Korean heritage is having its K-pop moment — and Blackpink and BTS are all in

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Korean heritage is having its K-pop moment — and Blackpink and BTS are all in

Published: 01 Mar. 2026, 16:51 Updated: 01 Mar. 2026, 17:34

JIN EUN-SOO
[email protected]

Audio report: written by reporters, read by AI

Visitors walk through the main hall of the National Museum of Korea on Feb. 27, where collaboration spaces featuring K-pop group Blackpink were installed. [NEWS1]

Visitors to the National Museum of Korea who might otherwise have been holding museum brochures were instead seen clutching something else on a recent Friday: photo cards of K-pop girl group Blackpink.

Many had come not so much to look at celadon pottery or learn about Buddhist sculptures, but to wait their turn to enter a listening booth for Blackpink's latest release “Deadline,” which marks the group's return as a full ensemble for the first time in nearly four years.

Fans queued near the towering 13-meter (42-foot-8-inch) Ten-Story Stone Pagoda from the Gyeongcheonsa Temple, waiting to hear tracks from the new EP inside a neon-pink space and pick up exclusive photo cards.

Others moved through the galleries with earphones on, listening to audio guides for selected artifacts recorded by the group's members in three different languages.

The hallway at the National Museum of Korea glows with Blackpink's signature pink shade on Feb. 26. [YONHAP]

“I've been a Blink [Blackpink's fandom name] for nearly 10 years,” said Chen Ting Ju, a Taiwanese student living in Korea. She said she had not visited the museum for almost two years.

“I learned Korean because of K-pop and I've been always interested in Korea's culture and history but just couldn't find time to come here. Today will be a nice opportunity to look around.”

A promotional image for BTS's upcoming album "Arirang" set to release on March 20 [BIGHIT MUSIC]

Korean heritage has become an increasingly central element of K-pop projects lately, with recent efforts engaging more deeply with cultural and historic meaning rather than just using traditional imagery primarily for aesthetic effect.

K-pop mega band BTS is slated to come down what's known as King's Path, a walkway at Gyeongbok Palace formerly reserved for kings during the Joseon era (1392-1910), during its upcoming comeback show on March 21. The performance is expected to highlight major palace sites, including the royal throne hall, Geunjeongjeon, and the restored stone platform known as the woldae. BTS's new album is also befittingly named “Arirang,” after a centuries-old Korean folk song.

“Blackpink has worn modernized hanbok [traditional Korean attire] for its 2020 single 'How you like that' and featured giwa [a traditional Korean roof] as background for its Coachella stage, but this time we looked for a way for fans to better engage with history and create synergy for both K-pop and Korea's heritage,” said a spokesperson from YG Entertainment, the girl group's agency.

The latest collaboration came at the request of the agency.

Blackpink featured images of a traditional Korean roof for its Coachella stage in 2023. [YG ENTERTAINMENT]

K-pop's rapid global ascent, outpacing other Korean cultural exports, has positioned the genre as a powerful conduit for sharing Korean culture and history with international audiences.

Wearing hanbok on stage, performing traditional choreography and weaving traditional Korean elements into stage sets have become almost a prerequisite for K-pop acts with global fandoms.

But not all of these efforts have turned out to be as meaningful or effective as hoped. Despite their stated intentions, some cultural incorporations were criticized as surface-level symbolism, and seen as reducing Korean heritage to a mere concept or fashion device.

Promotional image for VIXX's "Shangri-La" (2017) [JELLYFISH ENTERTAINMENT]

Both boy band VIXX's 2017 performance of “Shangri-La,” inspired by traditional Korean fan dance, and the modernized hanbok Blackpink wore in the aforementioned 2020 hit “How You Like That,” which featured crop tops and short skirts, sparked debate over whether historic imagery in K-pop was functioning primarily simply as an aesthetic motif.

“Some collaboration projects from the past were limited to just consuming Korean heritage as a concept, which was not effective in carrying out the intention of introducing Korea's cultural and historic context,” said Sim Hi-chul, professor at department of entertainment in broadcasting at Dong-Ah Institute of Media and Arts.

“But some recent cases have gone beyond that. In the case of the audio guide, it actively pulls in visitors inside the museum and lets them listen to the explanations of some of Korea's most significant treasures because they are done by their favorite idol members.”

Such close collaborations have become possible as Korea's cultural history has come into the global spotlight like never before.

Global interest in Korean heritage has also been fueled by the breakout success of Netflix's animated film “KPop Demon Hunters” (2025), which used historic motifs including tigers and magpies — common subjects in Korean folk painting — as well as cultural items such as norigae, traditional tassel ornaments, and the gat, a traditional men’s hat, as key elements of its story.

In part because of the animated film's popularity, the National Museum of Korea hosted a record 6.5 million visitors last year, ranking it as the fourth-most visited museum in the world.

Cultural collaborations have also become more effective alongside the evolution of fan culture — which has transformed from fans passively consuming music and merchandise to actively engaging with the culture and history surrounding their favorite artists — helping elevate these projects beyond mere stylistic gestures.

A still from the music video for Suga's 2020 solo track "Daechwita" [BIGHIT MUSIC]

When BTS member Suga released a modern rendition of daechwita, a traditional Korean military march, in his 2020 solo release “Daechwita,” fans flocked to YouTube to find more about the musical genre. A five-minute explanatory YouTube video uploaded by the National Gugak Center soon was flooded with comments from viewers saying they had arrived at the page because of the song, sending its view count sharply higher.

“Culture carries meaning for those who create it, but what ultimately matters is how it is received,” said Lee Ji-young, a professor at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies who penned “BTS, art revolution: BTS meets Deleuze” (2019).

“A cultural experience ultimately depends on the audience's willingness to actively engage with it. Such fan culture leads to collaborations [between K-pop and heritage] from just borrowing images toward more meaningful cultural experiences,” Prof. Lee said.

Heightened interest in Korean heritage should be supported with accessible and relatable content so that fans introduced to it through K-pop can continue deepening their understanding, experts say.

“There is already a great deal of content about Korean heritage on YouTube, but not all of it is presented in ways that are engaging or easy to understand,” Prof. Lee continued. “A dedicated digital channel introducing Korea’s history and culture at different levels, and promoted through museums and palaces, could help audiences explore Korean heritage more deeply.”

A queue for Blackpink's listening booth forms next to the Ten-Story Stone Pagoda from the Gyeongcheonsa Temple at the National Museum of Korea on Feb. 27. [NEWS1]

BY JIN EUN-SOO [[email protected]]