Since the start of The Bias List in January 2016, I’ve always looked back at my three favorite title tracks by K-pop artists each month. Now, it’s time to look even further into the past, one month at a time. And, yes, the top three rankings count toward The Bias List’s personal artist scorecard!
January 2014 Overall Thoughts
In my experience, January in K-pop can go either way. Some Januarys are barren, while others end up being a highlight of their year. 2014 would go on to be a great year for music, and its first month kicked it off with the return of a few legends and the debut of singles that would lodge themselves in the public consciousness for many months to come.
This month opened with TVXQ and Rain, two legends within the industry. And, it closed with another legend – Gain of Brown Eyed Girls – returning with a genuinely provocative track. In between, there were many incredible comebacks. Songs like Girl’s Day’s Something and AOA’s Miniskirt would become ubiquitous, while the criminally underrated B.B.B from Dal Shabet became an instant career-highlight. It would easily feature in my top three given a weaker month.
Speaking of my top three, my number one choice also happens to be one of my favorite K-pop songs of all time. I played this one to death in 2014, and still do.
With a fresh year came a ton of debuts. Boy groups GOT7, Beatwin and K-Much released their first music (in K-Much’s case basically a retread of agency-mate Crayon Pop’s 2013 hit Bar Bar Bar…) and girl group Year 7 Class 1 made their super J-poppy debut. We also got a new sub-unit in Rainbow Blaxx, while Mamamoo teased their impending debut with their first official pre-release. Things were certainly looking up!
Honorable Mentions
A-Prince – Yes Or No (video)
Ailee – Singing Got Better (video)
AOA – Miniskirt (video)
Beatwin – She’s My Girl (video)
Dal Shabet – B.B.B (video)
Gain – Fxxk You (ft. Bumkey) (video)
GOT7 – Girls Girls Girls (video)
K-Much – Good To Go (video)
Kiss&Cry – Domino Game (video)
Mamamoo – Don’t Be Happy (ft. Bumkey) (video)
Rain – LA Song / 30Sexy (video / video)
Rainbow Blaxx – Cha Cha (video)
Spica – You Don’t Love Me (video)
Topp Dogg – Open The Door (video)
The Bias List // K-Pop Reviews & Discussion 
This whole month has only one word to me: “Lonely”
Just , one of the best K-pop Songs of All Time!
LONELY Easily takes first place
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I’ve been listening to Lonely the entire weekend… coincidence? I think not.
When will we get another tune like Something… @ 2021, give us what we want
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the two Somethings of January 2014 were iconic. and Domino Game was a very good Wings by Little Mix sound-alike. what a great month and year it was.
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Big bay-beh bay-beh ♥️
Maybe Dalshabet didn’t make a big impact when they were active, but they did leave behind, in my opinion, two of the best k-girlgroup songs ever: this one and the even better Someone Like U.
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Jan 2014 was also the re-release of Yoo Jae-Ha’s album “Because I Love You” not only on vinyl and cd in Korea, but also on US itunes! This album is widely considered in the kpop industry to be “The Most Influential Album in kpop history. Period.”
Yoo Jae Ha released the original album in the late 80’s after going solo from playing piano for Cho Yong-Pil’s band. He died young in a car accident not long after this album was released. In his memory, his parents set up a scholarship to Seoul National University with the album money, and winners in the 90’s included Yoo Hee-yeol, Kim Yeon-woo, and Bang Si-hyuk. Yes, this whole list is a who’s who of modern Korean music.
To you and me, this album sounds like some schmaltzy light pop 1970’s album that could fit right alongside the BeeGees, Andy Gibb, Olivia Newton-John, Abba,,Debbie Boone, etc. I will direct you to the DKDK youtube special video titled “The Most Influential Album in kpop history. Period.” about why this was so hey wow for Korea.
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No wonder someone asked me about this album on my blog, it is the anniversary of its re-release. RIP Yoo Jae-Ha, his album was one of the best Korean albums ever.
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I mean the post talks about the anniversary of the re-release. Several of my viewers also check-out Nick’s blog (I mean duh, I think this is the de-facto kpop blog, every objective kpop fan has came here once at least I think)
Or it could just be a coincidence, dunno
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It is so refreshing to have one place in the internet that has some civil objective discourse, with enough fanboying / fangirling to keep it fun. I was thinking the other day about all those reaction youtube commentators and how they are all by the nature of revenue seeking and modern trolling sucked into liking everything. I was also thinking about all the online magazines that back in the day when in print used to have real reviews, and how milquetoast they have all become because they can’t risk offending anyone for their ad views.
Nick also has small ads for some amount of revenue (because hey, he has to have some money to buy all this stuff), but they are few, and minimal in size, and don’t autoplay.
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I agree with everything you said, only a few K-Pop reviewers seem to be objective (for the most part) in their reviews. I do not agree with every Nick opinion, but it is much better than many kpoppers whose opinions I agree with bcuz Nick explains his points, he gives reasons why the song goofed up or was a success. Thankfully since his arrival I have seen a few other bloggers arrive and also try to be objective (Deforested Music, Kbopped, 10/10 – Music [me], and surprisingly, some seoulbeats and allkpop album reviewers, not all though).
So thanks Nick and all the commenters on the blog!
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Ayy nice to see someone that knows Yoo Jae Ha! Also nice to see DKDK still going strong, it’s been a while since I’ve watched their videos. His album was ranked the best pop album in South Korean history back in 2018. I mean the guy’s great, imagine how much more music he could’ve released if the accident didn’t happen.
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Domino was such a banger, a shame about Kiss&Cry never going anywhere
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We all need Jinyoung back in kpop.
Like, seriously, this song was released pretty much 7 years ago, but it still sounds fresh, new, good, perfect, etc.
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