K-pop Dictionary › Generation (1st to 5th)
A fan way of grouping K-pop acts by the era they debuted in.
Fans group K-pop acts into generations by debut year. A common split is 1st generation for the late 1990s, 2nd for the mid-2000s, 3rd for the 2010s, 4th from 2018 and 5th from 2023.
There is no official list, so groups that debuted near the edges are often argued about. Fans also use terms like "2.5 generation" for them.
Our generation checker shows where a group falls and marks the borderline years.
“They debuted in 2018, so most fans call them 4th gen.”