shopping for music

During my short stint as tandem-host of Rotary at Your Service, my music collection ballooned from five CDs to about 20. The music genres I was listening to certainly widened because of this experience. I only listened to R&B and pop before I got involved in the program; now I could stand some "loud" music. Plus, I got introduced to opera (which I still don't understand) by my grad school supervisor.

On Maundy Thursday, I was surrounded by people in and around the music industry... people who listen to and appreciate an even wider diversity of music. They introduced me to musicians and styles I have never heard of before. Perhaps, this was what is meant by "world music". And here I was thinking that this was limited to instrumentals and man-made imitations of nature sounds (like ocean waves).

I learn that world music is about local music somewhere else; somewhere other than North America, in particular. And North American music is primarily what I've been (and others too) exposed to, thanks to the rigid program platforms of FM radio stations. Rarely do these stations play songs from different continents.

Curious about other musical styles, I went shopping for a music CD. That's when I noticed that Music One's gone. Tower Records is gone. My two go-to places for CDs are gone!! Well, at least in Glorietta and Ayala Alabang. I was left with Odyssey Music Store whose collection is a lot smaller. I never thought that looking for music CDs in malls would be that difficult. The bigger stores (Tower Records and Music One) must have been faced with fierce online competition and had to close shop in overseas markets. 

But why stick to CDs? There are songs that can be bought online. However, I am not such a big fan of online shopping yet and I currently have CD players at home and in the car. Perhaps one day I'll make that shift to downloading music (I already have an iPod, thanks to my cousin). In the meantime, I'll stick with familiar tunes delivered with a twist... and I hope they're much easier to find than non-North American music. 

I've got Gregorian chants of rock songs and Christmas carols, bossanova renditions of Beatles songs, and orchestral arrangements of Sting/ The Police hits. Next on my shopping hard-to-find list is Paul Anka's Rock Swings (thanks to Mr. Jim Paredes for sharing) and String Quartet Tributes to different musicians, plus perhaps some classical and choir music. I'm wondering where I could get them.

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Rotary at Your Service was a public service radio program of the Rotary Club of West Bay. The project was initiated by Mr. Johnny Goloyugo. It was broadcasted live every Friday over LB-FM 97.4.