Rating Music Genres 8: Kundiman

Part 8 of my series in which I listen to a random music genre and rate it!

My trusty Wheel of Names picked the genre "Kundiman" for me today! I've listened to many traditional songs all around the world thanks to this little series, but this one seems to be the most specific. Kundiman is a genre that's specifically traditional Filipino love songs. They're usually sung in Tagalog and the genre developed in the twentieth century.

The songs usually have a nice gentle rhythm and they're similar to serenades, something I can also easily tell by listening to them. They seem to have angelic vocals with lots of guitar action, but they can also be electric. Something special about this genre is that the structure of the song usually follows 3/4 time, not 4/4 time! I don't hear this often and it's a nice change that I welcome because songs in 3/4 sound so good... According to Wikipedia, there is usually a key change at the very start of the song that makes the genre even more recognizable!

For love songs, these are obviously very expressive and emotionally sounding songs, even without the help of lyrics I can hear yearning and drama... The genre evolved when the rise of musical theater started in the Philippines, so that makes sense. 

I'm a very big fan of dramatic sounding songs with emotional tones that aren't too slow, so this is actually a very refreshing sound to listen to. Love songs never strike me as something I'd enjoy listening to, this positively surprised me! It's definitely worth listening to once, also knowing the history behind this genre!

I can recommend! Dramatic love songs with a quick 3/4 pace! I wish I could understand the lyrics but that never stopped me from enjoying a genre!

8/10

Songs I liked:

O Maliwanag na Buwan - Pilita Corrales
Pandangguhan - Eva Eugenio
Pamulinawen - Raymunda Lucero