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Chapter II Lesson 7 Philippine Popular Culture in the
Philippines : Philippine Modernity
Philippine Popular Culture (StuDocu University)
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CHAPTER II.
POP CULTURE IN THE PHILIPPINES
Main Learning Outcome:
After going through this chapter, you are expected to:
a)
b)
c)
Understand the development of pop culture in the Philippines
Explain the different forms of Philippine Pop Culture
Relate the development of Pop Culture in the present society.
Lesson 7 . Philippine Modernity
II.
Learning Compass/Specific Objectives:
After going through this lesson, you are expected to:
a). Identify the Philippine Popular Culture in different forms.
c). Discover the different examples of Philippine Popular Culture in
the different forms.
III.
Let’s begin:
Activity: Hugot Lines in your life!
Instruction. Give atleast 5 hugot lines that will describe your life now, or your
feelings right now.
IV.
Let’s Discuss
Many countries in the developing world are experiencing a comprehensive
process of change which Europe and America have been experiencing for some
five centuries. This process of change is more than the sum of many small changes
and has been referred to as "westernization" or, to use a more palatable though
equally elusive term, "modernization." The people who are probably most
affected by all of these events are adolescents who are being socialized into an
adult society which itself is changing. In studying modernization, some social
scientists have chosen to focus on changes in individuals rather than in institutions,
which connects us to concepts of mass culture, commercial culture and popular
culture (Licuanan, 1971)..
Modernization in the Philippines
The Philippines has already gone through most of the stages which other
emergent nations in Southeast Asia and Africa are experiencing.
• It was a colony of Spain for more than 300 years,
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• a territory of the United States for almost half a century, a commonwealth
for 10 years; and
• An independent nation for over 20 years.
Each of these stages presented a set of influences which has been
imprinted upon the culture, more strongly in the cities and larger towns than in the
rural areas. Change in the people has occurred as the result of education, foreign
ideas presented through mass media, and the impersonal atmosphere of city
living.
The urban Filipino is influenced by television, radio, movies, and
newspapers, which all draw heavily on American and other outside sources. The
volume and persuasiveness of Western influences which began with Ferdinand
Magellan has increased rapidly in the past two decades (Guthrie 1968 as cited
by Licuanan, 1971).
Despite all these Western influences, how truly westernized is the Filipino?
Bulatao (1966) as cited by Licuanan (1971), a Filipino psychologist, refers to
the split-level personality of the Filipino, suggesting that although many overt
aspects of behavior seem quite Westernized, there is a core of Filipino values
which remains unchanged.
•
The split may well be due to the world. in which the Filipino lives, a world
that is in continuing flux, now Western and yet traditionally Filipino in many ways.
And, as the Filipino in his adolescence faces his own personal transition from
childhood, he also meets a world which offers fragments of both traditional and
modern ways of life. It is in his adolescence, then, that the conflicting claims of
two contrasting trends are experienced most acutely.
o Western culture, adolescents are expected to strive more for status
based on their own efforts and competence, and to strive less for status
derived from their relationship to parents, relatives, and peers. Adolescents
are expected to be less dependent on the approval of their parents and
to relate more intimately to their peer group. They are also expected to be
more achievement-oriented, more independent, and to exercise more
initiative (Ausubel 1954).
o But what happens to adolescent development in a culture such as the
Philippines where youth and adults alike derive a large portion of their selfesteem from a system of mutual psychological support, emotional
interdependence, and reciprocal obligations (Hollnsteiner 1970)? How
does the Filipino adolescent react to Western influence when the traditional
Filipino culture is less concerned with personal ambition and places greater
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value on close family ties (Bulatao 1970), smooth interpersonal relations,
social acceptance, and cooperative effort (Lynch 1970)? Where does the
Filipino adolescent stand as he is faced with traditional Philippine values
and the new influencesof a modern, westernized Philippines?
Philippine Popular Culture in different forms.
Philippine pop music.
This is the music of highly urbanized and industrialized towns and cities. It is
produced mainly for mass entertainment and it is what we know as “pop” music.
When we talk of the music industry in this country, it refers mainly to this type of
music (ex. Ryan Cayabyab’s Kay Ganda ng Ating Musika, George Canseco’s
Ngayon at Kailanman, and many others called OPM by their producers).
Pop music needs no introduction. It was inculcated in us by the American
music industry through radio, television, movies, and other electronic media. Its
most energetic adherents are the highly urbanized youth. Though called OPM,
Philippine popular music is mostly American in form and style and only its words
are in Filipino. It is the least indigenized or “Filipinized” of all the foreign-influenced
music traditions in the country. It is more accurate to call it music with OPL
(Original Pilipino Lyrics). Notable exceptions are the works of songwriters who
have, to a certain degree, Filipinized the pop music idiom, like Freddie Aguilar’s
Anak, Florante’s Handog, Gary Granada’s Salamat Musika, and Louie Ocampo’s
Ikaw.
Pop music’s origins are traced from the North American culture of
entertainment and cultivation of instant pleasures. This music is variously called
pop, mass media, entertainment and commercial music. Pop culture is the
culture of the 3Ms – Mickey Mouse, McDonald and Madonna. Pop music is also a
culture of celebrities and superstars, its hype leading to the adulation of pop icons
and the proliferation of clones (Leon, 2018)
Philippine Television and Cinema.
The local film industry in the Philippines is sometimes referred to as "Tagalog
movies."Tagalog is the language of those Filipinos who live in central Luzon,
particularly in and around Manila, and since Manila is the seat of Philippine power
and finance it is only natural that Tagalog would be decreed the national
language . Manila is also the filmmaking and television production capital of the
Philippines. If films are not shot in the Manila area (and the vast majority are), they
are still written, directed, acted and financed by people who live in Manila. Yet
as well as the term "Tagalog movies" captures the specific vantage point from
which movies in the Philippines are made, it does not reveal the historical
influences on this very popular and influential medium.
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Understanding the representations of the Filipino self in Philippine cinema
requires first a knowledge of the cultural and social context from which it has
sprung. The Philippines is unique in Asia because of its close historical ties with the
United States. However, prior to the relatively brief American colonial period
which began at the turn of the century the Philippines was a long-time colony of
Spain whose roots travel much deeper in the Filipino psyche. The Filipinos often
refer to their long colonial subjugations having been "350 years in the convent
and 50 years in Hollywood."
In film many Philippine movie genres can be traced back to Spanish
theater forms which were adapted to Philippine culture: sarsuwelas, komedva,
and the sinakulo. Sarsrwelas, for example, are love stories with song and dance,
which were later adapted to the American musical comedy form. Komedva
plays are essentially religious action stories mostly about the struggles between
the Christians and the Moors. The sinakulo on the other hand, are more focused
on religious suffering in their dramatizations of biblical stories from the creation up
to the time of Christ. The latter two forms have undergone mutations on film, but
with only incidental references to religion. Action films, both foreign and local, are
among the largest box office draws in the Philippines. They are the direct
descendants of the komedva. Likewise, the popular melodramatic film's roots can
be found in the suffering characters depicted in the sinakulo.
o One film genre, the comedy, is indirectly descended from the
American stage. Philippine comedy films are adaptations of bodabil
which in turn was adapted from the vaudeville and burlesque
performances of the early twentieth century. Like these stage cousins
film comedy in the Philippines is grounded in slapstick or physical humor.
Its tone is often earthy and vulgar with a healthy sprinkling of sexual and
"toilet" humor. Physical deformity or unusual appearance as well as one's
sexual orientation can also be a source of comic ridicule in these films
o Aside from the awkward comparisons to American film types, the
characters found in Philippine films are most closely related to their
theatrical ancestors. These often include strong heroes, mestiza
heroines, snobbish rich women, modern females (i .e., flirts), mestizo
playboys, cruel and tyrannical Spanish plantation owners, victimized
Filipino workers, etc. Today's films are filled with plot devices and
stereotypes found in early stage forms. In melodramas stories tend to
revolve around family conflicts, particularly between husband and wife,
and parent and child. The long-suffering wife and mother has many
biblical antecedents (as do many of the abovementioned stereotypes)
which were portrayed in these plays.
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o In Philippine society the double standard of Spanish catholic culture,
in which the husband may have both a wife and a mistress, is widely
tolerated. In such a cultural value system woman are often seen as
victims who must endure their philandering husbands and their cruel
fathers.
Philippine cinema is limited by many of these same inherited stage
conventions. Character types, as described above, often are (Kenny)confined to
a two-dimensional world lacking in the depth and complexity which is associated
with real human beings.
Likewise, the goal of most Philippine films is not the presentation of a realistic
or even credible story but the evocation of an intense emotional response from
the audience. Plots are filled with fantastic coincidences and dens ex machina
endings. Story topics illustrate a soap operatic fascination with the catastrophes
of modern living. Divorce, death, rape, suicide, adultery, accidents, sickness, and
imprisonment are endlessly depicted and very often all within the same movie. Of
course, as a developing country, most Filipinos are mired in poverty and they have
had more than their share of the social hardships brought on by economic
deprivation. Both religion and melodrama offer familiar representations of this
suffering
Philippine Literature.
The flowering of Philippine literature in the various languages continue
especially with the appearance of new publications after the Martial Law years
and the resurgence of committed literature in the 1960s and the 1970s. Filipino
writers continue to write poetry, short stories, novellas, novels and essays whether
these are socially committed, gender/ethnic related or are personal in intention
or not.
Of course, Filipino writers has become more conscious of their art with the
proliferation of writers workshops here and abroad and the bulk of literature
available via the mass media including the internet. The various literary awards
such as the Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature, the Philippines
Free Press, Philippine Graphic, Home Life and Panorama literary awards
encourage him to compete with his peers and hope that his creative efforts will
be rewarded in the long run.
With the new requirement by the Commission on Higher Education of
teaching of Philippine Literature in all tertiary schools in the country emphasizing
the teaching of the vernacular literature or literatures of the regions, the audience
for Filipino writers is virtually assured. And, perhaps, a national literature finding its
niche among the literatures of the world will not be far behind (Godinez-Ortega,
n.d.).
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As popular culture reveals the characteristics of modern society, Filipino
pop culture is superficial in most cases, casting only the people’s inclinations that
spring from their fun-loving nature. Anyone can see most (if not all) of these
elements on social media. This comes as no surprise as Filipino are the world’s top
social media users, according to creative agencies We Are Social and Hootsuite.
While there are a lot of things going on in the country, here are a few trends that
dominate Philippine pop culture.
In an informative post, the following are the few trends that dominate Philippine
pop culture.
a. Hugot is life. Hugot is basically the deep lingering emotions brought
about by a person’s circumstance and experiences, usually from heartbreaks and
adulting. The term evolved into the practice of coming up with the saddest lines
out of the mundane that evokes a particular experience.
Memes, or humorous online content like images and videos, spurred
the trend with which added context and illustration to achieve the
intended effect. Tagalog (major language in the capital) is often used but
also comes with a mix of English or other dialects. Think of puns and cringecheesy pick-up lines; many consider them as precursors. Famous lines from
popular Filipino movies also helped lay the foundation of this widespread
practice. As to how the hugot began, it’s unclear (like some relationships).
But one thing is for sure, it’s here to stay (unlike some relationships) (Sabido,
2019).
b. Milktea is the new coffee. Businesses utilize social media to attract more
customers by enticing them with aesthetic pictures of their place or location,
menus, drinks, services, or products. Followers are then converted into customers.
Customers then post their experiences with the food or products. Chances are
their followers become the next set of customers.
c. The milk tea fad, for instance, became widespread thanks to social
media. Plenty of shops have been operating but it’s only recently that they
gained so much popularity. Revamping their brands and the hype brought by
social media posts account for their new-found popularity. Milk tea entrepreneurs
also come up with the catchiest names to stand out.
d. Daily Dose of Teleserye. Teleseryes or primetime TV series are often
criticized for their seemingly endless storylines. Take Ang Probinsyano for instance
(titled Brothers on Netflix). First premiered in 2015, Brothers has aired 970 episodes
throughout their weekday night timeslot. Add to that is the invincible main
character whose specialty is to cheat death after countless near-death
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experiences. Ironically, the same people continue watching it. Perhaps
anticipating to take part in its historic ending.
Just recently, memes of an afternoon drama scene joined the ranks of the
most iconic in Philippine TV history. While all glammed up in a red dress, chic bag,
heels, and matching red luggage, the antagonist-turned-show favorite of the toprated series walks along an impoverished neighborhood alley looking for a place
to stay. While the where is yet to be revealed in the next season, Filipinos have
taken her around the world. Popular culture comes and goes along with the
shifting beliefs and activities. They’re technically inessential but they give color to
the ordinary and add flavor to the humdrum bustle of life.
A lot of things could be cited dwelling on the development of popular
culture in the Philippines and its modernization. As you start to explore it is no
longer limited to television, cinema and radio or print media. It also explores the
vast and endless possibilities of social media as a popular influence, including
language and manner of clothing.
V.
Take Note!
The modernization in the Philippines has already gone through most of the
stages which other emergent nations in Southeast Asia and Africa are
experiencing.
Philippine Popular Culture have may forms such as:
1. Philippine Pop Music
2. Philippine Television and Cinema
3. Philippine Literature
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