Manila Sound was easy listening. It was upbeat, melodious, catchy and banal. Though emulating American disco, it possessed none of the latter’s raw sexiness, sadness and poetry. Think of Odyssey’s soulful 1977 hit “Native New Yorker,” which talks of love as “just a passing word/It’s the thought you had in a taxi cab that got left on the curb/When he dropped you off at East 83rd.” These are lyrics that speak of tough, vulnerable city women looking to escape the madness and badness of life. Compare this with the 1979 hit “I-Swing Mo Ako,” written by VST and Co. for Sharon Cuneta, who was then just 13 years old. The song made Cuneta a star. Reflecting her age, Cuneta’s voice on the track was soft and tremulous, her appeal couched in innocence. The lyrics, a bland mix of Tagalog and English, are faintly erotic: “At sa tugtuging ito/nais ko’ y i-deep mo ako/So swing, i-swing mo ako.”