In connection with my desire to fully keep up with the J-pop industry, I’m planning to do a weekly round-up of any new releases that have caught my ear. Some of these may have been covered on the blog already, but my hope is that this will become a one-stop shop for anyone interested in … Continue reading
Sometimes songwriters do my job for me. If you’re going to call a song “Gibberish,” it had better buck expectations by not being the latest in the long line of ‘K-pop boys mumble and growl random things for two and a half minutes.’ Going into this track, I didn’t exactly have my hopes up. The … Continue reading
At the end of each month, I look back at my three favorite title tracks by K-pop artists. I take my own ratings into account, but there’s a bit of wiggle room as certain songs tend to grow or fade. March 2024 Overall Thoughts Okay, this year’s already a little weird. We kicked off with an … Continue reading
The Boyz’ Phantasy series has seen them in top form, rattling through a variety of styles with confidence and flair. The trilogy comes to a conclusion with Love Letter, which feels a bit like an afterthought. Minimal promotion and a truncated track list give it the air of a going-through-the-motions repackage, but thankfully Nectar continues … Continue reading
At the end of each month, I look back at my three favorite title tracks by K-pop artists. I take my own ratings into account, but there’s a bit of wiggle room as certain songs tend to grow or fade. January 2024 Overall Thoughts Well, what a nice surprise this month has been! After many years … Continue reading
The Boyz have gone all-out for the promotion of their newest album. Rat In The Trap is the third music video taken from the project, which makes me wish they would have done the same for the superior Christmas In August last summer. However, they’ve chosen the right tracks to highlight. Extra promo for Sunwoo … Continue reading
The Boyz have recently started releasing music videos for unit tracks. Last summer’s Passion Fruit got one and now we have a stylish visual for Sunwoo and Eric’s hip-hop track Honey, originally released on the group’s November album. Apart from its excellent title track, that album didn’t resonate with me the same way Christmas In … Continue reading
Now that I’ve finished all my K-pop related countdowns of the year (yay!), I liked to take a macro view and determine which specific comeback or debut was my overall strongest of the year. There are always some personal surprises here, but the numbers don’t lie. As before, I took five categories and gave them … Continue reading
To be honest, this year I tended to watch most K-pop music videos one or two times before moving onto the song and leaving the visuals behind. The water mark for music videos has become very high, with the industry churning out cinematic, big-budget works every other day. While many videos could comfortably slot into … Continue reading
One of the unique features of The Bias List is its “buried treasure” write-ups. I try my hardest to comb through every major K-pop album released each year and when a song catches my ear I highlight it on the blog. This countdown is an encapsulation of those write-ups, ranking my top 40 b-sides and … Continue reading
One of the unique features of The Bias List is its “buried treasure” write-ups. I try my hardest to comb through every major K-pop album released each year and when a song catches my ear I highlight it on the blog. This countdown is an encapsulation of those write-ups, ranking my top 40 b-sides and … Continue reading
By now, Bias List readers know that I wasn’t thrilled with this year in K-pop, and part of that rests on the strength (or lack thereof) of albums. I could barely find any full K-pop albums I loved this year, meaning the structure of this countdown has changed a bit. I still think it’s unfair … Continue reading
Now that I’ve taken a look at the new acts that colored 2023, it’s time to focus on their established counterparts. For me, most K-pop years are defined more by their rookies than older artists, and 2023 was no different. As usual, the criteria is built around these three facets: Quality of work Quantity of … Continue reading
The end of the year countdowns are finally here! As always, we’ll kick off with the big one: The Bias List’s top 50 songs of the year! Each day this week, I’ll be counting down ten of the year’s best, until number one is revealed on Friday. To be eligible for this top 50 list, … Continue reading
The end of the year countdowns are finally here! As always, we’ll kick off with the big one: The Bias List’s top 50 songs of the year! Each day this week, I’ll be counting down ten of the year’s best, until number one is revealed on Friday. To be eligible for this top 50 list, … Continue reading
At the end of each month, I look back at my three favorite title tracks by K-pop artists. I take my own ratings into account, but there’s a bit of wiggle room as certain songs tend to grow or fade. November 2023 Overall Thoughts For the purpose of this blog, November marks the end of the … Continue reading
The Boyz delivered one of my favorite sets of summer songs with the first part of their new album this August. This was somewhat unexpected — not because the group isn’t talented, but because I never know what I’m going to get with them. Of all the groups in their standing, I can’t pinpoint a … Continue reading
At the end of each month, I look back at my three favorite title tracks by K-pop artists. I take my own ratings into account, but there’s a bit of wiggle room as certain songs tend to grow or fade. August 2023 Overall Thoughts For the first time this year, I could have easily filled a … Continue reading
Rather than contain my “Risers and Fallers” feature to a single post in June, I’m going to share a bite-sized version at the end of each month. This will let me account for more songs and make a nice lead-in to the monthly round-up post. I anticipate most of these ratings adjustments will be negligible: … Continue reading
A K-pop act’s title track isn’t always the best song on their album, even if it’s the one most people will hear. Sometimes, b-sides deserve recognition too. In the singles-oriented world of K-pop, I want to spotlight some of these buried treasures and give them the props they deserve. It’s been a long time since … Continue reading
The Bias List // K-Pop Reviews & Discussion 