Paz, Emeliza

Pielago, Mirachelle
Grade 11( ABM-2)

KPOP OVER OPM: GOOD OR BAD TO TEENAGERS?

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. According to Yahoo answer, music

is our expression how we feel and how we think. Music is an art form whose medium is sound. 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. Music is so huge and complex thing, something that connects peoples and cultures

around the world.

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? 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. The 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.

According to Wikipedia, K-pop is an abbreviation of Korean popular music or Korean pop

is a music genre originating in South Korea that is characterized by a wide variety

of audiovisual elements. Although it includes all genres of "popular music" within South Korea,

the term is often used in a narrower sense to describe a modern form of South Korean pop music
drawing inspiration on a range of styles and genres incorporated from the rest of the world such

as Western pop music, rock, experimental, jazz, gospel, Latin, hip hop, R&B, reggae, electronic

dance, folk, country and classical on top of its uniquely traditional Korean music roots. The more

modern form of the genre emerged with one of the earliest K-pop groups, Seo Taiji and Boys,

forming in 1992. Their experimentation with different styles and genres of music and integration

of foreign musical elements helped reshape and modernize South Korea's contemporary music

scene.

Modern K-pop "idol" culture began with the boy band H.O.T. in 1996, as K-pop grew into

a subculture that amassed enormous fandoms of teenagers and young adults. After a slump in early

K-pop, TVXQ and BoA started a new generation of K-pop idols that broke the music genre into

the neighboring Japanese market and continue to popularize K-pop internationally today With the

advent of online social networking services and Korean TV shows, the current global spread of K-

pop and Korean entertainment known as the Korean Wave is seen not only in East and Southeast

Asia, but also Latin America, India, North Africa, the Middle East, and the Western world, gaining

a widespread global audience. K-pop has grown into a popular subculture among teenagers and

young adults throughout Asia, resulting in widespread interest in the fashion and style of Korean

idol groups and singers. There is no doubt that K-pop, which is also known as Hallyu, is one of

the most influential pop culture phenomenons of our time. And because of its unprecedented

growth, it had easily entered different regions of the world. Because of the boom of K-pop, Korean

culture in general has grown into something more as it had made other nationalities love everything

about Korean, and even Asian culture. There are already a lot of countries that have welcomed the

K-pop culture especially in Philippines that had a affect our very own music known as OPM or
Original Pilipino Music. But whats our music all about back then before we patronized Western

music?

Back to the past years, in our parents generations, OPM songs are very popular in our

country. Our parents and all people who born in the 1990's loved to play OPM songs. They always

played it anytime, anywhere in the music cassette. OPM is their favorite soundtrack in their

generation. If you are going to the past, when you are a little, you always heard the sound of OPM

in every corner of your house and even in your neighborhood. And sometimes, they are not only

played it but they sang it. Our parents loved to sing OPM songs. Not because of it's beautiful genre

or tones but because it is Filipino music and our fellow Filipino composed and wrote the songs in

the OPM. It became popular in our country. The singers and the composers of the OPM songs got

the biggest hits that time. OPM continued to be popular and to be dominant not just in our country

but in the whole world. But years passed, in our today's generation, OPM started to lose its

popularity because of the invasion of the other countries soundtracks. Until Kpop invade our

country. Most of the teenagers today loved the K-Pop songs even if they do not understand the

lyrics. They started to be addicted to the K-Pop because of the hottest guys and girls who performed

it and they became crushes or idols. Kpop really makes everyone happy especially teenagers, we

cant easily judge them according to what they see but if we know how they really feel well

understand but it cannot be denied that in addition to the entertainment, K-pop function as a

"cultural bridge" to help improve understanding of Korean culture, Asian culture in general and in

particular. Everyone especially teenagers, they love courageously; they will want to try their best

in tackling difficult obstacles like the language and cultural barriers. They symbolize peace, they

do not discriminate based on race, they also befriend people with the same interest from different

countries, and also they are more passionate and warm than anyone else. At the same time, they
do not betray the ones they like easily like the Kpop idols that they find interesting, they are

persistent and do not give up easily. Kpop fans are stronger than anyone else on the inside because

when they love these Korean stars, they experience setbacks that they have never experienced in

life. They are all the sensitive youths and adults who are easily touched to tears for a long time

because of one incident. For their habits, their memory is very good because they can easily

memorize and remember all the Korean lyrics even if they do not understand, and their

coordination skills are also very strong, when it comes to dancing or singing, or even acting. Most

of them are cheerful children, not the kind of kids who keep to themselves. Their will of

determination is also very strong ad they are able to persevere all the way just to buy something

related to the celebrity they like. In short, the way these children think is vastly different from

others, and their thoughts are not easy to understand. Generally, only those who have similar

interests are able to enter their world called KPOP.