A Tale of International Identity: The Origins and Meanings of J-pop and K-pop

A Tale of International Identity

When BTS swept the Billboard charts and BLACKPINK dominated YouTube, the world embraced "K-pop" as if it were a Korean tradition. Yet the term itself is barely older than when browsing internet web pages became mainstream. It was used in the mid 1990s satellite TV station to describe Korean acts in Asia. Similarly, "J-pop" was invented by a bilingual radio station in 1988 to describe music that sounded deliberately un-Japanese.

As someone who has been following J-pop and K-pop since the 1990s and who now co-teaches a course on both genres, I've witnessed firsthand how these terms have evolved. The terms "J-pop" and "K-pop" have become household names in discussions of Asian popular music, but their beginnings reveal a fascinating story about cultural identity, globalization, and the complicated relationship between local traditions and worldwide appeal. In other words, the "J" and "K" don't stand for what most people think they do.

The Birth of J-pop (1988)

The Japanese radio station J-WAVE created the term "J-pop" in 1988 during Japan's economic boom period. Japan's economy was growing rapidly, creating unprecedented wealth and optimism. Tokyo was becoming more cosmopolitan, and sophisticated middle-class urban youth had money to spend on entertainment. This was exactly the audience J-WAVE wanted to reach with their new musical format.

Yamashita Tatsuro's songs released in the early 1980s was the Westernized sound that became a staple of early J-pop.

According to music scholar Ugaya Hiro, J-WAVE invented this term to describe the Western-style dance music they played, which was mostly sung in Japanese with some English mixed in. This music differed from traditional Japanese genres like kayōkyoku or enka. Singers like Yamashita Tatsuro embodied this sound with a jazzier and funkier Western approach.

J-WAVE was a bilingual station with bilingual DJs who spoke both Japanese and English. They targeted listeners who wanted music that resembled Western pop rather than traditional Japanese styles, but in a language they could understand. The transnational nature of the music made it an ideal bridge between languages and cultures.

The "J" in J-pop was part of a bigger "J-branding" trend that included companies rebranding themselves with English letters: JT (Japan Tobacco, 1985), JR (Japan Rail, 1987), and later the J-League soccer competition (1992). The term J-pop became widely used between 1993-1996, especially after the J-League gained popularity.

For Ugaya, the "J" represented something different from traditional Japanese culture because it was a symbol that Japan had become a modern, international economy. Most importantly, Ugaya defines J-pop's original meaning as "Japanese music on par with the rest of the world". So “J-pop” was a marketing term to show that this modern music was made in Japan while competing globally.

Princess Princess’  “Diamonds” (1989) was a smash hit in Japan 

"J-pop" took on a broader meaning in the 1990s, eventually expanding to include idol pop, with girl groups like AKB48 and boy groups like ARASHI dominating in the 2000s. Thus the meaning of J-pop diverged from the Western urban sound of the 1980s it was originally meant to signify.

The Emergence of K-pop (1999)

The genre we now term as “K-pop” emerged in the 1990s during Korea's transition from military rule to democracy. Seo Taiji and Boys' "Nan Arayo" (1992) is considered the first K-pop song, speaking to young Koreans who grew up in democratic Korea but faced intense educational pressures. The group's fusion of rap, rock, and dance elements challenged Korea's conservative music establishment and paved the way for future idol groups. 

Seo Taiji and Boys “I Know” (Nan arayo, 1992) is considered the first K-pop song

But this song was not called K-pop. Rather, the terms used to describe the spread of Korean popular music worldwide was coined from outside Korea. The 1997 financial crisis created massive unemployment in Korea, making cultural exports like music a promising economic recovery strategy and explaining the government's later embrace of K-pop diplomacy. Yin Yuan points out in the Hallyu project that the similar term "Korean Wave" or Hallyu (韓流) was coined by Taiwanese media in 1997 during South Korea's financial crisis.

And the term “K-pop” itself was also created from outside Korea. Gyu Tag Lee wrote in his 2007 dissertation that the term came from a late 1990s show called “K-Pop Station” on Channel [V], a Pan-Asian satellite music channel started by Rupert Murdoch in the early 1990s. By the late 1990s, Korean pop artists were starting to get noticed by young audiences in Chinese-speaking parts of East Asia, like China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, or Singapore. The term became common in the media of those regions and other East Asian countries in the early 2000s and only started being used in Korea after 2000. K-pop became widely accepted as the official name of the genre around 2008, when artists like Rain and Wonder Girls began reaching audiences in the US and other Western countries.

According to Western sources, the first mention of “K-pop” in English-language press was when Professor Cho Hyun-jin used it  in Billboard magazine in 1999 while covering Korean government’s decision to lift the ban on Japanese music and allow Japanese music in Korea:

"The rock-oriented J-pop scene is not what melody-oriented K-pop listeners are asking for." (Cho, 1999)

It is somewhat simplistic to compare "rock-oriented J-pop" with "melody-oriented K-pop,” as not all J-pop was rock, and there were rock-oriented K-pop groups like Seo Taiji's use of rock/rap sounds. Still, the term gained traction when another journalist used "K-pop" in Billboard in 2000 to describe Korean acts in China.

Cho later claimed his inspiration came from Korea's soccer K-League rather than J-pop terminology, insisting he wasn't familiar with Japanese music trends despite working as an international music correspondent. But, as a music journalist, Cho would have known about J-pop, which defined the world's second-largest music market and was expanding rapidly across Asia. His 1999 article explicitly used both terms side by side, making his denials questionable.

Cho's response reflected how Japan was a politically sensitive topic given its colonial history with Korea. Japanese cultural products were still officially banned in Korea at the time. Cultural restrictions persisted long after the government announced the Korean market would open to Japanese cultural products in 1999. Lee points out how Koreans resisted adopting the term “K-pop” because Chinese speakers named this type of Korean pop music after J-pop, the prevailing regional popular music in Asia in the 1990s. To Koreans, the term K-pop mimicked Japanese music.  Similarly, Korean fans were dismayed when the Korean ‘Pro Soccer Championship League’ used “K-League” as its official name in 1998 an imitation of the Japanese “J-league”.

The Real Meaning of "K"

This side by side comparison of Japanese and Korean versions of “Fearless” by LE SSERAFIM, a multinational group with both Japanese and Korean members symbolizes the blurring of the meaning of “K-pop” and “J-pop”.

Origin stories aside,  the deeper significance of "J" and "K" lies in their international character. These prefixes mark cultural products designed to blend local identity with global appeal. Ugaya viewed J-pop as representing a "fantasy in which the Japanese are international or western," while today's scholars argue that "K" works similarly to represent an international version of Korean culture.

This interpretation extends beyond music to encompass broader cultural phenomena like K-food, K-cosmetics, and K-movies. Rather than viewing Koreans as simple copycats, this framework positions them as "innovative glocalizers.” They take outside influences and transform them into distinctly "Korean" or "K" products that appeal to both domestic and international audiences. This international character is evident in contemporary groups like LE SSERAFIM (with members from Japan, Korea, and America) who release the same song (“Fearless” 2022) in Korean and Japanese versions. Acts like these embody the transnational nature of "K-pop."

The Irony of Global Success

The international nature of J-pop and K-pop creates fascinating contradictions in how these genres are consumed at home versus abroad. Most Koreans don't listen to K-pop regularly since they view it as teen-oriented music for younger audiences. Instead, Korean adults prefer trot (a distinctly Korean genre), folk music, indie acts, or Western pop. The music that represents "Korea" to the world is often not what Koreans themselves actually enjoy.

This disconnect can create unexpected cultural challenges. One Korean friend exemplified this perfectly: he dismissed contemporary K-pop as "not real music”. Before studying in the UK, he was advised to learn about current K-pop since he'd inevitably encounter international interest in it. Initially skeptical, he discovered the wisdom of this advice once overseas as people wanted to discuss K-pop with him. Music became an unexpected bridge for cross-cultural connection despite his personal musical preferences.

A similar disconnect exists with J-pop. What Japanese audiences dismiss as "anisongs" (anime theme songs) for "otaku nerds" often achieves massive global popularity through anime's worldwide reach. Songs like "Cruel Angel's Thesis" from Neon Genesis Evangelion or "Gurenge" from Demon Slayer have become global anthems, instantly recognizable to millions of international fans who might struggle to name a single mainstream J-pop hit. Meanwhile, acts that dominate Japanese charts like Nogizaka46, who regularly sell over 500,000 copies per single, remain unknown internationally.

Nogizaka46 has devoted fans in Japan, but is quite unknown outside Japanese borders.

The K-pop landscape shows similar patterns. While BTS and BLACKPINK achieve global recognition, Korea's domestic charts tell a different story. IU, arguably Korea's biggest solo artist domestically, has minimal (but growing) international recognition despite her massive influence within Korea. 

IU, a top Korean artist, is relatively unknown outside Korea but her singing on “Never Ending Story” is so beautiful.

K-pop is not simply Korean music that happened to go global but rather cultural products specifically designed for international markets. This raises a question: shouldn't anime music, given its global influence, be considered a major part of J-pop? The fact that we typically don't shows how cultural categories are shaped more by marketing and perception than actual listening habits. These contradictions highlight the international character of both genres. 

Conclusion

The story behind J-pop and K-pop shows us these are carefully crafted cultural brands rather than music genres. Understanding where these terms came from helps explain not just the music we hear today, but how countries use popular culture to build their global image.

Rather than representing traditional Japanese or Korean culture, "J" and "K" stand for something new that mixes local and international influences to appeal to global audiences. Both J-pop and K-pop work as forms of cultural diplomacy, helping Japan and Korea spread their influence worldwide through catchy songs, slick production and beautiful idols. Interestingly, this music often succeeds internationally because it doesn't sound traditionally Japanese or Korean. The globally successful acts create sounds designed for world markets, even when most people back home are listening to different music.

In the end, J-pop and K-pop tell us as much about globalization and international marketing as they do about music itself. As a professor, I'm happy to see these genres become popular worldwide because student enrollments in my Japanese and Korean history classes have grown with their popularity! And it gives me an excuse to "study" K-pop groups by watching them on YouTube.

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Discussion Questions

1. When you hear “K-pop” or “J-pop,” do you think of it as something uniquely Korean/Japanese or more like “global pop”? Why?
2. Since J-pop and K-pop started as marketing labels, does that make them less authentic or does it help them succeed worldwide?
3. Why do you think fans outside Japan and Korea often listen to different songs than the people who live there?
4. If pop music is used as cultural diplomacy, what could be the benefits and what could go wrong if it doesn’t represent what locals actually listen to?

Suggested playlist for teachers to play before class, or students to listen to illustrate the concepts (If used in class, play 1 minute segments to save time):

Yamashita Tatsuro – “Sparkle” (1982, video in 2023) illustrates the Westernized sound that J-WAVE radio branded as “J-pop” in the late 1980s.

Nogizaka46 – “Influencer” (2017) A mega-hit in Japan but relatively unknown internationally that shows the domestic vs. global gap in J-pop’s reception.

Creepy Nuts- “Bling-Bang-Bang-Born”(from MASHLE：MAGIC AND MUSCLES, 2024) is globally famous through anime, though Japanese fans might dismiss it as “anisong.” Perfect to spark discussion about which music travels and why.

Seo Taiji and Boys – “Nan Arayo (I Know)” (1992) Considered the first K-pop song and illustrates how K-pop broke from traditional Korean pop and fused global sounds (rap, rock, dance).

Wonder Girls – “Nobody” (2008) One of the first K-pop songs to break into the U.S. market.and shows how K-pop was packaged for international audiences.

LE SSERAFIM – “Fearless” (2022, Korean & Japanese versions) A multinational group with members from Japan, Korea, and the U.S. and reveals the blurring line between J-pop and K-pop and the globalized “K” branding.