“Kalain man kang mga jingle na an, bagi’ng dai man pinag isipan”, “uluutro man lang ang tono”, those, among others, are some of the complaints you’ll hear from some quarters in Catanduanes, regarding those political jingles that we have been forced to listen since the campaign period started last March 29, 2019.
From early in the morning, until evening, the streets are filled with blasts of music coming from huge speakers mounted on trucks, cars, tricycles, jeeps and buses. Their goal is to introduce the candidates and their achievements including platforms down to the isolated barangays here in the happy island.
But, instead of welcoming these jingles with a smile, there are people who are just irritated with the repetitive tune of these musical introductions. Others criticize the cheesy content and music used for said jingles, while there are also who claim that the lyrics were just penned down without giving much thought to them.
True, many of these jingles are in fact, cheesy, old school, repetitive and, don’t make sense at all, but mind you, these qualities actually give the aspiring candidates an advantage.
The majority of the people who listen to these jingles are simple folk – fishermen, farmers, etc – most of these people are not that familiar, or totally have no clue who are most of these people are. This is where the cheesiness comes into play: during the election, after passing the section containing the names of the congressmen, governors, senators and local mayors, I bet, that our country men will rely on these cheesy jingles to fill up the remaining sections of the ballots. Expect to hear things like: “Si ano na sana daw, su ang jingle su sa Momoland” or “su ang jingle ngani su cha-cha? Sa’y na ngani ito?” this coming May 13.
Mind you, the comments came from millennials and people with white-collar jobs – people who only make up a small portion of society. True, for the ears of these people, these jingles are a source of irritation, but, in reality, if these candidates can catch the attention of the masses, who actually sing along to and play these jingles at home, then victory is all but assured.
So don’t underestimate the cheesiness of these jingles dear readers, they might be the secret weapons that will bring a smile to those candidate’s faces; they are cheesy, but catchy.
