Iyer's own account of the uncanny Philippine affinity for American
popular music is rich testimony to the global culture of the hyperreal, for
somehow Philippine renditions of American popular songs are both more
widespread in the Philippines, and more disturbingly faithful to their originals,
than they are in the United States today. An entire nation seems to
have learned to mimic Kenny Rogers and the Lennon sisters, like a vast
Asian Motown chorus.