I started listening to K-Pop during the pandemic, probably around September of 2020. The first K-Pop song I heard was K/DA’s “Pop Stars,”* a promotional song put together for the 2018 League of Legends World Championship featuring a pair of K-Pop singers alongside two Americans. I was blown away both by the song and the video, which featured super slick animation among some cool visual concepts, but the video alone didn’t immediately sell me on K-Pop. In advertising, it’s said that a consumer needs to see your brand seven times before making a purchase, and this was my first time setting eyes on the brand, so to speak.
(*Ok, this isn’t technically true. I saw Psy’s insane “Gangnam Style” video back in 2012, same as everyone else, but at the time I treated it as a meme/viral sensation rather than thinking of it as K-Pop.)
Regardless, that K/DA video broke the ice. It put K-Pop on the map for me, so that when I chanced across an article about a K-Pop band that was breaking molds by being a mixed gender group (gasp!), I read it. I started listening to more bands, enjoying the diverse mix of singing and rapping and the meticulously choreographed dancing in the music videos. I found YouTube channels devoted to K-Pop, which helped expose me to bands other than the handful of super popular groups I’d already found on my own, and I watched a YouTube documentary about K-Pop to better understand the history of the genre.
Fast-forward to today, and my K-Pop playlist has ballooned to over a thousand songs. Not only has the genre claimed meas a fan, but it continues to spread further and further into the mainstream. K-Pop songs are getting regular airplay on American radio stations, both full songs by K-Pop groups as well as solo artists who have started recording songs specifically for English-speaking audiences (Jennie, Rosé, and Lisa of Blackpink come to mind). Given the fact that I’ve come to love this genre, I wanted to share with you some of my favorite artists as well as some stats from my playlist in the hopes that maybe you’ll find something to love here as well.
Side Note: While a lot of these songs contain some English, the majority of the songs are sung in Korean, and if you’re not a Korean speaker (like me), you may want to mark subtitles on for any of the videos I’ve linked. Or you can simply enjoy the dancing and choreography and worry about understanding the songs at a later date.
- Total Playlist Length: 1016 songs – 2 days, 5 hours in length
- Most Listened to Song: “More” by K/DA. This is partially a function of being one of the first K-Pop songs I added to my playlist, but mostly it takes the top spot because it’s an amazing track.
- Favorite Boy Groups: Stray Kids tops the list for me, a hard-hitting group with some obscenely talented rappers and great song production (“God’s Menu” is a must listen). Seventeen and Ateez are also high on my list.
- Favorite Girl Groups: Itzy wins out by a smidge, as their songs have the catchiest melodies for me (I recommend “Not Shy”). TWICE has also really grown on me over time, and (G)-IDLE are probably the most visually and musically creative group (“Oh My God” is a good example). Blackpink and Aespa get honorable mentions.
- Favorite Male Solo Artists: BTS’s Suga, who releases solo songs under the name Agust D, is really dang talented. “Daechwita,” which features traditional Korean instruments and costuming, is a must listen. Jay Park (hip-hop/R&B) and Kai (pop) are others I like.
- Favorite Female Solo Artists: Chung Ha, hands down. She does a lot of electonica, but I prefer her songs that lean into hip-hop and R&B (“Eenie Meenie” is a good example). Hyolyn and Taeyeon are also worth a mention, as well as Bibi, an outside-the-box K-pop artist who is uber talented (seriously, this “Life is a Bi…” video is so odd, but the song is so catchy at the same time… very compelling).
- Favorite Mixed Gender Group: KARD. Kind of a cop-out, because they’re the only mixed gender K-pop group that I know of, but I do really like their music. (“Hola Hola” is a fun, simple song.) I don’t know why nobody else has put together a mixed gender group, honestly.
- Favorite Virtual Group: K/DA. For those wondering, a virtual group is one where the members are always depicted by animated characters or avatars. (Think The Gorillaz). This one’s actually not a cop-out answer, because for some reason there are a lot of virtual groups in K-Pop.
- Favorite K-Pop Group that isn’t really K-Pop: XG. The reason they’re not K-Pop is because all the members are Japanese and they sing exclusively in English, but they’re based in South Korea, are produced by a Korean music company, and their songs are structured like K-pop from a melodic and vocal standpoint. Hard to pick between “Left Right,” an ode to 90’s R&B, and “Woke Up,” a fierce rap anthem, as my favorite songs.
- First Boy Group I became a fan of: Probably BTS? I mean, they’re the most well-known K-Pop group, and as a result were one of the first groups I started listening to. (“Dynamite” is arguably the first K-Pop song to achieve wide-spread commercial success in the US). GOT7 is another group I found early on that I quickly liked.
- First Girl Group I became a fan of: Blackpink and ITZY, but since I already mentioned them, I’ll add Mamamoo (pop/R&B) and Red Velvet (pop/electropop). Since I somehow haven’t linked any Blackpink yet, I’ll just drop “Ddu-Du Ddu-Du” here for your listening pleasure.
- Newish Boy Groups I like: Blitzers. Seriously, listen to “Macarena” and tell me it’s not a total bop. I also want to mention P1Harmony and Treasure, but neither of them are really that new.
- Newish Girl Groups I like: A tie between Babymonster (their debut “Batter Up” is a banger) and Le Sserafim (their song “1-800-hot-n-fun” was censored when they went on US late night shows because the number is a phone sex line), but I’d be remiss in not mentioning Young Posse, a rap-centric group that is criminally underrated. (Their song “Ate That” is the most perfect example of G-funk since Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg were releasing songs in the early 90s.)
- Favorite Rappers: (G)-IDLE’s Soyeon is amazing and would clearly be the best rapper in K-Pop if not for the emergence of a young lady by the name of Lee Young-Ji. She’s the only female winner in eleven seasons of rap reality show Show Me the Money, and her speed, fluidity, and the timbre of her voice make her unmistakable. She mostly does cameos on other people’s songs as she’s still sorting out her solo career, but her rap on Mark’s “Fraktsiya” is emblematic of her talent. On the men’s side, other than the aforementioned Suga, I have to mention Stray Kids’ Changbin and Han. They are the best of the best. (Lots of songs to choose from, but “Megaverse” comes to mind as a great example).
- Favorite Singers: Of the ladies, Blackpink’s Jisoo has an angelic voice. Mamamoo’s Solar is technically excellent, but I’m partial to Aespa’s Ningning (listen to “Bored”). Also, Bibi does this sort of whisper-talking thing that’s compelling. Of the men, BTS’s Jungkook is very good. EXO in general was a very good vocal group, with Baekhyun standing out, and there are a lot of great vocalists in Seventeen (I’d name them, but frankly there are too many members in the band and they tend to blur together. The b-side “Habit” showcases their talent as a unit).Finally, I’d be remiss not mentioning Stray Kids’ Felix, whose ridiculously deep voice makes him stand out in every song he sings.
- Band who disbanded that I wish was still active: I would’ve mentioned GOT7, but they recently got back together, so I’ll pick CLC, a talented girl group that never seemed to get much of any support from their production company (“Helicopter” is one of their best).
- What I’d like to see from K-Pop moving forward: Adoption of more musical genres, continued evolution and creativity of musical composition, more artists being actively involved in the song composition process, and more mixed gender groups, for crying out loud!
I think that’s about it. Hopefully you found something new that speaks to you out of my recommendations, and be sure to let me know some of your favorite songs and artists in the comments!