K-Pop and P-Pop
I am Julius James De Belen, a music producer in the Philippines. With me here are two other producers from my team, Rap Sanchez and Xeric Tan. The three of us are experienced professional producers with discographies that range from Pop, Dance, Hip Hop, R&B, and all other kinds of mainstream genres. We have produced outstanding work for both artists and advertising music for the past 10 to 15 years. Hits from Julius James de Belen include the viral song Tala by Sarah Geronimo, the classic Rap song Biglang Liko by Ron Henley, and many hits for numerous girl groups and boy groups in the P-Pop genre. The Rap song, Rosas by Nica del Rosario, produced by Sanchez was a massive hit and became popular in the country’s Pink Movement (a presidential aspirant’s campaign) during the first half of 2022. Xeric Tan has produced numerous music jingles and scoring gigs for advertisements for the past couple of years. We joined the online and offline courses of the K-Pop Music Production Expert Program in October and November, respectively, offered by the CPI and worked on a project proposal to collaborate with Korean producer counterparts.
Music production in the Philippines is one of the professions that has been overlooked by many people. Most people in the Philippines view it as a hobby rather than a lucrative career with a stable source of income. This perception stems from the fact that there aren’t many opportunities for budding and aspiring producers to showcase their talent in both artists and advertising music. Also, the publishing structure in the Philippines is still flawed and favors bigwigs in corporate companies that allow them to earn profit from deserving producers, composers, and writers. What happens to these aspiring producers, composers and authors is that they get worn down as they wait for opportunities with any promises. Their careers end without them getting their fair shares of the pie. Dreams end without getting their claims to fame. With extensive brainstorming and analysis, Julius, Rap and Xeric have derived a project to address this problem.
The aim of the project is to introduce competitive music producers from the Philippines to the Korean music scene, and vice-versa. The plan is to initially help producers from the Philippine to be part of a collective community that will generate a specific number of songs on a monthly basis in a catalogue to be presented for potential song camps for K-Pop artists and groups. The songs are then gathered in a song bank and organized to cater to entertainment companies that are open to outsourced music outside Korea. Potential members of the collective are to be screened thoroughly by the three members of the team as they have been trained with expert knowledge during the recently concluded intense offline program last November at Sejong University. The project aims to cross over with music production opportunities for local talents. It would be a breeding ground for new-found talent and job seekers looking to have music production as a lucrative source of income.
As an exchange for our Korean producer counterparts, opportunities in the recently developing P-Pop industry in the Philippines will also be open for outsourcing through the channel operated by the CPI. The expertise of our consultants and mentors will be well-known and well-promoted locally and prestigiously. These are just the initial steps, and the project will grow precious opportunities for both countries.
The Partnership aims to strengthen the production capabilities in the Philippines and to make a brand of music production together with Korea that is as globally competitive as Western counterparts.
Korea is a very generous country and I think this cultural exchange program is very enriching for both Korea and the Philippines and can target more deserving participants from my country, extending the invite through other avenues other than NCCA (National Commission on Culture and Arts).
I embrace culture, not just of my country’s but of other countries as well. In my experience in Korea, I believe I have strengthened my foundation as a music production expert in the genre of K-Pop. What's important also is that I have broken language barriers and built friendships with everyone involved in the program. My plan is to carry on Korea's generosity and pay it forward to deserving people by breeding a collective of Filipino composers, producers and songwriters.
