South Korean popular music is known as "K-Pop." In addition to its traditional Korean heritage, it is influenced by global styles and genres such as Experimental, Rock, Jazz, Gospel, Hip-Hop, Reggae, Electronic Dance, Folk, Country, and Classical music. With the 1992 establishment of Seo Taiji and Boys, one of the first K-Pop groups, the genre's current iteration came into being. South Korea's contemporary music scene was shaped and modernized by the experimentation with various musical styles and genres as well as the incorporation of foreign musical components. When K-Pop developed into a subculture that attracted enormous fandoms among teenagers and young adults in 1996, the boy band H.O.T. marked the beginning of K-Pop "idol" culture. Following a downturn in the early K-Pop industry, TVXQ and BoA launched a new wave of K-Pop idols in 2003, which helped the genre gain traction in neighboring Japan and continues to do so worldwide. When K-Pop developed int...