Philippine History Midterms

PHILIPPINE HISTORY MIDTERMS

GARCIA, Kirstenne Erika L.

July 30, 2015

BRING THERA BAND

        Sixto Rodriguez had sold the most albums in Africa before. In fact, he was considered a legend or a hero in that foreign country and not even his homeland. Despite his fame, details about him and his life were unlike the other famous artists. They had all the information needed about other musicians but with Sixto Rodriguez, they had none. The information known about him was the suicide that he committed during one of his performances. Malik Bendjelloul, the Swedish director for the documentary “Searching for Sugar Man”, finished this documentary and placed in the Academy Award for best documentary even with a low budget. (Gibley, 2014) This brought tribute to the unknown artist through the help of two people, Stephen Segerman and Craig Bartholomew Strydom who consider Rodriguez as their music hero. (BBC News, 2014)

        Back somewhere in the 1950s, there was apartheid in Africa. It is basically the law on racial segregation and therefore, there has been strict restrictions on the people’s freedom especially when it comes to media, the news and all. There was no television and everything is censored. It was like South Africa closing its doors to the whole world. Sixto Rodriguez somehow became a rebel icon because of the songs that he has been written that go against what the apartheid. Even though he was considered as such, his life remains a mystery to the people as to who he really is. (Bendjelloul, Segerman, & Strydom, 2012)

        Sixto Rodriguez is a music icon for many in South Africa and therefore he has fans as well that idolizes him and his music. It was seen in the film how people were moved by the message of his music. Segerman and Strydom pursued gathering data about him mainly through interviews of different people involved in his life and his music career. Some of them were music producers, musicians, bartender, construction worker, local artists, journalists, songwriters, directors and family members.

The researchers utilized the people that are connected to Sixto Rodriguez. Interviewing them served as a tool in knowing him and how he was during his lifetime. Sure enough, they have gathered data about him, how his music was beautiful and how he had a positive impact to a lot of people. Interviewing music producers who helped with his previous albums aided in solving the mystery on what really happened to him after all his written pieces. They even looked at the music archives, which show that most of his music were banned during that time. Just like any other person, we want to have what we do not have. Being rebel-like, people brought his music.

        Having every resource at hand, they still did not solve the mystery as to who he really was. With the limited resources, they have to look deep and out of the box in order for them to track down their subject. Reading between the lines of the lyrics is what they did to find Rodriguez. There have been geographical points that can serve as their clues in solving his hometown or place where he stayed. They almost gave up on the search, which is a big issue because if they have given up on it, Sixto will never get the tribute that he is worth having but then they did not lose hope and continued.