This is a Squiz Kids podcast.
Your fresh take on what's happening in the world around you.
They've sold out stadiums across the globe.
They have top charts in countries where people don't even speak their language.
And right now there's a very good chance that someone in your class knows every lyric, every dance move and has a favourite member.
This is your Squiz Kids shortcut to K-pop.
The podcast where we explore the who what where when, why and how of the wonderful world around us.
I'm Christy Kijerina.
And I'm Bryce Corbett.
5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15.
Bryce, sorry.
I have to ask, are you dancing?
Yeah, of course.
I'm doing the Dynamite choreography.
BTS, very famous.
Oh, right.
You're pointing at the ceiling, flicking your hair.
Yeah, Christy, their moves.
But you've been doing that for like five minutes.
Yeah, I've got to say, it looks a lot easier in the video.
There's also a hip thing that I'm...
Kind of working on, but not really getting.
Don't put your back out, Bryce.
Yeah, true.
Must be careful.
Well, there is something you should probably know before you hurt yourself.
What you're attempting took the BTS members years of professional training to perfect.
Years?
Okay, well, I suppose that actually makes me feel a little bit better.
And I suppose it's also the perfect place to start.
Because today we're asking what K-pop actually is, how someone becomes a K-pop idol and why the rest of the world can't get enough.
So, grab your light stick, warm up those dance moves, and let's get started.
Let's get started.
And listen carefully.
There's a quiz at the end.
To understand K-pop, you might need to forget everything that you think you know about pop music, because K-pop isn't just music.
It's a full-blown entertainment experience.
Yep, that's right, Christy.
I can certainly back that up.
I thought it was just catchy songs and cool dancing.
And it's definitely both of those things.
But it's also much bigger.
The K stands for Korean.
K-pop comes from South Korea, but what makes it different is how everything is built together.
Yeah, the music, the dancing, the fashion storytelling, even the way the performers look at the camera.
It's all carefully planned and practiced.
So imagine practicing the same 10 second dance move over and over every day until your body can do it without even thinking.
I suppose that explains why my ceiling pointing move is perhaps not quite there yet.
Uh-huh, the k-pop groups aren't like regular bands either.
Think of them more like a team where everyone has a role.
There are main vocalists, lead dancers, rappers And even something called the visual, which is the member who is known for their eye-catching look.
And then there's the maknae, which means the youngest member.
Fans always have a soft spot for the maknae.
Ah, yes.
Every group has one.
Blackpink, one of the world's biggest K-pop girl groups, has four members.
Jisoo, Jennie, Rosé and Lisa.
And they're not all from the same place either.
Lisa is from Thailand, Rosé was born in New Zealand, and she grew up in Australia.
So K-pop has been pretty much global from the start.
But K-pop is actually part of something even bigger, something called the Korean Wave.
Hell you!
Think of it like this.
K-pop is the music, but the Korean wave is the entire ocean.
Yeah, and it includes TV shows movies, fashion food, all spreading from South Korea to the rest of the world.
Shows like Squid Game, for example, or films like Parasite, which was the first non-English film to win the Oscar for Best Picture.
And of course, K-pop demon hunters.
What K-pop podcast would be complete without talking about them?
The animated Netflix film that became the most watched movie in Netflix history last year.
All part of the same wave, which leads to a pretty big question.
If the wave...
Is that powerful?
How do you actually get on it?
How?
Bryce, if you want to become a K-pop idol, get ready for one of the toughest paths in entertainment anywhere in the world.
Oh, okay.
Yeah, it all starts with something called the trainee system.
So there's three companies, SM Entertainment, JYP Entertainment and YG Entertainment.
So they built this system from scratch in around about the mid 1990s.
The entertainment companies hold auditions, sometimes online, sometimes in person.
Sometimes they even scout kids at school or on the street.
And they're not just looking for perfect singers, they're looking for potential, a quality the Koreans call star energy.
And some of the kids auditioning are very young, often between 10 and 14, if you can believe.
Gosh, that is young.
And if you're chosen, you become a trainee and your life changes completely.
Because imagine this you go to school during the day and then, instead of going home to just like relax and chill out, you spend your afternoon and evening doing dance classes, singing lessons, fitness training, language lessons and media training.
Every single day?
Yeah, every single day.
Whoa, that sounds intense.
It is.
And every month, trainees are evaluated.
They perform in front of company staff who decide if they're improving fast enough and if they're not.
They can be cut just like that.
Wait, so you could train for years and then still not make it?
Exactly.
Some trainees spend years chasing a debut that never comes.
Jiho from the group TWICE trained for 10 years.
She started at age eight.
Ten years?
That's basically your entire school life.
Pretty much.
And even after all that training, the company decides everything.
Who goes into which group, what their role is, what the group looks like, sounds like, even what it's called.
Which sounds tough, and honestly it is, but when it works, the results are incredible.
Yeah, that's right.
Groups who've trained together for years move in perfect synchronisation, which is a fancy word for saying they all move in the same direction, at the same time.
It's like they're reading each other's minds.
Every step, Every breath, every expression completely in sync.
The big three entertainment companies.
Between them, they've launched some of the biggest acts in K-pop history, including Blackpink, Twice and GOT7.
Which explains why my version looks like interpretive confusion.
Oh, that's a kind way to describe it.
That's rude.
But here's the amazing part.
These performers are filling stadiums all over the world, often singing in a language their fans don't understand.
So, Christy, why is K-pop such an international success?
Why?
Bryce, for a long time, people believed that there was one rule for global pop stars.
You had to sing in English.
And then that rule got smashed.
Oh, I know this one.
2012, it was a song called Gangnam Style, and Psy was doing that horse dance.
Yay!
You might not understand the words, but you definitely know the dance.
Si and his team uploaded the music video to YouTube and within six months it became the first video in history to reach 1 billion views.
So many views, in fact, YouTube had to update its counter.
And the song was entirely in Korean, which proved something huge.
You don't need to understand every word to feel the energy of a great song.
That's right.
And then came BTS.
Seven young men from Seoul who became the first Korean actor to hit number one in the Billboard Hot 100.
That's the biggest music chart in the United States.
Now, they did it with a song called Dynamite in the year 2020.
That's right.
And experts estimate that BTS brings in about $5 billion a year to South Korea's economy.
It's a giant business powered by music.
But, Christy, what really makes K-pop special is, of course, the fans.
K-pop fans aren't just listeners.
They're part of the experience.
Every group gives their fans a name.
BTS fans, for example, are called the BTS Army.
Blackpink fans are called Blinks.
And at concerts, fans don't just watch, they perform too, too.
It's amazing.
They have official light sticks.
They're glowing ones, unique to each group.
They learn fan chants perfectly timed cheers shouted during songs.
Imagine being in a crowd of like tens of thousands of people all chanting the same words at the exact same moment.
It's kind of like the audience has become part of the show.
Yeah, and that connection has spread far beyond music.
In 2025, an animated film that you all know called K-pop Demon Hunters, about a K-pop girl group who secretly fight demons, became one of the most watched movies on Netflix.
Its soundtrack took over the charts and made history at the Academy Awards, with the song Golden becoming the first K-pop song ever to win an Oscar.
Which just shows, K-pop isn't just music anymore, it's a global phenomenon.
Time for the quiz.
This is the part of the podcast where you get to test how well you've been listening.
Question number one.
True or false?
Gangnam Style was the first music video in history to reach one billion views on YouTube.
It is in fact true.
Question number two.
K-pop groups have a member called the maknae.
What does that mean?
Is it A, the main dancer, B, the youngest member or C, the one with the best hair?
That would be me.
And well done.
If you said B, it is the youngest member.
Question number three.
K-pop demon hunters made history at the Academy Awards recently.
What was the first ever K-pop song to win an Oscar?
Was it A, Dynamite, B, Soda Pop or C, Goldens?
That's right, it is of course C, golden.
And extra points if you sing it.
Well, that's all we have time for today.
Thanks for joining us as we explored the who, what, where, when, why and how of K-pop.
Now get out there and have the most excellent K-poppy day.
Over and out.
