Notes on KCON LA 2026

Credit: CJ ENM

I’ve been to many KCON LAs, beginning going over a decade ago and only missing one since. I’ve covered KCON for Billboard, Forbes, Grammy.com, and other outlets. This year was the first time in years where I just went to exist, and enjoy, and it led to a lot less running around between interviews and events, and a lot more thinking.

I wish I had a single thematic thought about KCON LA 2026 to build an article about, and I did try. If forced, I definitely could. But this is my newsletter, and I’m my own editor, which means I can do whatever I want. And what I want to do is muse about five takeaways, and am curious about what readers think. Please leave a comment, or share on social media with credit if you have thoughts about they observations of what I’ve said below.

Newer K-pop Groups Are Going Cuter And More Bubbly

Between fresh-to-KCON-LA faces Rescene, NEXZ, Kickflip, and KO1KEYZ, it felt like the next generation of K-pop acts are charting a clear trajectory away from the fiercer, stomptastic bombast of music that dominated the third and fourth generation of K-pop, and are returning to the more peppy, upbeat side of things. Between Rescene's viral hit "Love Attack" and their remake of KARA's "Pretty Girl" – which I spent most of the song educating people near me about being a cover due to our history being lost –

I can't help but wonder if the pendulum swinging back isn't just because it's time, but because when K-pop last felt this upbeat it was facing the gloom of the late 00's and early '10s recession... Which definitely isn't something we're similarly feeling in 2026, and certainly not reflective of South Korean stock markets. We all could use some bright happiness, and it looks like the newer generation of K-pop is cheerfully veering in that direction.

Teddy is the producer who won this year’s KCON

There are always trending songwriters in any given industry, but at the moment many of K-pop's artists are relying on teams of A&R to determine their sound rather than a single producer. Usually, there's some sort of stylistic theme coming across KCON, like my aforementioned take about newer groups going more bubbly rather than girl crush or intensely dominating. But I also couldn't help but nod my head at some point and go, "Oh, Teddy's really killing it at the moment." If you don't know who Teddy is, I'm referring to Teddy Park.

A member of the early Korean hip-hop group 1TYM, he's been YG Entertainment's main producer for years, prominently known internationally for producing the sound of BIGBANG, BLACKPINK, and 2NE1, and most recently for becoming a Grammy Award-winner due to his role as a songwriter for K-Pop Demon Hunters. Now he runs his own label, YG subsidiary The Black Label.

Between Meovv and Allday Project on the third night of KCON's concert, you'd be correct that The Black Label had a moment at KCON LA this year (although there are allegations there was a black ocean towards Allday Project, but I didn't see it happening from my seat. Though I always focus more on the stage than the crowd so I may just have been oblivious). Yet it was actually during the second night, during izna's performance that I wrote down in my notebook that Teddy was the producer's whose presence was most prominent across KCON this year. It's still the Teddy sound undeniably, but by going beyond YG Entertainment-only acts, we're seeing new facets of Teddy, and it was very fun to hear "Metronome" live, though I was personally sad not to see izna perform "Sign". And, of course, both Meovv and izna covered Blackpink.

Unrelated to Teddy, but a friend turned to me during izna's set and said they reminded her of 9Muses, which made me wonder if we weren't only seeing hints to the re-brightening of K-pop, but also the return to explicitly sexy girl group concepts, and what that will even look like in 2026.

Forcing Koreanness Via Corporate Ideation Feels Forced

I'm probably never going to be invited back to KCON after this, but just like you can't make fetch happen, you can't force Koreanness onto American audiences. I've always found "Let's KCON!" cringe, and "KCON nolja!" – literally "Let's play" – felt like attempting to plunge cultural diffusion through a PR promo package that nobody's asking for.

I don't know if KCON's planning committee took the wrong teachings from K-Pop Demon Hunters or what, but very little of what they did felt remotely natural. Opening the concerts with traditional music and dance that was irrelevant and unrelated to any of the performers on-stage felt like a buzzkill. And I happen to be one of the people who is the target audience, in that I like traditional and classical music, and do go to traditional Korean performances on occasion. Gugak has a time and place, and I think if they had done a cool remix or integration with some artists it would have done well. Give us NCT 127's "Sticker" with a daegeum. Have ILLIT perform "Magnetic" backed by buchaechum fan dancers. Have dodree there.

That said, I did like seeing beatboxer Wing on-stage a few times, so kudos to whomever thought to bring him. It was, however, clear that most of the crowd had no idea who he was and with no introduction the audience just seemed confused. There has to be a better way to introduce new artists at KCON, but it just never seems to be the priority of anyone, which is a pity as there is such potential for discovery here.

Japan Played a Big Role

I honestly don't know how to phrase this any other way, but between Japan-oriented groups &Team, JO1, cosmosy, and KO1KEYZ – the latter of whom I and a few friends were charmed by despite never having heard of them before, see my earlier point about discovery – and two of the biggest sponsors being Toyoto and Sanrio, it felt like KCON hit a point in 2026 where it truly couldn't deny that Japanese entertainment is on the rise in the US.

Between anime's continued growth and J-pop's increasing attempt to crossover now that it's not wholly physical media, and acts like Yoasobi gaining American attention, it definitely feels intentional for K-pop-trained J-pop to become more of a center-stage investment from the Korean side of things, but I do wonder about what the internal conversations were within KCON and CJ overall about having such a big Japanese presence. But, honestly, &Team and KO1Keyz were two of my favorite performances, so I imagine we'll keep seeing more of this.

Get Better Videography Please, KCON

I don’t usually care or critique individuals working on a creative venture I know nothing about, but KCON this year was egregiously bad when it came to the headlining MCountdown concerts. I don’t know if it’s because some performers went off their marks to go into the crowds, or there weren’t enough rehearsals, or there weren’t enough or well-trained camera people (the latter of which seems unlikely given the production value), but to be kind it absolutely sucked across the three nights of concerts. The stage was a bit smaller than usual, with a different dynamic where members could go down into the crowd, but it also made the screens more necessary for much of the concert audience.

A member of a group would be singing and the focus would be on a different one, only moving to the second after the third member began singing. This was particularly notable during the headliner sets of NCT 127 and Tomorrow X Together, so I figure this must have been more of not enough cooks in the filming kitchen so that there weren’t enough cameras to be able to follow the members well as they confidently dominated the stage with years’ of experience in a way many of the newer acts wouldn’t. It may have been a stage direction issue, with someone not manually switching between cameras quickly enough, and not a camera person issue at all. Either way, it felt so noticeable that I had to say something. People spend hundreds, if not thousands, to attend KCON, and the concert is aired on TV and re-shared worldwide. Viewers deserve better.

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Notes on K-pop is published and overseen by me, Tamar Herman, a freelance writer, editor, and consultant. Find me on Instagram, and make sure to follow Notes on K-pop on Instagram as well. You can also drop me an email to get in touch about projects, collaborations or potential work opportunities.

Where I've been

I took a week off from my day job and went to see two days of BTS in Baltimore, and then KCON LA 2026, then a week in a Palo Alto for work. Five nights of concerts and four airports ended up with me sick, so I'm behind on stories. Which means there will be multiple Notes on K-pop this week, rejoice!

That said, I'm behind on sharing some of my on-air appearances. Namely, I went on CBC for early reactions to BTS not submitting to the Grammy's. This is now ancient news, and the Recording Academy is now rethinking its Asian Pop Category, so I am very sorry that I am late, but I hope you enjoy.

What I'm listening to

I like listening to only an album on a release day, so spent all of today listening to NCT 127's 10th anniversary album Blingy trying to figure out my thoughts on it. Thoughts are still processing, but I do love the return to their OG camouflage cover art, this time in green.