CHAPTER 5
Globalization of Popular Culture
LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
The student must be able to:
Briefly explain the effects of globalization to pop culture and vice
versa.
Analyze the cultural impacts of globalization.
5.1 GLOBALIZATION
The phenomenon of globalization is defined as the "acceleration and intensification of
economic interaction among the people, companies, and governments of different nations"
(Globalizarion101.org). Most studies of globalization tend to focus on changes occurring in the
economic and political spheres. The details of those issues, such as tariff rates and international
agreements, have fallen within the traditional province of government bureaucrats and political
leaders. However, the dramatic changes brought by globalization have forced policymakers to
respond to public pressures in many new areas. Observers of globalization are increasingly
recognizing that globalization is having a significant impact on matters such as local cultures,
matters which are less tangible and hard to quantify, but often fraught with intense emotion and
controversy. Generally speaking, issues surrounding culture and globalization have received
less attention than the debates, which have arisen over globalization and the environment or
labor standards. In part this is because cultural issues are more subtle and sensitive, and often
more confusing.
Globalization, propelled by advance in communication and transportation technology,
the integration of global markets, and privatization and deregulation of media outlets in much of
the world, has intensified the role of media and popular culture in shaping or communication and
understanding of cultures different from our own. While TV programs, celebrities, and music
videos are often perceived simply innocent and fun entertainment, these and other forms of
popular culture are powerful transmitters of cultural norms, values, and expectations. While the
United States continues to dominate production and dissemination of popular culture globally,
numerous media circuits today originate from India, Latin America, Nigeria and China; thus,
central dynamic of intercultural communications is how global media and distribution of popular
culture alternately promote strong desires for inclusion in global culture and also mobilize
intense resistance to cultural imperialism.
Media and popular culture serve as primary channels through which we learn about
groups who are different from ourselves and make sense of who we are. Just as limited and
negative representations produced through media and pop culture promote and reinforce
stereotypes impacting perceptions of others and ourselves, diasporic and migrant communities
reconnect and remember home through popular culture as they resist full assimilation and
otherness.
Through diverse processes, our globalized world is tremendously interconnected and
interdependent (Tomlinson, 2007), characterized by increasingly liquid and multidirectional flows
of people, objects, places, and information (Ritzer, 2010). This results in interesting cultural
configurations such as “Chocolate City” in Guangzhou, China, where many African
businessmen reside (Bodomo, 2010), and China Town in Lagos, Nigeria. About 74 million
(nearly half) of the migrants from developing countries reside in other developing countries
(Ratha & Shaw, 2010) which contradicts the popular belief that everyone is migrating to the
West. The tendency to place Americanization and Westernization at the epicenter of every
discussion of globalization reinforces the cultural imperialism that many scholars decry. While its
influence is undeniable, “the United States is no longer the puppeteer of a world system of
images but is only one node in a complex transnational construction of imaginary landscapes”
(Appadurai, 1996). The study of popular culture and intercultural communication on the global
scale must attend to the multiplicity of cultural linkages that exist in a networked society.
Globalization contradicts the very idea that culture is bound to specific regions
(Goodman, 2007). It also challenges the idea of culture as a unified set of norms. How can one
possibly identify the values and customs of more than 7 billion people? However, an analysis of
global culture does not require the identification of homogeneity, shared values, or social
integration; rather, it requires the identification of a set of practices that constitute a cultural field
within which struggle, and contestation occur. Alternatively, if we view culture as shifting
tensions between the shared and the unshared (Collier, Hegde, Lee, Nakayama, & Yep, 2002),
we uncover dynamics such as the interplay between integration and fragmentation that
characterize global relations. Likewise, the fragmented space of pop culture nation (i.e., global
popular culture) can be understood as perpetually unfolding tensions and struggles that occur
when multiple cultural systems and artifacts flow into and away from one another. Popular
culture is a resource in identity construction and consequently enables and constrains
intercultural communication. It also disrupts cultural identities leading to resistance and forges
hybrid transnational cultural identities.
5.2 INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION
Popular culture functions as a resource in shared meaning making. However, popular
culture can constrain intercultural communication and understanding as much as it enables
them. When we take popular culture to be reality rather than representation, the result is an
“illusion of knowing.” Much of what “we think we know” about people, places, and ideas is
obtained and confirmed by popular culture. Invariably, this finds its way into our evaluations of
others and communicative choices. Encounters with others through the mass-mediated space
of popular culture are helpful but not a substitute for genuine conversations, relationship
building, and self- reflexivity about our positionality.
5.3 HYBRID TRANSNATIONAL IDENTITIES: CONVERGE OR DIVERGE
Cultural identity transcends continental, national, and regional boundaries. In the context
of globalization, it is a colorful tapestry of transnational experiences and interactions. However,
in the past decade, there has been a resurgence of national pride and identification. The
hybridization of popular culture holds many possibilities for achieving shared meaning on the
global scale and provides a sense of comfort that all is not lost. In this sense, hybridization can
be interpreted not as a sullying of cultural purity but as a form of resistance against complete
domination (Hegde, 2002). Popular culture always reflects the interests of its producer and, as
such, should not be romanticized but scrutinized.
Considering intercultural communication in the global context sensitizes us to the
complex systems of meaning that impact our communication daily. In the fragmented space of
global popular culture, our identities are shaped and reshaped as we communicate across
difference and make decisions to resist and comply, diverge, and converge. Culture industries
are making an attempt to acknowledge a wider range of human experience, and diversity is the
buzzword of the century. It is rather like keeping a minority friend around to prove that you aren’t
racist. Is the move toward diversity and multiculturalism producing more openness and
compassion, or are we hiding behind it? Have we conflated the consumption of certain types of
popular culture with progressiveness? Do we automatically think of Lady Gaga fans as more
open-minded? Would your “openness” to another person change if he or she watched only
ABS-CBN or GMA? Popular culture is now an undeniable part of our everyday meaning making
and being savvy about the conclusions we draw from it is a crucial part of intercultural
competence in the global context.
READING ACTIVITY!!!
Read the following article:
K-FASHION AND TECHNOLOGY-DRIVEN GLOBALIZATION IN THE
PHILIPPINE SETTING by Carlo Jejomar Pascual Palad Sanchez (page 66)
KEYWORDS
Companies Converge Cultural Imperialism Diverge
Entertainment Globalization Global Culture Hybridization
ICT Interaction Interconnected Intercultural
Communication
Interdependent Integrated Internet K fashion
K pop Media Nation Technology
Video Corner…
This video lecture discusses the cultural dimensions of
globalization from a sociological perspective.
Globalization and culture
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ydX2FY0dvY
Why does Globalization of Popular Culture cause
problems
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cuFWWgK15Fw
Chapter 5
K-FASHION AND TECHNOLOGY-DRIVEN GLOBALIZATION IN THE PHILIPPINE
SETTING
Carlo Jejomar Pascual Palad Sanchez
Continuing Professional Teacher Education (CPTE)
Bulacan State University
Abstract
K-fashion is a manifestation of technology-driven globalization.
Globalization, or the process of across-borders interaction and integration,
has been fueled by modern advancements in Information and
Communication Technology (ICT). Popular culture, of which K-pop would
be a good example, is a manifestation of this process. It is likewise fueled
by technology, by the internet, by online means of acquiring data. In this
globalized age, ICT is an open source of information on the rise and fall of
K-pop groups. The access—to these information—that they give also
reflects their role in the actual rise and fall of these global groups. In the
Philippine setting, technology-driven globalization manifests in popular
culture only indirectly. This process of interaction and integration can be
visibly seen in the more wearable and more tangible products of K-fashion.
With the internet providing means to download free music and videos,
Filipinos can instead use their resources to shop for clothes, in both
physical stalls and online stores.
As a third-world country, the Philippines finds itself not far above the
modified poverty-line called the wash-line. Despite this, however, they
manage to innovate and find creative ways to participate—become active
receivers—of the process that continuously connects the technological
world.
The world is like a washing machine: it goes round and round.
For the past decade or so, globalization has been a very famous topic of
discourse among people from various fields. It is the thing of today; it is what makes our
current world turn. This paper attempts to present K-fashion as a manifestation of
“technology-driven globalization.” Specifically, it aims to define what technology-driven
globalization is, what K-fashion is, and how the latter is a manifestation of the former in
the Philippine setting.
Technology-driven Globalization
The concept of globalization is known to almost everyone by now, it is having
been explained in various forms of informal and academic media. Still, here is a
definition from aptly-named website globalization101.org: “Globalization is a process of
interaction and integration among the people, companies, and governments of different
nations, a process driven by international trade and investment and aided by
information technology” (Levin Institute, n.d.) The root of the term is the word “globe,”
and interaction and integration in this regard is indeed on a global level. One finds
further in the definition: “This process has effects on the environment, on culture, on
political systems, on economic development and prosperity, and on human physical
well-being in societies around the world.”
As pointed out in the same webpage, globalization is not an entirely new thing.
Its roots have existed thousands of years back, from the time our early ancestors
started trading across rivers and seas. However, globalization in its present sense goes
way beyond mere instances of perfume or fabric exchange. The world goes round and
round: the process of interaction and integration among people has progressed from
“mere” barter trades to complex technological networking. Bridges that connect
countries have well advanced: carrier pigeons became jets, bamboo rafts became high-
speed ferries, rivers became washing machines.
Globalization is not limited to the applications of modern information and
communication technologies (ICT) in the global scale. It is, however, almost impossible
to discount the fact that technology fueled globalization. Technology made the world
spin faster than ever. Advancements in information technology and communication
media made the effects of globalization more visible and felt as its paved way to a much
faster and freer exchange among global nations. “Snails” of the post office have curled
up to shiny-ringed blue “E‟s” of the monitor screen, making mail and, consequently,
almost any information that would have been previously difficult to gather accessible
with one computer click.
Several months of waiting for a parcel from overseas has been vastly reduced, to
a few seconds no less. Information on government policies, economic developments
and trade are travelling the world through the internet, through wireless waves and
wires in waves (since kilometers of communication lines are usually installed under
bodies of water). The role of technology is explicitly mentioned in globalization101.org,
as globalization is said to be “aided by information technology.” Data on human
societies, the environment, political systems—all of these aspects affected by this
process, as in the definition above—are readily and easily available. More often than
not they are available anytime and anywhere to anyone with an internet connection, to
anyone who has an internet connection anytime and anywhere.
Even without the above, the term “technology-driven globalization” is almost self-
explanatory. Globalization is process of interaction and integration among different
nations. Interaction and integration are made possible by communication, or the two-
way acquisition and processing of information. These two are made possible essentially
by ICT. Air mail used to be the fastest across-the-globe carrier. The mail jet, however,
has been “replaced” by a much smaller yet more efficient paper jet, a digital folded
plane called the cursor.
K-Pop and K-Fashion
As mentioned, advancements in information and communication technology
fueled globalization and made its effects more apparent. Among these, there might be
nothing more apparent than its effect on culture, on popular culture specifically.
Extremely easy access to data in this case is more frequently not limited to statistical or
scientific information. Data in this sense is both information on the latest trends, and the
latest trends themselves.
The latest on the popular culture trade, of which K-pop would be a very good
example, is readily available with just a few clicks. Be it news articles, lyrics, or concert
updates, all that needs to be done is to “search” and the internet will provide in seconds.
Pop stars can be brought down the same way they shot to fame; performing groups get
even more and more popular with every single view of their video. Through cursors and
a song, people can interact with societies around the globe.
The world is like a washing machine: after warming up, it turns really, really fast.
According to the author, between the years 1999 and 2005, 50 new K-pop
groups had their debut. The number increased to 30 new groups in the year 2010 alone.
In 2011, however, a sea of 50 new groups--the total of a previous seven-year period--
debuted in one single year (Dana, 2012). In total, the number of new groups formed
between 2009 and the year the article was written—a short span of four years—far
exceeds the number of groups that have debuted during the 13-year period between the
years 1996 and 2008. Most of these groups were made known in Korea, and especially
in the world, through information and communication technology. Video and music
streaming websites (such as Youtube), free blog portals (such as Multiply and Tumblr),
and social media websites (such as the then-popular Friendster, and the more recent
Facebook and Twitter) are obvious manifestations of modern ICT.
These groups were known, commended, made famous, and brought to the top of
the world charts and the peak of their global careers through technology. It is also in the
same manner that they were bashed, associated with controversies, forgotten, and
replaced with new song and dance groups that will be subjected to the same popular-
culture cycle.
Dana‟s (2012) article “Idol History: K-pop By The Numbers” accounts for the
number of groups that debuted in specific time periods. A debut, however, does not
automatically translate to seconds of fame, even more so to a sustainable career. Not
all 50 new groups that debuted in the year 2011, for example, were able to survive the
spinning world of popular performing arts. Groups shoot to fame as fast as other groups
are abandoned. With modern technology, 100 new K-pop groups could debut in a single
year, but the same number can also fail to become more than flat statistics.
The above information was accessed with a few taps in a keyboard, in a span of
even fewer seconds. Data on the rise and fall of K-pop groups, and their actual rise and
fall, can be acquired, influenced, or controlled with just a few clicks. Technology powers
the globalization washing machine that spins popular culture. Information on the
existence of a single rising group alone facilitates the spread of popular culture across
countries. The extent of this spread is even greater since on top of their identity, their
albums, promotions, charities, scandals, breakthroughs, and achievements travel
throughout the globe. With our current technologies, integration among nations in terms
of tradable popular culture can occur faster than a washing cycle.
The world is like a washing machine: in it is a bit of everything.
If we find time to look at every single piece of clothing that we dump in a washing
machine, we will see how this current wave of globalized popular culture has reached
the fibers that we use. Washing machines have replaced rivers not only in the laundry
sense, but in a way, in its transportative essence as well. In general, the clothes that we
wear and the look we get from it resemble, no matter how vaguely, a popular “pop
culture” character or idea. The colored pants, the skirts, the neon shirt: these are
parcels of globalization that come in our personal colors and sizes.
Aside from the look, we see this modern river barter in the brands of the clothes
themselves. Cotton On, Uniqlo, Giordano: these global brands will go round and round
in the machine side by side with our favorite regional and indigenous brands, advertised
by or with our favored popular culture personalities. We see manifestations of culture
bridges in the H&M that tumbles with the Zara, in the Samsung phone being rinsed in
the pockets of a 501. These traded piles of clothes can be considered as direct
merchandise and “products” of K-pop. As K-pop groups, and their music and videos, are
being sold and bought by consumers, they could also be considered as products in their
own regard. This allows for the occasional “product on a product” merchandise in
closets, for the Korean-style shirts silk-screened with a photo of K-pop superstars.
One would best explore the K-pop phenomenon, and subsequently articulate its
extent in a certain country, by looking into album sales charts. K-pop groups, first and
foremost, sell their music, their songs, their videos. Album sales, therefore, are the most
relevant source of information on the said topic, but it is not the only source. Data on K-
fashion can also be useful in exploring the extent globalization has been made manifest
by Korean popular culture. In fact, in some instances, it could be a more suitable
source.
In the Philippine setting, the consumer aspect of K-pop is more apparent in
clothing industries. Music albums in general are pretty expensive. Additionally, the value
of music albums lies in the satisfaction a customer gets from playing it through a
computer or music player. As music is virtually “downloadable” from the internet at no
cost, it would be understandable if K-pop fans would rather spend their money on
Korean clothes. K-fashion is more wearable, and consequently more tangible and
visible than music albums. Indeed, some of these downloads are essentially forms of
piracy, but non-illegal avenues where fans can download free music and videos do
allow them to allot their purchasing resources to the more “practical” goods of K-fashion.
Globalization in the Philippines
The cursor has influenced the direction of the world. True to what a digital arrow
does, it has “pointed” nations to new currents, to entirely new rivers to traverse. Modern
ICT allowed for the concretization of globalization that is visible even in the soapiest
parts of the house. Although possibly unaware, we encounter this concretization in
almost everything, even the clothes we wear. Still, this is all thanks to the advancement
we have achieved in mediums of global exchange. As previously introduced,
information on the latest trends, profiles of potential buyers and sellers, contact between
parties, and actual delivery can be made with a click of a mouse. Even the integration
among people, companies, and governments that accompany all of these are made
possible through global technologies. It is globalization ferried into our closets.
As previously mentioned, international brands Cotton On, Uniqlo, Giordano,
Zara, and H&M were welcomed into the Philippine shores with much anticipation.
Filipino K-pop fans, therefore, would be much more thrilled to welcome Korean brands
that bring Korean fashion right at their local mall’s doorsteps.
Jica Lapeña of gmanetwork.com reports the “arrival” of Korean Fashion in the
country (2013). The article narrated the opening of the first branch of Basic House last
December 2012. The said shop is located at The Shops in Greenhills. A May 31, 2013
article from inquirer.net then featured the Korean fashion brand’s second store at SM
Megamall in Mandaluyong. Aside from Basic House, the Philippines also became a new
home to global brand Mall of Korea. The headline of an article by Jamie Sanchez (2016)
of spot.ph reads: “Now Open: Mall of Korea, a fashionista's shopping paradise.” The
said shopping center opened July 14 of that same year, at Metro Walk in Pasig.
In addition to the above, globalization can also be seen—and arguably better
seen—in the buffering symbol that turns round and round. Korean popular culture—
which thrived and has conquered the world through ICT—is concretized by the same
technological media. Online shopping has been a thing of the global age, and Filipino
boats have some of the most avid rowers in this digital floating market. An article by
David Dizon (2015) of abs-cbnnews.com shares a WeAreSocial report stating that
“Pinoys are top in Internet, social media use.” From these, one would not be surprised
to find out that the Filipinos‟ passion for shopping translated to a love of its online
counterpart.
Online shopping is self-explanatory: it is shopping on the line, through the
internet, through ICT. Technology-driven Korean pop culture, and K-fashion, has made
its way not only toward physical stalls but even in virtual stalls. In a July 4, 2016 article
by Louren, powerpinoys.com ranked the “Top 5 Online Shopping Sites in Philippines.”
Ranked from fifth to first, in the list are Widget City, WeeMall, Goods.ph, Zalora
Philippines, and Lazada Philippines (Louren, 2016). The top two online shopping sites
are used as references for this paper, also because the other three sites mostly cater to
shoppers of gadgets and non-clothing merchandise.
The world is like a washing machine; it turns, but sometimes not as fast as others.
The fresh scent of globalization, like almost everything, is not felt by everyone.
There is this side where things are not as “globalized.” In a TED conference
presentation, Hans Rosling (2010) presents in his talk “The Magic Washing Machine”
the differences in costs of living per day of people. It is no new knowledge that there are
groups of people living above, way-above, and below the poverty line. What is notable
from his talk, however, is his new take on the topic. For Rosling, the absence or
presence of a washing machine in “less-globalized” households can show us the extent
of integration that “the rest of the nations” are experiencing. Indeed, there are still a lot
of people who “waste” their time washing clothes by hand, whose “experience of the
world” does not go beyond the mass-produced and mass-consumed detergent that
roughens their hands.
Introducing the terms “air line” and “wash line” that go with “poverty line,” Rosling
(2010) discussed the idea of washing machines, light bulbs and poor people moving up
the highly globalized economic ladder. There are people—these people—who reside on
the other side of the washing machine. It is the side that, amidst all the „up and down‟
cycle of each turn, never gets to ascend from the bottom of the round world. More than
researching for statistics, it is important to take note that these people, regardless if they
wash their clothes with their hands or with machines, come across the same inter-
societal bridges as people above the “wash line.” Be it on less-advanced media, or
through other means that they can barely afford to voluntarily gain access of, globalized
popular culture interacts with them.
The Philippine context, being a third-world country, is not far above the “wash
line.” What seems unusual, however, is how the fandom of Filipinos is comparable to
that of highly industrialized countries. A few taps in ticket-selling websites will show that
concert prices of international acts—including K-pop groups—are usually a lot higher in
the Philippines than in the rest of Asia. The Philippines is not far above the wash line,
yet it can afford the generally pricey K-fashion goods. This could signify two things: that
Filipinos allot most of their usually limited resources for popular culture products, or they
make the most out of what they have.
The submission to counterfeit clothes—those with fake brands or imitated prints
of the latest in popular culture—is not an unusual thing in Philippine markets. Similar to
how most K-pop fans download their music from free websites, they get their K-fashion
fix beyond “authentic” clothing stalls and shopping sites that directly import Korean
products.
The Filipinos are versed with the non-traditional media that will allow them to
consume goods for a much lower price—or even for free. More so, they may even be
part of the production of these mass-produced goods, a trend that has numerously been
associated with small-time entrepreneurship and the increased access to machines and
raw materials. The same ICT that allows for free music and video downloads makes it
easy for almost any computer-literate person to layout t-shirt designs. It is also the same
globalization-driving technology that will allow him or her to manufacture, and eventually
sell, these products—counterfeit or not.
The world is like a washing machine: It could stop turning, but it will eventually begin
another wash cycle.
Globalization is driven by international trade and investment. Through the kind of
information and communication technology that we have, it has been rendering
generally positive effects on culture, on economic development and prosperity, and on
human physical well-being in a number of societies. The Philippines, though not “yet” a
highly industrialized country, has been highly efficient in harnessing the benefits of ICT.
Technology-driven globalization—of which popular culture is a very powerful
manifestation—would ever-continuously turn and bridge and integrate nations and
would eventually fully integrate the world into the world. Today, communication media
are aplenty: people have boats, people have the internet, people have powerful ideas
and trends. In a globalized world, nations continuously interact in a give-and-take
fashion that goes round and round.
K-fashion is a manifestation of technology-driven globalization. This process of
interaction and integration has brought forth a positive and felt effect on human well-
being around the world. The technology that drove it to its current speed, and that
continuously powers it, allowed Filipinos to consume K-pop and patronize K-fashion
within their own ways and means. Technology has allowed Filipinos to dominantly
“receive” popular culture of the globalizing world. It also shows promise to allow the
Philippines—and its technologically articulate people—to be, eventually, on the
dominantly “giving” end of globalization.
