Was listening to “drivers license” this morning and I thought “isn’t there supposed to be an apostrophe in there?” Shouldn’t it be driver’s license? Or driver license? Back when I was in the UK, they call it driving licence, but with “C” instead of “S.” When I was in Denmark, they call it kørekort and I don’t really know how to pronounce that.
Here, in Dubai, they call it, um, driving license. You thought I was gonna say in Arabic, didn’t you? Well, I didn’t but I said it with an Arabic accent. And I remember when we were in Vietnam, my friends call it driver licene—without the “S.” No, just kidding, I love Vietnam. And I’ve never been to the UK, by the way.
Well, today isn’t actually the first time that I heard this song. I heard it first when I watched one of Rick Beato’s videos on YouTube. It’s the one where Rick Beato listens to the Top Ten Songs on Spotify. You can search it by typing Rick Beato listens to… or you can just watch it below. For free—just say ‘thank you’ in the comments. Anyway, so Rick played the Top 10 songs. He played “drivers license” first. And when Rick got semi-blown away by the song’s chorus, I didn’t say “wow” but I had goosebumps all over my… just my arms. And I agree with Rick Beato, this is a good song and it deserves the No.1 spot.
Though I may not be as eloquent and as well-versed as Beato when it comes to stuff like chords, scales, the iv, or the VI, I know a good song when I hear one—a skill that I acquired from years and years of reading and browsing FHM and Esquire magazines. While listening to the radio, of course.
So how did I rediscover the song today? It’s mainly due this very clickbaity news from ABSCBN which appeared on my feeds. Well, you know me. If I’m-a saw bewbs, I’m-a gonna click it. But it also made me wonder why the people behind the news website choose that particular photo of hers. (It’s one of her latest photos on IG.) Is it because they thought “sex sells” (which, kind of worked, obviously)? Or were they just too lazy to look for another pic? They could have used one of her photos that’s more music oriented or they could have taken a snap from her music video or they could have used her song’s cover art. Surprise, surprise, GMA news used the same photo of hers.
Why is it that news like this makes us automatically proud? I wonder if it is just us or if it is also true with our Asian neighbors? Were rock music fans in Indonesia proud that Eddie Van Halen was of Indonesian descent? Are those in India proud of Kim Thayil? For James Iha? Karen O? Is it inherent to our nature? Or is it because it was the media that made us this way. Maybe it was those early years of feeding us with accolades to “world-class” talents such as Lea Salonga, Freddie Aguilar, etc. This is word-class, you should take pride in it. What made them world-class anyway? Is there an ISO standard for it? What makes Lea Salonga world-class and what makes the Eraserheads or Yano not world-class? So, Apl de Ap is world-class talent and Gloc9 isn’t?
Thing is, the way that said news framed it, her being half-Filipina shouldn’t be news to her internet-savvy fans. To their mothers and titas, perhaps it is. That her song became the first runaway hit of 2021, that IS news.
Now, going back to that missing apostrophe, are people on the internet going to react to it the way people have reacted to Alanis Morrissette’s misuse of the word ‘ironic’ during the earlier days of the internet? Or are we just gonna forget it like the past hits from yesteryear?
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