A lot of people want to point at K-pop and say, "Well, obviously it's pop music," or "K-pop is a separate genre of music." But the real answer is that both of these statements are both true and false. K-pop is popular music in Korea, but it's different from what Americans would think of as pop music since there are many sub-genres. The truth is that you can't stuff K-pop into a neat box.

What is K-pop then? Min Yoongi of BTS probably said it best when he called K-pop "integrated content". K-pop incorporates the music, the music videos, the fashion, and the personalities and talents of each artist. Albums in K-pop tend to be highly conceptualized, and K-pop music videos are characterized by intense visual stories. More than any other music industry, K-Pop sells the entire concept of the artist as a whole - their musical ability, their dancing ability, and their personality are all part of the streamlined K-Pop package.

K-Pop music has its roots in pop music - songs with upbeat tempos and catchy choruses. However, each K-Pop artist puts a new spin on pop music. K-Pop songs often include rap, R&B, and trap music. K-Pop music has also explored alternative rock, hip-hop, EDM, and ballads. The sub-genres in K-Pop make the distinction between K-Pop artists very unique. You can think of K-Pop as the ultimate portmanteau of music around the globe.

K-Pop collaborations with other popular global artists is actually a relatively new thing. The most famous recent collaborations have all been done by the reigning popular artists in K-Pop, like BTS, who have worked with Halsey, Charlie XCX, and Lil Nas.

The biggest artists in K-Pop include BTS, EXO, BlackPink, Girls' Generation, TWICE, Red Velvet, GOT7, Seventeen, Big Bang, SNSD, Super Junior, and SHINee. These are the artists currently topping the K-Pop and international music charts and the artists that have had the biggest impact on the K-Pop music industry. Many K-Pop fans say that K-Pop wouldn't be as popular today if not for artists like Big Bang or Super Junior.

Yes and no. K-Pop music is primarily in Korean. However, many K-Pop songs feature a few English phrases. The popularity of using English in K-Pop music has led to the popular rise of Konglish, which is a combination of Korean and English. That said, finding a K-Pop song that is completely in English is difficult, although some groups like BlackPink feature entire rap verses in English.

Many fans of K-Pop make the argument that music is universal - you don't necessarily need to know the lyrics of a song to understand the emotions or the meaning portrayed by the artists. This is especially true when the song has a music video, which tells the visual story of the song and makes the meaning of the song accessible to international fans.

However, it isn't difficult to find translations of Korean lyrics if you as a listener are adamant about understanding the meaning of the song.