Music is a cultural Ideological State Apparatus (Althusser 1971, 143- 148). In such a lens, this paper proceeds in the manner of Althusser’s argument, and the critique applies to popular music in the Philippines vis-à -vis Gramsci’s cultural hegemony. With such a framework, this paper looks into the albums of Musikang Bayan (People’s Music) from 2001 to 2019 and employs qualitative content analysis. In doing so, the themes are dealt with vis-à -vis the Philippine socio-politico-economic condition. The country’s socio-cultural atmosphere in the mainstream music industry is “not so†critical since social institutions are part of the relations of class domination (Althusser 2014, xxiv). Only if music is oriented with the people’s struggle will it become scientific and carry forward emancipatory politics transforming society. Musikang Bayan encapsulates the militant-materialist-progressive-nationalist music against the ‘fetish-character’ of today’s neoliberal capitalist ideology; hence, it articulates the collective consciousness through music.
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