K-pop
The Korean system. SM, YG, JYP and HYBE, the trainee years, choreography and the dance practice video, BTS and Blackpink and the generations before them, the fandom machinery, and the export policy that helped build it.
Part of Pop
30 moments in this segment.
- - Modern Talking perform You Can Win If You Want at Rockpop Music Hall. German television performance of the duo's second number one.
- - Seo Taiji and Boys - Nan Arayo (I Know). The 1992 debut single that broke Korean pop away from trot and set the template for modern K-pop. Uploaded by Seo Taiji's own channel.
- - BoA - No.1. BoA's 2002 Korean single. As the first Korean artist to top the Japanese Oricon chart she opened the export route K-pop still uses.
- - Vanessa da Mata - Boa Sorte / Good Luck ft. Ben Harper. The 2007 bilingual Brazilian single that became one of the biggest MPB records of the 2000s.
- - TVXQ! - Mirotic. The 2008 single widely treated as the peak of second-generation K-pop and TVXQ's signature record.
- - Wonder Girls - Nobody. The 2008 retro-soul single that became the first K-pop record to enter the Billboard Hot 100.
- - Girls' Generation - Gee. SM Entertainment's official MV for the single that made Girls' Generation a national act and became a defining K-pop girl-group record.
- - BIGBANG - Fantastic Baby. YG Entertainment's 2012 single, one of the earliest K-pop videos to break through to a mass Western audience.
- - PSY - Gangnam Style. The first YouTube video to pass a billion views and the record that proved a non-English pop song could top charts worldwide.
- - Ice psy. 2012.
- - The Great Transformation of the Korean Wave - KBS World. A feature-length KBS documentary on how Hallyu was built as a deliberate cultural-export strategy, made before BTS made it obvious to the West.
- - Nine Muses of Star Empire: a year inside K-pop training. Feature documentary following nine Korean women through a year of idol training, scrutiny and group reshuffles under their agency.
- - BTS: Another Story - KBS documentary on the ARMY. KBS's documentary strand examining how BTS's fanbase became an organised global force, told largely through the fans themselves.
- - BTS - Dynamite. BTS's first all-English single and their first Billboard Hot 100 number one, official HYBE upload.
- - BLACKPINK - Pink Venom. Lead single from Born Pink, the album that made BLACKPINK the first female K-pop act to headline Coachella.
- - NewJeans - Ditto (side A). The single that made NewJeans the defining act of K-pop's fourth generation, with a camcorder-shot narrative MV by Dolphiners Film.
- - Blackpink: Shut Down at Coachella 2023. Blackpink headlined Coachella in April 2023, the first K-pop act to top the bill at the festival. Official YG upload.
- - Blackpink: Typa Girl at Coachella 2023. A second official clip from Blackpink's Coachella headline set, showing the choreography-first staging that defines the K-pop live show.
- - Burning Sun: the K-pop chat group investigation. BBC Eye's hour-long investigation into K-pop figures sharing evidence of sexual crimes in private chat groups, and the reporters who exposed it.
- - How K-pop is redefining itself beyond BTS and Blackpink. Bloomberg on the $9.3bn K-pop industry, its touring economics and the agencies' push into global markets.
- - aespa - Whiplash. SM Entertainment's official MV for aespa's 2024 single, a defining record of the group's shift to harder club-oriented pop.
- - TWICE's full Lollapalooza Chicago set, 2025. TWICE's complete 88-minute headline performance at Lollapalooza Chicago in August 2025, released on the group's own channel with a full setlist.
- - TWICE perform This Is For in Incheon. The Korean group's live stage from the This Is For world tour opening in Incheon, July 2025. Official JYP upload.
- - Stray Kids - DIVINE. Official JYP music video; Stray Kids have taken consecutive albums to number one on the Billboard 200, an unprecedented run for a K-pop group.
- - Stray Kids at the 2025 MAMA Awards. Stray Kids' thirteen-minute medley at the 2025 MAMA Awards, K-pop's own annual awards spectacle and a showcase for large-scale set-piece choreography.
- - BTS launch the Arirang world tour. Arirang News on BTS opening their Arirang world tour in Goyang on 9 April 2026, the group's return to global stadium touring after military service.
- - NewJeans may return as a four-piece. Yonhap's Korea Now on the state of the NewJeans and ADOR dispute in mid-2026, with members seen in the US while the legal conflict continues.
- - Passion K-pop - ARTE Regards. ARTE's reportage on European K-pop fandom, following fans for whom the music is a whole social world.
- - The average K-pop idol career lasts 4.12 years. KBS News reports on new data showing most K-pop idols disappear within a few years of debut, behind the handful of globally visible groups.
- - The K in K-pop reconnects and reshapes. Arirang's Press Perspective from Seoul, August 2026, on Korean audiences reclaiming K-pop as global fans demand a bigger say, and where Korean cultural policy sits.
