Patigdas 1

PATIGDAS, Rojenn Claire G.

1 – BS Community Nutrition
Eng 13 WFX6
Analysis Paper (1670)
6 November 2019

SB19 as a bridge of OPM towards K-pop

K-pop, which is a huge factor in the spread of the Hallyu wave, is an abbreviation of Korean

pop or Korean popular music. It is a musical genre consisting of electronic, hip hop, rock, and

R&B music originating in South Korea. It is commonly distinguishable through the genre’s

generally upbeat music and eye-catching choreographies. Though defined as a genre, some K-

pop idols such as Min Yoongi, also known as Suga, from BTS, doesn’t want to limit K-pop only

as a genre. Rather than defining K-pop as a genre, it was more suitable to define it as integrated

content since K-pop does not only include the music, but the clothes, makeup, the choreography,

and all other elements amalgamate together in a visual and auditory content package, that sets it

apart from other music or other genres (Reilly).

K-pop is currently soaring in terms of popularity and this is caused by globalization through

the internet. Since music is a big part of many people’s lives, mood changes according on what

genre one listens to and these genres include, pop, jazz, rock, slow rock, RNB, hip hop or rap and

many more. In addition to these genres is K-pop which generally fits in the 21st generation. K-

pop has gone global and is now even viral in the Philippines. It captured the attention of many

people, especially on teenagers (Agatep, et al.).

With the evident popularity of K-pop, some Filipino artists decided to follow certain trends

which originated from the K-pop scene which resulted to several impacts on Philippine music.

For instance, Filipinos are starting to make survival shows based on K-pop. An example of a

show is Hello K-idol which is a show where in Filipino trainees will undergo a 10 weeks of
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training in order to hone their talents in singing, dancing, performing, styling, and teamwork.

The goal of the trainees in this show is to reach the final where in the remaining members will be

sent to a South Korea for proper training. Another impact is how some Filipinos migrate to

Korea to produce K-pop music, instead of Filipino music. An example of this is Kriesha Chu

which participated in K-pop Star, a survival show in South Korea. Since she was interested in K-

pop, she auditioned in a Korean agency and has now debuted as a solo artist (Geronimo). In

addition, every year, KCC or Korean Cultural Center holds the Philippines-Korea Cultural

Festival in Manila, and conducts the Korean cultural caravan in selected schools that hold

Korean classes and those that offer Korean language classes. Through K-pop rising globally,

Filipinos have apparently caught the Korean pop culture fever that is now just common to see

people flashing the Korean finger heart (Arayata).

Not only survival shows but K-pop song covers can also be seen nearly everywhere in

Filipino television. It can be seen in shows such as, showtime, ASAP, and many more. It may be

dance covers or vocal covers, K-pop is almost everywhere. Covers are not the only thing that

reached the Philippines. Facebook also reports that about fifteen million Filipinos are interested

in K-entertainment. With the evident popularity of K-pop, Filipino artists decided to follow

certain trends which originated from the K-pop scene. The light stick is an official necessity for

K-pop concerts, with each idol group having a customized one for their fandom. It originated in

South Korea and became a trademark of K-pop. It is used by K-pop fans when going to concerts

in order to express their love for their idols through concert projects. It is generally only used by

K-pop groups. But nowadays, some Filipino artists decided to follow this trend and create their

own light stick. One Filipino artist that did this is Inigo Pascual, which is a singer and actor from

the Philippines. He designed his own light stick for the use of his fans. Though some of his fans
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thought this was a great idea, he still faced backlash from most K-pop fans who called Inigo out

for being unoriginal (Han). Another trend that Filipinos are trying to copy from the K-pop scene

is the fan chants. Every title song from K-pop idols has a unique fan chant which is memorized

and recited by the fans every time they present a specific song. Filipino artists and music shows

are now copying this trend, distributing copies of fan chants to the audience. One music show

from the Philippines that does this is ASAP (Han). By adapting K-pop culture to Filipino music,

fans may show the same energy that they give when supporting K-pop idols, such as organizing

fan activities such as annual fan get-togethers, concert projects and even charity works

(Vergonia). With these, it is getting more and more evident that the K-pop industry is affecting

Filipino music.

OPM, on the other hand, is a musical genre consisting of Pop, Pinoy Rock, and Hiphop

music which originated in the Philippines. It is an abbreviation for Original Pilipino Music, now

more commonly known as Original Pinoy Music. It primarily refers to Philippine pop songs

composed by Filipino artists, particularly ballads that were popular in the Philippines during the

late 70s to the present. OPM had its rise in popularity back in the 70s and 80s with artists such as

Rico Puno Jr., Ryan Cayabyab, Regine Velasquez, and Sharon Cuneta. Currently, OPM is

experiencing a resurgence with new artists such as Juan Karlos Labajo, Moira Dela Torre, Ben

and Ben, and IV of Spades. Unlike K-pop which is known for its upbeat music, OPM is known

for the ballads and mellow music since Filipinos are so fond of ‘hugot’ songs which is evident in

the rising number of streams in Spotify for these particular ‘hugot’ songs (Enriquez).

Based on Spotify Philippines’ weekly top 200 charts, for 130 weeks since January 2017, K-

pop groups regularly topped the charts with 12 songs topping at the start of 2019. Currently,

Blackpink’s Kill This Love is at the top with over 3 million streams in a single week. In Spotify,
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each track also has a list of values of audio features identified for each song. The features being

danceability, energy, tempo, acousticness, liveness, loudness, speechiness, and valence. In

comparison to OPM music, K-pop has a higher average valence value, meaning it is more likely

to make listeners feel cheerful. Data also shows that OPM music leans towards a more acoustic

sound in contrast to K-pop which has faster beats, louder sounds, and more intense rhythms. This

is what makes K-pop perfect for dancing, making their music ideal for addicting choreographies

which is also a factor on the genre’s popularity (Sinay and Movido).

With the emergence of new and various types of music, Filipinos are also trying to

explore new and unique music to listen to, resulting to the creation of innovated groups or artists

such as SB19 which may be the group that creates a connection between K-pop and OPM. SB19

is an all-Filipino boy group who trained in South Korea. The group went viral after a twitter user

reposted a part of their dance practice for their only single so far, “Go Up”. They earned positive

comments from other users, with many noting how clean and precise their dance moves were.

The group is composed of five members, Sejun, Stell, Josh, Ken, and Justin, with each member

having a specific role in the group. All of the members were said to have trained in South Korea

before being officially introduced in 2018 and currently are being managed by the local branch

of Korean entertainment company ShowBT. SB19 composes their own music and goes through

training known as the Korean training system.

The Korean training system is a process which is undergone by every idol trainee in

South Korea. This is one of the things that make the Korean music industry unique. The K-pop

industry believes that talent can be learned, thus the training system. Trainees undergo different

lessons, depending on the agency. Primarily, the Korean training system focuses on improving

the singing and dancing skills of an individual, and sometimes acting. Other agencies have other
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lessons such as Korean language, mental health awareness, tips for losing weight, and song

writing. This training system is adapted by the all Filipino group, SB19 (Geronimo).

SB19 shared on how they wanted to show that Filipinos can be good in singing, dancing,

and acting. Though their songs are in Tagalog, people often judge SB19 as K-pop copycats. To

clear this up, the group stated that they weren’t copying K-pop, but rather they are only inspired.

Their Korea-based agency allows them to train like K-pop idols in order to improve their talents

and show their full potential, but according to the group, this doesn’t make them a K-pop group

since they’re still promoting Filipino music, evident in the language that they use. The group

claims that their music is K-pop inspired OPM, or as they call it, P-pop (Santamaria).

If put in a Venn diagram, P-pop would be in the middle of K-pop and OPM since it has

elements from both. SB19 is classified as P-pop since their music is in Tagalog but their

choreographies and outfits are leaning more into K-pop. As stated by Min Yoongi, K-pop is not

only the music but all the elements it consists of. Since SB19 uses all the other elements included

in K-pop, classifying the group to a specific genre can be confusing which is why they classified

themselves as P-pop which is a combination of OPM and K-pop, or specifically, K-pop inspired

OPM music. Though aiming to go global, the specific target audience of SB19 is the K-pop

crazed Filipinos which also shows that their target audience is kind of in the middle of K-pop

and OPM fans.

SB19 is a group that aims to show that Filipinos are as talented and up to par with those

K-pop idols. Though inspired by K-pop, SB19 doesn’t fail to remember their own roots through

promoting their music with their own type of genre, P-pop or Pilipino Pop.
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Works Cited:

Agatep, Errol Ace, et al. “What is K-Poppening? Behavior and Academic Performance of 3rd

and 4th Year Students of Lorma Colleges Special Science High School.” DLSU Research

Congress, 2014.

Arayata, Ma. Christine. “Korean pop culture continues to capture Filipinos’ hearts.” Philippine

News Agency, 2018, www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1054208.

Enriquez, Marky. “What is Original Pilipino Music/OPM?.” Undiscovered, 2019,

www.undiscoveredsf.com/blog/2019/8/15/what-is-original-pilipino-music-

opm?format=amp.

Geronimo, Jee. “Online reality show hopes to train the next Filipino K-pop idol.” Rappler, 2018,

amp.rappler.com/entertainment/news/207279-online-reality-show-train-next-filipino-

kpop-idol.

Han, Dong Man. “Koreanovela and K-pop… Loved by the Philippines.” Philstar Global,

Philstar, 2018, www.philstar.com/opinion/2018/07/26/1836765/koreanovela-and-k-pop-

loved-philippines/amp/.

Reilly, Nick. “I don’’t want to define it as a genre: BTS’ Suga reveals what K-Pop means to

him.” NME, 2018, www.nme.com/news/music/bts-suga-k-pop-meaning-2395107/amp.

Santamaria, Carlos. “Korean ‘Hallyu’ and the Pinoy Invasion.” Rappler, 2012,

amp.rappler.com/entertainment/12681-hallyu-growing-in-ph.

Sinay, Angelica, and Bea Movido. “The ‘Bboom Bboom’ of K-pop in the Philippines.” Rappler,

2019, amp.rappler.com/brandrap/data-stories/235142-boom-kpop-in-philippines.
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Vergonia, John Paul. “Why is K-pop huge in the Philippines.” Korea.net, 2018,

www.korea.net/NewsFocus/HonararyReporters/view?articleId=166661.