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 2024 Overall Thoughts Over the past few years, the month of August has trended toward … Continue reading
Fresh off the success of her recent single Rockstar, BLACKPINK’s Lisa is back with a big-name collaborator in tow. Spanish singer Rosalía makes for a compelling feature, herself a genre-bending, forward thinking popstar who can certainly match Lisa’s charisma. And as a song, New Woman is infinitely more interesting than its predecessor. However, “interesting” doesn’t … Continue reading
A few years ago, I took a look back at my top K-pop songs of 2016 and did some reshuffling. To be honest, that list still needs a couple slight changes to be totally accurate in my current thinking, but rather than be overly fussy I’d like to move onto the following year. 2017’s K-pop … Continue reading
Many readers have been asking for it, and I’m finally ready to unveil this year’s Bias List Legendary Songs Inauguration Ceremony! A total of forty-nine songs have already been inaugurated as part of this feature, including a few J-pop highlights. As a rule, this ceremony only covers material released since The Bias List‘s inception (Jan … 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. July 2024 Overall Thoughts After a stellar June, July was always going to have a hard … Continue reading
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
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
The members of YG Entertainment group Winner have become well known as soloists, but before today main dancer Lee Seunghoon (Hoony) was the only one without an official solo debut. My Type (딱 내 스타일이야) acts as a funky springboard for his first mini album, delivering a bright blast of groovy pop. Seunghoon gets to … Continue reading
Thus far, BABYMONSTER have embraced all the YG girl group tropes you’d expect, casting them as heirs to 2NE1 and BLACKPINK’s throne. This is not an agency known for its willingness to experiment. Instead, they’ve managed to enthrall fans with slight tweaks to successful formulas. With this in mind, it’s time for BABYMONSTER’s version of … Continue reading
Sometimes I can be remarkably bad at predicting which songs are going to grow into huge viral hits. When AKMU’s Love Lee was released last year, I found it both dull and cloying — a hard balance to pull off! But thanks to numerous TikTok dances, the song quickly became ubiquitous. I still find it … 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. May 2024 Overall Thoughts There were a number of big-name releases in May, yet somehow the … Continue reading
Though I should know better by now, I’m still surprised at how well BABYMONSTER’s Sheesh has done on the charts — especially given its lukewarm-to-awful reception in many critical circles. This is a good reminder of the sway YG Entertainment still holds over fans, along with the broader fact that disgruntled internet chatter is rarely … Continue reading
Treasure attempted a reboot last summer but title track Bona Bona still hinged on many YG Entertainment tropes. The album itself was much more varied and pointed toward a sleek, nostalgic sound that worked well for the group. New single King Kong promises another reinvention and its sound nudges a bit closer to realizing that … Continue reading
It’s been awhile since we’ve heard from either Zico or BLACKPINK, making this new duet instantly buzzy. Amidst all the uproar happening in the industry at the moment, HYBE might be hoping this superstar collaboration could be a bit of a distraction. But at the end of the day it’s the music itself that should … Continue reading
The lead-up to BABYMONSTER’s Sheesh has been an experience, to say the least. Every one of its teasers highlighted the same part of the song, with the girls sheeshing at us one by one over the course of what seemed like an eternity. The original purpose of teasers is to raise excitement for a song, … 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
I keep seeing headlines about how well BABYMONSTER’s Batter Up has done with streams and views. The amount of interaction and hits on my review of the song bear that popularity out. Admittedly, I’m surprised there’s still such an appetite for this specific YG Entertainment song template. The debut of a new YG act is … Continue reading
The month of January has a reputation for being pretty dry when it comes to K-pop, right? This week has been anything but, and has certainly kept me on my toes when it comes to new releases. Next up is Lee Chanhyuk from AKMU, with his first solo single following his 2022 debut album. 1 … Continue reading
Every year at this time, I like to look back at which of my posts received the most views. If nothing else, it’s a good gauge of artist popularity. I know there are readers who take a look at everything I post, but there are also a lot of people who come to the blog … 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
The Bias List // K-Pop Reviews & Discussion 