Asin is a folk band of the Philippines that has often been referred to as being at the very heart of the modern Filipino folk music tradition. The band was started by Lolita Carbon, the lead singer, and currently is comprised of its original members – Cesar “Saro” Banares, Mike Pillora, and Pendong Aban (all of whom she met at a folk rock club). The four named their group Salt of the Earth (in English), but only when they found a record label who wanted a “female Freddie Aguilar” (sort of the Elvis Presley of Folk Rock in the Philippines) did they rename it to “Asin” (the Tagalog for “Salt”). This all happened during the 1970s, when there was a phenomenal Filipino folk rock boom and Filipino songs with Tagalog and other dialects’ lyrics reigned over American and other foreign ones.
Asin grew to popularity relatively quickly, however always among the lower class – in a country where society was split into two very distinct halves, cultures were very different among those with money and those without. They became one of the first known groups to incorporate Filipino indigenous instruments into pop/rock music, and studied a variety of Filipino tribal music from the provinces to “be true to the origins of Filipino music”. Their quest to be a “real” Filipino band might be seen as a backlash to previous decades of Western musical and cultural domination in the country, and the need for a Filipino identity to develop.
The songs that Asin put out were very politically minded, which is curious as the band did not set out to be a political band. However, Asin came to have a very political reputation, which was especially important as they were making music right around the time of former President Ferdinand Marcos (an awful man who established martial law in the Philippines and virtually drained the country of all its money and strength).
All this occurred while Asin was known as more of a poor man’s band. They were extremely popular with the masses – appealing to the everyday struggles and concerns of their people. But, they did not go over well with the upper class. Traditionally, the upper class in the Philippines concern themselves with all things Western – American music, movies, they speak English in their schools and at home, and a mestiza (half Caucasian and half Asian) look was considered to be the most beautiful one of all. So, when Asin came out, they were instantly cast off as music of the lower classes because of their strictly Filipino message and being. They came out with songs written entirely in Tagalog and did not produce covers of American songs (rather, they did the occasional cover of Filipino artists). The wannabe-Western high society of the Philippines denigrated Asin as a common-folk band because it was entirely a Filipino one and spoke about the slowly perishing reality of the country.
However, the tables were turned when a young 14-year old boy from the Sapang Bato slums of the Pampanga province immigrated to the United States for a better life. This boy was named Allen Pineda Lindo, and would be one of the founding members of the Black Eyed Peas, an extremely popular American hip-hop band. As a child, Pineda grew up listening to bands like Asin, and today often cites them as one of his foremost musical influences. Upon moving to the States, he met the man who is now known as Will.I.Am (often seen as the front man of sorts of the Black Eyed Peas) in high school, hitting it off because of their love of break dancing and rap. He then assumed the stage name of Apl.de.Ap and they started a hip-hop band with a traditional structure more similar to that of a rock band. The Black Eyed Peas rose to astronomical fame, establishing themselves as an influential and integral part of 20th and 21st century pop culture, and earning international acclaim and recognition.
With Apl.de.Ap spearhading the project, the Black Eyed Peas released two singles with Tagalog lyrics. This was monumental, as although there are millions of Filipino immigrants in the US, there has never really been any integration of Filipino (or Asian, really) culture into the mainstream American one. Even more important, though, was that Apl.de.Ap wrote the songs based on two songs from his favorite band – Asin. Each of the BEP’s two “Filipino” songs were rapped to the backdrop of an Asin refrain or beat, and you can even hear some of the instruments the band used in the choruses. The lyrics, similarly, resembled those of Asin’s (more so in the first-released song, The Apl Song, which was about Apl’s life growing up in the provinces and the realities of Filipino poverty), and Apl was even able to commission two Asin members to sing the chorus of The Apl Song.
With the great exposure that the Black Eyed Peas got from the two Filipino songs (The Apl Song, a more slow-moving, sentimental piece and Bebot, an up-beat hip-hop song more true to the BEP’s form and very much a dance/club hit), Apl was able to bring a bit of Filipino culture into America. In interviews about the songs, he spoke about Asin and the folk music tradition in the Philippines, which only brought them (Asin) more fame.
What happened because of these songs is fascinating, because as a result of the songs being so wildly popular with the Filipino-American culture in the States, they became popular in the Philippines. Everyone in his homeland was proud that Apl had brought recognition to their country that the songs became instant favorites and were very popular among the youth especially. Interestingly enough, songs that were based on Asin songs – songs that were originally considered “poor man’s songs” – became songs that the wealthy and lower income alike listened to. Because of the Black Eyed Peas’ popularity, their Asin-based songs became accepted all through the Philippines, regardless of social class. And, as a result of this, Asin songs came to fame as well – their popularity revived and suddenly people of all different social areas listening to them.
The case of Asin and the Black Eyed Peas is a very important and interesting one in the history of Filipino folk music because it is an example of how it (Filipino folk music) is very much one burdened by the weight of social hierarchy. The delegation of Filipino folk music as that of the commoners shows the larger Filipino cultural issue – that because of the past colonization, Filipino social classes are determined by how “Western” one is and how far one can get from the original, Spaniard-deemed “barbaric” culture of the Philippines. However, with its transcending the cultural barriers, the Asin-based BEP songs showed that anyone can listen and appreciate Filipino folk music, and that the social divide only limits what the genre has to offer.
