Introducing The Pop Girls!
With K Pop taking over the world, it's easy to forget that Korea isn't the only Asian nation churning out amazing music. We all worship at the feet of Ami Suzuki (who continues to fly the flag for Japan) and adore Hong Hong's hottest diva La Chiquitta but the Philippines is often overlooked. The home of Charice has its own burgeoning pop scene and from the tracks I've heard - P Pop is utterly defining! The genre has come under fire from rabid K Pop fans, who think it steals from their faves but those bitches need to chill the fuck out. P Pop is just finding its feet. Of course, they are going to look to their fabulous neighbours for inspiration - the same way that Australian and British pop acts look to America for guidance. Why can't we all just eat Kimchi and get along?
 

If you put your preconceptions aside, you might just like what you hear. Take the Pop Girls. These five beauties are the current queens of P Pop and I'm more than a little obsessed. While Korean girlbands fight against their inherent cuteness and desperately try to be edgy, the Pop Girls embrace their inner campness and sound like a cross between S Club 7 and Steps. From what I can tell without being able to read Tagalog, the Philippines' favourite band first came to fame with "Crazy Crazy", an upbeat dance anthem, before re-emerging with new members and a pure pop sound. I love their new direction. "Sige Sige Sayaw" is such a catchy song. Sure the video looks like it was filmed at Timezone in 15 minutes before the after school rush but they look adorable and I stan for their cheap choreography. Bring on their next pan-Asian smash!

K-pop girl groups’ songs have really catchy and upbeat tunes that cause anyone an incurable LSS (Last Song Syndrome). And even though we don’t understand almost all the lyrics, we easily get acquainted with the songs because of the tune and repetitive English lyrics mostly found in the chorus (I want nobody, nobody but you…). Another factor is the songs’ easy-to-execute dance steps that almost anyone, even toddlers or senior citizens, can execute well (For the hit song Nobody, it’s the point-clap-point-clap step that accompanies its English lines that has made the country dancing for what seemed to be eternity). Last but not the least is their visual appeal. Korean music videos are highly visual than musical, appealing more to the viewers’ sense of sight. In fact, there are only a few songs which put higher regard to its musicality than its music videos’ visual appeal. And it is this high regard for visual appeal that critics have a particular beef with.

A big part of their music videos’ visual appeal should be attributed to the girls themselves. Watch their videos and you’ll see what I mean – pretty teenage girls clad in skimpy clothes (short shorts and/or skirts, hanging blouses, tight-hugging pants and shirts, etc.), doing suggestive dances (gyrating hips, etc.), yet acting so cute and so innocent, as if they do not know they are sexy. These girls, whose ages range from 15-30, have been the object of Korean men’s desires lately. SM Entertainment’s CEO Lee SooMan’s (53) statement** mentioned that since they observed that men aged 30-40 are the main consumers in the Korean cultural market, their company’s girl group, Girls’ Generation (So Nyuh Shi Dae, where one of the members happen to be his niece), targets that audience. His statement is a clear indication of the company’s aim to generate more income through the objectification of teenage girls while satisfying men’s sexual needs. The Korean girl groups’ music videos and songs cater to the male gaze (think teenage girls moving their bare legs and singing, “Tell me your wish, I’m genie for you boy”, acting cute while singing, “I’m so hot!”, or swaying hips to the tune of the song, “Oh, oh, oh, oh, Oppa*, I love you!”), yet Korean women and the girls themselves seem not to find this offensive. Does this mean that using cute teenage girls is effective in masking the sexual nature of the songs and dances, and that Korean women are all right with the objectification of young Korean girls to gain income? Could it be that it has already become too subtle or too common that they fail to notice its sexually-suggestive nature?

While I was watching the television last Sunday, I saw a local teenage girl group called Pop Girls sing and dance at a variety show. Earlier, a group called SH3, composed of three girls who debuted as actresses a few years back, also did a song and dance number similar to what K-pop girl groups do. Is the Philippines joining the bandwagon? I hope not. I would rather see more balladeers than Filipino girls who are younger than me gyrate their hips on television. Do not get me wrong, though. It is not that I dislike Korean girl groups; it is just that I do not want my future children to live in a society where women are highly regarded as objects of sexual pleasure in a way so blatant yet so highly neglected by women themselves. And it also counts to say that I do not want to see another second-rate version of K-pop girl groups – at least not in my own country.