K-Pop, also known as Korean Pop, has become a major influence in western media. The genre has a huge hidden presence across the US. Groups are flooding into America on tours, social media, and streaming websites. K-Pop can be traced back to as early as the 1990’s with some groups like H.O.T. and S.E.S., who showed the public at large what K-Pop can do. By the early 2000’s, groups like TVXQ and BoA had gained success in Japan and overseas.
Although K-Pop has been around for generations, it started to gain extreme popularity in the late 2010’s and has only grown as the years have passed. Most of this popularity was created by Boy Group, “BTS” who debuted in 2013 with seven members. The group gained speed from 2018-2020, leading other groups to become mainstream with the growth of the genre. (Maybe here try “… leading the pack for other groups during the boom in the genre’s popularity.”) Most people view K-Pop as just another genre of music but honestly, it’s more than that; through all of this, K-Pop has become a major influence in western media through groups, social media, movies, and culture.
KATSEYE
The global girl group, KATSEYE, was put together through a survival show called The Debut: Dream Academy which was a talent competition/reality show that was created through a collaboration between HYBE Records and Geffen Records.
The six girls we know today, Sophia, Manon, Daniela, Lara, Megan, and Yoonchae, were announced as the “winners”/members on November 17th, 2023, on the final episode of the show. KATSEYE debuted on June 28th, 2024, with their song, aptly titled “Debut.” Ever since then, they have been gaining more traction on social media. Their fanbase, referred to as, “EYEKONS,” has been growing exponentially.
The six members come from very different backgrounds and places in the world. This concept is incredibly unique to the K-Pop industry and the groups around them. Although many people would classify them as K-Pop since they are under a South Korean Entertainment label, they are actually classified as a “Global Group.” This unusual concept has caused people to learn more and explore the group and genre of music, leading them in the direction of K-Pop.
In addition to this surge in popularity, KATSEYE has also had a Netflix documentary released on August 21st, 2024, titled Pop Star Academy: KATSEYE. This documentary shows the process the girls went through on the survival show they were on that led them to become the group they are today.
K-Pop Demon Hunters
The name of this movie had caught me so off guard which is why I put off watching it for so long but trust me it is so worth it. K-Pop Demon Hunters came out on June 20th, 2025, on Netflix and later made its theatre debut for one weekend on August 23rd and 24th due to doing so well.
The movie itself is about Rumi’s journey of self-exploration and finding her identity. The movie has an amazing message about being proud of who you are, and the writers even said Rumi’s journey is sort of a parallel to the experience of coming out, something still taboo from the children’s films of today. This has created something a lot of young people can relate to and even if they don’t enjoy K-Pop, they still enjoy the movie. Even though the movie didn’t make everyone a K-Pop fan, it still influenced a lot of people.
There were many posts from fans of the movie asking for group/song recommendations since they enjoyed the movie so much. The movie had created so many new fans and shined a light on 3 groups in specific, ENHYPEN, IVE, and ATEEZ. A lot of people corelated ENHYPEN and ATEEZ to the Saja Boys due to ENHYPEN’s vampiric concept and ATEEZ’s “Demon Line” which is the 3 members Hongjoong, Seonghwa, and San who are all said to have a “demonic energy” onstage while performing. Many people also found that HUNTR/X reminded them of the group IVE because of the song “Golden” sounding like “I AM” as well as the plane scene we see at the beginning of the movie being similar to the “I AM” music video.
Trending on TikTok
Several people interact with K-Pop every day without realizing it. Social media plays a huge role in these group’s popularity. Every day I scroll on TikTok and Instagram and come across a new trend and think to myself, “Hey this is K-Pop!” (For future reference, unless the piece is an opinion, you generally don’t want to say, “I think” or “I do.”) (Instead, try “If you were to scroll on TikTok right now, you’d probably come across a new trend that uses K-Pop music.”) Over the past few years, there has been a considerable spike in TikTok trends that grew from K-Pop. Most of these being dance trends but there are a few here and there that go viral for being an editing audio.
For example, “Blood, Sweat, & Tears” by BTS, “DICE” by NMIXX, “Russian Roulette” by Red Velvet, “Fearless” by LE SSERAFIM, “Signal” and “Alcohol-Free” by TWICE, “Flip That” by LOONA, “After Like” by IVE, and the most recent, “Do The Dance” by ILLIT. All of these have become TikTok trends in the past 2 or 3 years. Seeing K-Pop blow up like this on social media warms many fans’ hearts because a lot of groups are getting the attention and traction they deserve. A lot of non-fans are taking part in these trends and discovering the world of K-Pop.
In addition to this, many of these trends also repeat year after year. “After Like” has been an ongoing trend to dance to a specific part of the choreography and song while standing in front of fireworks. These major trends have caught the attention of many people who are unfamiliar with K-Pop and turned them into fans forever.
Fandom Culture
Fandoms in K-Pop differentiate from others not just by what they’re centered around, but also the overall culture. K-Pop fandoms are truly an experience like no other. You will meet the nicest people to ever grace the earth, and you will also meet some of the craziest people in the universe.
K-Pop Fandoms have names that relate to the group they support. For example, BTS’s fandom name is “ARMY”, or KATSEYE’s fandom name is “EYEKONS”, a combination of “KATSEYE” and “ICON”, or ATEEZ’s fandom name is “ATINY”, a combination of “ATEEZ” and “destiny.” These names are important to fans because it gives them something to call themselves to identify with each other as fans, sort of like a community.
From an awards perspective, K-Pop fans are known to be a little competitive with voting and winning. There are various shows where groups who have recently released music will compete for certain titles, as well as some end-of-the-year award shows where it is all based on fan votes. As you can imagine, voting can get a little crazy.
Fandoms also have things called “fanwars” where fans will fight with each other over certain groups and it’s honestly completely unnecessary. Fans like these can and will ruin certain groups for people because the fandom has just become an unwelcoming and overwhelming environment. This not only ruins that fandom’s perception of itself, but also other fandoms views of you.
Why You Should Listen (A Letter from the Author)
I’ve been a huge K-Pop fan since the 5th grade. It started with one of my friends showing me the group BTS. At first, I was a bit of a hater, but look where I am today, writing about it in my school’s newspaper.
K-Pop has become a huge part of my life and it’s the biggest interest I have. It’s completely different from the rest of the music industry and it’s extremely interactive and sort of just pulls you in. K-Pop isn’t just K-Pop; it has so many genres within the original and so many groups you immerse yourself in.
K-pop groups themselves are extremely immersive and explore many genres within themselves; many groups even have storylines like ATEEZ, TOMORROW X TOGETHER, and Dreamcatcher. These storylines differentiate K-Pop from western music, making it way more interesting by giving you something to look forward to. The process of decoding these storylines gives the same feeling as waiting for a new episode for a good show. K-pop fandoms are also a place where you can truly be yourself and find people who are just like you and understand you.
Many of my friends are also fans of K-Pop, and I have to say I connect with them way more and much easier than I do with my friends who aren’t fans. Another reason K-Pop is so fun is because of the massive amounts of media that a single group will produce. Groups will release behind the scenes of about everything they do. There are multiple platforms to interact with as well, not only for the fandom but also for the members of groups such as Weverse, Toktoq, Bubble, VLive, and Kakaotalk. This type of interaction isn’t offered very often with western artists, making K-Pop a new and different kind of entertainment to engage with.
Korean Entertainment labels have also released rhythm games for the groups under them. These games are sort of like Piano Tiles and Pokémon, if you will, combined. You can play games on these apps that are like piano tiles, but it’s with the group’s music, and you collect cards of the idols in certain groups to improve your score on the song.
These games are regularly updated with new songs and card collections, as well as events you can participate in to earn points or other rewards. These games also allow me to rediscover music that I had forgotten about, which pulls me in even further. Overall, K-Pop is a huge influence in my life and has become such a huge part of me that I can’t let go and I have a love for it that succeeds in anything else in media.
Stan ATEEZ!
