• January 11–12 – the 26th
Golden Disc Awards take place, the first time it was held in January.
Super Junior and
Girls' Generation win the grand prizes. • January 31 – Girls' Generation become the first K-pop group to appear on an American late night talk show, performing the English version of "
The Boys" on the
Late Show with David Letterman. • February 1 – Girls' Generation similarly appear on
Live! with Kelly, the first U.S. morning talk show appearance from a K-pop artist. • June 22 –
Show Me the Money airs its first season, which is considered a pivotal work in making hip hop a mainstream genre in South Korea. • July 28 –
2NE1 embark on their
New Evolution Global Tour, considered the first world tour by a K-pop girl group. • September 10 –
Big Bang announces their three concert dome tour in Japan, making them the first Korean artist to perform at three dome stadiums in a single tour. • September 26 – Psy's "Gangnam Style" attains a peak of number 2 on the
Billboard Hot 100, the highest for a K-pop song on the chart. • October 16 –
KCON 2012 takes place at the
Verizon Amphitheater in Irvine, California, the first K-pop dedicated convention in the United States. • November 18 – Psy becomes the first Korean artist to perform at the
American Music Awards. • November 19 – The third annual
Korean Popular Culture and Arts Awards take place.
Psy,
Song Chang-sik and
Geum Sa-hyang are awarded the
Order of Cultural Merit;
Park Seong-yeon and
Kim Chang-wan receive the Presidential Commendation; and
Na Yoon-sun, 2NE1 and
Lee Eun-ha receive the Prime Minister's Commendation. • November 24 – "Gangnam Style" becomes the most viewed video on
YouTube with 805 million views, surpassing
Justin Bieber's "
Baby". • November 30 – Psy, BigBang, and Super Junior win the grand prizes at the
2012 MAMA. • December 14 –
Busker Busker,
Beast and Psy win the grand prizes at the annual
Melon Music Awards. • December 18 – "Gangnam Style" is ranked number one on YouTube's list of top trending video of 2012. • December 21 – The music video for Gangnam Style" becomes the first video in YouTube history to surpass 1 billion views. == Award shows and festivals ==