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 month felt more like a holding pattern. Many of these hyped comebacks ended up fizzling for me (ZEROBASEONE, NewJeans, Stray Kids, ATEEZ, aespa pt.2), eclipsed by lesser-known acts.
Speaking of these acts, May was definitely the month of solid tracks from low-to-mid tier boy groups and soloists. My playlist was flush with great singles from Fantasy Boys, YOUNITE, Just B, DXMON, TOZ, The Wind, ONEUS, JD1 and B.I. All of these songs were ranked in the mid or high 8’s on the blog — super solid and enjoyable if not life-changing. Almost all of them could have shuffled into my second and third place slots. It felt a bit random to choose just two.
With all this decent music, May still felt quite slight. I think it’s because most of these songs were part of a single album or simply a standalone digital single. So while we had nice variety this month, there weren’t many actual albums to sink your teeth into. That meant very few awesome b-sides, too. The “biggest” album of the month came from aespa. Supernova remains an easy May standout, but I wasn’t impressed by anything else on the record. I enjoyed tripleS’s album slightly more, but no track stood out as an undisputed, knock-my-socks-off highlight.
I’ve also been struck by the disparity between girl groups and boy groups this year. I tend to prefer the sounds peddled by boy groups, but I know there are many K-pop fans who listen exclusively to girl groups. I have to wonder, are these fans being fed? A quick review of this month reveals twenty-one boy group reviews and only nine girl group reviews. Of course, I don’t review everything that’s released but I do write about any song that rises above a (pretty low) threshold of popularity. With fewer girl group releases, there are fewer chances for these songs to hit. And with so much homogeneity between these releases (airy, subdued Y2K influence), it seems that if you don’t love this particular style you’re kind of out of luck. Girl group stans, what say you? Has 2024’s release slate felt a bit meager so far or are you happy with the level of output?
Instead of music, May felt most notable for idol-related controversy. HYBE’s mess continued to expand and the Burning Sun scandal re-emerged. Idol groups lost members left and right and netizens seemed even more obsessed with charts (and alleged chart manipulation) than ever. I try to stay out of this as much as possible because I don’t find it interesting and the gossip/conspiracy theory side of K-pop is not what I come to this hobby for. But boy did the industry seem to be on fire this month.
This time last year, I was raving about multiple J-pop tracks and much preferred that industry’s output over K-pop. This year, the tables have turned. There have been a few big J-pop highlights, but overall K-pop has been more consistent. I honestly don’t even have a top three J-pop selection this month because nothing really stood out, so the songs I picked are more like placeholders than true highlights. This is despite my favorite group returning after four years with a new album. Unfortunately, Kis-My-Ft2’s Synopsis mostly crashed and burned for me, continuing Starto Entertainment’s lackluster slate of 2024 releases.
I don’t want to jinx it, but I’m really excited about June on all musical fronts. We’ve got some of my favorite current acts (TWS, RIIZE, Infinite, Sunmi, TRENDZ) making comebacks along with some big names (Nayeon, WayV, Kep1er, NewJeans) and wildcards (GHOST9, Everglow, AKMU, CSR, H1-KEY). And those are just the acts that have been announced already! Plus, global pop seems ready to unleash a few long-dormant pop superstars (Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, Bruno Mars, etc) for the summer while next month will finally see the return of rookie group XY in Japan. I hope most of these acts meet or exceed expectations!
Month Cumulative Rating: 7.8
(compiled by averaging the scores of every K-pop review from this month)
J-Pop Highlights
New & Noteworthy J-pop: Week One
New & Noteworthy J-pop: Week Two
New & Noteworthy J-pop: Week Three
New & Noteworthy J-pop: Week Four
TOP J-POP SONGS OF THE MONTH
3. Novelbright – Empire (ft. Novel Core)
2. BABYMETAL – RATATATA (ft. Electric Callboy)
1. ICEx – Bilimi
K-POP
Honorable Mentions
ARTMS – Virtual Angel (review)
B.I – Tasty (review)
DXMON – Girls, Love Boys, Love Girls (review)
IVE – Accendio (review)
JD1 – Error 405 (review)
Just B – Daddy’s Girl (review)
ONEUS – Now (review)
Solar – Colors (review)
Suho – 1 to 3 (review)
TOZ – Nu Shoes (review)
Treasure – King Kong (review)
tripleS – Girls Never Die (review)
The Wind – Sirius Pt. 2 (review)
This Month’s Risers and Fallers
This Month’s Global Pop Round-Up
TOP THREE SONGS
3. YOUNITE – Geekin (review)
2. Fantasy Boys – Pitter-Patter-Love (review)
1. aespa – Supernova (review)
Top Three K-Pop Songs Of April 2024
Top Three K-Pop Songs Of March 2024
Top Three K-Pop Songs Of February 2024
Top Three K-Pop Songs Of January 2024
Top Three K-Pop Songs Of December 2023
The Bias List // K-Pop Reviews & Discussion 
Geekin made it to top 3 I’m ugly crying
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Wait, I thought you preferred ‘Heya’ over ‘Accendio’ according to the risers and fallers post, maybe it slipped your mind?
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Heya was released at the tail end of April so that’s why it’s not featured in this month’s list. Meanwhile Accendio’s MV came out this month.
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Oh that makes sense!
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Supernova “body bang”-ed all the way to the top of my k-pop songs list at first listen. To this day, it still hits. That PAK was well-deserved for æspa.
From the ones that I came across this month, I’ve also enjoyed IVE’s Accendio and Suho’s 1 to 3. Their respective albums are really good too!
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I think most people would agree that Supernova is the best song of the month. this is Next Level-level (lol) of smashery and I hope they bag all the song of the year awards during award season because they deserve it!
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As someone that has a 80%/20% ratio of GG’s/BG’s since last year the output of Girl Groups has been terrible for me, especially this year … the “NewJeans” sound is what I’d say is the worst match for my taste as far as music goes and with them being the trendsetters I barely like what any mid/big group has been releasing and the only songs I’ve playlisted from this year that you covered on the blog were :
Chungha – I’m Ready
Yena – DNA
Since last year I started following other kinds of korean artists and the music has been way more enjoyable on that side so that’s one of the reasons I’ve kept up with following k-pop but it has been rough.
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Here is a person who very much prefers boy group music. Which is why I’m very much the same, may was pretty dull athough I do enjoy girl group music sometimes. So this month my fav might have been Ive’s Ice queen, that track was the only I liked from the album. Supernova was good, Geekin was fine, but to me nothing to really love a lot.
Now, a quick recap of January: TWS was first with a prerelase, then Riize came with a single, and then TWS with an album. I don’t want to jinx the month, but the roll out for June is seemingly the same, and of course it makes me have certain expectations😶🌫️
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RATATATATATA MY BODY IS A WEAPON
That is all.
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My favorite songs this month were bsides like BND’s “So lets go see the stars”, and E’LAST’s “Addiction” and “Fade Out” (this last one should’ve been the TT…it’s not perfect but it’s better than the one they promoted)❤️
Favorite TT:
Younite – Geekin
Kingdom – Flip that Coin
Aespa – Supernova
Honorable mentions:
DXMON -Girls love Boys…
Fantasy Boys-PitterPatterLove
ZB1- Feel the Pop
TOZ- Nu Shoes
XHeroes – Little Things
Enhypen – Fatal Trouble
Sungjae – Be Somebody
&TEAM’s – Maybe (Japanese)
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Supernova was the only k-pop song to really grab my attention this month, but mostly because ever since BOYNEXTDOOR’s comeback I get bored if Let’s Groove by Earth Wind & Fire doesn’t grace my ears every fifteen minutes 😅
My favourite new song from May though was actually SB19’s Moonlight, I’m really tickled by the video and the choreography. It reminds me of a Chungha production only quirkier:
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I’m extremely excited for June! Over 14+ of the artists have songs I actively like and have playlisted! I’m really looking forward to EVERGLOW (!!!), woo!ah!, H1-KEY, and CSR! Not to mention Weki Meki finally having their first comeback since 2021 😭 I reckon they’re all coming out this month so their promotions don’t run into the Olympics or so they can have a comeback before going on summer or fall tours.
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My ears for the month of May: Aespa’s Supernova.
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If you haven’t listen to the full Artms album yet, might I suggest Butterfly effect:
and/or Distress:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbpzzHxGlOM
both I think could be songs you would like.
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As a major girl group stan (90/10 gg/bg ratio), 2024 doesn’t feel meager so far, though it could have been slightly better. The first half of 2023 was absolutely life-changing for me (I AM, Shooting Star, #menow, Attitude, Spicy, OMG, Ditto) but so far my favorites of the year are:
now comparing it to 2023: 11, 10, 10, 10, 10, 9.9, 9.8
comparing it to 2022: 11, 9.9, 9.8, 9.8, 9.7, 9.7, 9.6
comparing it to 2021: 10, 10, 9.8, 9.8, 9.8, 9.7, 9.7
comparing it to 2020: 10, 9.8, 9.7, 9.6, 9.6, 9.5, 9.5
comparing it to 2019: 11, 10, 10, 10, 9.8, 9.8
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funfact: my top 3 songs from 2019 are solely from January:
what a month for girl group stans 😀
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May was a little quiet, but I actually think the Aespa album slapped. We got the Soojin EP too, which was also good. 2023 is shaping up to be a good year overall for girl groups. I think y’all will agree after the STAYC album drops in July.
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