Music of South Korea: from silk-string zithers to K-pop

What does Korean music sound like?

Imagine a long wooden zither lying across a player's lap. Silk strings are plucked and bent, so each note can slide and wobble like a voice. That is the gayageum, and its gentle, singing sound is a good first taste of Korean tradition.

Old Korean music had many homes. At the royal court, slow and calm pieces were played at big ceremonies. One famous example is the music for the Jongmyo ritual, held once a year to honour the ancestors of the Joseon kings. Out in the villages, farmers marched with gongs and drums in a lively band music called nongak.

There are also stories told with songs. In pansori, one singer tells a long tale with singing, speaking and acting, while one drummer keeps the beat and shouts cheers. A folk song called Arirang is loved so much that people sing it in many versions, and UNESCO lists it as living heritage.

In the 1900s, new sounds arrived. Church hymns and Western songs came in, and Koreans wrote their own songs in that style. Later, a pop style called trot became popular, with singers such as Lee Mi-ja. After 1992 a new wave began, with rap and dance beats, which grew into K-pop. By the 2010s and 2020s, K-pop groups and songs were known around the world.

The story of one song: Arirang

Many Koreans know a refrain that goes "Arirang, arirang, arariyo." It is the heart of a folk song that people have sung for a very long time.

After the refrain come two short lines, and each region sings its own. Experts count about 3,600 versions, grouped into around 60 main ones. Songs of longing, parting and hope are common.

Because the tune is simple, anyone can join in and make up new words. UNESCO added Arirang to its heritage list in 2012.

Traditional instruments

Here are some instruments you can look up and listen to.

Gayageum

A zither with 12 silk strings; the player sits on the floor, plucks with the right hand and presses and bends the strings with the left.

Geomungo

A six-string zither with raised frets, played with a short stick; old records credit a minister of the Goguryeo kingdom with making it.

Haegeum

A fiddle with two strings held upright on the knee; the bow slides between the strings, and the player has no fingerboard to press on.

Daegeum

A big bamboo flute played sideways, with a special hole covered by a thin reed membrane that adds a soft buzzing sound.

Ajaeng

A wide zither with silk strings that is played by rubbing a stick of forsythia wood across them like a bow; it sounds a bit like a rough cello.

Janggu

An hourglass-shaped drum with two heads: one is struck with a bamboo stick, the other with the bare hand, and the two sides sound different.

Kkwaenggwari

A small gong held in the hand; its player leads a nongak band.

Jing

A large gong that gives a deep, long ring, played in nongak and samulnori.

How to listen

Close your eyes and follow one sound at a time. Ask yourself: is it getting faster? Is the note sliding? Is the drum repeating a pattern?

Listen for bending notes

On the gayageum, the left hand pushes a string to raise the note and add a wobble, so a note can sing like a voice.

Listen for a slow start and a fast finish

A sanjo solo begins with a very slow rhythm and speeds up to a fast one, and the janggu drummer shouts cheers along the way.

Listen for repeating drum patterns

Korean music uses rhythm patterns called jangdan, repeated on the janggu, whose two heads give a low sound and a higher sound.

Set a metronome to a slow 50 BPM and clap along. After every 8 claps, raise the speed a little, like a sanjo growing faster. How fast can you stay in time?

Big moments in the story of Korean music

1. About 500s
   Zithers of the old kingdoms

   Old records say the geomungo was made in Goguryeo and the gayageum in the Gaya kingdom, around the 500s.

2. 1400s
   A way to write music down

   In King Sejong's time, a notation called jeongganbo was made, which used a grid to show both pitch and length of notes.

3. Late 1600s
   Pansori appears

   Singers began telling long stories with voice and drum; the form later became famous across the peninsula.

4. About 1890
   Sanjo is born

   Kim Chang-jo is said to have shaped sanjo around 1890: a long solo piece for the gayageum that starts slow and speeds up.

5. About 1920
   A song in Western style

   The composer Hong Nan-pa wrote Bongseonhwa around 1919–1920, often called the first Korean song written in Western style.

6. 1992
   Rap and dance arrive

   Seo Taiji and Boys sang Nan Arayo, mixing rap and dance beats, and it became a huge hit.

7. 1996–2012
   K-pop goes wide

   H.O.T. debuted in 1996 and is often called the first K-pop idol group; in 2012 Psy's Gangnam Style became the first YouTube video to reach a billion views.

8. 2020
   Dynamite tops the US chart

   BTS sang Dynamite fully in English, and it debuted at number one on the US Billboard Hot 100 in August.

Names to look up

These are only examples, not a ranking; ask a grown-up or search for them to listen.

• Hwang Byungki
• Ahn Sook-sun
• Kim Duk-soo
• Lee Mi-ja
• Cho Yong-pil
• Unsuk Chin
• Seo Taiji and Boys
• IU
• BTS
• BLACKPINK

Meanwhile, around the world

While Korean music grew, here is what was happening in other places.

1. 537
   Hagia Sophia is finished

   In what is now Istanbul, a giant domed church was completed, around the time the old zithers of the Korean kingdoms were being made.

2. About 1455
   The Gutenberg Bible

   In Germany, books printed with movable type began to appear, in the same century as Korea's music notation.

3. 1685
   Bach is born

   The German composer Johann Sebastian Bach was born, around the time pansori storytelling was taking shape.

4. 1964
   The Beatles on American TV

   The band played on The Ed Sullivan Show in February 1964, and tens of millions watched.

5. 1969
   First Moon landing

   Apollo 11 landed on the Moon on July 20.

6. 2005
   YouTube begins

   The first video was uploaded in April, and the site later helped songs like Gangnam Style travel the world.

Keep exploring

• World music timelineScroll through the decades and see which styles and artists appeared at the same time in different parts of the world, plus a simple family tree of styles.