Music / Parokya ni Edgar

Uso pa ba ang harana? Marahil ikaw ay nagtataka...

Parokya ni Edgar ("Edgar's Parish" in English) is a Filipino band formed in 1993. Although the band is known for its original rock novelty songs and often satirical covers of popular songs both foreign and local, they also have a bevy of serious hits, often wonderful Silly Love Songs.

Despite having "Edgar" in the name, none of the members are named Edgar. Since 1993, the band has consisted of Chito Miranda, the lead vocalist; Buwi Meneses on bass guitar; Darius Semaña on lead guitar; Gab Chee Kee on rhythm guitar and vocals; Dindin Moreno on drums; and on-and-off member Vinci Montaner on backup vocals, monologue, live vocal ad-libs, and occasional percussion.

They have been dubbed "National Band of the Philippines," reflecting the fact that they are probably the most successful OPM group act post-Eraserheads.

Parokya ni Edgar provides examples of:

Tropes that apply to their music

• The Cover Changes the Meaning / Translated Cover Version: "I Will Survive" by Gloria Gaynor is about rising from the ashes of heartbreak, after falling out of love with someone. "Picha Pie," which uses the same melody and a pastiche of its lyrical content, describes pretty much the inverse: hating someone at first, but then falling in love with them. Well, actually more like hating something at first, then falling in love with it — the song is done like any love song, but is actually about pizza.
• Cover Version:
  • One of their signature songs, "Harana" ("Serenade"), is a invokedCovered Up one, with the first commercial recording predating theirs by five years and the song itself being composed in the 80s.
  • The band did a cover of "Boys Do Fall in Love" by Robin Gibb of The Bee Gees, though this was mislabeled as "Boys Do Falling Love" on the album it belonged to, Solid.
  • They also did a cover of Jose Mari Chan's "Beautiful Girl", with Vinci doing the lead vocals.
  • invokedThey also did a cover of APO Hiking Society's "Pumapatak Ang Ulan" ("The Rain is Falling"), with slight updates to the lyrics mainly due to Technology Marches On^note The original 1978 version has "Trenta sentimos ika'y makakaltasan" ("Your thirty centavos [the usual cost of a payphone call at that time] will be reduced"); while the cover version has "Credit mo sa text ay makakaltasan" ("Your [phone] text credits will be reduced")..
• Double Entendre: "Don't Touch My Birdie" appears on the surface to be just about a guy singing about his beloved pet bird, but "birdie" is Philippine English slang similar to "cock". Though on one level, the pet bird seems to be literal due to lyrics about the guy buying it and feeding it birdseed.
• Food Songs Are Funny: See Song Parody below for a snippet of their "I Will Survive" Cover Version, which becomes about pizza.
• Funetik Aksent: Many of their titles are just English words said in a Filipino accent, written down phonetically, such as "Gudibningpo." ("Good evening" plus the Tagalog word of courtesy, "po.")
• Genre Roulette: All the damn time, which is perhaps a corollary of their penchant for Pastiche.
• Ladykiller in Love: "Wala Lang 'Yun" ("That's Nothing"), written about and dedicated to Chito Miranda's wife, Neri Naig.
• Obsessed with Food: The narrator of "Picha Pie" didn't like pizza at first, but eventually becomes so enamored with it that he says he's prepared to die in pizza's name. An enemies-to-lovers story like no other.
• Only in It for the Money: The titular character of the song "Mang Jose", a superhero for hire.
• Pastiche: "The Ordertaker" is basically a song in the style of System of a Down, specifically the songs "Chop Suey!" and "Toxicity".
• Queer Romance: Played surprisingly straight (no pun intended) in the alternative version of "Pangarap Lang Kita" ("You Are Just a Dream"), which features on-and-off member Vinci Montaner voicing the love interest to Chito Miranda's narrator. The music video is exactly the same as the original narrative MV with a guy-and-girl couple, except this time, Montaner and Miranda play the Star-Crossed Lovers. It's surprising given the fact that Parokya ni Edgar are composed of heterosexual men and the band thrive off a "jologs" image (i.e. mass appeal), which usually entails some downright offensive humor or ideology. Heterosexual, mass-appeal-heavy Philippine stars have some tendency to be publicly homophobic.
• Sampling: The main riff in "Bagsakan" was taken from the "Labyrinth Stage" theme from Contra, which Chito further confirmed in a tweet.
• Serenade Your Lover: The very premise of "Harana".
• Song Parody: There's a reason they used to call themselves "Comic Relief". Take their rendition of Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive":
  At first, I was afraid to eat a picha pie^note "Picha pie" is simply a common Filipino pronunciation of "pizza pie".
  Kept thinking, this is not a good
  This is a picha pie
  And I spent, oh so many nights
  Just eating my tortang talong◊
  And I grew strong
  Because of my tortang talong
• Surprisingly Gentle Song: In abundance, despite their generally lighthearted, sometimes comical rock star image. Take "Harana," which — in addition to its soft, romantic sound — features such astonishingly tender lyrics as:
  Puno ang langit ng bituin^translation Stars fill up the heavens
  At kay lamig pa ng hangin^translation And how cool the air is
  Sa'yong tingin ako'y nababaliw, giliw^translation When you look at me, it drives me crazy, darling
• Star-Crossed Lovers: The lovers in "Pangarap Lang Kita," and even more so in the version featuring Montaner as the co-vocalist rather than the female Happee Sy. The version with two male vocalists changes Sy's Chinese-language bit to a handy English translation:
  And even though I love you
  There is nothing I can do
  I have accepted this, my love
  In my dreams, it will come true
• Unlucky Childhood Friend: With a dash of implied Unrequited Love Switcheroo in "Maniwala Ka Sana" ("Please Believe Me"). The narrator notes that the girl he likes was never that pretty, so he didn't care much about her at first. But now, following years of friendship, he's madly in love with her, and she finds him disgusting.
• Word Salad Title: Utilized aplenty. To give you a sense of the kinds of titles in their discography, one of their most successful albums is named "Buruguduystunstugudunstuy," and a track from the previous record is called "Buloy Buys Hubbu-Bubbu Chisnax."

Tropes that apply to their music videos

• Male Gaze: Heavily present in "Yes Yes Show," featuring gratuitous close-ups of sexy ladies and their bared midriffs, cleavage, or crotches.
• Pastiche:
  • The music video for "Yes Yes Show" is mostly a pastiche of early 2000s American hip-hop, complete with shots of hot women gyrating in the club (which are common in Western music videos in general, not just hip-hop).
  • The video for "Halaga" is an Affectionate Parody of Boy Bands, from the cheesy choreographed dancing to the other members lip-syncing Miranda's lines despite the fact that he's the only one singing.
  • "Macho" is clearly one for Village People's "Macho Man." The song describes the hypermasculine narrator beating up another man all because the guy... asked him what his name was. The music video pretty much confirms the pastiche, with some outfits nearly identical to ones found in "Macho Man."
  • "Mr. Suave" is a Song Parody done with the Latin Lover trope in mind. Of course, they're actually Asians, but that only adds to the comedic effect. The music video has Miranda wearing a really bad fake mustache and tacky clothes that parrot Hispanic fashions with minimum effort.
  • "Mang Jose" takes the theme of superhero shows and movies (particularly dark and gritty ones like Batman,) and basically spits at the usual noble superhero image by portraying the title character presenting receipts for his services.
  • "The Ordertaker" goes double duty by first parodying tough-guy western saloon scenes in movies, then goes full Ham with their take on Professional Wrestling, particularly the WWE. As if the title's obvious Affectionate Parody to The Undertaker isn't apparent enough, they have Dindin (the tallest among the band members) cosplay as the Deadman himself, albeit with a Chef's hat.
• Vocal Dissonance: Used to great effect in "Mr. Suave." It's sung in an exaggeratedly husky voice meant to conjure the mental image of a worldly Hunk or mature gentleman. The MV clearly shows the vocalist, Chito Miranda, for the skinny, adorable Pretty Boy that he is. Further enhanced by his blatantly fake mustache.

Tropes that apply to the band and/or its members

• Appropriated Appellation: "Parokya ni Edgar" is from a stupid little joke cracked by one of their classmates during a classroom discussion of Jose Rizal's Noli Me Tangere. Former vocalist Jeric Estaco spontaneously introduced the band as Parokya ni Edgar for their first live performance, and it stuck.
• Noodle Incident: How the band name arose. Until Miranda explained it via Facebook in 2013, its meaning was ripe for Wild Mass Guessing, but the real story behind it was one of these.

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