The Ateneo de Manila University is offering an elective focusing on P-pop this upcoming semester.
On July 1, Ateneo professor Andrea Anne I. Trinidad took to her X (formerly Twitter) account to announce that, in the first semester of the 2024-2025 academic year, she is set to teach an elective called “PNTKN 160: Mga Perspektibang Filipino sa mga Usapin ng Globalisasyon at Lokalisasyon (Tuon sa P-pop)” [roughly translated as PNTKN 160: Filipino Perspectives on Issues of Globalization and Localization (Focus on P-pop)].
According to Trinidad, whose own interest in fan culture studies and love for P-pop helped bring to life the course’s special iteration, the subject will exclusively be available this upcoming semester to a class total of thirty students.
Who is the teacher?
Trinidad — a graduate of AB-MA Literature in Filipino from Ateneo — has been a faculty member of the school’s Filipino Department since 2018. Alongside a couple of interdisciplinary courses about literature and film on the Philippines’ martial law era and intersections of gender and pop culture, she mainly teaches core Filipino subjects where she often integrates her interest in pop culture.
What made her want to teach this course?
“Fangirling has largely been a part of my life,” Trinidad shares to Billboard Philippines when asked what made her want to teach the elective, elaborating, “which is why I feel so blessed to work in a department that is generous and open enough to encourage the academic study of my interests.” She also notes how her own college professors — now her colleagues — were always so supportive of her fan culture-related academic ideas and endeavors, including pursuing an undergraduate thesis topic related to fan fiction and One Direction.
“These same people — who were once my college professors and are now my colleagues serving as my mentors — are the ones who would push me to submit publications on fandom and apply for grants so I could map out what Filipino fandom looks like,” she shares, revealing how their support paved the way to open up new spaces and opportunities in their department. This would include an 18-episode series on fandom on their radio arm, Sari-Sari: Panitikan at Kulturang Filipino (Radyo Katipunan 87.9), as well as other electives that include one on consumerism in literature and culture that focused on Filipino fan studies.
How did she get into P-pop?
Trinidad discovered P-pop thanks to Alamat and their song “kbye,” with the multicultural, multilingual unit being her favorite group and rapper Alas being her favorite member. She became a full-fledged fan thanks to their song “ILY-ILY,” revealing how “in awe” she was of how different their interpretation of the song was compared to how she got to know the song’s original inspiration — the Hiligaynon folk song “Ili-Ili Tilog Anay” — through a horror movie. “It was not scary; it was immaculate, heavenly,” she proclaimed. “Then, later on, the music video was released, and I was specifically struck by the group’s penitensya [penitence] scene, which for me was so smart.”
Thanks to her becoming a Magiliw (the fans of Alamat), she inevitably got into other P-pop groups as well, fueled by the spirit of friendship and camaraderie that the P-pop community — both the groups and their fandoms — have fostered because of the so-called “P-pop Rise!” mission of championing the very genre, both here and abroad. These other groups include SB19 (whose song “Hanggang sa Huli” Trinidad credits as her actual first encounter with P-pop thanks to it being featured in Gameboys: The Movie), BINI (whose current success, she shares, always makes Trinidad emotional, stating how she just loves “see[ing] girls who are driven succeed”), as well as the likes of G22, 1st.One, VXON, and AJAA.
“The fan activities that have often influenced my academic life have always been foreign forms — from One Direction to Thai BL,” she shares, “Which is why, in my head, stanning ALAMAT is a homecoming. This course, which was again suggested by a colleague (our undergraduate coordinator Prof. Jethro Tenorio) is a part of that journey.”
What is the course about exactly?
According to Trinidad, the special elective will begin with an in-depth discussion on “how the Filipino is a central figure in globalization-localization flows and how the two aren’t really separate entities,” stating the fact that “Filipinos are subjected to the implications of globalization, but we, too, are subjects possessed with the agency to actively mold these influences to our local contexts.”
Expounding on the subject, Trinidad states that the course will be an exploration of Filipino music and how categories like OPM and P-pop are “hybrid forms influenced by foreign cultures yet richly infused with layers of the Filipino,” in which the term “Filipino” is recognized as “simultaneously folk, colonial, postcolonial, and contemporary (globalized, cosmopolitan).”
After the thorough look into the topic of globalization, PNTKN 160 will then shift its focus towards a mixture of special topics in order to look into a variety possibilities that our P-pop artists and their music can offer in order to act as “a gateway to discussing related topics.” Examples of this that Trinidad gave were the cute concepts of BINI and AJAA which can be related to the Japanese concept of kawaii (cute) as a “transcultural phenomenon,” as well as VXON’s “kalye sound” helping lead explorations into Philippine hip-hop. In addition, the course will also cover fan studies concepts such as the like of sartorial fandom, fan tourism, and fan works – including fan art and fan fiction.
Supplementing these, Trinidad further shares that there will be “special talks and activities,” which can include the likes of simulations of the media training and dance training idol groups undergo, and even a possible field trip to DOST-PTRI facilities in order to further gain knowledge on the Philippine indigenous textiles worn by the likes of ALAMAT for their performance outfits.
Rounding it all up, discussions covering P-pop and idol-related concepts and phenomenons such as “fandom in crisis, anti-fandom, and the dark/ugly side of fan-idol culture” is also set to be part of the course.
What can students learn from this class?
Ultimately, there are two things that Trinidad hopes that her students will learn or appreciate from this class.
First, is for them to gain “a more complex understanding of things so that binaries that often cloud our judgment, especially about P-pop (gaya-gaya vs. original/authentic), can be avoided.” She elaborates that this complexity includes bearing in mind the various and intersecting layers a concept can have, particularly, in relation to the elective, “the category “Filipino/Pinoy” in OPM or P-pop, or the phenomenon of globalization.”
Second, is for them to be able to see that one’s personal hobbies and interests, including fan-related activities, and one’s studies can live and be integrated in harmony within the classroom, providing a sense of comfort or rest during one’s university life.
All in all, Trinidad’s initiative of introducing and teaching this subject shows us that P-pop has become more than just another genre of music as it continues to go beyond the confines of its niche. Moreover, it has become a growing phenomenon that warrants further in-depth study — not only to appreciate its place in the heritage of our music, but also to understand its growing reach and influence within Philippine culture and society.