K-pop

K-pop is Korean pop music, with global superstars like BTS, BLACKPINK, Stray Kids, and NewJeans. Not concerning. If your teen is into K-pop they are in a passionate global fan community. If your kid uses it constantly, ask them where they first heard it, not to police their speech but to understand which online community they are in. Most slang of this kind moves through TikTok and group chats, so seeing it in your child's vocabulary just means they are plugged into normal teen internet culture.

K-pop is the proper name of the Korean pop music genre and industry. Always hyphenated and with capital K. Use in music and entertainment writing. Formal equivalent: "Korean popular music." Common non-native mistake: writing as "kpop" or "K Pop." The standard form is "K-pop" with hyphen and capital K. Pair with "idol," "group," "stan." Read or listen to the word in context several times before trying it yourself; the right register is harder to learn than the dictionary meaning.