A decade of many “firsts”, it was a period

when the Filipino began to manifest a sense

of nationalistic pride.

“Man of the
Philippine Pop Culture Masses”
President Ramon
What is considered as pop culture? MAgsaysay wore
the Barong Tagalog
Philippine Pop Culture in his inauguration
and in all official
Examples of pop culture items include film, affairs - the first for a Filipino to don the
television programs and commercials, video national garment.
games, internet memes, brand names and
symbols, sports, slang words and catch 1950s
phrases, clothing fads and even foods. The first golden age
of Philippine Cinema
1950’s with the booming of
During this decade, the Philippines can be the Filipino film
best described as a nation trying to establish industry. Four big
its own identity. production studios
{LVN Pictures,
Sampaguita Pictures, Premiere Productions
and Lebran International)
In !969, Gloria Diaz won
1960s the first-ever Miss
The decade witnessed the demolition of the Universe crown for the
traditional Filipino gender culture with the Philippines.
emergence of Filipinas and their renewed role
in society. On June 18, 1960, the Bureau of
Women and Minors was created under the
Department of Labor, with the purpose of
protecting the welfare of working women and 1970’s
minors. It was opened by the visit
of Pope Paul VI in1970,
Filipina actresses Vilma making him the first-ever
Santos and Nora Aunor were leader of the Catholic
discovered, who eventually Church to set foot.
became superstars for their
generation and beyond. President Ferdinand
Marcos’s declaration of
Filipiniana dress was Martial Law in 1972 fueled
popularized by former first political awakening
Lady Imelda Marcos, which among Filipinos
later became a notable during that time.
fashion statement.
Filipina beauties continued to shine brightly as
Aurora Pijuan bagged the MIss International
title in !970 followed by our second Miss
Universe crown by Margie Moran in 1973.
1980’s
It was an era of breakthroughs and novel
ideas.
Noel Cabangon and
the rest of his band
buklod emerged in the
local music scene with
socio-political-cultural
hits such as “Tatsulok”
and “Kanlungan.”
Proudly local shows like
Balibot, That’s
Entertainment, Ipaglaban
Mo! And magandang
Gabi Bayan were easily identifiable for
Filipinos, too.
It was also in this
decade that the
country’s first transit
system, the Light Rail
Transit !, was built.
THese developments
rooted in originally
spurred the Filipinos
on to the next decade.
1990’s
1990s
Original Pinoy Music
flourished. One of the most
prominent acts of the
decade was Master
Rapper Frances
Magalona. His
groundbreaking hit “Mga
Kababayan Ko” on 1990 served as the
foundation of Filipino Rap music.
Several acts followed suit,
including legendary
alternative rock band
Eraserheads who wrote
the “PAra sa Masa” in
1997, sung by various
artists including Noel
Cabangon, Barbie
Almalbis, Ebe DAncel, and
YAel Yuzon to name a few.
Despite the
Calamities that
occurred, Filipino
spirit remained
resilient with music
as its sanctuary.
2000s
Asianovelas have become a staple of every
channel’s daily programming. Following the
trend, local TV networks started remaking
some of the popular shows such as My Name
is Kim Sam Soon, Lovers in Paris, Temptation
of WIfe, and My Girl because of its huge
following.
Biggest celebrities
also came from
reality and talent
competition
programs in the
2000s like Pinoy
Big Brother,
Startstruck, and
Star Circle Quest.
This decade also
started bizarre
makeup and beauty trends. Crimped hair and
chunky highlights were everyone’s favorite
hairstyles. Thin eyebrows, glossy lipsticks,
colorful eyeshadows and dark eyeliners was
the decade’s version of makeup on fleek.

PHILIPPINE POP CULTURE

An earmark of Pinoy Pop is imitation. Filipinos

love to copy everything. Singing stars copy
the styles of pop idols. Movie makers pirate
movie plots. Restaurants, shops, fashion,
architecture and interior design and glossy
magazines copy all the latest foreign trends.

FLIP TOP: MODERN DAY POETRY

Poetry had long since been

considered as a form of classical art. It is a
literary endeavor than purposely uses
aesthetic and rhythmic qualities of language.
The fullness of each line's meaning is not
dependent on the linguistic and grammatical
completeness of the sentence, but rather on
the deeper thought buried underneath the
statements that were used. The totality of the
poem could not be grasped by merely
reading; it entails a more intricate
understanding of the matter at hand. It is
usually sublime, so those without the keen
intellect and right perspective were bound to
fail in trying to make sense of each piece.
Poems serve as an effective vehicle to
convey emotions, beliefs and principles.
During the old times up until now, even the
criticisms regarding social issues were
creatively hidden behind flowers and flattery.
Here in the Philippines, who would ever forget
our precious literary pieces? We have an
abundant collection of awit, korido, and epics,
all written in poetry. And of course, the ever
famous Balagtasan by Baltazar tops our list.
These forms provided a large part of our
indigenous history; the elements of these
works reflected the social structure and
condition of our forefathers. The stories itself
portray the experiences the earlier Filipinos
had during their time.
Even after knowing how majestic
poetry is, we couldn't deny the fact that at
present, it wasn't as well-viewed as before.
You wouldn't see a random person who would
sit under a tree with a paper and pen, silently
absorbing the aura of his surroundings and
taking inspiration for his literature. You
couldn't make students write poems without
hearing them complain about how this activity
would make their heads ache and their noses
bleed. You wouldn't even have friends who
would rather read poems than Wattpad
stories, or blogs for that matter. Unlike in the
earlier times when it was considered as a past
time, poetry nowadays was removed from the
everyday activities, so less and less are being
inclined to it. However, we also cannot say
that it doesn't exist anymore. Truth is, as time
went by, as society and leading ideologies
changed, poetry was also transformed into
another form.

Who says balagtasan is already dead? Make
way for Fliptop, our contemporary Pinoy
poetry.
Often coined as the "modern day
balagtasan", it is a battle between two people
using words as their weapon. They use the
balagtasan-style of debate, the art of publicly
arguing in an extemporaneous, scaled and
rhymed format. It is a form incorporated with
rap, and as we all know, rap was also a huge
artistic phenomenon before. As a combination
of rap and balagtasan, Fliptop easily entered
the Filipino culture. It was founded as an
organized movement by Aric 'Anygma' Yuson
in 2010, and it steered a huge crowd in
Youtube. It was a big hit for people of all
ages, especially for the teenagers. However,
as its popularity and influence shoot up,
criticisms arose as well. Some people take
fault in its comparison to Balagtasan. For
them, Fliptop is nothing but a street smart's
game, senseless and vulgar. Apparently, the
lines used in Fliptop could be very offensive,
seemingly attacking the opponent in a rather
personal level. There were even times when
the physical aspect of the player, more so his
upbringing, was being put into the center of
ridicule. If this is so, why do we consider
Fliptop as something similar to balagtasan,
particularly as a literary art?
The Digital Age Has Changed
Culture, Communication and Business
Management Skills
Communication has an incredible
effect on our lives. It is how we interact with
each other, gain information, and learn new
things. Communication takes many forms and
mediums throughout history; from oral
histories and stories, to cave paintings, to
town criers and newsboys shouting "Extra,
extra, read all about it on" street corners, to
twenty-four hour news cycles. We just can't
seem to get enough communication. In
today's digital age, it is easier than ever to find
information, but what impact has this new-
found accessibility had on our perceptions,
our culture and the way we manage
business?
The serious study of the impact media
has on culture began some 50 years ago
when Marshall McLuhan published his
famous work, Understanding Media: The
Extensions of Man. This seminal piece of
literature builds upon his famous theory and
coining of the term "The medium is the
message." Twenty years later he expanded
on his original theories in The Medium is the
Massage: An Inventory of Effects. In it.
McLuhan died in 1980, the same year
CNN launched. His insights about the impact
of media still resonate today.
"Societies have always been shaped
more by the nature of the media by which
men communicate than by the content of the
communication. The alphabet, for instance, is
a technology that is absorbed by the very
young child in a completely unconscious
manner, by osmosis so to speak. Words and
the meaning of words predispose the child to
think and act automatically in certain ways.
[...] Electric technology fosters and
encourages unification and involvement. It is
impossible to understand social and cultural
changes without a knowledge of the workings
of media." (Emphasis added)'.
The Digital Age Has Changed Everything
To understand the workings of media,
as McLuhan advised, one must also
understand that the format, the medium, and
the shape of the way we project,
communicate, or demonstrate our ideas
shapes the message itself. Today's digital
devices demand our constant attention,
completely changing the ways we interact,
advertise, work, entertain, gain knowledge,
conduct business, create, communicate and
so much more.
 Now, you can talk to anyone at any
time. Ideas can flow quickly and are often
quite explosive. Managers are finding they
need to communicate with younger
employees in a whole new manner.
Businesses that do not understand the
explosive nature of the digital communication
network can often find themselves struggling
to catch up with a negative storyline. If
McLuhan conjectured that "The goose quill
put an end to talk," should we also ask
ourselves, "The internet put an end to what?"
The digital revolution has given us the
ability to easily copy and replicate things.
While this maybe helpful in championing a
product on the digital highway, it also means
managers will need to work harder to protect
their original ideas, product innovations, and
copyrighted insights. Culturally, digital has
changed the way we identify with one another
and form communities. While 20th century
consumers bonded in tight-knit
neighborhoods, today's target demographics
gather together in far-flung global
communities. They can easily gather in chat
rooms, YouTube communities, and online
forums to share personal stories or provide
advice. Business managers will need to do
more to ferret out these new communities in
order to find advocates and influencers who
can help them build a brand message.
As a result of photography's,
perpetuated by digitization, impact, we have
become a much more visual society. Images
and photography have become an integral
part of our culture and understanding. In fact,
Maria Popova took Susan Sontag's On
Photography and applied it to today's media
obsessed culture in "The Susan Sontag Guide
to Photography in the Age of Digital Culture."
While Sontag observed that there are a great
number of images grabbing for our attention,
"[...] photographs alter and enlarge our
notions of what is worth looking at and what
we have a right to observe," Popova
concludes that events only happen now to be
photographed and put on our "timeline" or
"profile," saying they were filled with notable
moments. "Ultimately, having an experience
becomes identical with taking a photograph of
it, and participating in a public event comes
more and more to be equivalent to looking at
it in photographed form, ""6
Now we are overrun with images,
meaning that businesses will need to work
even harder to stand out in a world of visual
overload. Imagery and photographs used in
communication and marketing must be clear,
precise and meaningful. They need to add to
the storylines that consumers are creating for
themselves.
Digital Has Changed the Way we
Communicate
The dynamics of communication change in
cyberspace; people are more open and do not
use as many filters as they would in face-to-
face communications. "Sometimes people
share very personal things about themselves.
[...] [On the other hand] out spills rude
language, harsh criticisms, anger, hatred,
even threats."""This feeling of over-familiarity
confers undue credulity and equality on even
the most pedestrian of bloggers. "No one
knows your credentials or lack thereof, so you
are taken as seriously as everyone else."8
How can businesses stand out in what is now
considered to be an equal playing field where
everyone and anyone can create a website or
blog, and say what they want? Perhaps they
can take a lesson from the way today's
celebrities, who are learning to interact with
their fans in a whole new way. "Prior to
computers, magazines and cinema were the
sole outlets influencing your perception of
beauty." Now, "[Stars'] lives are chronicled on
a daily basis thanks to Twitter, blogs, online
magazines and other easily attainable media,
creating an almost intimate relationship
between the public and the stars."10 While
stars and celebrity fan sites may be focused
on perceptions of gossip, beauty and
popularity, business managers can use these
very same outlets to build similar, almost
intimate relationships with the consuming
public.
Our Sense of Self-Identity is Changing
Online capabilities allow people to take
on virtually any personality or body form.
There are "Avatar representations of who you
are,' but you can change them as you wish."
This flexibility of personality makes it possible
for celebrities to occupy multiple identities at
once (such as Beyonce/Sasha Fierce), and
for multiple people and graphics to occupy the
same identity or role/function, similar to the
Lara Croft, the pope, and kings."
This blurring of the individual, cultural,
and societal lines makes managing and
marketing even more challenging in the 21st
century. "McLuhan recognized how our
society had changed radically with the
introduction of the visual language of writing
and the further widespread impact following
the introduction of the printing press."13
Recently, we have faced another revolution of
communication, the digital age. But even he
might have difficulty formulating an effective
approach to today's employees, business
colleagues and consumers.
Building upon the evolution from quill
pen and printing press to cyberspace, what is
today's business managers to do to maneuver
this revolution of technology, communication,
and identity in order to appeal to their target
audience? They could rely on the skills of
anthropologists and ethnographers to help
them understand the cultural changes in
society, and their business sensibilities,
advising them accordingly to adapt.