As of the last few years, and particularly this year, K-pop has been rapidly growing in popularity all around the world, though especially in the United States. American radios are now featuring some trending K-pop songs and artists over the usual American-based artists, and the popular TV program The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, has recently featured BTS. The Tonight Show has seen other K-pop groups like Twice, SEVENTEEN, and Blackpink in the past as well.
K-pop is Korean-based pop music, often sung in the Korean language, though it is also common to hear English in the songs as well. Many K-pop groups have grown in popularity to the point that their names are universal. Some of these popular groups include, BTS, Blackpink, Straykids, SEVENTEEN and TWICE—all of which have racked up over 5 billion streams on Spotify respectively.
Many people in the U.S. listen to K-pop daily, with Millennials and Gen Z carrying the highest number of streams on multiple different platforms.
New listeners typically come across K-pop through social media platforms, either through videos featuring short segments of a song or dance challenges inspired by the choreography of the songs. On YouTube, people can see the music videos that go along with the songs so fans can get a visual on who they are listening to. With that, this also allows the groups posting the videos to receive more attention and popularity that way.
Thanks to social media, even when Covid-19 hit, the groups could still stay active with their fanbases through TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, etc. as well.
K-pop first became popular in the U.S. back in 2017-2018, when BTS debuted and became the first K-pop group to perform on the American Music Awards. They later became the first K-pop group to top the Billboard 200 chart with their album LOVE YOURSELF 轉 ‘TEAR’.
In the following years, other groups rose in popularity in the United States. Stray Kids, New Jeans, and Blackpink even ended up headlining Coachella 2023, an American music festival.
As of early 2025, “K-pop Demon Hunters” was released through Netflix and became a hit almost instantly. The movie follows the K-pop group, HUNTR/X, that lead double lives as idols and demon hunters.
The movie has won a multitude of awards, and its soundtrack has been a common sight on the music charts, even into 2026—nearly a year after its original release.
Alongside the massive success of the movie, individual K-pop groups have been growing in popularity, as late 2025 and early 2026 have brought lots of music drops from the artists.
This year, LE SSERAFIM kicked off the beginning of the year by performing in New York’s City Time Square for Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve, showcasing two of their popular tracks, “Spaghetti” and “Crazy.”
Later in the year, BTS made their comeback after a nearly four-year hiatus due to their country requiring the members to complete military service. The comeback included the release of their hit song, SWIM, along with the album featuring it: ARIRANG. The album ended up becoming the biggest album debut of 2026, with over 110 million streams in the same day as its release. It also achieved the “clean sweep,” meaning all fourteen tracks on the album took the top fourteen spots on the Spotify Global Daily Top Songs chart simultaneously.
Alongside the comeback of the boy band, a girl group, Blackpink, has also made their return after each member went off to pursue solo careers. On Feb. 27, 2026, Blackpink dropped their newest mini-album, DEADLINE, which immediately garnered over 16 million streams upon the first day of it being dropped.
Other well-liked groups have been releasing new music as well, some of which being StrayKids with their album, “Do It,” and a few songs exclusively from specific members, Cortis with their album, “GREENGREEN,” LE SSERAFIM with their song, “CELEBRATION,” and Twice, who are currently on a world tour.
Besides song and album releases, K-pop has also found its way to Coachella 2026. Both Taemin and BIGBANG performed, both being notably large names in the K-pop industry, marking the historic bridging of separate K-pop generations. Both performances brought in tens of thousands of people to their stages, and many fans on social media said that the two K-pop performances had the most enthusiastic and positive crowds on their set performance days.
Overall, K-pop in general has been at the forefront of growth and global expansion this year. It is only five months into 2026 and fans cannot help but wonder what will come next for the K-pop industry as the year goes on.
