An old music video of Pinoy pop group Alamat was recently brought up again on Twitter for its theme of discrimination, injustice and colonization of Filipinos in the Philippines.
The music video was Alamat’s song “’kasmala,’” a wordplay on the Filipino word “malakas.” “Malakas” means strong in English.
“’kasmala’” was also sung in seven Philippine languages.
The video and the song were released on July 15, 2021. The video has since garnered over one million views on YouTube.
On November 6, Twitter user @yeosangliker once again promoted the video of “’kasmala’”
The Twitter user was impressed by the anti-colonialism concept of the video.
“A Filipino boy group serving ‘fu** colonizers’ concept in their mv and I’m sitting here wondering how the world isn’t hearing them,” the tweet reads.
a filipino boy group serving “fuck colonizers” concept in their mv and im sitting here wondering how the world isnt hearing them pic.twitter.com/0271wPbL3B
— rin 2.0 (@yeosangliker) November 6, 2022
In a Twitter thread, the user also went on to explain some of the important historical references that he found out were featured there.
These include the following:
- The human zoo of Igorot natives during the 1904 St. Louis World Fair in Coney Island
- Racial segregation between Filipinos and white people
- Education to justify American colonization of the Philippines
- A controversial caricature of late President William McKinley
The Twitter user’s main post soon gained buzz on the short-message social media platform.
It has since garnered 12,300 retweets, 2,574 quote-tweets and 38,000 likes. The video attached to the tweet also earned more than 600,000 views.
It caught the attention of some users who have not heard of Alamat.
“I need to listen to more P-pop,” one user said.
“And imma listen to their entire discography,” another user tweeted.
“This is so interesting woah. The song is a bop too?? Hello I love this,” another user said.
Hollywood reporter Janet Nepales was one of those who commended the Pinoy pop band.
In one of the quote-tweets, Nepales described the group as one of the “next” acts on the global stage.
“Next on the global stage, Filipino boy groups,” she said.
Alamat eventually saw the surprising buzz the Twitter user had generated about their music.
They thanked the user through prayer emojis and a heart emoji via the quote-retweet.
🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽🤎 https://t.co/dFY8G1N5ZQ
— ⏩ ALAMAT ᜀᜎᜋᜆ᜔ (@Official_ALAMAT) November 8, 2022
Filmmaker Jason Paul Laxamana, also a scriptwriter and credited songwriter of the track, expressed hopes that more Filipinos will appreciate Alamat’s music one day.
“We’re gonna push for this ‘branding’ (we call it ‘mission’) for as long as we can. It’s tempting to feel entitled to Philippine support but we do away with that mindset and focus on delivering quality/innovative music; we keep hoping the Philippines will appreciate Alamat’s cultural value one day,” Laxamana tweeted.
Alamat previously comprises nine members who debuted in November 2020 under Viva Entertainment.
RELATED: P-pop group ‘Alamat’ features Philippine cultural elements in debut photoshoot outfit
Three members, however, have since left the band.
