Top Three K-Pop Songs of May 2016

At the end of each month, I’ll look back at my three favorite title tracks by k-pop artists. Unlike my end-of-year countdowns, jpop and Japanese releases by kpop artists are ineligible, though I will give the great ones a spotlight. For my top three tracks, I’ll take my own ratings into account, but there is a bit of wiggle room as songs tend to grow or fade. Most important of all, I want to give my readers a chance to vote on their favorites! (poll at bottom)

May 2016 Overall Thoughts

I have this theory, and so far it’s proven pretty true, that no strong kpop month is directly followed by another strong one. Except during the summer, months seem to switch between the busy and the less busy. Given that April gave us so many quality releases, it’s no surprise that May felt a little sparse. The monthly rating doesn’t necessarily reflect that, but I still feel like their weren’t many exciting comebacks for what’s traditionally a pretty big month. The best tracks seemed to be clustered around the beginning and end of the month, leaving a vast field of “okay” for the weeks in between. That said, one group utterly dominated May… so much that I felt the need to place both of their singles in the top spot.

Month Cumulative Rating: 7.5

(compiled by averaging the scores of every kpop review from this month)

J-Pop Worth Your Time

Shinee – Because Of You (review)

Honorable Mentions

B.I.G – Aphrodite (review)

Jonghyun – She Is (review)

Luna – Free Somebody (review)

Monsta X – All In (review)

Park Kyung & Eunha – Inferiority Complex (review)

Tiffany – I Just Wanna Dance (review)

Woohyun – Still I Remember (review)