Chapter I

PROBLEM AND ITS SETTINGS

Introduction

EXO, Bangtan Sonyeondan , Blackpink, Twice, Red Velvet, Legend of

the blue sea, Descendants of the sun, Weight Lifting Fairy, Doctors

strangers and Goblin are some examples of Korean bands and Korean

dramas. Todd Joseph Miles Holden, a social scientist and philosopher,

defined K-pop as a genre of music and a subculture at the same time that

originated in South Korea which comprises a wide spectrum of both musical

and visual elements. While, Korean dramas or K-dramas, are television

series refers to any Korean television or film drama that is either based on

historical figures, incorporates historical ..... for each series.Truly this

entertainment industry of Korea is blooming and widespread nowadays.

According to a research paper done by Arriola (2013), there are more

than 35 million people that are fanned of watching Kdramas and admire K-

pop groups around the world, thousands of this can be found in Asia,

particularly, Philippines. Since the year of 2009,considered to be the birth

year of K-pop in the country, the population of Filipinos audience that are

fond with Korean music just kept on growing. But it is not just K-pop that

took over the hearts of many Filipinos, not to forget the Korean dramas as

well.
 Florinda Mateo, a UP professor for Communication Research, stated

in a 2012 interview with Rappler about Hallyu in the Philippines that the

primary reason why Filipinos are very much captivated by South Korean

dramas is because of the way on how these stories are written unlike the

usual plots, K-dramas usually depart from the common manner of delivering

a story. Korean dramas capture the interests of Filipino viewers because of

its faster development of plot and quicker pace unlike the usual dramas in

the country. Aside from this, Filipinos also admired the fact that South

Korean actors can do drama and at the same time influence their character

with sense of humor.

With the advent of technology, information can be disseminated quickly

yet it can reach millions and billions of people around the globe. K-pop artists use

this as their advantage compared to their Western counterparts. K-pop artists

make use of social media to become closer to their fans wherever they may be

making it easier for the fans to be updated about their idols and get to know them

even more. A particular social site is the V- Live Broadcasting App launched in

2015 by NAVER Corp., a South Korea-based company. V-Live allows fans to watch

special live videos of their favorite artists and conveniently follow their activities.

Through this application, K-pop artists can easily reached out to their fans by

having live interviews and other interactions online. Another thing that keeps the

people hooked with K-pop is the existence of different fan bases that grew and
grew in the past years showing just how great impact the South Korean influence

is to the Filipinos in particular.

The South Korean influence that is highly observable in the Philippines today

bears both negative and positive effects. Positive in a way that it strengthens the

ties between South Korea and the Philippines because Filipinos tend to somehow

lessen being influenced by Western countries and instead appreciate their fellow

Asian’s culture. However, as mentioned, it can be viewed negatively for the reason

that Filipinos are becoming overly-driven to the Korean culture resulting to the loss

of one’s identity and negligence of patriotism for one’s own country. Another

negative side of the influx of South Korean influence is the K-pop or the Korean

music being a threat to the OPM or Original Pilipino Music. K-pop, being more

preferred by youth today, became the competitor of OPM in terms of album and

concert ticket sales, fan-base events, merchandise purchasing, and worst, in terms

of popularity. Ree Ocampo supposed that the competition between K-pop music

and OPM pictures a scene of “the fall of OPM and the rise of K-pop music in the

Philippines” (Ariola, 2013).

Filipinos are known for their colorful and lively culture composed primarily

of folk dances originating from different provinces as well as the traditions and

festivals that honed the Philippine history, arts, and distinct identity from other

countries. However, as the country’s new generation strives to maintain or identify

their identity, Filipinos, mainly the youth, are being more influenced by the South

Korean arts and culture making the struggle for the nation’s individuality more
challenging. Speaking in terms of K-dramas, Filipino telenovelas and movies now

tend to adopt the kind of style that the former has since it stimulated more

interests from viewers. Before, telenovelas in the country are ran in a span of long

time with many series and tangled issues that major characters must uncover or

solve. But with the popularity of K-dramas, Filipinos learned how to shortened the

usual length of telenovelas and create stories that are fast-paced that usually last

only for three months on maximum and are more straight forward— given the fact

that Filipino telenovelas air on a daily basis while K-dramas show in South Korea

weekly. In relation to this, Cong. Lito Atienza of Buhay Partylist filed in 2014 the

House Bill No. 3839 that

aimed to lessen airing of foreign telenovelas including K-dramas, from 6-10pm as

these hours should be allotted only for homegrown shows. Cong. Atienza

explained how the airing of foreign shows push Filipino telenovelas to

unfavorable slots when it deserves to be in the primetime which happens to be

the peak of television broadcasts in weekdays (Bacani, 2014). However,

regardless of the time slots, Filipino telenovelas are thought to never upgrade to

something close to Hollywood level in an article written by Paulo Bayabos for

8list— an online site that enlist top reasons and the like, about particular topics.

He explained primary reasons why Filipino telenovelas lose the interest of the

current generation. Some of which are use of obsolete Tagalog words for titles,

conversation styles that are similar to theater manner of delivery, different

episodes every night, inappropriate looks of artists that does not complement
their roles, and most of all, the common plots that revolve only on love stories

despite a touch of social issues or heroic themes. These, according to Bayabos,

makes the Filipino telenovelas weaker and less interesting compared to South

Korean, Thai or US series (Bayabos, 2014).

On a deeper sense, the South Korean influence challenges the Filipinos to

produce more interesting style of works that can compete with Korean dramas and

music. Nonetheless, it turns out that as Filipinos struggle to mark its own identity,

they tend to imitate what other cultures have lessening the probability of producing

original ideas that cause weakness to the Philippine music and telenovelas.

In a more specific level, youth of today are undeniably more concerned with

foreign music, movies and television series. And when the word ‘addict’ is used to

describe the Filipinos youngsters, it really defines how they are very enthusiastic

with South Korean music and dramas. The youth spends a lot of time in watching

their idols online, stalking their social media accounts, attending events,

purchasing merchandise, and attending concerts— ‘fangirling’, in one word. No

matter how it costs, even if it is worth more than their school allowance, Filipino

K-pop and K-drama fans see to it that they will be able to put into action their label

of being diehard fans. Sometimes, they even sacrifice more important things just

to prioritize watching more episodes of South Korean dramas. For example, a

student posted how she is supposed to study for the examinations but is watching

K-drama at the time she updated her status (Dow, 2014).And since they are very

enthusiastic about the South Korean culture, they are more likely tostudy or imitate
what South Koreans do. Fans do eat Korean noodles, wears fashion inspired by

their idols such as layering of top clothes or loose shirts paired with skin-tight

colorful jeans, and even study the Korean language to further understand their

favorites artists and stars.

The findings of this study could strengthen and contribute to the study of

the appreciation of Filipinos of foreign media content. The researcher firmly

believes that through this study, the Filipino teenage K-pop fans may gain

understanding of their fandom, and how their consumption of K-pop media content

influence their nationalism. The study could influence the Filipino fans to be critical

of the media’s direct affects on their daily decisions.

Conceptual Framework

IV DV

South Korean Influence Nationalism of

K-Pop and K- Drama) Grade 12 SHS students
in terms of: of OMNHS
 Fashion
 Language
 Things

Research Questions:

1. What is South Korean Influence ( K-pop and K-Drama ) in terms of :

1.1. Fashion

1.2. Language

1.3. Things

2. What is the nationalism of Grade 12 SHS students of OMNHS?

3. Is there a significant relationship between the South Korean Influence (K-Pop

and K-Drama) and the Nationalism of Grade 12 SHS students of OMNHS?

Research Hypothesis

 There is no significant relationship between South Korean Influence (K-

Pop and K-Drama) and the Nationalism of Grade 12 SHS students of

OMNHS.
Scope and Delimitations

This study covers only the Grade 12 SHS students of OMNHS and the

relationship between the South Korean influence and the Nationalism of Grade 12

SHS students of OMNHS.

Significance of the Study

This study will serves us additional knowledge and will bring new

information in the fund of Culture, Tradition of the Philippines. This studies can be

a sort of reference to the future researcher.