- Abbreviation for Korean pop or Korean Popular Music
- Music genre consisting of: electronic, electropop, dance, R&B, hip hop
- Growing subculture among teenagers and young adults
- Commonly refers to Korean Teen Idols – these artists are expected to sing, rap, dance – many artists also act and host
- Other genres are included under the term K-Pop such as rock and ballad, but it is debatable
- ‘The Korean Wave’ – spreading across the Pacific, America, North Africa, Europe – Worldwide
          o This can be seen through the increasing number of overseas concerts in American and European countries. The biggest event would probably be the BIGBANG Alive World Tour which is currently happening now. 
 

- Rise in social media networks allowed them to reach ‘previously inaccessible’ audiences through the means of the internet – this exposure and publicity is increasing the fan base of many Korean artists
          o This can be seen from the large numbers of views on Korean Music Videos on YouTube
                    - HyunA’s ‘Ice Cream’ mv reached 20 million views in 10 days
                    - Many k-pop videos reach the million numbers in views
                   - The most watched Korean music video until recently was Girl’s Generation’s ‘Gee’ with over 80 million views, until it was recently surpassed by PSY’s ‘Gangnam Style’ with over hundreds of millions of views as it went viral over Summer 2012