Tuesday, August 02, 2005

Jingle Bells! Jingle Bells!

Have been asked to write an article on the influential, now-defunct local music magazine known as Jingle. Way before PULP and Philmusic, Jingle was warping the minds of a generation, steering them away from the pitfalls of profitable careers in actuarial science and towards New Wave and punk and heavy metal and music writing and misheard lyrics. Like myself, many of you probably have fond memories of that publication.

The problem is this: I don't know who the editors of Jingle magazine were, much less how to contact them. Any help with this would be greatly appreciated.

13 comments:

PJC said...

Sorry, can't help you filling in the blanks about the Jingle editorial team.

Just wanted to point out that I always had more of a soft-spot for Jingle rival Rock N' Rhythm, which was edited by former 'porn zinester' BJ Cabaluna, who also owned the old Just Say Rock store in Cartimar, Recto, which carried the widest in-store selection of local and reprinted forieng zines. Ah, the memories!

If there's any local publication that deserves to be recognized as the rock-oriented thematic progenitor to the in-your-face crassness of Pulp, it's RN'R.

Luis K. said...

Fair point, though I always thought of Rock N' Rhythm as a 90s phenomenon, a magazine that found its audience by covering the 'alternative rock' scene, back when the term 'alternative rock' was not used in derision. Jingle was what older bastards like myself grew up with in the early 80s: it clued us in on bands from Dean's December to Depeche Mode, Icicle Works to Identity Crisis, Aztec Camera to Ethnic Faces, and so forth. Crass, high-minded, inept, adroit, ambitious, underachieving, infuriating and oddly comforting: it was all of these things and more, often in the span of a single issue.

By the time Rock N' Rhythm rolled around, I think Jingle's heyday had passed, so I see Jingle as more of a precursor than a rival. Of course I could be wrong about all this, given my terribly unreliable memory. In any case, I enjoyed paging through Rock N' Rhythm too, but by the time I first got my hands on an issue, I couldn't help thinking it had been done before. But then an older bastard would think that.

mads said...

hi kristine+luis:
i asked some friends. the publisher's address came from someone in Oz. Crazy.

Boyong: "Nakalagay dito sa isang lumang Jingle ko --
editor: Eric Guillermo
publisher: Jackpot Publications,
94-D 7th Ave cnr P. Tuazon, Cubao,
phone: 78-81-81 (pero dun sa Beatles Jingle collection, ang phone nila e: 911-53-26)
Of course, it's copyright 1993!

Mga lumang pangalan na naaalala ko:
Eric Caruncho
Edwin Pena Sallan
Didits something-or-other -- naging manager ata siya ng Color It Red...
Si Lav Diaz ata nagsulat din dito"

BenC: "isa dun si juaniyo arcellana. pero di ko alam kung asan siya ngayon. syeters i still have some of my old jingle mags (i had a whole collection pero nawala hehe).

Romel: "That was Didits Gonzales, used to buy all the albums he recommended."

indi said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Adam! said...

luis, paalala kasi baka makalimutan, si ces rodriguez ang dapat mo talagang hanapin. siya ang susi sa lahat ng problema't katanungan mo tungkol sa JINGLE. medyo siya 'yung equivalent ni kristine fonacier sa JINGLE nun. nawala ng nanay ko number niya, e, so 'di ko maibibigay.

at ipis dei, out of curiosity lang talaga, ilang taon ka na ba? 'di naman ako nangaaway o naghahamon ng palawakan ng kaalaman tungkol sa 80s punx scene sa pinas, nagtataka lang talaga ako, kasi may impression ako na 'di ka naman gaano katanda, o at least siguro nung kapanahunan ng JINGLE, THIRD WORLD CHAOS, HERALDX, samakatuwid nung heyday ng pinoi punx, ay, kagaya ko, nasa under 10 years old ka.

ang kaalaman ko diyan ay limitado lamang sa mga kuwento ng aking mga magulang, na hindi rin naman kinuwento ang lahat-lahat ng kaalamanan nila tungkol sa eksenang iyon.

at isang aside, pakawala lang talaga, kung may isang lugar sa pilipinas na maituturing ko'ng sentro ng pinoi punx consumerist tendencies, 'yung HIGH ADVENTURE/KHUMBMELA (na naging YADU DYNASTY) 'yun, 'yung sa harrison plaza. ako lang naman 'to. andun pa ba 'yun? ah, the mammaries!!

Luis K. said...

Mads, Adam: thank you both very much for filling in the blanks. :) Following up the leads you gave me now. Much appreciated.

starshuffler said...

I remember the MonLee/RoxLee comics at the end of each Jingle issue (and Sergio Aragones-type marginal illustrations).

Maybe you can ask Lee for some leads... ;-)

fudge said...

"Wish i knew what you were looking for. Might have known what you would find..." ~ The Church

Oi, wavers and connoisseurs of excellent taste in music! (You know who you are and don't lie about your age hehe)...

I have been putting off posting for assistance with regard to a certain item that I have been hunting for eversince my car was burglarized two Christmases ago. This is one of my shot in the dark, final resort thang and hope that someone out there responds positively. So, here goes: Anyone out there still holding a well-preserved copy of the JINGLE MAGAZINE, ALL NEW WAVE EDITION with DURAN DURAN on the cover which included almost all the important songs and chords of the genre? My copy was stolen amongst the other mundane items from my car (gad knows what those miscreants will have anything to do about The Chameleons or I Fought the Law or who Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner really was, %@#$!ing idiots!) and have been looking for a copy eversince.

If you do (and i still haven't worked out how to do it) but can I photocopy the whole mag? I know...i know, it may sound silly but i'm desperate...and those are the only ones i can play on the guitar ;) and have been very familiarized with the well-documented compendium...and you know i'm a sucker for nostalgia.

If you know anyone who might be of the New Wave breed, kindly pass this message? Thank you, peeps!

"I'm Hunting High and Low!"
fudge (gladyator2u@yahoo.com)

ei, thank you so much. the site looks helpful & i'll post it there.THANK U. i tried looking for jingle mag on the yellowpages but not listed..or maybe they became a diff cmpany now?hmmm but i wont give up..i knw there's still a copy out there for me...hehe..

and i totally agree! the music today is just about pimps, their hoes, their blings and their rides...no poetry and little sense of vocabulary. it's not a generation gap thing cuz i dig the music of my parents and the generations of yore. it went downhill after the grunge era...oh well, thank god for mp3s...

thanks again...
fudge (gladyator2u@yahoo.com)

3650guy said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
3650guy said...

Jingle Music Magazine was the grand daddy of them all. Started in 1971. It was cutting edge journalism, a selection of songs that were off the beaten track and innovation with other publications that kept this publication way ahead of the pack. They were actually in a league of their own. They contributed to the ascent/popularity of Pinoy Rock and also helped to pressure those recording companies into releasing the real good stuff aside from the disco/salsa/el bimbo/tito vic and joey satire songs prevalent at that time. they were supportive of Pinoy talents as well. a lot of literati also passed through jingle music magazine on the way to their writing/graphic/publishing careers. Emil Davocol, Juaniyo Arcellan, Mario Eric Gamalinda, Anna Leah Sarabia De leon, Ricky de Ungria, Ces Rodriguez, Pennie Azarcon and even Lualhati Bautista were some of those who contributed literary essays, record reviews, poetry and in depth articles with relevance to the prevailing music scene, music industry, Radio programming and in general Mass Media - was fair game for the Jingle contributor with an "ascerbic wit" as one writer was once described..
All in all there were 152 chapters under Jingle Clan Publications. after this "Jackpot Publications" resumed by reprinting previously published content into compilations.

The original Editor in Chief was Gilbert Guillermo. some of his siblings continued on with Jackpot Publications.

other similar Magazine at that time were BM music magazine and also Moptop/fliptop which lasted for a couple of issues. Sound Magazine continued until the late 1990's.

MJ Caruda said...

So in today's market which magazine would you most likely recommend to replace Jingle? My Dad is asking me to buy some Jingle magazines, he hasn't been home for over 10 years now. So he doesn't know that Jingle no longer publishes.

3650guy said...

there is no substitute for Jingle music magazine. somehow for its time - the song content and various articles, commentary, reviews etc were relevant for the 70's to the 90's. and now with the internet, you can just about get your fix for multimedia content that is diverse since it is a global source of information.

other pinoy media mags have taken it up a notch by being glossy, daring,and contraversial in order to cater to certain age groups. but for me, Jingle magazine has left a distinct mark in our history of Pinoy mass communication that will be difficult to reach.

Unknown said...

Are you still interested to get in touch with the JINGLE Clan? If you are, give me a heads up. I'll connect you with them.