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55 albums · 1969–2025

Music of South Korea, from Shin Joong-hyun and Cho Yong-pil to Seo Taiji, K-pop and today

· 2 min read · by 1001 Albums

Ahn Sook-sun singing pansori on a stage, the drummer seated beside her at the buk
Seo Taiji singing under the lights at the Pentaport Rock Festival, hands of the crowd in frontThe seven members of BTS dancing on stage in embroidered jackets
Ahn Sook-sun sings Heungbuga with her drummer at the buk, Seoul. Photo: Brian Negin, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons. · Seo Taiji on stage at the Pentaport Rock Festival in Incheon, 2015. Photo: Heeyon Kim, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons. · BTS performing DNA on the Love Yourself tour in Nagoya, January 2019. Photo: I DARE U JK, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

South Korea's popular music has a guitarist at its start, Shin Joong-hyun, who wrote for the singers of the sixties and led Yup Juns, and the pansori of Ahn Sook-sun behind it; around them Sanulrim's rock, Cho Yong-pil from Vol. 1 to Hello, the ballads of Kim Hyun-sik, Yoo Jae-ha and Lee Sora, Deulgukhwa and Sinawe, Seo Taiji and Boys in 1992, Kim Kwang-seok's folk, Crying Nut and Jaurim from the clubs of Hongdae, the hip hop of Drunken Tiger and Epik High, BoA, Girls' Generation, Psy, IU, BTS, Blackpink and NewJeans on the big stages, and Hyukoh, Leenalchi, Silica Gel and Peggy Gou today. The list has 55 records from 1969 to 2025, one or two by each of the names above and only a small part of what they made; trot, most of gugak and the court music, most of the classical tradition and the drama soundtracks would each need a list of their own, and Kim Min-ki and Kim Yul-hee are missing because their records are not on Deezer as albums. About 44 hours of music, 5 days of a few records each.

By genre

Pop 21%Rock 17%Hip hop 7%Other 55%
  • Pop 21%
  • Rock 17%
  • Hip hop 7%
  • Other 55%

The genres named most: korean, k-pop, rock, hip hop, pop, ballad.

The colours of the covers

A stripe for each cover, in the colour Tidal picks from it, sorted by hue; the greys at the end.

Where the music comes from

Music from 1 country: South Korea 55. The deeper the colour, the more albums: one, two to four, five to nine, ten and more.

The 1960s

The 1970s

The 1980s

The 1990s

The 2000s

The 2010s

The 2020s

More lists

Lists of Countries first, then others; all of them on the blog. The blog.