Kinnoboyan music: meanings and construction in the context of the Kankanaeys of Loo an d Abatan

Abstract

Motivated by the predominance of country music in the musical preference of the Igorots, this study explored the structure of meanings and construction of the musical genre as a popular culture of the Kankana-eys of Loo and Abatan. Using key informant interviews, group discussions, and semi-structured interviews, the study sought to determine the context or situation where country music is appropriated; the characteristics of country music that makes the respondents prefer it; and the meanings and construction of country music in the socio-cultural context of the respondents. Findings show that the respondents’ preferences to country music is result of a complex set of relations and interactions between mass media, cultural spheres, socio-cultural context, public and private routine or everyday life, and the particular time and location of the respondents.

Country music as a “cultural good” introduced by the Americans and currently as media hype is taken by the respondents as a cultural resource in their own socio-cultural context. Through cultural power, the respondents are able to localize and “own” the music and appropriate it into their everyday public and private spheres. The term “kinnoboyan” which replaces “country” signifies the “kinnoboyan” landscape and community where the local “meaning system” of the music was constructed. In this landscape, the respondents were able to subvert the “Western-ness” of the genre and in return re-constructed and re-embedded local meanings in to the music. Findings also reveal that the local meanings of the music are structured in the evaluation of its lyrics and themes that reflect the respondent’ values, sentiments, and personality. The music also describes well their social relationships, daily routines, and their aspirations as settlers of the rural. Likewise, the parallelism of the music to their traditional day -eng, to the beating of their gong, and to the image of their “cowboyness” fills a socio-cultural nostalgia that brings them into a reflection of their ‘Igorotness” in the music.

In their musical artistry, the use of vernacular language, setting, and local promotion are the main course of reproducing the “local” version of “kinnoboyan” music. This local artistry even bounds the songs to their ethno liguistic group, who holds the authentic understanding of the language of the music.

As the music is associated to the group of Igorots, it is then advocated that the “kinnoboyan” music as a musical preference of the Igorots should be understood as neither a result of corporate and media promotion nor mainly a result of colonial influence but because it appeals not only to their own senses,emotions, thoughts of self and others, but also to their cultural consciousness. This consciousness actually makes “kinnoboyan” music their “own” production.