Pop Reviews Now is a 2009 Philippine Blog Award finalist and Virgin Top Music Blog that just happens to be ran by a 15 year-old incoming high school senior.
I started Pop Reviews Now on April 6, 2008 at the age of 13 as an extension of my then-blog, Pop Addicted!. After I left Pop Addicted! in August of 2008, I turned all my attention to PRN which boosted my love for writing, literature and music.
To say Pop Reviews Now is fun would be an understatement - it's much, much more than that. In October of this 2009, this very blog was a finalist for the Philippine Blog Awards. I'm a 15 year-old, I go to school, get grades every 3 months, have friends I like to talk to for hours at a time, slack off when I feel like it but I also have a passion for writing - PRN is proof of that. Attending the Philippine Blog Awards meant the world to me because here I was, 15, surrounded by people years older than me and I was on the same level as them.
Pop Reviews Now means everything to me. It's my portfolio - I'm building a body of works for college and to get a job, it's my sanctuary - when I'm stressed all I have to do is write about some new song I discovered and it's my life - I'm always thinking of what to write and ways to improve the blog. I do things for the blog that I'd never have done otherwise like paying an arm and a leg just to see someone live so I can review her/him/them or fail to force myself to learn XML. Pop Reviews Now is something I never want to stop - I have too much passion for it.
Every post I write is an expression of myself, my love for music and the values I was raised with. Coming from a legendary musical family here in the Philippines I always, always put the music first above image, promotion and money because it's what I believe in. The first thing I find when I'm listening to a new artist are brilliant songs, without them I move on - everything else I adore about the artist comes after I hear a beautiful song. The music industry may be an industry with business and marketing but I believe that without the music itself, the industry won't be able to function.
My specialty ever since I started this blog is UK Pop with the obligatory US Pop - that's what I spent hours and hours online researching for. I may not live in either country and I may not have been there when the actual albums were released and when the artists were at their peak but I've done my research and I know my Brit Pop history. I'm not some stupid listener who knows nothing about who he/she's listening to - I know my stuff, thank you very much.
Around April 2009, I discovered K-pop and to say I'm addicted right now would be an understatement. Over the first 5 months I devoted 85% of my internet time to scouring websites and YouTube for K-pop artists, learning how exactly the industry works and reading up on my K-pop history - I've also come know my K-pop. What I now want to do with everything I've read and watched is break a mold.
All over the internet, a lot and I mean A LOT of the comments from Philippine fans that I see are badly written, in annoying sticky caps and obviously came from people who didn't know what the crap they were talking about. Music channels here play music videos months and months late - singles from albums that aren't being promoted anymore are charting. I want to break that mold and show the people who really know their K-pop that I'm not like them and I've done my research. I may not know as much as they do and I may not be able to read, write or speak in Korean but what's given to me, I take and make sure to know all the facts.
I want to establish Pop Reviews Now as one of the leading blogs for critical Kpop reviews, as no one really analyzes the music in kpop. PRN is already an established Western review blog but I want more - being a respected, critical Kpop review blog is something I really, really want PRN to be. I want PRN to be better than every other run-of-the-mill "review" blog, and so far so good - numerous pages are on top of various Google search results and I now have a loyal following of not only Western readers but kpop-based readers.
I'm currently at a point where I have to make up my mind about a lot of different things, and they all have to do with my future. What university I'm going to, what course I'm gonna take up and what I'm gonna do with my life. PRN is in that decision - I expect to do this for years to come.
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