A K-pop Primer For Parents

Thanks to the enormous global success of the Netflix animated film Kpop Demon Hunters, Korean pop music, or K-pop, is experiencing a revival of interest among tween and teen audiences. My daughter was into K-pop for awhile as a tween/teenager (less so now) and actually got me into it, too, so I thought I might write a few notes for parents based on my experience.

Is K-pop appropriate for children? What content concerns should you be aware of?

My own children are teenagers now and I do not heavily censor or control their music listening, but I do try to be aware of what they like so I can have discussions with them about our family values and about good life choices if I feel that something is potentially a bad influence.

The K-pop industry is far more censored than the American music industry, so the good news is that younger fans are much less likely to watch something totally inappropriate for them in a K-pop video than they are in an American music video. For example, Korea is known for its very strict drug laws, and I don’t ever recall seeing drug use even depicted in a K-pop video, let alone glorified. Swearing and alcohol use are a little more common, but still rare. Violence is also rare and non-graphic.

Some K-pop groups do have more “sexy” concepts than others, but there is no K-pop equivalent of “W.A.P.” Lyrics are sometimes suggestive but rarely graphic. Some choreography can be sensual and suggestive, including elements such as body rolls or hip thrusts, and sometimes idols will go shirtless (men) or in revealing clothing such as bikini tops (women), but overall K-pop music is almost universally far tamer and more sexually conservative than American music.

Personally, I would consider the vast majority of K-pop music and music videos to be appropriate for younger teens and tweens, and almost all K-pop music and music videos to be suitable for ages 15+. However, since every family’s standards of what is and is not appropriate are different, I recommend watching or listening to any K-pop music videos that you have concerns about yourself, so you can determine if you consider it appropriate for your children based on your own family values and preferences.

There are a few other potential concerns that parents should be aware of about K-pop. All of these are issues that are shared to varying degrees by many other entertainment industries from countries all over the world, so I don’t consider any of these to be unique to K-pop, but it’s still helpful to be aware of them as a parent.

South Korea has strict beauty standards for both women and men, resulting in very high rates of plastic surgery and eating disorders/extreme dieting among both male and female idols, which can be a harmful influence on children and teenagers, especially girls.

Korean beauty standards prize light skin, leading to white-washing of idols in photos and videos and occasionally to colorist remarks by idols that can be hurtful to fans with darker skin tones. Fortunately, K-pop companies seem to be becoming more aware that this is a problem as K-pop has become more popular internationally, so verbal colorism incidents have become more rare, but whitewashing of photos and videos sadly remains common.

K-pop can also encourage consumerism. South Korea is famous for its elaborate skincare regimes and high quality but often costly skincare products, which are frequently promoted or endorsed by idols. This can be a positive influence (encouraging regular sunscreen use, for example, which reduces the chances of developing skin cancer later in life), but can become an expensive and time-consuming hobby.

Successful K-pop idols are in high demand for other types of endorsements as well. K-pop groups sometimes even make entire music videos that are advertisements for products such as phones, video games, and food or soft drinks.

In addition to the consumerist influence of endorsements, K-pop can easily become a very expensive hobby on its own. K-pop albums are commonly released in several versions, which can cause fans to want to collect all versions, at potentially considerable expense. Fans hoping to win fan calls with their favorite idols sometimes purchase dozens or even hundreds of copies of albums. (Spare albums from these types of bulk purchases are usually resold to recoup some of the money, but are sometimes wastefully discarded.) K-pop groups also have lots of collectible merch available for purchase, including everything from plushies to t-shirts to photocards. Concert tickets can range anywhere from tens to hundreds or even thousands of dollars, depending on the popularity of the group and how close the tickets are to the stage. It’s important to be upfront with your child about the kind of budget your family can afford to spend on K-pop, so they’re not disappointed.

Last but not least, some K-pop fandoms can be quite toxic on social media, with fanwars between fans of different groups (and occasionally even different idols within the same group) and sometimes pressure to stream music on Spotify or Youtube constantly in order to “prove” support of the group. If K-pop seems to be becoming a source of stress rather than pleasure for your child, encourage them to take a step back from other K-pop fans on social media and just focus on enjoying the music!

K-pop Girl Groups

K-pop girl groups tend to have a mix of female and male listeners, and tend to be more popular with casual K-pop fans than boy groups. There are dozens of active groups, and even more that are inactive or disbanded, so this will not be a comprehensive guide, but will just include some popular and notable groups.

Current girl groups that have had mostly or entirely cute and uplifting concepts so far:

IVE -One of my favorite current girl groups, and extremely popular among tween girls in Korea. Their 2023 song “I AM” is similar to “Golden” from K-pop Demon Hunters and was pretty obviously an inspiration for it.
Hearts2Hearts – The newest girl group from SM Entertainment, one of the “Big 4” K-pop companies and known for producing idols with especially good vocal skills. I really liked their recent song “Style“.
ILLIT – I haven’t listened to them very much personally, but they had a few huge hits recently, including “Magnetic“.

Current girl groups with more mature or sexy concepts:

aespa – Their recent hits include “Supernova” and “Whiplash“.
Le Sserafim – Their hits include “Antifragile” and “Perfect Night“.
i-dle – aka (g)i-dle. The music for this group tends to be deliberately provocative (including swearing and sexual themes) to a greater extent than most K-pop groups because their songs involve a lot of satire and social commentary. Their hits include “Tomboy” and “Queencard“.

Some older girl groups of note:

TWICE – One of my daughter’s favorite groups during her K-pop phase and one of the most popular active K-pop girl groups. They tend to do mostly cute/sweet/uplifting concepts. Their biggest hits include “Fancy” and “What Is Love“, and they’ll already be familiar to many fans of Kpop Demon Hunters because their song “Strategy” was included in the soundtrack. Three members recorded a version of “Takedown” for the soundtrack as well.
BLACKPINK – The most famous K-pop girl group internationally. Less active as a group in recent years but all four members have released solo music in the last year or two, several of which have been huge international hits, including “APT” by Rosé and Bruno Mars and “Like Jennie” by Jennie. Their newest single “Jump” is one of the relatively few K-pop songs that includes swearing.
Red Velvet – One of my favorite groups. They have both cute “Red” bubblegum pop concepts such as “Red Flavor” and more mature and sexy “Velvet” concepts such as “Psycho“. Some of their videos (including “Psycho”) have horror vibes, but nothing graphic.
Girls’ Generation – A legendary older girl group, so beloved in Korea that they’re known as the “Nation’s Girl Group”. Mostly inactive now, but very worth checking out since their discography includes some of the most famous songs in K-pop, including “Into the New World“, “Gee“, and “Genie“. Also known as SNSD.
f(x) – Now inactive following the tragic death of one member and departure of several others, f(x) was known for its experimental style, and released several albums and EPs that are considered among the best K-pop releases ever, including their 2nd album Pink Tape.
Older groups like GFRIEND, Lovelyz, and Oh My Girl were known for their “Christian Horse Girl” music, so-called because of how sweet and innocent it is. (GFRIEND was disbanded a few years ago and some of their members are now active as VIVIZ, which does sexier concepts, however.) Apink did a lot of very cute bubblegum pop that transitioned later in their career to synthpop.
Dreamcatcher tends to release more songs with hard rock and metal influence than most other girl groups, and they are popular with fans of those genres. Like Red Velvet, their music videos sometimes have horror concepts.
Older groups that did more overtly sexy concepts included Sistar, AOA, Brown Eyed Girls, EXID, 2NE1, T-ARA, and miss A.

A few other recent girl groups of note:

NewJeans – An extremely popular group with international mega hits such as “OMG” and “Ditto” that crashed and burned due to a dispute with their company. It’s currently unclear when or if they will ever release music again.
Fifty Fifty – Their song “Cupid” went viral a few years ago, but they also became embroiled in a dispute with their company that led to all but one of the original members being replaced. The members who left the group recently re-debuted as ablume with the song “Echo“.
LOONA – Yet another group that disbanded after a dispute with their company and has re-formed into new groups: Loossemble and Artms. Two more former members, Chuu and Yves, re-debuted as soloists. Though not as famous as some other girl groups listed here, they were highly regarded for the quality of their music, and have more songs in the 25 highest rated K-pop songs on RateYourMusic than any other group.

K-pop Boy Groups

K-pop boy groups tend to have mostly female fans, and they tend to attract fewer casual listeners but more dedicated fanbases than girl groups.

Most boy groups will have a mix of cute/uplifting and sexy concepts, though as I discussed above, “sexy” is relative and won’t be as graphic as “sexy” concepts in American pop.

To the best of my knowledge, these groups have had almost entirely cute/uplifting concepts so far:

TWS – songs include “Plot Twist” and “Countdown“
The Wind – songs include “Hello, My First Love” and “Only One“
BOYNEXTDOOR – songs include “If I Say, I Love You” and “Earth, Wind, & Fire“
RIIZE – songs include “Get a Guitar” and “Fly Up“

And here are some of the most popular currently active boy groups with a more mixed discography as I described above:

BTS (aka Bangtan Boys)
Seventeen
Stray Kids
Enhypen
Tomorrow x Together (aka TXT)
NCT (this group has a lot of different sub-units, including NCT U, NCT 127, NCT Wish, NCT Dream, and WayV)
ATEEZ

Not to single out ATEEZ, whose music I really enjoy, but their recent song “In Your Fantasy” is an example of a K-pop song that I personally would not consider appropriate for younger teens and tweens. It has some of the more suggestive lyrics I’ve heard in K-pop. However, I think you’ll probably agree that it’s still tame compared to a lot of American music.

If you or your child becomes interested in K-pop history, here are a few older and less active boy groups of note:

U-KISS – former member Kevin Woo provided the singing voice of Mystery Saja in Kpop Demon Hunters
Astro – member Cha Eun-woo may be familiar to Kpop Demon Hunters fans as one of the inspirations for the design of Jinu, he did a cover of “Free” with Arden Cho and is also an actor in several well-known Kdramas
Monsta X – former member Wonho is probably one of the inspirations for Abs Saja from Kpop Demon Hunters, and did covers of “Soda Pop” and “Your Idol” in costume as Abs
A.C.E – leader Junhee did a popular cover of “Your Idol” from Kpop Demon Hunters
SHINee – my “ult” group, or all-time favorite, known for their very strong vocal and dance skills, they recently celebrated their 17th anniversary as a group and all members also have successful solo careers
EXO – one of the most popular groups of the 2010s, highly regarded in Korea and internationally due to their very strong vocal line, their future is now uncertain due to multiple legal disputes with their company, but most members have gone on to successful solo careers, including D.O., who may be familiar to Netflix audiences due to acting in several popular Kdramas hosted there
2PM – members Lee Junho and Ok Taecyeon have both appeared in popular Kdramas on Netflix in addition to their music careers
BIGBANG – the most famous 2nd generation boy group, scandal-plagued, but the three remaining members – G-Dragon, Taeyang, and Daesung – are still enormously popular as soloists in Asia and one of the former members, T.O.P, appeared in season 2 of Squid Game as Thanos
GOT7 – had their first comeback in several years in January 2025 after all members completed their military service, several members also have successful solo careers
Super Junior – one of the most popular groups of the early 2000s, various subunits remain active and several members have solo careers
TVXQ – another popular group of the early 2000s, formerly five members, now two after a legal dispute with their company, known for their strong vocals
Infinite – popular in the early 2010s, had a comeback in March 2025

All of these groups will also have a mix of cute and more mature/sexy concepts.

Conclusion

I hope this quick primer has been helpful for you to learn a little more about K-pop music and some of the popular groups your child might become a fan of. If your child becomes a K-pop fan, I encourage you to watch K-pop videos and attend K-pop concerts with them, both so you can be aware of the content they’re consuming and help them make good choices about what they choose to listen to, and as a bonding experience with your child. K-pop is fun!