Posts Tagged ‘groups’

25 Dec

Best of 2025: Top 15 K-Pop Singles

Posted by vagrantesque in Best of 2025, K-Pop, Lists, Music. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , .

So is K-Pop cool again?

Ever since the midpoint of the year, when a certain Sony animated fantasy movie appeared on the world’s Netflix accounts, I have heard all kinds of publicly-blaring K-Pop music while out and about – and not just songs in English, or the standard BTS/Blackpink-adjacent breakout hits either. I’m not saying the success of K-Pop Demon Hunters directly convinced an entire industry to collectively get its act together and put on a show, but only six of my top fifteen songs this year came out before the movie…

This list is today and always based primarily – if not exclusively – on audio, and I don’t tend to watch music videos at all until I actually write it, so visuals have virtually no bearing on the ranking; the only requirement for consideration as far as I’m concerned (beyond language) is that at one point or another throughout 2025, each song was promoted by itself as a lead track on an audio release of some kind.

Despite their seemingly ever-increasing presence, songs without Korean lyrics in them are not eligible for this list. So that means the fabulous UP by Alyssa Reid and oceanfromtheblue isn’t eligible, and it also means no Twice’s Me+You, no Katseye’s Gnarly, no Miso’s happy, no Monsta X’s baby blue, no Olivia Marsh’s Strategy, and no Boynextdoor’s Say Cheese! But all of those songs are worth seeking out, regardless.

-◊-◊-◊-◊-

VR BEST OF 2025 DISCLAIMER

This list represents my opinion only. I am not asserting any kind of superiority or self-importance by presenting it as I have. My opinion is not fact. Nobody ever agrees with me 100%. Respectful disagreement is most welcome.

-◊-◊-◊-◊-

15. How It’s Done – Huntr/x

I can think of no more fitting way to kick off the 2025 list than with a song from the movie that swept the world off its feet and reinvigorated global interest in K-Pop like it was 2012; the only question is which Huntr/x song to pick. Golden is the, uh, golden child, of course, but it feels a bit too Broadway for this top 15. What It Sounds Like just reminds me of how weirdly quickly the movie’s finale is wrapped up, and Takedown sounds kind of unfinished by thematic design. That leaves just the opener, and the song that turned K-Pop Demon Hunters from a well-animated curiosity with a fun conceit into a genuine musical threat backed by proper industry talent. It’s probably no accident that How It’s Done sounds more like a recent K-Pop song than any of the other Huntr/x tracks, but importantly, it also sounds like a good one.

14. Express Mode – Super Junior

There has to be some level of nostalgic comfort food vibe at work deep within my subconscious whenever a supposedly post-peak Super Junior song finds a way onto this annual page, but I will stop putting the lads on the list when they stop putting out “100% certified slappers”. This long-settled group has made plenty of songs that experiment with unexpected influences, but there’s definitely something about this one that goes just a little harder on the throwback play than SuJu has in recent years: the backing track is all about club motifs, the chanted chorus is heavy on bass and light on melody, while the post-chorus and bridge provide all the tune and vocal highlights – that’s right, it’s the old Sorry Sorry / Bonamana / Mr Simple template, and now that I’ve seen the full video, I’m certain of it. Hey, they’ve still got it.

CLICK HERE TO KEEP READING

25 Dec

Best of 2023: Top 15 K-Pop Singles

Posted by vagrantesque in Best of 2023, K-Pop, Lists, Music. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , .

Crawling into my second decade as a Korean music listener feels, well, a lot like I expected, actually. The signs were there from as early as 2017 that as I got older, I would likely float away from the scene’s glitzier offerings and gravitate more towards the R&B side, where the production is often just as good but the vocal talent shines through more and the moods vary more widely. This is still unquestionably a K-Pop list first and foremost, but you may notice the soloist-to-group ratio increase and the overall energy mellow a little this year.

It’s just as well, because among other garbage news 2023 gave us a record-time collapse of the most promising girl group in years – Fifty-Fifty went from viral worldwide hit to Barbie movie soundtrack to contract lawsuit to 75% member exodus in well under a year. Not that there wasn’t plenty to enjoy at the forefront of mainstream K-Pop this year, but the increasing brutality of the business is making it more difficult to invest in newer groups over time.

To reflect my growing appreciation for the less mainstream corners of the industry, I’ve decided to relax my decade-long rule that songs have to be accompanied by music videos in order to count for this list; but if they don’t have one, then they need to be the lead track off their respective album or EP.

As always, only songs with Korean lyrics count, but you should still definitely check out Le Sserafim’s Japanese song Choices, Jungkook’s all-English effort Standing Next to You, Riot Games’ Baekhyun-backed PARANOIA, æspa’s remix-friendly Better Things, and everything Forestella released this year.

Put on your good headphones, turn off those pesky auto-captions (if you want), and let’s step into the groove.

-◊-◊-◊-◊-

VR BEST OF 2023 DISCLAIMER

This list represents my opinion only. I am not asserting any kind of superiority or self-importance by presenting it as I have. My opinion is not fact. If you agree with me 100%, go buy a lottery ticket. Respectful disagreement is most welcome.

-◊-◊-◊-◊-

15. What’s Happening – Min Kyoung Song

We start a little bit spicy in 2023. “This isn’t K-Pop!” you may cry, “It’s clearly a traditional Korean trot song!” Well firstly, over eleven years into this hobby I kinda find all the melting genre lines to be almost pointless; secondly, this isn’t even the first time I’ve included trot stuff on this list; and most importantly, that chorus breakdown is just full-steam modern K-Pop anyway. The trot strings in the background may as well be stylistic window dressing by the time the full EDM sound wall hits, and the combo goes surprisingly hard. There’s even some simple point choreography at the chorus, and because Min Kyoung Song doesn’t have much else to hide behind in her field, you get uncommonly powerful vocals to go with your filthy drops. Give it a go.

14. Boogie Man – LUCY

We transition from a trot song to a band that includes among its ranks an honest-to-goodness violinist unafraid to show off; Lucy’s Boogie Man is a touch of Halloween on Christmas for you. K-Pop bands are usually a bit hit-and-miss for me, but Korean band songs I’ve enjoyed have historically had the kind of bouncy rhythm that Boogie Man provides. But there is oh so much more to enjoy on top of that rhythm: the funky guitar lick after each chorus, the Persona 5-esque violin response after the chorus call, the two separate incidents of headphone-trick knocking, the full violin solo bit, the ghostly wails in the back. No one is going to accuse the creepy music video of being low-effort either; top effort from the Lucy lads.

CLICK HERE TO KEEP READING