Following the group, BTS, also known as the Bangtan Boys, even the group SuperM is busy shedding light on K-Pop as it topped the U.S. Billboard's album chart Billboard 200.
Recently, an article published on the Billboard that the term "K-pop" appeared the first time 20 years ago.
Tamar Herman, a reporter in charge of K-pop at Billboard, recently reviewed K-pop's last 20 years titled, "Looking Back at How 'K-Pop' Came to Billboard 20 Years Ago."
Herman wrote, "since 2009, K-pop acts have been appearing on primary Billboard charts, and since 2013 there has been dedicated coverage of it on Billboard."
According to Cho Hyun-jin, a former correspondent in South Korea for Billboard, an article he wrote that was published on October 9, 1999, was the first time the term "K-pop" appeared in Billboard. Coincidentally, the term "K-pop" was first introduced to the world on Hangeul Day through global music media.
Herman reported, "the reference to "K-pop" appears in the final line of the article, which discussed South Korea lessening restrictions on Japanese acts performing in the country. Titled S. Korea To Allow Some Japanese Live Acts."
It mentioned that there were high voices of concern in parts to the approval of Japanese music performances in Korea at the time. Regarding this phenomenon, producer Kim Chang-hwan, who produced Kim Gun-mo, Shin Seung-hun, and duo Clon said in an interview with Billboard that "the rock-oriented J-pop scene is not what melody-oriented K-pop listeners are asking for." It was the first inclusion of the term 'K-pop' in the article.
Cho is to have said, "Kim used the term "gayo (가요)," a Korean term for popular music. Cho brainstormed the idea with his editor to replace it with a more accessible term." He also says it wasn't inspired by the usage of "J-pop" and was inspired by the Korean soccer league, known as the K League.
As such, the term "K-pop" appeared in foreign media for the first time in the process of introducing Korea's cultural policies, and six months later, it has become a term that started to define the agency-produced or managed idol bands, or sometimes solo acts, analyzes Herman.
The former Asia bureau chief Steve McClure, in an article titled "Asian Acts Cross Cultural and National Boundaries," published on April 8, 2000. It used the term about the rise in popularity of duo Clon and H.O.T. - typically identified as the first formal K-pop boy band - in the Chinese market. Billboard assessed that "K-pop" began to be recognized in the international market in the 2000s as a genre of global pop music.
"Twenty years since Cho brought the term to Billboard, K-pop's impact is still felt and increasingly becoming more popularized," Herman said. Adding that, "where it goes from here is yet to be determined, but for the meantime, 'K-pop' is most certainly here."
