Euphoria, Pakikibaka, at Bahala Na: Kontekstuwalisasyon ng Piling Awiting Post-EDSA

Abstract

The EDSA People Power I that ousted the Marcos dictatorship led to the production of a number of songs giving various perspectives on the so-called “peaceful revolution.” Utilizing Howard Zinn’s and Teresita Maceda’s concepts about people’s history, this paper scrutinized the world phenomenon of songs that reflect people’s history so as to contextualize class contradictions in three post-Edsa songs (“Handog ng Pilipino sa Mundo”/“The Filipinos’ Offering to the World”, “Sayaw sa Bubog”/“Dance on Shards” and “Kumusta Na”/“How Are You?”). This paper also compared the various perspectives of distinct social classes on the “victory” and failure of EDSA I, so as to contribute to the unmasking of the emptiness of the historical revisionism which loyalists of the Marcos dictatorship peddle. In general, the paper is aimed at making the significance, meaning and context of these three post-EDSA songs accessible and intelligible to the post-EDSA I generations.