A Guide to K-Pop

As BLACKPINK and BTS return and the KPop Demon Hunters’ reign continues, we look at the industry creating triple-threat idols—and how a homegrown genre went global.

K-pop is more than just music, it’s the spark of energy, meaning and connection that happens when music combines with visuals, dance, fashion and personality. K-pop is bright, exuberant and maximalist—a sphere where nothing is ever too much. And its origins can be traced back to 1992, when Seotaiji and Boys performed their song “I Know” on a talent contest on South Korean TV. The proto-idol group harnessed the musical language of Black America, drawing on new jack swing, hip-hop and rap, to speak to Korea’s youth. Four years later, H.O.T.’s blend of rap and dance with hip-hop beats, R&B vocals, electronic sounds and melodies formed the foundation of that recognisably K-pop sound.
K-pop has continued to evolve alongside global trends. BTS, who debuted as part of the “third generation” of K-pop in 2013, embraced old-school hip-hop to tell their coming-of-age stories. By 2016, BLACKPINK launched with a cool-girl attitude and trap-pop sound, which resonated with fans looking for aspirational empowerment. Both groups are back with new albums in 2026 (BTS are returning following a hiatus during which members undertook mandatory military service) amid a contemporary K-pop soundscape teeming with new acts and sounds. From the party-ready trap of Stray Kids’ “God’s Menu” to the dreamy Baltimore club of NewJeans’ “Ditto”, K-pop is as eclectic—and as powerful—as ever.
“It’s never too late to shine like you were born to be,” a jubilant EJAE told the 2026 Grammy audience as she won Best Song Written for Visual Media, quoting her soaring KPop Demon Hunters anthem “Golden”. Finally, after a decade of unsuccessful “idol training”, it was the South Korean singer-songwriter and producer’s time to shine. And for K-pop, it was proof that the genre was no longer just a domestic pop culture influenced by Western trends, but a global phenomenon.

If producer and music executive Lee Soo-man studied somewhere other than California, K-pop might look very different today. Formerly a singer, by the early 1980s he was a student in the US, discovering an embryonic MTV and the meteoric rise of pop stars Michael Jackson and Madonna. Eager to recreate this pop culture in South Korea, he founded SM Entertainment in 1989, forming the idol trainee system that would come to define K-pop. And Lee wasn’t alone in his aspirations. Former Seotaiji and Boys member Yang Hyun-suk would form YG Entertainment in 1996, and singer Park Jin-young founded JYP Entertainment in 1997 (in recent years HYBE have emerged as the behemoths, following the massive success of BTS). Dominating the industry, each company developed a rigorous in-house system to turn aspiring artists into K-pop idols, impeccably trained in dance, vocals, rap, language and media. Becoming an idol is intense, and only the very best make it.
How K-pop gets made is just as carefully managed. Song camps—multiday sessions in which a group of songwriters and producers brainstorm tracks—have become the norm. But over time, K-pop stars have pushed for more creative input. BTS’ success, for example, is partially down to them writing their own music. This strategy of authenticity and relatability has led to more emphasis on idol-written music, with groups like Stray Kids, i-dle and CORTIS known for their self-production. When CORTIS debuted in 2025, they co-wrote every track on their EP, COLOR OUTSIDE THE LINES. “It’s like a diary that shows the real CORTIS,” band member MARTIN told Zane Lowe. “We tried to express our most authentic selves.”
And as K-pop’s profile has grown, so too have the number of international creators in the sessions, providing opportunities for global collabs. BTS, for example, have teamed up with Halsey, Steve Aoki, Megan Thee Stallion and Coldplay; Anderson .Paak has linked up with BTS’s RM and G-DRAGON; and ROSÉ and Bruno Mars took the world by storm in 2024 with “APT.”.

The camera pans along a rock face immortalising girl group aespa in power poses. A mess of men scream below. One of the members lifts a car she’s just fixed. There’s a dog in a football helmet. This is the video for the band’s 2025 track “Rich Man”. It’s a lot, but in K-pop, no music video is ever too chaotic, too energetic or too over-the-top. There is only the fun that can be had when an act fully commits to a concept. Just remember PSY’s “Gangnam Style” in 2012, which horse-danced its way into YouTube history as the first video to reach one billion views. The song was a bop, but it was PSY’s madcap energy, costumes and self-effacing gags that made the video eminently rewatchable.
Sometimes, the stories told in K-pop music videos have a scope that reaches far beyond a four-minute runtime. In 2015, BTS introduced an alternate timeline with their 2015 music video for “I NEED U”. The high-concept story traversed multiple music videos, short films, concert backing videos, short stories, posters, album notes, a BTS video game and a tie-in webtoon (a digital comic designed for scrolling that originated in South Korea). Elsewhere, boy groups ENHYPEN and &TEAM share a fictional universe called Dark Moon. In it, ENHYPEN’s members are vampires and &TEAM’s members are werewolves, tied together in an immortal rivalry. Developed as both a webtoon and web novel, the storyline expands into both groups’ music videos, and proves just how ambitious contemporary K-pop music videos can get.

There is no K-pop without fandom. Whether its NCT DREAM’s Dreamzens, SUPER JUNIOR’s E.L.F. (which stands for “everlasting friends”) or TWICE’s fans, known as ONCE, K-pop devotees do more than simply buy an album, watch a music video or attend a concert. They make their fandom a core part of their identity.
“Between BTS and ARMY I don’t know who is following who,” Jung Kook told Zane Lowe in 2023 of BTS’ symbiotic relationship with their ardent fandom (ARMY stands for Adorable Representative MC for Youth). “Maybe BTS is following ARMY. Maybe ARMY is following BTS. There’s this very special bond and also a sense of depending on one another.” Idols create music and performances for their fans, sharing the ins-and-outs of their lives too, via behind-the-scenes videos, livestream chats, fan meetings and one-to-one video calls. And in return, fans offer their unwavering loyalty. They stream their group’s latest songs on repeat to ensure their place in the music charts. They collect and trade photo cards, translate content into other languages and edit together videos explaining a groups’ backstories and lore. They even rally together to raise money and awareness of social causes (BTS’ ARMY notably matched the band’s $1 million donation to Black Lives Matter in 2020). Because as TWICE promise their fans, love your favourite K-pop act ONCE and they’ll repay you with TWICE the love.

When BTS rapper j-hope made his solo debut on Chicago’s Lollapalooza stage in 2022, it was the first time a South Korean artist had headlined the festival. Since then, TOMORROW X TOGETHER, Stray Kids and TWICE have headlined, while BLACKPINK, ATEEZ and ENHYPEN hit Coachella and K-pop festivals have sprung up from Australia to Dubai. And the demand just keeps growing: In 2025, Stray Kids played to a record-breaking 120,000 fans across two nights at Paris’ Stade de France.
K-pop is expanding in other ways too. In 2024, Big Ocean made waves as the first hard-of-hearing K-pop group. In 2025, JUSTB’s Bain came out as gay, marking a historic moment for LGBTQ+ representation in the industry. Multigender groups such as KARD and ALLDAY PROJECT are more common. Some K-pop groups don’t even come from Korea, including KATSEYE and GIRLSET—both based in LA—and UK band dearALICE (all still hatched by Korean entertainment companies), while homegrown acts like BLACKPINK are responding to their international fame with more and more English lyrics.
While South Korea remains at the heart of K-pop—just look at “Arirang”, the Korean folk song from which BTS’ new album gets its name—the industry has reached heights far beyond Korea, that Lee Soo-man, Seotaiji or PSY could perhaps never have dreamed of. If the success of K-pop so far proves anything, it’s that it’s only just getting started.