K-Pop vs. Korean Culture (Concept Paper)

When asked about what “Korean Culture invasion in the Philippines” is, one would usually think of K-pop immediately. But then again, the terms “K-pop” and “Korean Culture” are distinctly different in meaning with each other. The latter can be also called Korean wave which includes almost all major aspects of Korean culture that penetrates other countries’ culture. By this, it means that Korean fashion, music, dances, language, businesses, etc. are all included. On the other hand, the former only includes the Korean music. K-pop is actually the abbreviated form of Korean Popular Music. So this makes K-pop only a part of the Korean Wave in the Philippines. K-pop or the Korean Popular Music is specifically from South Korea since there is practically no music industry in North Korea. It includes Korean music of all genres ranging from soft rock or ballad to generic dance. The fame of K-pop cannot only be seen in the Philippines but also in other Asian countries like China, Japan, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Taiwan, and Mongolia. If truth be told, K-pop was already famous in most of those mentioned countries before it even entered Philippines. It was already mentioned above that the term K-pop has been commonly and mistakenly pertained to as the whole Korean wave which includes not only Korean music but also some other aspect of Korean culture. In this case, K-pop is misused for the general Korean culture even if it only involves the Korean pop music. The reason behind this common misuse of the term is that Korean music is said to be the one of the most popular among all other Korean culture aspects which influenced the Philippines’ own. According to Gelelo (2010), this popularity of Korean music in the Philippines is because Filipinos are naturally known as music lovers. This Filipino trait basically contributed to the proliferation of Korean music all over the Philippines. Another misuse of the term K-pop is the exact opposite of the previously mentioned misuse of the said term. If K-pop is misguidedly used in pertaining to the whole Korean culture, K-pop is also incorrectly applied to just the Korean girl/boy bands and other Korean singers only. This is also wrong because the Korean girl/boy bands are the only ones who sing the songs. They are not the general Korean pop music because there are other people who actually influence the modern Korean music like for example, the composers, lyricists, producers, radio and TV hosts, etc. This inappropriate use of the term K-pop is mainly because the audience or the people are primarily just exposed to the artists who perform the Korean songs. They do not notice the composer or the producer of a certain song or music video right away. That is why they usually use the term K-pop thinking that it only pertains to the Korean girl/boy bands that they frequently see (Korean Association, 2010). Now that the term K-pop has already been clarified, its history or origin is just as useful to discuss. Korean Popular Music began to exist in the Philippines due to the growth of popularity of the Asianovelas, particularly the Koreanovelas, in the country. In 2003, Endless Love ( Autumn in my Heart ), which is one of the most loved koreanovelas in the country, was aired on the Philippine television. Through the Filipino remakes of its soundtrack, K-pop started to spread in the airwaves. Since then, most of the koreanovelas’ soundtracks are remade by Filipino music artists. Moreover, during the same year, the music video entitled Because I’m A Girl of the Korean female group Kiss was broadcasted on Myx, a local music channel, and caught many viewers. After a short time, the music video for the first album's carrier single, Answer The Phone, of the Korean singer Mina also entered the local music scene. In the following year, both of these songs were remade by Roxanne Barcelo in her debut album, Roxie. In addition, after the success of Endless Love was the airing of Full House in 2005, which also starred Song Hye Kyo from Autumn in My Heart and paired with singer-actor Rain. Thus, K-pop became more known in the Philippines due to Rain’s debut in the local television. Besides, his music videos began to enter the charts of Myx and local FM stations. Then, in the same year, the indirect fame of K-pop entered the realm of theatre. One good example is the Korean hit movie, My Sassy Girl, which was dubbed and released on Philippines theatres. Its theme song, I Believe, was originally sung by Korean balladeer Shin Seung Hun but was also remade by Jimmy Bondoc into Filipino (Shim, 2006). Korean popular music is uncontrollably spreading. And eventually, K-pop would be often included in usual conversations. Hence, we must be aware what this term is truly referring to. Again, it is not as general as the whole Korean culture and it is also not as specific as Korean boy/girl bands. Whereas, K-pop involves specifically and generally the Korean Popular Music.