Kpop in Philippines

the very first time that the Korean Wave set foot here in the Philippines is when GMA7 aired "Bright Girl" starring Jang Nara in their afternoon slot. this was followed by "Endless Love: Autumn Tale" starring Song Seunghun and Song Hyegyo in their primetime. in my opinion, GMA7 have mastered the "art" of picking Korean dramas because most of the Korean dramas they have shown have become a phenomenal hit here in the Philippines. after "Endless Love: Autumn Tale", some of GMA7's unforgettable Korean dramas are "Endless Love: Winter Sonata", "Full House", "Jewel in the Palace (Dae Jangeum)", "Kim Samsoon", "Jumong", and "Coffee Prince". but ABSCBN2 has also their own hits like "Lovers in Paris" and "Princess Hours" (sorry, i don't think i can consider "Boys Over Flowers" as a huge hit here in the Philippines).

as for Kpop songs, the first Kpop songs that were played here is Unee's "Answer the Phone" and Kiss' "Because I'm a Girl". that coincides with Sandara Park's rise to fame in the Philippine showbiz industry. if i remember it right, the next song that was aired was a song by Lee Jaejin - he even went here and performed with Sandara at ASAP Fanatic. then Roxanne Barcelo, i think, sang the first to songs in Filipino as her debut singles back then.

i don't bother myself up about the dramas, in fact i always wait what Korean dramas GMA7 will air next. in that way, i won't have to spend my time reading subtitles. however, as for Kpop songs, it's a different matter. truth be told, i'm against the releasing of Kpop songs here in the Philippines (especially those from the artists that i like...well, even those who i don't like) and i know that i'm not the only one who feels this way.

just this year, i was surprised that the song "Nobody" by Wonder Girls began playing in various radio stations and it was being sang by different actors, actresses and singers every week in variety shows. the first time i saw that is when Moymoy Palaboy and some others performed it in an opening number in SOP. it was fun then, why? because it was Moymoy Palaboy - the duo that are well-known of their funny lipsyncing of various songs in Youtube. but when the It Girls performed it in ASAP the following week, i start to realize there is something not right. then i finally hear it on various radio stations everywhere i go - while i walk in the streets, the malls, while i'm riding a tricycle, jeepney, taxi or an FX. i even hear three versions - the original, the English and the slow one.

i start to imagine what's going on with my friend who is a die-hard Wonder Girls fan. she told people before that she don't want them to get famous here in the Philippines. i understand what she feels (i'm sorry but i don't want TVXQ songs to start playing in radio stations and music channels, and i totally don't want local celebrities performing their songs). then i start to hear 2NE1, well, i already expected it since Sandara Park's part of the said group. i know that MYX (a part of ABSCBN) would really do everything to get a hand on 2NE1's MVs and songs. so, as for the 2NE1's case, i would let it pass since it is definitely inevitable that they won't get a hype here in the Philippines.

then Super Junior songs began to play in radio stations and music channels (even the Cebu inmates made a dance number of the group's "Sorry Sorry"!). i'm not a Super Junior fan so feeling their presence here is a horror for me. then i was told yesterday that Big Bang's songs are making their presence on the local airwaves felt but i haven't confirmed this yet (i've been avoiding listening to the local FM radio nowadays - i only listen to stations that are for the high class people, i'm not discriminating but there are radio stations that are only meant to play Western songs and OPM bands!).

the feeling of not wanting them here in the Philippines grew. when i was asked why, i don't know what to answer. i just can't say "i just don't like it" because that will appear that i - and other people who have known the Kpop industry way before their songs arrived here - am just selfish that i just want to keep them to myself (but there is also a great feeling when you're the only one or some few others who knew about it). but after analyzing the reception of the Kpop songs by the Filipinos by mere observation, i finally realize why there are people like me who don't want Kpop songs to be played here despite being a huge fan of it.

while it is true that if these Kpop songs are played locally, it can be easily accessible to all of us that are Kpop addict. after all, they're the songs that we listen in the Internet, the MVs that we watch in Youtube, and the artists we search over Wikipedia. but the way we treat Kpop is not the same compared to most of the Filipinos.

i have become a fan of Kpop since 2003 (that was months before "Meteor Garden" was aired in ABSCBN2). how? when i first watched "New Nonstop 3" in ArirangTV. where's the music there? well, i got addicted to the show the first time i saw it that i forgot to switch channels when it was over. it was followed by "Pops in Seoul" then i saw an MV by this beautiful guy with an amazing voice - "Confessions" by Kangta. since then, i went to the ArirangTV website to see the schedules of "Pops in Seoul" and music variety shows namely "Showking M" and "Music Tank". i also searched more about Kangta, that's when i learned about H.O.T, S.E.S and Shinhwa. and by searching the profiles of the "New Nonstop 3" cast, i learned that DANA is a solo artist and Lee Jin is part of Fin.K.L.

Kpop has something different compared to our own OPM and the Western music (even though it is patterned on Western music). i learned how the artists auditioned and trained. i learned the role of the talent agencies like the so-called Kpop's "Holy Trinity" formed by SM Entertainment, YG Entertainment and JYP Entertainment (because of this, i start to pity DSP Entertainment since back in the 1990s, they were the one who's up against SM). i learned that Kpop is a VERY serious industry in South Korea. through the variety shows, i learned about Baby V.O.X, Jewelry, BoA, NRG, Fly to the Sky, etc. the Internet also introduced me to disbanded groups like Click-B and Seckskies. before i know it, i seem to know everything about the basics of the Kpop industry. also, i learned about the Korean Wave.

then in my last two years of my college, when i made a thesis about Korean dramas, i learned how the Korean Wave came to be. i learned that the Korean entertainment industry is not always the way it used to be. i learned that it was only in 1990s when their entertainment industry began to revolutionalize. since that was the case, there's no doubt that the Kpop industry is the fastest growing and the most innovative music industry there is. foreign artists seldomly get the number one spot in South Korea because they have tight competitions against the local artists. they use the Kpop industry and the whole of their entertainment industry to protect their local culture.

however, when Kpop songs are being played here in the Philippines, it is not treated with the same respect as it is in South Korea. Kpop songs are treated the way like Filipinos treat the songs "Asereje", "Macarena", etc. and the OPM novelty songs by Sexbomb Girls. in Filipino slang, Kpop songs becomes "jologs" and low class. fans like me here in the Philippines are against this way of treatment. but we can't do anything about it, it's just that the Filipinos does not understand what Kpop is all about - the way the talent agencies spend tons of money to train their artists in singing, dancing, modeling and other languages like Japanese, Chinese and English; to produce songs that can go against Western songs; and to make videos with the newest technology possible (c'mon, compare OPM MVs with Kpop MVs, tsk). it irritates fans like me everytime the radio DJs and music channel VJs talk about these Kpop songs as if they know everything about it but in truth is that they do not.

"Nobody" is not just a "dance craze" that swept all over South Korea. i may be exagerating but after a decade it can be regarded as one of the Kpop classics along with H.O.T's "Candy" and S.E.S' "I'm Your Girl". take Sandara Park as an example, her songs here in the Philippines are novelty songs - "In or Out", "Walang Sabit" and "Ang Ganda Ko" - songs that are forgetable as time passes and songs that are laughed at (but it's just that novelty songs are the big thing back those years), but when she returned to Korea, she have a number one REAL pop songs - "Fire" and "I Don't Care" - with 2NE1 and just recently, she released a solo "Kiss" that is a technopop dance tune. but what can i do? the Filipino definition of classic songs are those jukebox songs that were in rage during the 1970s and, unfortunately, they are still being done today in the form of modern ballads (so thank goodness there is Eraserheads, Francis Magalona and Gary Valenciano).

comparing OPM to Kpop, it is obvious that the OPM industry is totally backward compared to Kpop's modern appeal. the only thing that OPM can brag to Kpop is that we have awesome rock and alternative bands like Eraserheads, Rivermaya, Parokya ni Edgar and Kamikazee (unfortunately, they have their own Gary V. and Francis M.). maybe the only downside of Kpop is that the artists are not good English speakers like the Filipinos but slowly but surely, the Koreans are going there. when i watched Jessica Soho's report on Kpop a month ago, a local music producer is against the way Filipinos embrace the Kpop songs. why? because, according to him, we have our own music which is the OPM. unfortunately, it seems that he doesn't seem to notice that our OPM industry does not have pop boybands and girl bands that are good-looking, amazing singers and awesome dancers. maybe if Gary V. decided to produce a boyband back then, things would've been different.

the reason why Filipinos listen to Kpop is that Kpop has something that OPM cannot offer. i don want Kpop artists to gain international recognition the way they are recognized in Japan, China, and the rest of Southeast Asia. but, as of now, in my opinion, Kpop should just remain off-limits here in the Philippines not until people here can understand or at least realize that Kpop is not some cheap novelty songs.