Guest seminar: History Repeats Itself? Music, Memory, and the Return of the Marcoses

About the seminar

History Repeats Itself? Music, Memory, and the Return of the Marcoses
The Philippines reflects on a history marked by dictatorship and violence. The rule of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos (1965-1986) was characterized by severe human rights violations, involving torture, imprisonment, and killing of perceived political opponents. Despite Marcos's ousting in the People Power Revolution of 1986 and the subsequent restoration of democracy, the Marcos family successfully regained political prominence in the following decades. In recent years, the country has also seen an increasing promotion of public amnesia and historical revisionism concerning the dictatorship. The portrayal of the period as the "golden age" of Philippine history and as an era of economic prosperity became widespread, cutting across social classes and political constituencies. This development reached a peak with the election of Ferdinand Marcos Junior for president in 2022.

Musicians have frequently responded to this rewriting of history, showing that popular music constitutes a significant arena for negotiating memories and historical narratives of the dictatorship. My presentation inquires into one such instance – the song "Dekada 70," released in 2022 by musician and producer Zild Benitez. Drawing on participant observation in Metro Manila, an interview with the musician, and music analysis, I explore music as a means to critically engage with problematic representations of the Philippines’ authoritarian past. I will focus on three key aspects: First, I will illustrate how the aesthetic choice of genre can be employed to musically engage with authoritarian nostalgia. Second, I examine how the song subverts “golden age myths,” remediating collective memories of the dictatorship that sharply contrast the sanitized narratives. Lastly, I will zoom into the song’s temporal regimes to reveal how "Dekada 70" conveys the idea of history repeating itself and in doing so functions as a reminder of the atrocities of the past dictatorship and warns against their possible recurrence.

Integrating perspectives from popular music studies, memory studies, and political sciences, my presentation aims to contribute to the larger question of music’s role in the writing and re-writing of the past.

Monika E. Schoop is a professor of popular music studies at Leuphana University Lüneburg, Germany. Her research interests include music and memory, music and politics, music industries and (digital) technologies, gender studies, and music in the Philippines. She currently coordinates the research project “Musical and Sonic Remembrance in the Post-Witness Era,” funded by the Ministry of Lower Saxony. Together with Federico Spinetti, she previously led the project "Sounding Memories: Nazi Persecution and Anti-Nazi Resistance in Contemporary German Music," funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG). Monika E. Schoop is the chair of the German-speaking branch of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music (IASPM D-A-CH).

How to attend the seminar

It is possible to attend the seminar from Dacke in Växjö and via Zoom. Contact us at ims@lnu.se if you want to participate via Zoom, or sign up for our external email list to receive automatic updates on our events (zoom link and additional information are sent out one week in advance).

Photo: 'Aurora - Connecting Senses’, Cristina Pop-Tiron & Signe Kjær Jensen