“Wala pa nung MYX, wala pa nung MTV
Wala pa nung internet, wala pa nung iPod o MP3
Wala pa nung cable, wala pa nung cellphone
Wala pa ring CD o DVD
Meron lang Betamax
Sa Jingle Magazine natutong mag gitara
Sinifra ang mga kanta sa cassette at plaka”
– As what the nostalgic chorus of the Filipino alternative rock band Sandwich sings in their 2008 hit single “Betamax”.
I was born in the 90s. MTV aired as a cable TV channel was the first music experience I can recall back when I was 5 years old.
CDs were already popular but we still buy music albums in cassette tape format (which cost Php 100) since we are in a budget and a hundred peso value was expensive back then. CDs were around Php 400.
We weren’t connected to the internet when we had our first personal desktop computer set up in our home but we did install Winamp, a media player that supports the MP3 file type.
Owning a cellphone was considered a luxury that time and the Nokia 3210 was the sleekest phone to own. That was a predecessor of the iconic legend Nokia 3310.
MYX (another music channel in the Philippines) and iPod (a portable media player device) were both launched at the start of the 2000s. DVDs gained popularity as another disc storage format in the noughties.
Vinyl (a phonograph record) and Betamax (a videocassette record format) were used way before I was born. So as the “Jingle Chordbook Magazine”, which was introduced in the early 1970s.
Written and directed by Chuck Escasa, the documentary film “Jingle Lang Ang Pahina” released in 2012 explores the independent music publication Jingle Chordbook Magazine on how it survived through Martial Law in the 1980s and how it inspired the Filipino youth to think and engage in social issues in addition to the lyrics and guitar chords of the top 40 hits and reviewing album releases. The narrative is told in different voices by the writers, artists, sales/marketing people, musicians, and fans.
The documentary was open to the public for free viewing last July 22 to 23 in honor of Gilbert Guillermo, the founder of Jingle Magazine, who passed away last July 21st, 2020. Watch the trailer:
Boysen Beats hosted a watch party of the film in their Facebook page.
The name “Jingle Magazine” only strike a chord with me when I watched the documentary. When a music chord book-magazine was first introduced to me by an uncle, we call it “Song Hits” and now I know why: It’s one of those brand names (a music magazine that was circulated in the 1940s along with Billboard Magazine) that became a generic word for a type of product (like Xerox, Google, Photoshop, etc.). I still call a similar type of magazine “song hits” up to this date.
I did collect song hits once in a while. I remembered when I was 6 my first song hits magazine was bought, I couldn’t stop scanning and skimming through the top 40 hits on every page. I don’t even know how to read properly yet nor understand what those lyrics mean and how guitar chords work. I just enjoyed collecting and curating song titles so I would take note what records I should buy or which artists I should look forward to. (Back story: I grew up watching MTV and collect cassette tapes than watch cartoons and toys.)
Over the years, song hits are probably one of the most magazine collections I own. (Learning to play the guitar is one of my frustrations. haha.) I still keep my surviving copies of The Top 40 Hits and Most Wanted Hits and an almost complete collection of MYX Magazine.
Popular band Sandwich was the cover for the August-September 2008 issue of MYX Magazine when they celebrated their 10th anniversary. Their album “S Marks The Spot”, which feature the songs “Procrastinator”, “Manila”, and their chart-topping hit “Betamax”, was the feature album of the lyrics and chords section.
Looking back when I was a grade-schooler, I’ve always wanted to work for a music magazine (similar to Jingle Magazine) or a record store (that sells CDs, DVDs, vinyl, and Betamax) or a record company (that release records over the internet) or a radio station (that can be accessed in cellphones) or a cable music channel (like MYX or MTV) or a successor to MP3s and iPods (like Spotify or TikTok or the music consumption of the future).
Anyways, while you’re still here reading a non-review (which is supposed to be film review) article, might as well follow Spinnin’ Rabbit on the following socials: Spotify, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Crownnote, and WordPress.
Padayon!
-jrabbi
Spinnin' Rabbit 