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!
December 2012 Overall Thoughts
The amazing 2012 ended (as so many K-pop years do) on a bit of a whimper. There just wasn’t much music released in December. I mean, at this point 2012 didn’t owe us a damn thing. It had already delivered a countless number of classic comebacks.
Instead, December offered the expected slate of ballads and seasonal releases. Most of these were pretty unmemorable, even if performed by some of the industry’s powerhouses. This means that only one of my top three picks this month is an actual, promoted comeback. Joining it is an excellent follow-up single and a four-year-old music video/song cover finally released as a special gift.
2012 concluded with one of my all-time favorite end-of-year music shows: SBS’s 2012 “Color Of K-pop” Gayo. Not only did this broadcast gift us the incredible orchestral version of Infinite’s The Chaser, but it also delivered four original tracks from all-star teams of idol group members and trending producers, which were then released for download. Surprising no one, I’m quite partial to the Sweetune-produced Dramatic Blue.
Also worth checking out is the great EDM dance track Spectrum – a one-off collaboration between SM Entertainment and international producer Zedd. It was also created specifically for the SBS Gayo, and then released digitally.
Honorable Mentions
G.Na & Sanchez – Beautiful Day (video)
Hello Venus – What Are You Doing Today? (video)
Nell – White Night (video)
The Bias List // K-Pop Reviews & Discussion 
Boom! And now we are moving onto 2013 , honestly I wished 2012 ended better (I wished all years ended better). My Top 3 is the same as yours
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I have precisely one song I bought that was released December 2012. A song from a very young brother-sister duo by the name of Akdong Musician “매력있어” (“You are attractive”) from episode 4 of Kpop star – Ep4 looks like it is still the early audition rounds or what we would call Hollywood week for American Idol. The same show also features an even younger runner up by the name of Bang Yedam. The judges were BoA, Yang Hyun Suk and JYP. Ah, days gone by.
2012. 8 years ago, that is how long we moms have been waiting for our Bang Yedam to debut.
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oh WOW, was Talk that really 2012??? That means Poison was too. I remember that promotional cycle so much, both because of the accident they had to take time off from and because it was one of the first time Hana/Zinger had a prominent vocal line part in the verses. Truly a beautiful, haunting song and even though it’s been a minute since I’ve listened it’s still very clear in my mind.
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I could never get behind Dancing Queen just because I knew the original Duffy song so well already lol. I get the English demos, but it’s just odd to take a song that was quite popular internationally and also several years old and try to put a K-Pop spin on it.
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It’s not a huge standout for me, either, but there wasn’t a lot to chose from this month.
Weirdly, though, it actually sounds better in 2020 than it did back in 2012. I guess it’s because we rarely hear that Duffy song anymore. It was omnipresent back then.
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