PHILIPPINE POPULAR

CULTURE:
DIMENSIONS AND DIRECTIONS
THE STATE OF RESEARCH IN
PHILIPPINE POPULAR
CULTURE
 POPULAR
CULTURE IN
THE PHILIPPINES

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Is a concern of:
- Recent awareness
- Recent exploration
- Recent definition

Left behind atleast two discernable layers of cultural

influence:
- Spanish
- American

Less Discernable:
- Chinese
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“POPULAR CULTURE”
- Root word populus (the people)
- More specifically on the mass

Mass media-generated culture in the Philippines is what

can be properly called popular culture

ELECTRONIC MEDIA
- Film
- Radio
- Television
- Large-circulation press
- Research in the field is comparatively young
- Started out in the sixties

The factors that led to this were:

- Vital current field of endaevor and inquiry
- Sending of scholars to schools abroad
- UP Institute of Mass Communication
- Government interest

Middle Seventies
- Began to examine film, television, radio and comics as
modes of fiction and drama
“ - Concern was on the cultural critic
- Novel, poem, etc. was not reaching the great majority
- Martial law there were few outlets

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KOMIKS

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COMICS or COMIC STRIPS/COMIC
BOOKS or MAGAZINES
- Is a printed medium that creates
a universe
- Using a secret code in the most
simple and direct way to enter
the reader’s brain
- COMICS ARE A MEDIUM NOT A
GENRE
- Depicts the passage of time
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- Most important key of comics is its INTENTION OF
CREATION
- Have been popular in England and America during
1800s
- Originated as satirical and political cartoons

HISTORY OF PHILIPPINE COMICS

- Was called komiks
- “THE TORTOISE AND THE MONKEY” (first indigenous
cartoon, Jose Rizal 1885)
- 1920s Liwayway magazine began running comic strips 9
THE TORTOISE AND THE MONKEY LIWAYWAY MAGAZINE
(1923)

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- Firt born comic strips in the Philippines was Mga
Kabalbalan ni Kenkoy

MGA KABALBALAN NI KENKOY

- Kenkoy was a pop icon and was the Philippines first
recurring comic character
- Shows a satrical portrait of Filipinos always trying to
keep up with American fashion

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MGA KABALBALAN NI KENKOY

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KULAFU (VINO KULAFU)
- Illustrated by Francisco Reyes
- Written by Pedrito Reyes
- Is an adventurer who roamed the mountains of Luzon
- Translated into Bisaya, Bikolnon, Ilokano, and later in
Spanish in a South American magazine
- Became so popular that even local wine company
(Ginebra San Miguel) had named a wine after Vino
Kulafu

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VINO KULAFU

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HALAKHAK
- End of world war II, came out in 1946
- Was the first regularly published magazine in the
Philippines
- Was created by Isaac Tolentino and Atty. Jaime Lucas
- Established Halakhak comics at Quiapo, Manila
- Had 42 pages, initially priced at 25 centavos

DARNA
- Mars Ravelo’s creation together with Dyesebel, Captain
Barbell, and Lastikman 15
HALAKHAK
DARNA

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DARNA EVOLUTION

Rosa del Rosario (1951) Liza Moreno

(1963)

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Eva Montes (1965) Gina Pareno (1969)

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Vilma Santos (1973) Dolphy
(darna parody) (1979)

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Rio Locsin (1979) Nanette Medved (1991)

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Anjanette Abayari (1994)

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- All packaged Superman, Wonderwoman, and Captain
Marvel
- Also has a medusa like villain named Valentina
- Even after the war, FILIPINOS RETAINED THE SENSE OF
HUMOR AND PREVAILING SENSE OF HOPE

Komiks draws out hope, values, and visions in life

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FILM

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CINEMATROGRAFO
- First film shown in the Philippines
- Usually presented and interspersed with zarzuela or
vaudeville numbers

1909
- Yearsley and Gross produced the first two locally made
feature films both on the life of Rizal

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DALAGANG BUKID (1919)
- First full length feature film by Jose Nepomuceno
- Used the story and the star of Hermogenes Ilagan’s
Zarzuela of the same name
- Most successful play (believed to be played atleast
1000 times all around the island)

1924
- 214 movie houses all over the Philippines

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Dalagang Bukid

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ANG ASWANG (1932)
- First talking picture in the island was made by Musser

1939
- Philippine movie industry was 5th in the world (number
of talkies produced)
- 345 sound theaters in the country
- 11 movie companies
- Paid up capital of 430,000 pesos

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Ang Aswang

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From then the Philippine movie industry moved from the
big studio syndrome to the present proliferation of small
independent producers

The Filipino film definitely has an audience, movie houses

enjoy fair to full occupancy from 9 am to 11 pm daily

120 Filipino movies each year whose stars are

- Dolphy - Nora Aunor
- Vilma Santos
Folk heroes or in the current lingo “superstars”
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Filipino Movies enjoy longevity that foreign movies do not:
- After Manila circuit they determine whether the movie
gains profit then go through provincial circuit
- Through the second run then third and fourth circuits
which are cheap movie houses
- Then to the television where they live forever

There are no films archive in the Philippines

Television run is of value to film student or historian as being
the “living morgue”
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1976
- Formation of the Manunuri ng Pelikulang Pilipino
- Film critics are mostly composed of film buffs and writers
from academe and journalists

BAKYA
- Pejorative adjective a Filipino director in the late fifties
used to describe the films
- The wooden shoe worn by the lower classes, was used
to describe the unelevated taste
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Literature on the Film includes five books (none of them
real studies of film as film, much less as popular culture) :
1. Purports to be a history
2. Film stars
3. Censorship
4. Largely pictorial memoir
5. Film directory

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FROM STAGE TO SCREEN
- A scholarly study by Nicanor Tiongson
- Examines folk drama as a source fort the Filipino film
- Studies colonial values expressed in both media

BIENVENIDO LUMBERA
- Unpublished study of the archetypal heroes and
heroine in the Philippine film
- Wrote a paper on the difficulties of research on the
Philippine Film

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Bienvenido Lumbera

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RADIO

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JUNE 1922
- 3 temporary 50-watt stations were given permit
KZKZ
Department Store Radios (1939)

JAPANESE OCCUPATION
KZRH
- Only radio
- Renamed PIAM

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KZRH

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HIDDEN RADIO SETS
1. “Voice of Juan de la Cruz”
2. “Voice of Freedom”
3. “The Voice of America”

1945
- Birth of Philippine radio
- 30 stations

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 1961
Bolinao Electronics Corporation

Alto Broadcasting System, then the

Chronicle Broadcasting Network

Kanlaon Broadcasting System

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- Programming was imitated by DZRH
“Purico Show”
“Kwentong Kapitbahay”

Kapitan Kidlat
- First soap opera

“Kwentong Kutsero”
- Filipino manners, politics, and government

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Purico Show
Kwentong Kutsero

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“Kami Naman”
- Tv show
- comedy

“Vicks Variety Show”

- Developed PH radio
- Consists of maximum soap opera
- With jokes, commentary, and dedications
- balagtasan

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1969
- 62% of household in the Philippines have radio’s

2 POP CULTURE FORM OF RADIO

- Pop music
- Radio Soap Opera

Virgilio V. Vitug
- Poet and journalist
- Called radio soap opera as “Pabrika ng Luha at
Pantasya”
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Virgilio V. Vitug

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Radio Reflected the Reality

Example:
Ilaw ng Tahanan - longest radio series (9 years)
Gulong ng Palad

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POPULAR MAGAZINE

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THE PHILIPPINE MAGAZINE
- First magazine of general circulation
in the Philippines
- Published in 1905
- Cannot quite be called “popular”
since it was in english

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PHILIPPINE FREE PRESS
- Should be called the first
- Printed on cheap newsprint and was read by the
majority of the english speaking Philippine public

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REAL POPULAR MAGAZINE
- Would have to be written in the vernacular language

Liwayway
- Started in 1923
- Had a circulation of 89,000 in 1941
- Cornerstone of popular publishing in the Philippines
- Venue for most of the published tagalog poetry and
fiction by serious writers in the vernacular

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HALIMBAWA:

Ika-Limamput Isang Alay

- Made the tagalog writer both
serious and famous at the
same time
Sister Publications
- Bisaya
- Hiligaynon
- Bannawag
- Bicolnon

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WOMEN’S MAGAZINES

Women’s Hope Companion Women’s

Journal

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Mr. and Ms. MOD

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Jingle Extra Hot

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Dr. Soledad Reyes
- Sees these magazines as escape literature for
“borrowed housewives, harried office girls, pimpy school
girls, old maids, etc.”

WOMEN’S MAGAZINES
- Supply emotional crutches, support for sagging morale,
assurance that the reader can be transformed

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1. “How-to” articles on being beautiful, sexy, etc.

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2. “Intimate glimpses” into the lives of the jet set, the
celebrities the stars

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3. Tour of Beautiful Places

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4. Dose of psychology, medicine,
or psychiatry

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POPULAR MUSIC

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POPULAR MUSIC IN THE PHILIPPINES BACK THEN:
- Kundiman
- Zarzuelas
- Love Songs
- Street Songs
- Children’s Nonsense Songs

IN 1973
- Joey Smith with his band Juan de la Cruz experimented
Pinoy Rock
- Pinoy Rock pleaded for “our own music”

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Juan de la Cruz band

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- Hot Dog’s hit song “Pers Lab”
- Poet Rolando Tinio translated an album of American
songs into Filipino for Celeste Legazpi
- Filipino broadcast stations were required to play three
Filipino songs per hour
- Freddie Aguilar has emerged with his song “Anak”

AT THE PRESENT
What is the truth about Pinoy Rock?

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Hot Dog
Celeste Legaspi

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Freddie Aguilar

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- Only the lyrics make Pinoy Rock Filipino
- Music is still derivative of American Pop, folk, and rock
- Words have begun to talk about
Filipino Life Concerns
Society
People and mores (prophetic)

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Felipe de Leon Jr.
Anna Leah de Leon
Teresita G. Maceda

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