South Korean music

The Music of South Korea has evolved over the course of the decades since the end of the Korean War, and has its roots in the music of the Korean people, who have inhabited the Korean peninsula for over a millennium. Contemporary South Korean music can be divided into three different main categories: Traditional Korean folk music, popular music, or K-pop, and Western-influenced non-popular music.

The first evidence of Korean music is old, and it has been well documented by surviving written materials from the 15th century. Traditional Korean music was brought to heights of excellence under the Lee kings of the Joseon Dynasty. Imperial Japan's annexation of Korea suppressed Korean music from 1905 to 1945. A brief post-war period rewakened folk and patriotic music. By 1951, Korea was split into the Democratic People's Republic of Korea or North and the Republic of Korea or South Korea, from which emerged two different approaches to music. Korean traditional music includes kinds of both folk and classical, courtly music. Folk includes genres like sanjo, pansori and nongak. The three types of Korean court music are aak, hyangak and dangak.

Popular Korean music, typically referred to as K-pop in English, or gayo (가요) in Korean, is a highly commercial industry throughout Asia. Contemporary K-pop is dominated by dance groups featuring young entertainers with the latest looks and dance skills. Contemporary Korean music and pop stars are very popular across Asia, and the spread of contemporary Korean culture designated a word to reflect this fact. The Korean Wave, or Hallyu (한류), is the word used to discuss the influence of contemporary Korean popular culture on the rest of Asia, and the rest of the world.

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