OPM vs. K-POP: Patronize our very own music

We all know that Music has great impact to our lives nowadays. Even in era of our Grandparents. Music can bring us relief in every pain we have. Music is our expression how we feel and how we think. Music is an art form whose medium is sound. Its common elements are pitch (which governs melody and harmony), rhythm (and its associated concepts tempo, meter, and articulation), dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture. The word derives from Greek μουσική (mousike; "art of the Muses"). In its most general form the activities describing music as an art form include the production of works of music, the criticism of music, the study of the history of music, and the aesthetic dissemination of music. As a Pilipino, we have our own music and they called it as OPM or Original Pilipino Music. This organization has a duty to protect and conserve our very own kind of music. But what happened now in our music industry now days?

The ORGANISASYON NG PILIPINONG MANGAAWIT (OPM) is the leading and most respected organization of Filipino professional singers in the country. It is a non-stock, non-profit corporation duly registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission. It was established in October 27, 1986. The Philippine music industry is abounding with world-class professional singers whose worth is upheld and rights are protected under Philippine and international laws.

OPM has a lot of competitor in music industry in this generation which is a foreign music. But the biggest problem of our music industry is from our neighbor country which is South Korean. They music that everyone called “KPOP” has a great impact in this era and this is the main problem and hindrance for our own music industry.

Unknown to some, this phenomenon is giving threats to the OPM industry since it affects many aspects of it. Because of the Korean Pop invasion in the Philippines which influences a lot of Filipino teenagers to patronize K-pop music, it poses threats to the Original Pilipino Music industry in terms of the album sales, organization of local concerts and the worst is, it might be more popular than OPM in the near future.

“Nobody”, “Fire”, “Sorry Sorry” and “Gangnam Style”, these are just some of the K -pop songs that became a huge hit in the country. K-pop fever is everywhere and it has been a breakthrough throughout the Philippines. So, when and how did K-pop invasion in the country start? According to Lou Kana, popular Korean dramas which were aired in the Philippines like Full House and Endless Love contributed to the birth of K-pop music in the country since the lead stars of those dramas are K-pop artists (12). The beginning of K-pop fever started around 2008 when majority of Korean dramas’ theme songs became popular. Super Junior, Wonder Girls, PSY, Rain, Big Bang, SHINee, Girls’ Generation, 2NE1, 2PM, BEAST, TVXQ, U-Kiss and EXO, these are mainly the popular K-pop groups which are idolized by Filipino K-pop fanatics . With the tremendous popularity that K-pop groups are gaining, there are some people who wonder why many Filipino teenagers are getting addicted to them. Mac Macapendeg asserted that Filipinos love K-pop artists and the music itself because it sounds unique, it introduces an incomparable level of entertainment, fashion, style and Korean customs and traditions are not that different from the Filipino one.

This is sad thing especially to those who were involved in the OPM industry. Our country is very open in embracing foreign music but K-pop music seems like a new thing compared to Hollywood or English music. Because of patronizing K-pop, Filipino teenagers nowadays seem not to patronize their country’s music. Instead of buying OPM albums, they tend to buy K -pop albums available in music stores nationwide. This will be discussed further as we analyze the competition between K-pop and OPM.

As the Korean invasion continues, K-pop music brings benefits and bad effects to those teenagers who continuously patronize it. It could affect one’s social life and the way he/she handles things such as money. If a teenager gets totally addicted to that certain kind of genre, his/her social life might change. It is either he/she might lose or gain friends. Another thing, because of one’s eagerness to buy K -pop albums or to attend K-pop concerts, he/she becomes thrifty and saves a lot of money just to feed his/her addiction. One of the issues about K-pop is the issue about lyrics that picture or refer to sex, social criticism and swearing. Some examples of it are TVXQ’s Mirotic and a few songs by Rain.Karl Enriquez stated in his article that some people say that these inappropriate songs should be  banned from the young people because they impart bad impressions to the listeners. But as we all know, other foreign music or even the local one are going through the same issue. Social interaction is one of the basic needs, and this could be achieved through gaining insights on the situation of fellow fans.

K-pop also affected the original way of life of Filipino teenagers. Their daily schedule consisted of listening to Korean music on their way to and from school through their music  players and watching Korean videos on their laptops and computers. Fangirling 24/7 has been their lifestyle. I personally think that this is not bad at all since all of us have our own likes or obsessions. This habit will just be disturbing if it becomes so serious and it affects other aspects of one’s life.

From the songs, to beautiful boy bands and cute girl groups, Filipinos tend to embrace the K-pop fever by adapting and loving their music out of the context whether they understood the language or not. It seems that everything that has to do with Korea is addictive and most of it linked to the K-pop invasion. From young to not-so-young, a lot of Filipinos become hooked with K-pop’s catchy music, edgy fashion and style and good-looking idols. According to Alex Vergara, K-pop invasion may affect some aspects of a country specifically entertainment, fashion, food, language, culture of that particular country (A20). The phenomenon may also be the bridge that will connect Filipinos and Koreans more since it would be the way to get business opportunities like restaurants, shops and even Korean language learning centers in the country.

                Since the K-pop invasion started, it has been said to be a threat to OPM. In line with this, some questions the ability of OPM to not be affected by this at all. As what Ree Ocampo claimed, “Western music has been a lot more popular than OPM for a long time, so it can be said that OPM is at threat regardless of K- pop or not.” .Foreign genres result in giving impacts to the Filipinos and so to the OPM industry.

 The birth of P-pop groups is one of the effects of K-pop invasion to OPM industry. Pinoy  pop exists since 1970s but in 2010, a sub-music genre inspired by the Korean wave was launched making a way for P-pop groups like XLR8, 1:43, Freshmyx, Sakto, Down to Mars, A-FIVE, Pop Girls, Pointen and Eurasia to join the OPM industry. In this way, people can say that K-pop has affected the originality of Filipinos in making new music. In response to this, the boy group Down to Mars defensed P-pop by stating,“As artists, we wanted to recreate that experience not by copying but getting inspirations because in the bottom line, music is still the language of our soul that can cross the boundaries of cultures and places, so to speak.” (Paliza).

                Aside from this, Filipino songs and artists are losing originality in making their music. The distinctive sound of OPM is slowly losing and being influenced by other genres. If people would notice, some of the OPM songs that they hear from radio stations are just remakes or revivals. Another thing is, new Filipino artists are not properly trained unlike those Korean artists who undergo years of training. Filipinos should make OPM “original” again since it is a part of our identity. It is a good thing that we get inspirations or ideas from other foreign music but there comes a time that we need to use our originality to create good music

                As a whole, the K-pop invasion in the Philippines really affects the OPM industry in four major aspects: 1) album sales 2) organization of concerts 4) originality of music and lastly, 4)  popularity, as proven by the evidences cited earlier. But that does not mean that the K-pop invasion is the biggest threat to OPM today since there are a lot of factors affecting it.