To be honest, Korean K-pop was greatly influenced by Japanese pop culture.
One of the first major entertainment agencies to grow in Korea was SM Entertainment. Its founder, Lee Soo-man, studied the Japanese entertainment industry and referred to its large-scale agency system. He wanted to create something similar in Korea. In other words, he wanted to build a system that could train and develop idol stars.
Until the early 2000s, Korea’s entertainment management business was still struggling. Many Koreans still admired Japan’s entertainment agency system. Japan seemed to have a more advanced and organized model.
But then a dramatic change occurred.
Japan placed great importance on copyright. It also continued to rely on older media devices and distribution methods. The Japanese entertainment industry remained attached to CD players and CD sales. Fan meeting videos were not allowed to be freely uploaded to YouTube.
Korea took a different path.
Korean entertainment agencies allowed individuals to upload their own videos to YouTube. In many cases, they even encouraged people to make money from those videos. Korean agencies cared less about controlling copyright and more about spreading the brand power of their idol groups. They were not as obsessed with CD sales. Music was distributed widely through digital platforms.
The result led to what we see today.
K-pop began to work on a global scale. Japan later changed as well, but by then Korea had already taken the lead. Starting with Psy, and later with global artists such as BLACKPINK and BTS, Korean music began to move from Korea to the world.