#AllRoadsLeadtoRoute196: Remembering a Home of Metro Manila’s Music Scene in the Context of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

The Philippines underwent one of the world’s strictest lockdowns to curb the spread of COVID-19, forcing Manila’s iconic music venue Route 196 to shut down permanently. This article inquires into the individual and collective memory-making processes in the context of Route 196’s online farewell show. Drawing on participant observation and an analysis of the show’s social media content, we examine remembering Route 196 focusing on two key processes: narrative and experience. Building on memory studies’ premise that to be made meaningful, experiences have to be narrativized (Rigney 2016), we first analyze the narrative construction of the venue as a “home” of Metro Manila’s scene, demonstrating how it variably accommodates or marginalizes individual memories. Second, we probe the role of “lived experience” (Keightley/Pickering 2012) for memory-making. We argue that social media interaction generates new experiences of the venue, which take on particular importance given the persisting absence of live music.