BisRockI had a drink with my friends last night at Handuraw. The entrance is free since only neophyte bands were playing. I kinda enjoyed some songs but some are too lousy...Anyways, I was kinda surprised when I entered the "bisrock" term at Answers.com and they gave me a result. I used to search that term before but answers.com only gave me links but now they give me a concrete definition of the term "bisrock". So here it is...
BisRock refers to the Cebuano rock music industry. The term comes from the words Bisaya ('our own') and 'rock' (for rock music).
The term was coined by
Januar E. Yap, a Cebuano writer, in 2002. It was first applied to Missing Filemon's first album.
BackgroundThe use of the Cebuano language by Cebu-based bands has never been popular due to the predominance of Tagalog and English songs even in the playlists of Cebu-based FM radio stations. Urbandub, Sheila and the Insects, The Ambassadors and Cueshé are some of the Cebuano rock bands which have gained national fame yet didn't release a Cebuano single. Certainly, the use of Cebuano was not the path to national fame.
Against this unwritten rule, some Cebuano rock bands started popularizing rock songs using the Cebuano language. Among these bands are the following:
* Aggressive Audio * Blood of the Stone * Gangrene * Glass of Dirt * Indephums * Jimmycycle * Mantequilla * Missing Filemon * Phylum * Scrambled Eggs * Timeslot93.1 Smash FM helped these budding bands by featuring their songs on-air.
The popularity of BisRock is attributed by Januar Yap to the reaction of Cebuanos against the claims of the Cebu Pop Music Festival.
CDsIt is a common misconception that BisRock bands are just after the popularity and they are willing to distribute their songs even by pirate networks. However, from their web sites available on the net, it is obvious that they are trying to sell their CDs through legitimate channels.
All of these stores are located in the City of Cebu
* MANU, 2nd floor, Elizabeth Mall * A. Salonga, Lower Ground Floor, SM City Cebu * JB Music, 3rd Floor, SM City CebuCriticismBisRock lyrics are considered by some to be without literary value. Basic grammatical rules are also disregarded.
Yap has this to say about the criticisms of BisRock:
"Kill all the critics. Or let them compose their own songs. Seriously, that's not even the issue now. What is important is the young's burgeoning interest to make songs in their own language. That is for me magical. Every now and then, there will be some of them who'll be dishing out songs with a literary flair. In fact, that's happening now. Literary value and grammar? Oh, hell, let the critics reread Frank Sinatra or Air Supply."
Trivia * The Ambassadors' Simple Changes did contain one song (Ulipon) in Cebuano, but this was a hidden track attached after one of the album's regular songs. You have to scan carefully the small print on the cover to find the title of the song. * Junior Kilat's Budoy s Ako si M-16 during the grand opening night of Pinoy Big Brother: Celebrity Edition. (However, strictly speaking, Budoy and Junior Kilat is not part of BisRock, but of an earlier--if not separate--movement in Cebuano music which is called RnB for Reggae na Bisaya.)source: answers.com
The write up is a part of the "Rock n Roll Joyride" article sponsored by Red Horse. It's subtitle is "BISROCK, CEBU'S BEST PRODUCT SINCE YOYOY VILLAME". This is what the article said:
You can credit that to their reps as a musical town courtesy of their guitar-makers, or heck just Yoyoy being there, but it is quite obvious the sound of Cebu is globally competent.
At the end of the article this blogsite is mentioned...
