K-pop, which is the abbreviation of Korean pop, is a musical genre originated from South Korea. It is comprised of many different styles and elements of music, such as ballad, rock, pop, electropop, R&B, and hip hop. Although K-pop generally refers strictly to “South Korean Pop,” some consider it to be a vast area for creative and unique audiovisual content. It’s fusion of synthesized music, sharp dance routines, and colorful outfits has captivated their audience for years. It is now a very broad and world-wide trending genre that rapidly grew into a subculture for teenagers and young adults of East and Southeast America. Through this massive change, K-pop has evolved into a very diverse genre with the integration of foreign musical elements as a common practice among the artists.

The history of K-pop can be traced back since 1885, when Henry Appenzeller, an American Missionary, began to teach American and British folk songs to a Korean school. This spread throughout South Korea and soon reached Japan, in which they started to publish lyric books with the influence of rising K-pop. As South Korea became more and more influenced by Western music, hip hop was soon introduced by one of the most famous hip hop groups in 1990s, DJ DOC. Several years after that, groups of young boybands or girlbands, known as Idols, began to form. Some of the most prominent groups were H.O.T, Shinhwa, S.E.S and Baby V.O.X. Their music was mainly composed of ballad, electropop, R&B, and some electropop.

K-pop’s increasing popularity formed the Korean Wave, or Hallyu, which refers to the popularity of South Korean culture on other countries. The development of online social media has been an important tool for K-pop in receiving a wider audience. It now makes constant appearances on the Western music charts, such as Billboard. The genre has especially grown in success after the release of “Gangnam Style” by Psy, the first Youtube video to reach one billion views. There are many K-pop artists that dominate Western music charts in the 21st century, such as EXO, BTS, Wonder Girls, Big Bang, and Girls Generation.

K-pop will continue to grow and change. It has captivated the hearts of its audience from all around the globe and will continue to do so in the many years to come. K-pop is a genre that anyone can enjoy and jam out to, regardless of language or culture! So, be sure to give it a try because it will definitely be worth it!

If you want to check K-pop out, here are the links to some of the most prominent K-pop music videos by an older generation artist, Wonder Girls, and a newer generation artist, BTS: