K-pop has the characteristics of dance music. While the musical characteristics of such K-pop show rather complex and hybrid aspects due to interference between genres and other exterior factors, core elements as dance music definitely exist. The origins of this can be found in traditional Korean music. From ancient songs related to rituals to folk songs, repetition, rhythm, and simplicity, which are the core of dance music, have been consistently manifested. In particular, the tonal structures and unique sentiments inherited from folk music reveal characteristics that belong solely to K-pop and which are different from those of foreign dance music. On one hand, K-pop has also been strongly influenced by foreign dance music and it has the main characteristics of genres which were popular in each era such as rhythm and blues·jazz·funk·disco·hip hip·electronica. On top of this, the emergence and development of the new visual medium of music videos made its stance stronger and it also experienced variations due to interference from other genres of the same era such as trot·ballad· rock. When the turning points that distinguish the main eras of Korean popular music history are established under the premise that the continuity and discontinuity of popular music must be precisely understood, K-pop, which distinctly shows the characteristics of continuation and variation, is significant as a turning point in Korean popular musical history, dividing that history into before and after its occurrence.