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K-pop's glittering production and cutting-edge choreography often hide a surprising influence: the classical canon. Over the past two decades, producers from SM, YG, HYBE and beyond have pulled melodies from Mozart, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Bach, Paganini and Pachelbel and slotted them into pop hits aimed at the global charts. The result is a genre that quietly carries centuries of European concert music into TikTok, Billboard and stadium tours.
According to The Korea Times, K-pop artists, composers and producers are increasingly weaving iconic classical melodies into chart-topping tracks, and Classic FM has tracked the trend with its own running list. Below are ten K-pop songs that sample, interpolate or directly build on famous classical works.
1. BLACKPINK, Shut Down (Paganini, La Campanella)
BLACKPINK's 2022 title track Shut Down opens with a solo violin line lifted directly from Niccolo Paganini's La Campanella, the dazzling 1826 concerto finale that Franz Liszt later adapted for solo piano. Soompi confirmed at release that the song samples Paganini, blending 19th-century violin virtuosity with trap-heavy hip-hop. The pairing earned Billboard's praise as one of 2022's most inventive crossovers, and BLACKPINK has since performed Shut Down live with a featured violinist on the Born Pink world tour.
2. TVXQ, Tri-Angle (Mozart, Symphony No. 40)
TVXQ's theatrical debut-era track Tri-Angle, recorded with BoA and The TRAX, reworks the agitated opening of Mozart's Symphony No. 40 in G minor into a symphonic rock and K-pop fusion. Classic FM lists the song among K-pop's most ambitious classical hybrids, citing it as an early example of SM Entertainment leaning into orchestral grandeur to set its first-generation idols apart from the pop pack.
3. Topp Dogg, Top Dog (Mozart, Symphony No. 25)
The 2014 debut single from boy group Topp Dogg, drawn from their aptly named Amadeus album, opens with the stormy first bars of Mozart's Symphony No. 25 in G minor. The track layers hip-hop beats and theatrical chants over the recognizable string motif, and Classic FM points to it as one of the boldest examples of K-pop using classical music to introduce a new act.
4. VIXX, Fantasy (Beethoven, Moonlight Sonata)
VIXX has long cultivated a gothic, concept-driven image, and Fantasy from their 2016 Hades EP leans into that with a direct nod to the first movement of Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata. The slow, mournful piano theme underpins the song's brooding chorus. Koreaboo highlighted Fantasy as one of the clearest cases of K-pop using a famous classical melody to deepen a track's emotional tone.
5. Red Velvet, Feel My Rhythm (Bach, Air on the G String)
Red Velvet released Feel My Rhythm on March 21, 2022, Johann Sebastian Bach's birthday, sampling his Air on the G String from Orchestral Suite No. 3. Member Wendy described the track at the time as a pop dance song built around Bach's melody with trap-based rapping and vocals, while The Korea Herald noted the music video itself was styled like an opera. The single is widely cited as one of the most polished classical-K-pop fusions of the 2020s.
6. Red Velvet, Ice Cream Cake (Tchaikovsky, Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy)
Red Velvet's 2015 debut title track Ice Cream Cake echoes the sparkling celesta line from Tchaikovsky's Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy in The Nutcracker. The same Tchaikovsky source material later resurfaced in the group's tracks Marionette and Knock Knock, making Red Velvet one of the most consistent K-pop acts to mine classical ballet for hooks.
7. TVXQ, Thank You My Girl (Pachelbel, Canon in D)
This TVXQ ballad opens with the sound of an orchestra tuning before sliding into a gentle reworking of Pachelbel's Canon in D. The famous chord progression underpins the entire track, anchoring its sentimental lyric. Classic FM describes it as a textbook example of how Korean ballads borrow classical harmonic templates without disguising their source.
8. Cherry Bullet, Hands Up (Beethoven, Fur Elise)
Girl group Cherry Bullet's 2020 single Hands Up rebuilt one of classical music's most recognizable melodies, Beethoven's Fur Elise, into a synth-driven dance hook. Koreaboo flagged it as one of the most unexpected modern uses of the piece, with the oscillating semitone figure popping up between rapped verses and a high-energy chorus.
9. AKMU, Last Goodbye (Pachelbel, Canon in D)
Sibling duo AKMU's ballad Last Goodbye opens with the unmistakable chord progression of Pachelbel's Canon in D, the same piece used in countless weddings and graduation videos. Koreaboo notes that the borrowed harmony gives the track its slow-burn melancholy, providing a structural backbone for the duo's intertwined vocals.
10. BTS, Euphoria (Debussy and Chopin references)
BTS' 2018 Jungkook-led single Euphoria, presented through the group's Wings short-film universe, weaves in elements from Debussy's Clair de Lune to mirror its dreamy, romantic tone. The Korea Times also notes that BTS used Chopin's Waltz in A-flat major, Op. 69 No. 1, the so-called Farewell Waltz, in a teaser for their Fake Love music video, making the group one of K-pop's most consistent classical-music collaborators.
Why K-pop keeps reaching for the classics
The trend is no accident. As The Korea Times notes, private piano academies remain a common part of early education for many Korean children, and pieces like Fur Elise and Canon in D function as shared cultural shorthand. SM Entertainment has even launched SM Classics with the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra to arrange K-pop hits for the concert hall, flipping the sampling relationship in reverse. From BLACKPINK's Paganini hook to Red Velvet's Bach moment, the classical canon has become a regular source of melodic capital for K-pop's biggest hits.
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