Korean Pop Music a Threat to Contemporary Filipino Identity? Globalization, Nation, and Interrogation in Philippine Culture and Identity

For almost a decade, Korean Pop (K-pop) music has become a global phenomenon. Transgressing regional boundaries, K-pop music found extraordinary success in Southeast Asia, including the Philippines. Globalization of culture, however, had not only produced skeptics but also challenged the tenets of cultural identity vis-à-vis a crisis on nationalism. This paper seeks to theorize the adverse and favorable effects of K-pop music with regard to its significance to contemporary Filipino national identity through assessment of history, culture, and meaning. This paper tackles and examines its nuance to contradictions of culture and identity and how the transnationalism of pop culture, like K-pop music, contributes to the development of culture and society in the Philippines in recent history.