, we hate drummers and bassists forgetting all about tempo. The band and the audience rely on you, people in the rhythm section.

Thirdly, we hate bands that forget about balancing volumes. You’re not yet playing in Araneta. We’re still in Saguijo, bro.

Finally, please come on time. Studies show that 99.9 percent of quarrels in the music scene start with adjustments in the program.

You don’t feel the music if you miss out on these. Instead, you feel the attention… and the eye-rolling and ear-plugging we do while you “feel it.” These things are basic. It’s been there before The Beatles laid them down. (What… there’s such a thing as before The Beatles?)

I wish we could just move on from the Eraserheads, “Bamboo Rivermaya,” and the Juan dela Cruz Band.

While we owe a lot to these icons of Pinoy Rock, we also have to stop wishing for Manny Pangilinan to sponsor another Eraserheads reunion. In Ely’s own words at the press conference after the second reunion concert, “There’s Sandwich, Pupil, The Dawn, and Markus Highway to listen to.”

There’s a story of Pepe Smith playing live and being requested to play Himig Natin thrice in one night. Pissed off, he told the audience member, “Gawa ka ng sarili mong himig!”

I wish somebody would save this decade.

While we had The Wuds and The Dawn in the ‘80s, Eraserheads and Rivermaya in the ‘90s, Sugarfree and Itchyworms in the 2000s, three years have come and gone and no one’s really taken over this decade. God save OPM.

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Tweet the author @sarhentosilly.