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!
September 2013 Overall Thoughts
September 5th. That’s all you really need to know about this month. That’s the day G-Dragon’s Crooked was released, and I fell in love with the song so hard and so fast. This release also coincided with a weeks-long trip to the U.K. that filled most of this month for me. So at the time, I wasn’t keeping up with new releases like I usually do. Maybe that’s why this month feels kind of odd, even in hindsight.
Still, there were some undisputed highlights in September. Apart from my top three picks (which are all absolutely excellent), we were treated to a great CF release from Infinite, as well as Demion’s Ask Her Out, which I’ve previously called “The Most Underrated K-Pop Song of All Time.” Overblown praise, perhaps, but not completely off the mark.
Other than that, my honorable mentions list is pretty short. There were plenty of releases this month, but many were varying levels of forgettable. Kara’s Damaged Lady is an exception, and stands as their last Sweetune-produced single. BTS followed up their debut with a better track in the form of N.O, while BTOB continued to sputter commercially before their eventual 2015 resurgence. Still, Thriller is a solid dance pop song. And true to form, Crayon Pop delivered another super fun track, though it was only a slight reworking of a song they’d already released in 2012.
When it comes down to it, my playlist this month was almost completely devoted to G-Dragon’s Coup D’Etat album, which I still consider to be one of K-pop’s classic moments. I wish he’d come back with something similar this year!
Honorable Mentions
BTOB – Thriller (video)
BTS – N.O. (video)
Crayon Pop – Dancing Queen 2.0 (video)
Demion – Ask Her Out (video)
G-Dragon – Coup D’Etat (video)
Infinite – Request (review)
Kara – Damaged Lady (video)
Ladies’ Code – Pretty Pretty (video)
Piggy Dolls – Ordinary Girl (video)
The Bias List // K-Pop Reviews & Discussion 
I thought this month would be packed considering Crooked came from this month……..
Crooked is first , that’s it , that’s literally it
I would give a great shout out toBlock B’s Be the Light which probably is my second favorite song In september 2013.
Now time for the daily golcha post of the day:
Pump It Up is definitely gonna be in my Top 3 songs of october this year.
This makes me so happy to watch , honestly the Golden Child I wanted came back fresh and their ready to hit big!
but on another note let’s talk about a big double standard here:
Some people are going around telling “People who don’t complain BGs doing bright concepts , should better stream this!””
You literally don’t see dark fans getting forced to stream just because they’re musical taste told they want something dark.
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Usually, September (with 2012 and 2020 as exceptions) has one or two heavy hitter highlights. A great example is 2005. Rising Sun is probably the greatest K-Pop song of all time, yet the rest of the month was as dull as a dodo.
Ya the streaming concern is real (gosh I almost wrote streaking by accident), I don’t get it, I like prefer to listen to music on spotify or the youtube audio (MV-s tend to distract me from or shorten the song).
Thanks for the daily Golcha post!!
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lol “Dull as a Dodo”
that’s probably the best way you can describe how september is.
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but I genuinely never thought there would be a time where a 2020 month would be an exception……..
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Really, I found May 2020 exceptionally bad lol.
I know what you mean don’t worry 🙂
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Golcha post of the day! Sorry Nick for taking over your comments with technically unrelated raving about these boys, but we can’t help it >..<
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did the rest of my comment just get deleted..?
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I remember thinking that this month was dull after August 2013 (probably my favorite month in K-Pop history ever along with September 2011), boy looking back was I wrong!
My top 3:
3. JYJ – Only One (sorry fellow Cassies, they had better tracks)
2. Block B – Be the Light
1. G-Dragon – Crooked (I don’t like it as much as you guys do, but I still love it)
Oh and what did you guys think of the MMTG Chuseok stage? Minus U-Kiss, I think the artists were bored, but it was a great excuse to review the classic tracks they played! (Here is the link: https://108ent.blogspot.com/2020/10/guilty-pleasure-mmtg-stage-classic-song.html)
Also Nick, I am not sure is it intentional, but the review link for Crooked leads to your No.3 of all time post rather than the review, thanks for the post!
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I love BTOB’s Thriller. Gonna relisten now on repeat haha.
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1) Block B, “Be the Light”. This is the first song they released after they successfully split with their former agency and relaunched intact one month later on their own label with this song. (It is believed PO’s family invested their money.) The song is nominally about unrequited love, but has some vague biblical references which make it also about rebirth at the same time.
2) GD Crooked
3) “BizzyTigerYoonMirae” / “Get It In” by Bizzy + Drunken Tiger + Yoonmirae. These aren’t that different from western posturing rap-song collaborations, but both of these were in heavy rotation on my work out list for a long, long while. Plus Yoonmirae who is, as the phrase goes, a goddess.
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Off topic: this is also the month when the incredible Vienna Teng released her “Aims” album on her own indie label,
The lead single is “Level Up” which is the only song in 7/8’s time you will ever hear in your lifetime, so go listen to it now! She crowd-sourced money to make the video too, as one does.
Let me repeat: the song is wholly in 7 / 8 ‘s time. Go and listen and count along to seven and be amazed.
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1. G-Dragon – Crooked
2. Crayon Pop – Dancing Queen
3. F-ve Dolls – Can You Love Me?
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