A Critical Analysis on Subjectivity and Hybridity in the Age of Interactive Internet Media: The Musical Performances of Charice Pempengco and Arnel Pineda

          Most of the time, we Filipinos appreciate celebrities if they have the so called “masang Pilipino appeal”. I do believe that this appeal isn’t merely focus on their physical attributes since we already appreciate people like Willie Revillame, Melai Cantiveros, and Jovit Baldobino. There are people who are very talented and yet they don’t have it.

            Today, we also give attention to those who are able to steal the global scene through the Internet via sites like YouTube. Some examples are Charice and Arnel Pineda, the fact that they we’re viewed by million viewers from all around the world make us proud and it results of us appreciating them now better than before. Additional contributing factor is when the well-known personalities like Oprah and the likes admire them.

            I believe that this “appeal” doesn’t only exist here in the Philippines but to other countries as well. Not only applicable to local celebrities but to ordinary people too. At present, the Korean performer Psy is the most talked about YouTube sensation, his song entitled “Gangnam Style” was viewed by hundred million of viewers globally and became trending in Social sites such as Twitter where famous Hollywood celebrities like Britney Spears mentioned it in their tweets.

            Upon searching the net, I found out that even ordinary children were able to charm almost half a billion of viewers worldwide such as the video uploaded in 2007 with the title “Charlie bit my finger- again”. As I see it, it is not only about the so called “appeal”. Sometimes, even I myself even though I don’t appreciate these people at first, since they are the talked of the town, I will be curious enough to check their video and viola, another number is added on the view list.

            This “appeal” I’m talking about has underlying factors and in this article the author goes deeper. She examined hybrid subjectivity on the musical performances of Charice Pempengco and Arnel Pineda through internet media and how it affects our perception of locality, nationality and race. For me, in simple words she discussed how Charice and Arnel were able to raise their career by singing the song well in their video in almost the same way it was sang by the original singers (which are very famous around the globe).

            I totally agree to Umberto Seco on his speculation that the United States was a country “obsessed with realism, where, if a reconstruction is to be credible, it must be absolutely iconic, a perfect likeness, a ‘real’ copy of the reality being represented” (1967, 1986:4). I think not only the United States but the whole world is obsessed in the same way. In Charice and Arnel’s situation, it is true that they were able to enter and be recognized in the global music scene since they become a ‘real’ copy of the reality they represent. When Charice stunned the audience of Oprah Winfrey with her rendition of Whitney Houston’s “I Have Nothing”(Castro, pg 7) and when Pineda showed his ability to imitate the timbre and vocal inflections of former Journey lead singer, Steve Perry, along with his own musical artistry (Castro, pg 8) I knew that it will be a challenge to create their own identity away from the famous singers they were attached with. Most of time, musical icons like Whitney Houston and Steve Parry became the measurement or “basehan” if you are a good singer. It is the reality that even if you are talented in your own way, there is a great chance that you will be judged based on how you were able to match the original singer of the song you sing. Are you as good as him/her in your own way, better, or you’re just simply imitating the person?

            Another factor is our colonial mentality towards America. Our local singers imitate them due to public demands just like how we imitate K-Pop today. I totally agree to the author in this sentence “We may not see and hear the world through their eyes and ears, but away from the obvious boundaries of the physical world, we have unprecedented access to their points of view as mediated by multiple technologies of recording, processing and diffusion”. I remember my stand on our previous critical analysis on “A Life lived in Media”, as I mentioned that media becomes the medium of influencing each other and whatever the role media plays, all factors came from us and we decide what to believe and what to do.

            It is an important factor also, that we Filipinos speak English as our second language; even Psy of South Korea in his song “Gangnam style” has an English lyrics. As the author mentioned in this article “There may be no lingua franca for the whole world, but if the televised Olympics are any indication, English (and apparently French) is the next best thing to a universal tongue”. Like the author, I believe that if Charice, Arnel or Psy sang purely in their native language, they will not be this successful to the global music industry.

            Today, through interactive internet media we all have a chance of global stardom not only in the music industry but in other disciplines as well. With our technology evolving every day, no one can say what is possible and impossible anymore. Many doors had opened already; we just need to think carefully of the path we will take.