K-pop, referred to pop and dance music performed by idol groups mainly targeted at teens, has been expanding in popularity beyond Asia to Europe and South America. It was the 1990s when this school of music first appeared in Korea, but its emergence was not abrupt and its roots are sunk deep into decades of Korean popular music history. This book is designed to introduce to international audiences interested in Korean music how the modern form of Korean pop music began and evolved. Understanding the history of Korean pop music, which has shifted and progressed in the currents of social transformation, means figuring out just how Korean society has been transfigured.