[OPINION] BINI, music nationalism, and cultural economics

That BINI was the first-ever homegrown Filipino musical act to perform in Coachella was more than enough to awaken once more the Filipino national pride. With a jam-packed Mojave Stage for their 40-minute set, “the nation’s girl group” sang even their Tagalog hits to an international live audience. Who knew we would ever hear Tagalog in Coachella? With vocals and a production that can easily compete with other musical acts, BINI landed P-pop to new heights in the internationalization of Filipino music.

This music internationalization, interestingly, emerges alongside increasing music nationalism, a paradox first observed in South Korea not just in their music industry but in the broader Korean society. Globalization has always been thought to be incompatible with national identity and local culture. However, with what we’re seeing in Philippine music nowadays, alongside the push to internationalize is an ever-increasing nationalism that is also multicultural and hyperlocal. 

Undeniably, it is SB19 who brought P-pop into the world stage. In 2025, SB19 performed in sold-out shows not just in the Philippines but also in Asia, North America, and Australia. The latest DreamWorks animated film about Filipino diaspora, Forgotten Island, features Filipino musical artists, including Lea Salonga and H.E.R alongside other Filipino artists in both the cast and in the production. The Filipino-American actor Joshua Dela Cruz, who now hosts the latest series in Blue’s Clues franchise, has been also featuring Filipino culture to school-age kids around the world. Another Filipino-American actor, Isa Briones, who plays Dr. Trinity Santos in the series The Pitt, recently made Filipinos around the world emotional for singing a familiar tune in Hiligaynon in the show. Recently, the 2005 Black Eyed Peas song “Bebot” came back as inspiration to a make-up trend in social media. 

Globalization can explain why Filipinos have been pushing to participate in world stages. However, nationalism is what makes us bring our own identity and culture to these stages. 

BINI’s historic performance also comes at an opportune time for the music industry and the broader creative sector of the Philippines. Since the Philippine Creative Industries Development Act (PCIDA) became a law, the potential for expansion of the Philippine music industry has caught the attention of academics and policymakers alike, thereby resulting in pioneer research studies on Filipino music and the revival of music policy discourse. 

For instance, MusikaPilipinas, a research program funded by the National Research Council of the Philippines (NRCP), is about to complete its three-year multi-project study on the Philippine music sector. SONIK Philippines has been at the center of lively music industry conversations about the internationalization of Filipino music through their SONIK Sessions. More recently, a bill by Senator Loren Legarda on the establishment of a music development council was heard in Senate.

How can we take advantage of this increasing representation and participation of Filipino musical artists in the global stage? 

Studies from cultural economics in demand for cultural goods point to importance of exposure to allow not just more Filipinos to appreciate our own music but also to potentially increase listenership of Filipino music globally. These studies point to the role of exposure to cultural goods over time in allowing a person to cultivate a taste for such goods or to better appreciate the good. Hence, in the case of music, this increasing exposure to our own music we are now again experiencing nowadays — thanks to the rise of not just P-pop but also pop rock and indie pop bands — point to the potential of the much-aspired revival of the Filipino music industry. 

In this case, there is indeed a role for music policy to influence music demand today by influencing how we, as a nation, view the future of Filipino music. For one, the Philippine government may also implement policies that can reduce the monetary costs of attendance to live Filipino music events which can, in turn, shift attendance away from concerts of international artists. For instance, the government can implement a program that will provide long-term subsidies for local cultural consumption. This can allow us Filipinos to attend more local musical events in our lifetime. By making it cheaper for Filipinos to consistently participate in local musical events, Filipinos today will be encouraged to listen to more Filipino music.

Alternatively, social policy that includes yearly national campaigns like the Linggo ng Musikang Pilipino every July can be expanded to include programs aiming to foster nationalistic attachment to local music vis-à-vis foreign music. Through these activities, Filipinos can be encouraged to reimagine what the revival of the golden age of Filipino music can look like as a response to Krina Cayabyab’s call to “re-mythify OPM” and fully shift the discourses away from the “OPM is dead” sentimentality towards a newfound pride for the unique Filipino sound we can offer to the world. While this may also decrease our affinity to foreign music, it will increase the patronage of our own music. Following from economic theory, these better prospects for Filipino music will encourage us to consume more Filipino music today. 

Supporting music creation can indeed support music expansion and further music internationalization if that is indeed the direction the Philippine music industry wishes to take. Supply-side interventions that can support musical artists and all other music workers has always been part of the music policy discourses. However, social policies aiming to foster Filipino demand for Filipino music should also be part of the discourses. It cannot be emphasized enough that there is wisdom in the age-old advice, “Tangkilikin ang sariling atin,” not simply because of nationalistic sentimentality but because at the core of any push for economic growth and expansion is nationalism. – Rappler.com

Marjorie Muyrong-Rodriguez is a PhD Sociology candidate at La Trobe University. Despite the sociological focus of her dissertation, she is a trained economist from Ateneo de Manila University. She is also an economist in the MusikaPilipinas Research Program. You can send her comments at majomuyrong@gmail.com.