The peg that stumbles

Is producing a Filipino version of a foreign trend your idea of creativity?

Do you use a “peg?”

You get to hear that word a lot in publishing, design and entertainment.

A “peg” is that trendy magazine you show your photographer, your stylist and your model and say, “I want the same lighting, the same treatment and the same look.”

A “peg” is that trendy foreign website your client shows you and your Web design team when he tells you that he wants something “very similar.”

A “peg” is that catchy but obscure decades-old song that you tweak and overlay with Filipino lyrics and claim as your own. And when people notice the uncanny resemblance you say, “They were just ‘influences.’”

Recently, allegations surfaced that the song “Pinoy Ako” by the band Orange and Lemons resembled “Chandelier” by The Care; that “Stay” by Cueshé resembled “The Greatest View” by Silverchair; and that “Leaving You” by Session Road resembled “Garmonbozia” by Superdrag. In their defense, these bands used the words “peg” and “influences” quite liberally.

Buy, download and listen to the songs. You be the judge.

And that’s precisely the problem. Regardless of what lawyers say, we the buying public are the judges. Our lack of patronage can be the death sentence for local creative industries. And sadly, some might deserve it.

The music industry is but one of many accused of crossing the line between using foreign influences as pegs and ripping them off. The majority of local television programs, magazines, movies and advertisements have become formulaic.

With rampant piracy, dwindling local movie patronage, poor reading habits and apathy toward commercials the people and their wallets have spoken.

Filipinos can tell. Many read the same foreign magazines, watch the same foreign movies, listen to the same foreign albums and browse the same foreign websites. Anyone with access to originals will prefer those to local knock-offs.

Putting a local face on a foreign trend no longer passes muster with the increasingly informed tastes of Filipinos. A derivative of a foreign influence lacks identity; if you can copy it, so too can others. We want something truly fresh and new.

Local musicians cannot expect support as they decry piracy when they themselves practice plagiarism.

Local designers cannot expect international recognition when their works are obvious rip-offs.

Local publishers and movie companies cannot expect patronage when their productions are but poor copies of the foreign competition.

Using a creative peg is an effective marketing and communication strategy; if it worked for them it should work for you. Everything comes from something and we all need our inspirations and influences. Benchmarks prod us to surpass them. Pegs, when properly used, can lead to originality.

But if we aspire for radical innovation, insights into the Filipino soul and timeless artistry, we should look to ourselves, to what we intimately know and yet perhaps overlook.

“Filipino” should be more than just a theme we occasionally use. It should be our main preoccupation. There are endless interpretations and innovations that can be made of our own culture. Each Filipino has a different homeland in his mind. Who we are is polyglot, constantly mutating and inclusive. And that is our strength. Our culture is so much uncharted territory; there is room for every Filipino’s imagination.