By Minh Nga  December 8, 2025 | 02:56 pm PT
G-Dragon performs during a concert in Hanoi in November 2025. Photo by 8Wonder
Starting next spring, the University of Southern California (USC) in Los Angeles will offer a course on the music career and cultural impact of South Korean rapper, singer, and songwriter G-Dragon.
The course, titled “Crooked Studies of K-pop: The Case of G-Dragon,” will be taught by Professor Hye Jin Lee from USC’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, Korea Times reported.
The program will be offered as a four-credit regular course at USC Annenberg, one of the top communication schools in the U.S., Yonhap cited G-Dragon’s agency’s Galaxy Corporation as saying.
According to the agency, the class marks the first time a full-credit course dedicated entirely to a K-pop artist has been introduced at the school. It compares the new G-Dragon course to similar academic programs, such as Beyoncé’s at Yale University and Taylor Swift’s at Harvard University, describing it as a sign of growing recognition of the global and cultural significance of K-pop.
USC Annenberg released a teaser video on its Instagram on Dec. 5 calling G-Dragon “one of K-pop’s most groundbreaking figures.”
The post further stated: “How does K-pop challenge the way we think about creativity, authenticity and culture? This spring, dive into the genre through a new course on one of its most groundbreaking figures: G-Dragon, the producer-idol and multi-hyphenate artist who helped define what K-pop can be.”
Dubbed the “King of K-pop,” G-Dragon rose to prominence as the leader of the South Korean boy band BigBang, which went on to become one of the best-selling boy bands in the world. He launched his solo career in 2009.
In October, he became the youngest recipient of the Okgwan Order of Cultural Merit, South Korea’s second-highest cultural honor.
He was chosen as the official ambassador for the 2025 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meetings as South Korea hosted the event last month.