We talked about Charice and her rise of stardom through the mediums of the Korean variety TV show and youtube. Jose sent clips of another Filipino who got his rise to fame in a similar but different way. Arnel Pineda is currently the lead vocalist of Journey. He was, like Charice, invited to the U.S. to appear on Ellen Degeneres and then on Oprah. His medium was also Internet video clips. So, why is this significant and related?
I'm guessing that most of your exposure to Korean popular culture has been through the Internet. Nowadays, Internet is a huge medium for expatriates and also non-Korean fans trying to keep up. Here is an example of Taiwanese male who sings Whitney Houston and through the Internet, gets known throughout the world. Susan Boyle might be another example. Even artists who upload covers on youtube and get thousands of hits. Also, there are websites that host dramas that you can watch, with subtitles, and websites that put videos up almost instantly so that you can watch alongside people in Korea. It allows you to stay connected, up-to-date, ect. Entertainment companies post news on the Internet, upload brand new music videos online and announce what time so you can watch it as soon as it comes out, (GD & TOP first released clips of their album using the Internet as a medium). Whereas in the past TV was used more as a medium, for example "MTV's Making of:".
In any case, back to Charice and Arnel. There are a couple things I want you to watch out for. What is the racial imagery, particularly when they appear on Oprah? How are they portrayed? Also, what role does the ability of English play for these singers? Both note that they always sang covers of American pop songs when they were younger. Are they able to be even found in the first place because of the fact that they can speak English? Do you think there are race issues when he became a part of Journey?
A couple of notes on Charice:
1. What is the difference between the way she acted on Star King, Ellen, and then Oprah? I will probably refer to global hierarchy a lot in this class. Is this something to do with global hierarchy, where she feels that she "achieved that dream" of appearing on Oprah? in other words, it is more significant that she appeared on Oprah just because it was Oprah or because of what Oprah represents?
The comment about "why are Filipinos good singers?" I will contest this argument, as a sign of another form of racial imagery. Why? Because who says that Filipinos are good singers? And what happens if you are a Filipino(a) and NOT a good singer? The reason why racial stereotypes (and even "good" racial stereotypes) are bad is because they generalize and marginalize an entire group of people. For example, there was issues of marginalizing Filipinos in the boating industry, where Filipinos were racialized to be "good sea workers". Sounds great, right? But though they were racialized in what seems to be good (even the Filipino government promoted this racial imagery because it brought back revenue for the state, promoted fishing schools, ect) Filipinos were racialized to be good workers and never were able to advance up to be in a higher position because they were always just seen as workers. I will write on this more in depth later, but I just wanted to put that out there.
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