Abstract

An emerging musical form in the Cordillera region of northern Philippines may be seen in the work of a Kalinga ethnopop band called The Living Anitos (TLA) whose hybrid works are marked by the fusion of indigenous and foreign instrumentation and melodic patterns, as well as the remixing of Kalinga oral traditions. This paper first proposes a broad understanding of the Kalinga ullalim tradition, taking into consideration its inherent potential for remixing. The paper then deploys the concept of traditional referentiality (TR) from Oral Theory and applies it to three ethnopop songs produced by the TLA. It attempts to show how TR can enrich not only a textual analysis of these compositions but also the extra-textual inferences that can be drawn from them. In so doing, it contributes to our current understanding of indigenous traditions as they are apparently exorcized of the ghosts of their past, recontextualized for today’s generation, and implicated in contemporary community issues.