Joining the Wave: A Case for K-Pop in the Music Classroom

World music study in K–12 classrooms remains largely focused on folk songs and older music that may perpetuate stereotypes of communities “frozen in time” or contribute to exoticism and tokenism. K-pop, as a subset of Korean popular music, can be a strong medium for engaging in culturally responsive world music pedagogy that focuses on contemporary world music. In this article, I introduce K-pop, explain its inception, and present how the cultural reach of K-pop positions the genre as a model to encourage discussions and conversations in promoting social justice, empathy, and empowering equity. Strategies for incorporating K-pop in K–12 classrooms using Hammond’s culturally responsive pedagogy model, Campbell’s phases of world music pedagogy, and Banks’s levels of curriculum reform are discussed.