When was kpop first coined "kpop"? (1 Viewer)

[Drew_B]

Was it always called kpop since the 90s or was it first called that by westerners in the 2000s?

 

[Emanresu]

You mean like when did Koreans themselves start branding it as "kpop"?

I don't know.

It was always "Korean pop" by definition. But they probably just referred to it as "pop" themselves for the longest time.

I don't know when they started using the actual phrase "Kpop" to market. Maybe when the Hallyu Wave started? Or they started international marketing?

 

[Drew_B]

You mean like when did Koreans themselves start branding it as "kpop"?

I don't know.

It was always "Korean pop" by definition. But they probably just referred to it as "pop" themselves for the longest time.

I don't know when they started using the actual phrase "Kpop" to market. Maybe when the Hallyu Wave started? Or they started international marketing?

Now you got me wondering if Koreans even call it kpop. I guess there would be no reason to for them. It's not like we always referred to ours as Apop. It was just pop to us.

I'm just curious when it was first called "kpop" by anyone. Korean or foreigner. Cause watching these old live streams from the 90s theres never a mention of the music name or ever any acknowledgement that they are in the first generation of a new style of music. I guess to them it's just the same popular music thats been around since the 50s.

"First generation of kpop" I guess is just a term used in retrospect.

 

[Bopper]

Seo Taiji and Boys are known as the start of what has evolved into Kpop today, back when they debuted in 1992. Not sure if they coined the actual term though.

 

[Abeamus]

Would've probably been an international branding thing as they have no reason to call it kpop otherwise.

 

[yeji]

yeah pretty sure it‘s more of a branding thing which probably started with SM.

I also think that what we would say is kpop, that koreans tend to think of it as idol music.