Rationale

K-pop is a new buzz word in the global music industry. It is a genre of pop music that is performed
by Korean singers and Idol singers, wherein recent years become a global fad, captivating youth all
around the world regardless of linguistic differences.

The emergence of the social networking services has enabled to spread rapidly overseas
markets. (KOCIS 2011b, 42-43)

Many Filipino youths followed the Korean cultures, movies, dramas, fashion, music and most
especially Korean singers and Idol groups. K-pop centered on the Idol groups (usually teenagers), which
has bigger popularity than the soloist singers. The pop music of K-pop Idol groups uses strong dance
beats and powerful rap flows. Their songs are catchy and very addictive because of their repetitive chorus
(referred as “hook songs”) with synchronized dance move easy to follow and sing along with. “Some
popular music critics say these are effective in getting songs struck in your head, making you follow along
subconsciously.” (KOCIS 2011a, 58). On 2003, the rise of K-pop also took the Philippines by storm and
up until now K-pop craze is still a hit to Filipino youths.

Kpop generation is caused by globalization through the use of internet. That is why most of the
youths are updated in the happenings in the world. And like many other organizations in the internet,
organizations’ regarding Kpop is one of them. Facebook, Twitter and many other are social networking
cites where group of people in favor of Kpop are present. They are free to express their feelings in these
sites. The researchers have observed that the students of Almeria National High School have been
invaded by K-pop fever this study aims to determine how K-poop has affected the students in their
academic performance.

Research Questions

• To determine the Respondent’s Profile in terms of:

• Age

• Gender

• Year Level

• Course/Strand
 • To know how much time do students spends on K-pop

• To determine how K-pop affects students academic performance

Scope and Limitations

The research was limited by time constraints, project guideline, and the inability of the researcher
to experience South Korean Culture firsthand. The researchers were encouraged to focus on how K-pop
affects and appeals to the student’s academic performance on Almeria National High School.

This study focuses mainly on the students who are fascinated to K-pop and how it affects their
academic performance. It covers the selected ABM 11 students section 1and 2 in Almeria National High
School Senior High during the school year 2018-2019 covering the first semester.

Definition of Terms

The following are the terms operationally used in the study.

K-pop - a genre of pop music that originated from South Korea and performed by Korean idol singers and
groups

K-pop Idol - is a South Korean musical artist signed under a mainstream entertainment agency. They are
commonly cast by agencies via auditions or street casting in order to become trainees. K-pop Idols are
the one that is being fascinated by the Senior High School Students of Almeria National High School.

Buzz- move quickly or busily

Constraints- a limitation or restriction

Significance of the Study

The purpose of conducting the study is to gather data of Almeria National High School Senior
High School regarding on how K-pop affects their academic performance. This study is beneficial to the
following:

Students. They will gain understanding on how their K-pop consumption affects their academic
performance and their decisions and participation in any other activities in their lives.

Parents. To understand their children’s fascination for such foreign media.

Review of Related Literature

Anchoring on the objectives of this study, the researchers reviewed related studies that are
significant for understanding the student’s fascination to their K-pop idols. Because of the rising of this
social media or social networking sites, K-pop became popular in the Philippines especially in the Filipino
teens. Not only in the Philippines but also in the other country, people who are influence by this K-pop
group are mostly teenagers, some are young and others are young at heart.
There was a considerable amount of studies found especially regarding the media consumption
of fans and the proliferation of Korean media content in Asia. Most of the related literatures were
unpublished theses and books found at the College of Mass Communication's library in the University of
the Philippines, Diliman. Online journals and scholarly articles were retrieved from online sources such as
Sage Publications, and All Academic Inc.
4
Because of the popularity of k-pop idols, k-pop fandom among Filipino teens become also
widespread, they influenced most of the Filipino teens days with funky hair style, fashionable and
fashionable trendy clothes. Filipino teens imitate now their Idols and serve them as their models. This is
no doubt; k-pop fever is all over the Philippines.
According to Albert Bandura`s Modelling Theory (1997), it emphasis on the important of
observation and imitation that takes place from an individual’s perspective though the characters
portrayed through media, and now it bring a change when it comes to their behaviour, knowledge,
attitude, and values. According to him there are stages in Modelling Theory. First is seeing and action
portrayed in the media, second is the viewer identities with his/her idol and lastly when the viewer gets
motivates if the activity gets some toward. This is important in order to establish evidence of students
modelling of their Korean Idols.

In one study conducted by Phua, he tried to understand the effects of sports fans’ media
consumption on their fan identity salience and self-esteem. Phua’s findings reflected that sports fans are
not merely “brainless consumers” who consumed media texts and “devoted their lives to the cultivation of
worthless knowledge”, as what the stereotypes in Jenkins' book said. Rather, they consumed media for
various reasons, such as the formation of their fan identity salience and self-esteem. As a result of his
quantitative interviews and surveys, Phua concluded that: As predicted, media consumption enhances
positive distinctiveness for fans of the sports team, leading to enhanced self-esteem due to the ability to
seek information about the team through the various media during the season. By reading newspapers,
magazines and articles about the team as well as individual players, watching or listening to
commentaries and sports programs, logging on to the Internet to read and post messages on fan forums,
and also receive text message updates on their cell phones, sports fans are able to create solidarity with
fellow fans, and categorize themselves as part of their in-group. Although the framework of Phua was
based on the Social Identity Theory, which involves fans’ membership in different social groups, it posited
that the fans’ membership to a fandom is one form of consumption because of different group activities
involved, as mentioned in his conclusion. In relation to this, Whiteside and Hardin conducted another
study about sports media consumption.24 In this study, they tried to understand women's patterns of
consumption of sports-related media.
5
Phua, Whiteside and Andrejevic all studied the subcultures of fans, and how they consumed
media to satisfy various reasons. These studies proved that media consumption contributes to the
formation, development, and/or maintenance of the sport fans’ and television fans’ media dependency.
Therefore, fans are active media consumers.
The researcher of the current study also believes that K-pop fans, like sports fans and television
fans, actively consumed K-pop content because of many psychological and sociological factors, which
this study tried to find out.
6
Various studies say that fans are the most active media poachers. However, most of the studies
mentioned in the previous section involved audiences from foreign countries such as the United States of
America. Filipinos have also proven to be very active media consumers.
Ramos and Tanglao attempted to understand the Filipino teens as fans. In their highly
quantitative study, they tried to find out how Filipino adolescents in the multimedia society worshipped
their favorite celebrities. It described the different ways of how Filipino teens consumed media content
related to their idols. This is exactly what the current study also tried to do. Ramos and Tanglao’s study
purported that there are various psychological implications on the part of the fans as a result of their
media consumption. They noted that “media use (as well as access) facilitates fandom”. They added that
“fandom cannot occur without media consumption” because it is through the media that audiences are
able to “interact with and learn more about their favourite celebrities”.
The popularity of foreign media content in the Philippines was discussed. Among these television
products, Asian novelas arguably created the biggest impact not just in the Philippines but in the whole of
Asia. To be more specific, Korean novelas, or Korean drama series, paved the way for the Korean Wave
in the said continent.
Meanwhile, Parungao focused on the social interaction of fans who were members of fan clubs.
He studied fans as a small group of people interacting, as opposed to being individual consumers.
Although his research mainly focused on Filipino adult fans who were members of Nora Aunor fan clubs,
it supported the assumption that Filipinos, as fans, are active media consumers, to the point that they join
organizations to identify with fellow fans. Parungao said that “a celebrity fan club is one of the life spaces
that an individual could move or operate within”. Although the current study did not dwell on the formation
and maintenance of fandom, still joining fan clubs is one form of consumption.
7
Both Ramos & Tanglao’s and Parungao’s studies proved that Filipinos have a very active fan sub
community – a phenomenon that is very prevalent nowadays with the multitude of fan clubs dedicated to
Korean popular music.
From soap operas to game shows to Korean popular music, foreign media content have been a
staple in the programming of Philippine broadcast media. Because of the continuing importation of foreign
shows by the country's biggest networks, the researcher had reason to believe that the Filipinos have
very positive response to these foreign products, including Korean popular music. This is the reason why
this current study looked into three types of foreign material that created a huge impact on the Filipino
audience in recent years. These materials included: Spanish-language soap operas; Japanese animated
series, popularly known as anime; and Asian dramas, also known as Asianovelas. These three types of
programs, in one way and time or another, affected the viewing habits of the Filipinos.
Ryoo, Shim, Hyun and Ju all conducted in-depth analyses of the Korean Wave. Hallyu, or the
rapid spread of Korean entertainment in Asia, took the continent by storm shortly before the new
millennium started Arguably the most cited paper about the Korean Wave is Shim’s Hybridity and the Rise
of Korean Culture in Asia. In this paper, Shim’s descriptive study was highly qualitative, which was the
same approach that this current study utilized. He argued that the dominance of American media in the
globalization is an unjustified claim, as South Korea was able to add twists and local tastes on an entirely
western invention. Shim believed that cultural hybridization contributed greatly to the success of the
Korean Wave. He said that “cultural hybridization has occurred as local cultural agents and actors interact
and negotiate with global forms, using them as resources through which Koreans construct their own
cultural spaces”. Through these cultural agents, Koreans were able to produce media content that were a
“hybridization of well-embraced foreign styles”, and value-laden themes that were centered on their own
culture. Koreans made use of their local identity to put flavor in an otherwise very western medium.
8
On the other hand, Ryoo explained the “formation process of Korean popular music in its present
form”. He mentioned how Koreans appreciated and studied Western and Japanese media content in
order to produce their own media texts. Ryoo believed that Korean popular culture managed to penetrate
the Asian market because of its ability to translate Western ideas to very identifiable Asian content. He
also elaborated how the “modernity” of South Korea served as an important factor in the success of the
Korean Wave. Asians would like to emulate the good and beautiful life, including the advancement of
technology, presented in Korean drama settings. This finding is further supported by Chan's statement:
“Structural changes in the economy and technology in East Asia surely have facilitated global and intra-
regional flows of cultural-media products in the region”.
9
9
Both Shim's and Ryoo's studies support the current research's assumption that culture has
something to do with the appreciation of content. Although both Shim and Ryoo didn’t mention the
Cultural Proximity Theory, their findings reflected the assumptions of the said theory.
The appeal of Korean pop culture to Asians is especially meaningful for the Korean government
“since the country’s national image has not always been positive in neighbouring countries” (Doobo,
2006, p. 6). Many Asian countries have been distant from their closest neighbours in terms of cultural
understanding and exchanges, and instead “have had a tendency to link more closely to the former
colonial empires or advanced Western countries than with neighbours sharing borders” (Ryoo, 2007, p.
144).
Observers generally agree that the most likely explanations for the popularity of South Korean
shows, singers, and movies throughout Asia include South Korea’s high income levels, the close cultural
proximity and affinity they share with neighbouring Asian countries (Ryoo, 2007, p. 140).
This subsection tackles the popularity of Korean Popular Music among the Filipino teens in recent
times. Most of the resources came from newspapers and online articles, as studies about Kpop in the
Philippines were lacking, if not non-existent.
When MYX aired an array of Kpop videos in June 2009, Kpop came to the limelight. Filipino fans,
which were previously silent, came out and openly expressed their adoration for Korean music, videos
and artists. As what Hicap said, “not only do they interact in their own forums, on blogs and networking
sites, they also meet regularly, hold fan gatherings and dutifully buy their idols' CDs, photo books, T-shirts
and other merchandise.” What did these Kpop artists possess? In the words of Sablan in his article for the
Philippine Daily Inquirer, “The world has gone crazy over Korean pop. Very popular right now are boy
bands and girl groups with members who harmonize beautifully and showcase well-choreographed dance
steps.” He added that these artists were “good-looking, stylish, entertaining and hotter than kimchi.”
Perhaps these characteristics were some of the factors that attracted the Filipino teens, and this study
aimed to find the truth behind this.
10
All of the four sections of the literature review (media consumption, Filipinos as fans, foreign
media content in Philippines media, the Korean wave) were well-studied in the academe. There have
been studies about the Filipinos' reception of other foreign products such as Korean dramas, but not with
Korean popular music. No studies were found that delved on the popularity of K-pop before or after MYX
aired K-pop music videos. In Asia, the Philippines is relatively new in the K-pop wave, and this is why no
studies have tackled this phenomenon.
 The rampant popularity of Korean Wave; Korean Dramas, culture, music, pop stars and cuisine
as with other countries have begun to adopt Korea. Korea has become a country which can attract many
attentions from its technology and also its culture. In this era, many people around the world start to love
and learn about Korean culture. Not only the culture, but they are also interested in its drama, movie,
music, actors/actresses and foods.
11
An economic analysis by Seo Min-Soo acts as a counterargument to Oh’s assertion that K-Pop’s
international reach detracts from its originality as Korean. Min-Soo asserts that K-Pop “…challenges
assumptions that ‘Korean culture,’ especially when presented to outsiders, must always mean ‘traditional
culture’”. He goes on to say that Korean markets are constantly evolving to capture and maintain interests
in foreign markets. Min-Soo’s study has provided graphics and models that break down the processes
through which idols are recruited and trained and how promoters tackle international markets. 
The source describes Gangnam Style (arguably the most internationally sensationalized K-Pop
song of all time) and K-Pop, and how they have contributed to major economic gains in South Korea. This
source helps provide raw data on how important the K-Pop industry can be fiscally.
A CNN article by South Korean-American journalist Esther Oh makes a powerful statement
regarding K-Pop’s international appeal. She acknowledges that it has been able to spread, but as soon as
foreign producers and artists invest in and take part in the production of K-Pop, it is no longer truly
Korean. The researcher values this article and does not deny that Oh’s argument has merit. However, the
researcher would like to propose that, regardless of whatever foreign influence K-Pop undergoes, it is still
sung in Korean; it is still a fascinating concept that music in an uncommon language is even able to get
international attention. 
12
12
11
Satoh, J. (2014, December 4). J-pop's influence on K-pop [Personal interview].The personal
interview done with Julie Satoh helped support the idea that J-Pop influenced the success of K-Pop in the
early stages.
The source was used to inspire the initial research. Additionally, it was used in the paper to cite an
example of a very famous K-Pop idol who is not even Korean in order to prove a point about the
internationalism of K-Pop.
With the help of the literature review, the researcher was able to prove specific and significant
aspects of the study.

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