The curious case of BINI (Part 1)
Despite being part of the first batch of modern P-Pop pioneers, only BINI has achieved true mainstream success.
This story is part of a two-part series breaking down BINI’s rise to the mainstream.
Last April, BINI officially became the first P-pop group to ever land a number one on the Billboard Philippines Songs Charts. In June, they landed their second No. 1 hit with “Salamin Salamin” off their third full-length project, Talaarawan. Following the launch of the Billboard Philippines Hot 100 and Billboard Philippines Top Philippine Songs charts earlier in July, BINI was the definite standout, with the group being the artist with the most number of songs on both charts.
The eight-piece are far from being the first P-Pop group ever, but they were part of that pioneer batch — being formed just a year after SB19 was created in 2018.
The two groups, along with BGYO, are arguably the first iteration of P-Pop groups modeled after the modern K-Pop formula, where trainees go through a rigorous selection process and debut into a group. Beyond just the process, these groups also showcased aspects borrowed from K-Pop such as the idea of roles in the group (main dancer, vocalist, rapper, etc.); merchandise like photocards and lightsticks; as well as concepts like fancams, expertly coordinated streaming strategies, and the like. Prior idol-like groups were modeled after groups in different music markets. You had MNL48 from J-Pop, your Chicser/Hashtags/Boyband PH after the Western notion of boybands, and so on and so forth.
BINI has proven that modern P-Pop is far from a niche or one-off genre. Prior to the meteoric rise of the girl group, the P-Pop community has mostly revolved in their own social circles online and among fellow fans. It has operated mostly like K-Pop, where fandoms are isolated from the rest of the music-listening masses.
However, no other modern P-Pop group has ever quite captured the heart of the Philippines — and by extent the world — as BINI has. SB19 has earned recognition on the local and global stage largely because of their dedicated fanbase, but BINI was able to bring casual music listeners and non- P-Pop fans into BINImania. That is the measure of cultural significance. Now, they boast of seven million monthly listeners on Spotify, outpacing their contemporaries by miles.
To be honest, I’ve been racking my brain for over three months (!) trying to figure out what’s making BINI successful in a way that no other modern P-Pop group has achieved before. This two part series lays out my thoughts on what key factors played into BINI’s success on the local and global stage.
The magic of FlipMusic
One of the things that has contributed to the success of BINI is the music, made by arguably one of the central pillars of Filipino pop music, FlipMusic. With producers and songwriters like Bojam and Nica del Rosario, and a host of culture-defining hits like Sarah Geronimo’s “Tala” and more, it’s clear that the FlipMusic team has a clear pulse on what Filipino listeners love.
But what is the Filipino pop music formula? It’s hard to put it into words. When I sat down with celebrated pop producer and songwriter Thyro for Billboard Philippines’ pop issue (October 2023), he said that the core of a good pop song is the melody.
“Melody is king because [it’s] split second communication…you don’t really understand the lyrics [right away]; you hear the melody first,” he shared.
The same sentiment can be said with FlipMusic’s catalogue. If you compare some of their most recognizable tracks — “Paligoy-ligoy” by Nadine Lustre for Diary ng Panget (2014); “Trip Lang” by Shehyee featuring Sam Pinto (2013); “Tala” by Sarah Geronimo (2015); and BINI’s “Salamin Salamin” (2024) — you can find strong similarities and stark differences in how the Bojam and the FlipMusic team composed and produced these songs.
I’m not well-versed in music theory, so I enlisted Zed Bisenio, a musician, composer, academic, and Philippine Studies graduate student at the University of the Philippines - Diliman to analyze these four songs.
Bojam’s production style in “Paligoy-ligoy",” “Trip Lang,” and “Tala” are built around a certain formula: verses are delivered monotonously, save for a few variations in notes. The lyrics are dense, with little to no instrumental breaks while the interpreters are delivering their lines. If you couple this with the bare instrumentals (often just a bass line, synths, and a drum beat) — we can hear Bojam using the voice as a rhythmic instrument to drive the song through, on top of the voice just being a way to convey a story. This monotony is often broken at the point of the bridge, where Bojam switches melodies into a minor key (like in “Tala”) or by slowing them down, until he inserts a “button” or a signal to launch into the chorus. You hear this in “Trip Lang”: "exciting naman (exciting…yeah!)”; “Tala”: “Tila ako'y nakalutang na sa langit / Ngunit nalulunod sa 'yong mga ngiti / at kung! …” — and “Paligoy-ligoy”: “Nagaantay kung ano nang next upang aking utak ay ma-set / oh, ano ba! …”
This transition from density to rhythmic breaks is significant, because between the three songs, Bojam and the FlipMusic team play with anticipation. The monotony, slowing down, and eventual “release” all build up to what is supposed to be the catchiest part of a pop song: the chorus. The slowing down of melody and adlibs like “exciting, yeah!” are sonic signals to the listener that it’s time to dance or remember a hook.
However, with “Salamin Salamin,” FlipMusic breaks that formula. If all three songs from 2013-2015 were characterized by central melodic motifs, “Salamin Salamin” is chock full of varying melodies and hooks. The hook in the song isn’t just the chorus — each verse has a different melody and rhythm altogether. If this was a departure from the tried and true formula that worked for FlipMusic in the past, what made “Salamin Salamin” work?
If you dissect it just through the lens of the music composition (all the sociocultural analysis will come in the next part of this series), we can still see variations of specific techniques that FlipMusic uses to create some of the greatest Pinoy pop songs.
For example, the bridge of the song — “Ayokong umasa sa paniniwalang / May pag-asa nga ba / Na baka ang puso ko'y mapagbigyan, ah!” — utilizes a slowed down melody, a progressive drum beat (meaning, the beat builds up faster and faster), and that “button” or signal in the use of “…ah!”
All of these factors build up anticipation and its eventual release in the chorus. You, as a listener, are psychologically expecting a catchy hook and dance number. These psychological signals keep a listener engaged and even help with the instant recognition of a song. All of these things, along with the talent for making a catchy hook, are what make “Salamin Salamin” the staple number it is today.
These elements make “Salamin Salamin” — and by extension, BINI’s catalogue — both refreshing and reminiscent to the Filipino audience. If Pinoy pop music used to be heavily defined by electronic influences, synths, and simplicity in production, FlipMusic continues to push the envelope even further.
That’s why personally, I hope that BINI’s venture into the international music industry doesn’t mean that ABS-CBN’s long partnership with FlipMusic will end. If I’m not mistaken, “Cherry On Top” is their first single in a while that was not created or at the very least, overseen by the FlipMusic team. The popularity of tracks like “Salamin Salamin,” “Pantropiko,” “Karera,” and more means that FlipMusic has done it yet again. And there’s no sign that they should stop anytime soon.