Why was a K-pop song banned in 2025?
If you need to fully understand where you are in your life, flick on your country’s main radio station and listen to the chart show. If you don’t recognise at least 75% of the names in the Top 40, you’re likely slowly phasing out of the cultural zeitgeist. It’s where I find myself now, flirting with 30 and feeling worryingly disconnected from the tides of popular culture that exist, one of them being K-pop.
It is ultimately a shame because K-pop as a “brand” represents a much-needed power shift in popular culture. The dominance of Western outlooks on global art is slowly starting to subside, pushing us outside of our own echo chamber and forcing us to acknowledge how the remaining world audiences have historically enjoyed art.
The “K” in K-pop literally stands for Korean and is a proud representation of the country’s subcultures. And don’t get it twisted; while it dominates global charts now, it didn’t exactly emerge overnight. It all began in the mid-1990s, when youthful pockets of the country’s artistic scenes wanted to engage with the popular genres of Western music, but in their own nuanced way.
Subsequently, successful artists within the K-pop space rose to massive domestic fame, and became the glossy voices of a pop-craving nation. And when Covid-19 hit, the global levelling of the internet space acted as rocket fuel to the slowly soaring movement, making groups like BTS, Blackpink and EXO global megastars.
While interest has slightly declined in the years following the pandemic, there’s still no denying the size of K-pop’s footprint on the global zeitgeist. According to the Korea Music Content Association’s Circle Chart, physical album sales in 2023 hit a whopping 120.2 million. While they reduced to 98.9 million in 2024, its influence on modern culture remains dominant.
But what song was banned from the radio?
If history has shown us anything, it’s that massive swells of cultural change are often met with discipline. As the voices in K-pop grow louder, so do the screams with which their songs are met. Floods of young listeners use their songs as a platform upon which to build their social understanding, no different from the burgeoning punk scenes of the mid-1970s or the alternative folk scenes of the 1960s.
So authorities keep a close eye, ensuring the line between responsibility and revolutionary influence isn’t blurred. And on Seventeen’s 2025 hit ‘Shake It Off’, Korean radio stations felt as though the latter had been breached, not for overt political or social influence but rather sexuality.
The song celebrated sex through what Korean radio stations deemed overly explicit lyrics and raised yet more questions over what many critics consider overly strict censorship rules. Songs of sexual liberation have often been called into question within the K-pop space, and as the genre continues to grow in terms of global influence, there have been widespread calls for the country’s broadcasting regulations to modernise in keeping with their newfound audiences.
Especially for artists like Seventeen, whose profile continues to rise and is only boosted by regular television and radio appearances. With a ban on what was meant to be a hit song for the group, it severely impacts their promotion and subsequently what is becoming the country’s best artistic export.
