21 K-op groups breaking the internet that you should know about
Korean pop music, or ‘K-pop’ as it's better known, is catchy, fun and full of energy, so if you're not on board yet, what are you waiting for?
Thanks to toe-tapping techno beats, crazy-colourful aesthetic, trend-defining fashion and perfectly choreographed videos, K-pop has become something of a global phenomenon, and its stars are smashing records (BTS made history with their AMA win last year).
The group has been at the forefront of pushing K-pop into the mainstream music scene for years, and their efforts were recognised at the 2021 American Music Awards when they won Artist of the Year - the biggest award of the night. But it wasn't just any old win, it's one to go down in history as BTS are now the first Asian act to win in the category at the AMAs. It also marked their third consecutive year winning Favourite Pop Duo or Group - one of many other milestones they've reached in the past couple of years. Impressive.
The hairpin is the most adorable detail.
K-pop is part of what is called 'Hallyu' – literally meaning 'Korean wave' – used to refer to the colossal and ever-growing impact of South Korean culture, shown in the popularity of everything from K-dramas on Netflix to the meteoric rise of K-beauty.
Yet K-pop is one cultural export you may not know as much about, despite the fact it's an industry worth $5 billion. In fact, one of K-pop's most successful bands, BTS, sold more albums than Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish and Ariana Grande back in 2020. The same year BTS became the first K-pop musicians to receive a Grammy nomination, with 'Dynamite' up for 'Best Pop Duo/Group Performance'.
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But while BTS have achieved inevitable success, it has been announced that members of the group will start their mandatory military service next month, as all able-bodied South Korean men between the ages of 18 and 28 are required to serve in the military for 18-21 months, as the country is still at war with the North.
The band are aiming to reconvene in 2025 following their service - and while fans will obviously welcome them back with open arms, there is a whole host of established and emerging K-pop groups that can keep them occupied in the meantime.
But sadly, it's impossible to learn about K-pop without being met with stories of tragedy. There have been several suicides by high-profile K-pop icons, including 25-year-old Sulli in 2019, a former member of the girl group f(x). A month later, Sulli's friend Goo Hara, 28, who used to perform in the group Kara, also took her own life. In 2017, 27-year-old Kim Jong-hyun took his own life after revealing the immense pressure that came with the success of his group SHINee. It seems that with the fame of K-pop comes an impossible standard; that of being perfectly polished, perfectly synchronised and simply perpetually perfect.
"From an early age, they live a mechanical life, going through a spartan training regimen,” said Lee Hark-joon, a South Korean journalist. "They seldom have a chance to develop a normal school life or normal social relationships."
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Hark-joon also added that K-pop stars are subjected to torrents of online abuse, as theirs is a line of work so inextricably linked to social media. It's why the South Korean government has discussed introducing cyber-bullying education in schools.
It's clear there's a lot more to K-pop than its synthesised music and dance routines, and it's easy to see why the fascination with this immense genre is ever-growing. But for now, what better way to get acquainted with the K-pop phenomenon than with its music? Here, we round up the best K-pop bands to know if you want to jump on the burgeoning bandwagon. Get that Spotify playlist on and prepare to tap those toes…
Getty ImagesBTS
This seven-member boy band has taken the world by storm and are definitely the biggest name in K-pop. BTS have performed sell-out arena shows across the US and UK, have achieved two No. 1 albums in the US, boast 16 million monthly listeners on Spotify, have sold 16 million albums (Map of Soul is the best-selling album in Korean history), and were the best-selling artist to debut in the 2010s. According to the IFPI's Global Artist Chart, BTS were the second best-selling artists of 2018 (behind Drake), as well as the only non-English speaking artist to enter the chart. The seven members are rappers Suga, RM and J-hope, and vocalists Jimin, V, Jin and Jungkook.
In August 2020, BTS released the track 'Dynamite', their first song entirely in English, which topped the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart and stayed there for three whole weeks. It was the band's first No.1 single in the US and made BTS the first all-South Korean act to top the Hot 100. Shortly after, they became the first K-pop musicians to receive a Grammy nomination, with 'Dynamite' up for 'Best Pop Duo/Group Performance'.
Fast forward to the 2021 American Music Awards, and the group has received their biggest accolade to date, winning Artist of the Year (the biggest award of the night) and making history as the first Asian act to win the category. Oh, and they also took home the gong for Favorite Pop Duo or Group for the third year in a row, plus an extra win with their track 'Butter' winning Favorite Pop Song.
In October 2022, their Korean management company confirmed they will start their country's mandatory military service next month, and they aim to reconvene as a group in 2025.
Getty ImagesSuperM
SuperM is a K-pop supergroup that debuted in 2019 and features some of the genre's most iconic performers. The seven members are from four hugely successful – and still active – K-pop bands: EXO, WayV, NCT 127 and SHINee. The group are currently on an unofficial break as members Baekhyun and Taemin enlisted in the military.
Getty ImagesBIGBANG
Big Bang was formed in 2016 and fast became one of the biggest-selling and most popular boy bands in the world. In March 2019, member Seungri announced his retirement from the industry due to sex scandals surrounding the Burning Sun nightclub, which saw the singer charged with arranging prostitution, illicit gambling and embezzlement.
Getty ImagesGirls' Generation
Known as 'The Nation's Girl Group' in South Korea, Girls' Generation's albums are full of fun electro pop tracks, and in 2017, Billboard crowned them the 'Top K-pop Girl Group of the Past Decade'. The group has eight members: Taeyeon, Sunny, Tiffany, Hyoyeon, Yuri, Sooyoung, Yoona, and Seohyun.
Getty ImagesBlackpink
Consisting of members Jisoo, Jennie, Rosé, and Lisa, Blackpink is another hugely successful Seoul-born girl group. In November 2019, they became the first-ever K-pop band to join YouTube's 'billion views club', when their single Ddu-Du Ddu-Du was played more than a billion times on the site. The only other Korean act to join the club is Psy with Gangnam Style (remember that?). Blackpink also recently finished their In Your Area tour, which saw them perform to a total audience of around 205,000 people. They have just kicked off their world tour in South Korea before heading to North America and Europe for the remainder of 2022, and then they will travel to Australia, Singapore and Thailand in 2023.
Getty ImagesEXO
Another wildly popular K-pop ground with the accolades to boot – EXO have scored four No. 1s on Billboard's World Albums chart. Formed in 2012, the group performed at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang and their music is a bright, upbeat mix of rap, hip-hop, R&B and rock.
Getty ImagesDrunken Tiger
Known as one of the pioneers of Korean hip-hop, Drunken Tiger formed in 1999 and won several music awards for their numerous albums. Their first album, Year of the Tiger, was controversial at the time given its explicit lyrics and diversion from pop-culture norms.
Getty ImagesFly To The Sky
Also debuting in 1999, Fly to the Sky are an R&B duo consisting of Brian Joo and Hwanhee.
Getty ImagesMiss A
Active between 2010 and 2017, Miss A consisted of members Fei, Jia, Min, and Suzy. Their debut track Bad Girl Good Girl topped the Gaon Digital Chart, making them the first-ever band to have a number one debut song on the chart. The track later became the best-performing track of 2010 on the chart.
Getty ImagesSuper Junior
Super Junior or SJ shot to fame with the release of their best-selling single Sorry, Sorry in 2009, from their most successful album of the same name. Their popularity has seen them dubbed the 'King of Hallyu Wave'.
Getty ImagesNCT 127
This 10-member group is based in Seoul (hence the 127, the longitudinal coordinate of the city) and released their latest album, 'Neo Zone' in 2020.
Getty ImagesSeventeen
Despite what the group's name suggests, Seventeen consists of 13 members who are each assigned to a specific sub-unit: 'Hip-Hop Unit', 'Vocal Unit', and 'Performance Unit'. Seventeen released their sixth EP You Made My Dawn in January 2019, from which the song Home is considered one of their best tracks. Their track, Fallin' Flower, was released on April 1st 2020 and is the group's second Japanese single. They have also seen success in the US, appearing on the Late Late Show with James Corden, and they also embarked on their third world tour, ‘Be The Sun’, earlier this year.
Getty ImagesT-ara
Pronounced 'tiara', this girl group was active between 2009 and 2017. Their second mini album John Travolta Wannabe (2011) had the lead single Roly-Poly which became the top grossing and most downloaded song of 2011 in South Korea.
Getty ImagesMonsta X
This group debuted in 2015 with their first EP, Trespass, and have been making waves with English-language tracks such as Someone’s Someone and Who Do U Love? In 2019, singer-songwriter Wonho announced he was leaving the band with Monsta X continuing as a seven-member group. An online petition to keep Wonho in the band gathered over 480,000 signatures but he did not rejoin the group.
Getty ImagesWonder Girls
Wonder Girls ran for 10 years, between 2007 and 2017, and are known as 'South Korea's Retro Queens' because of their songs inspired by the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. Their most famous song is probably hit single Nobody, released in 2008, which gained them international recognition.
ShutterstockONF
ONF is one of K-pop’s hottest rising acts, whose new repackaged album 'City of ONF' was released on 28th April 2021. The album contains 11 tracks from ONF: MY NAME as well as three new tracks. You've likely heard their track 'Beautiful Beautiful', the music for which garnered over 16 million views in just over one month. ONF are one to have on your radar, as we predict they'll rise from success to success. Currently, four members are enlisted in military service.
Getty ImagesIVE
As one of the most successful fourth-generation K-pop groups, IVE picked up several awards just days after releasing their debut title track, Eleven, in December 2021. Furthermore, in just 47 days of release, their song Love Dive got a PAK (Perfect All-Kill), a musical achievement in South Korea where a song simultaneously reaches number one on the real-time, daily, and weekly components of iChart! They certainly have an exciting future ahead.
Getty ImagesNewJeans
Five-member girl group NewJeans pre-released their debut single, Attention, in July 2022, which won countless awards at the country's MCountdown, Music Bank, Music Core, and Inkigayo. Their official debut EP was released digitally on August 1 and impressively got 1.9million views within 24 hours on YouTube. They have more than exceeded 10 million monthly listeners on Spotify, which is no easy feat!
Getty ImagesTreasure
Boyband Treasure consisted of 12 members formed through the survival show Treasure Box before debuting in August 2020 with the album THE FIRST STEP: CHAPTER ONE. The title track, "JIKJIN", became their fastest music video to reach 100 million views on YouTube, and their Japan Arena Tour will take place from November 26, 2022, to January 4, 2023 - so there's officially no stopping these boys!
Getty ImagesNMIXX
Nmixx is a girl group with seven members: Lily, Haewon, Sullyoon, Jinni, Bae, Jiwoo, and Kyujin. They debuted in February 2022 with their album Ad Mare which included tracks such as O.O and TANK. Months later, they released their lead single, Dice, from their second single album Entwurf. With a successful first few months under the best, we can't wait to see what else they achieve!
Getty ImagesENHYPEN
Boyband Enhypen was formed through the survival show "I-Land" in 2020, and the following year they took home plenty of Rookie of the Year (Male) Awards following the release of their debut album, "BORDER: DAY ONE". Since then, they have also become the fasted K-pop group to surpass 1 billion streams on Spotify and embarked on a world tour.
