Music of Social Concern and Cultural Freedom A Force for Social
Transformation This is the music for social criticism and
cultural liberation and is variously termed alternative,
protest, progressive or people’s music. (ex. Joey Ayala’s Wala
Nang Tao Sa Santa Filomena and Heber Bartolome’s Tagulaylay).
The music of this genre has always been in the process of
experimentation, change, and growth, since the American period
when socialistic ideas began to emerge in Filipino society. It
is being actively shaped today by socially committed poet-
musicians who are consciously using songs as a force for social
liberation, advocacy of social justice, and in the struggle for
human rights. It harnesses music as an instrument of social
criticism and change, taking up the issues of injustice and
oppression, neocolonialism, cultural erosion due to
globalization, plight of indigenous peoples, and other social
causes. Music is used as an instrument for social criticism and
change, and a vehicle of proposals for more humane a