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Looking Back: The Top Three K-Pop Songs of July 2010

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Monthly Round-UpSince 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!

July 2010 Overall Thoughts

After a relatively sparse first half of the year, July of 2010 opened the floodgates. There were tons of releases this month, including a few legendary tracks. Interestingly, none of these songs scream “summer,” which isn’t the norm during July.

Let’s start with the debuts. The month kicked off with new JYP girl group Miss A and their insta-classic Bad Girl, Good Girl. Later in the month we had the first music by idol groups Girl’s Day and Teen Top. Girl’s Day’s Tilting My Head is a prime example of how vocal effects can ruin a song. Honestly, it’s pretty crap. But, it’s fun crap so I included it in the honorable mentions anyway. From “fun crap” to fun clap, Teen Top hit right out of the gate with their infectious Clap.

We also saw the debut of soloist G.Na with the so-so I’ll Get Lost, You Go Your Way, and the solo debut of Brown Eyed Girls’ Narsha. Other established soloists made their return after lengthy hiatuses, with BoA teasing her upcoming album via pre-release Game and YG’s SE7EN returned to Korea after years trying to break the States. And then we have the popular Son Dam-bi, who reaffirmed her dominance with the aptly-titled Queen.

As if this wasn’t enough soloist action, Bigbang’s Taeyang released his first full album, promoted with a great title track featuring bandmate G-Dragon. Meanwhile, hip-hop trio DJ DOC released a party anthem that’s basically the template for PSY’s Gangnam Style two years before that track became a global smash.

But all of this pales in comparison to SHINee’s Lucifer – an incredible, enduring classic that requires no introduction. They just killed it, and the song is an undeniable K-pop highlight.

Honorable Mentions

BoA – Game (video)

DJ DOC – I’m A Guy Like This (video)

Girl’s Day – Tilting My Head (video)

Narsha – Bbi Ri Bba Bba (video)

SE7EN – Better Together (video)

Son Dam-bi – Queen (video)

Teen Top – Clap (video)

4minute – I My Me Mine (video)

TOP THREE SONGS

3. Taeyang – I Need A Girl (ft. G-Dragon)

2. Miss A – Bad Girl, Good Girl (review)

1. SHINee – Lucifer

23 thoughts on “Looking Back: The Top Three K-Pop Songs of July 2010”

  2. Lucifer was my first ever k-pop song so it will always have the most special place in my heart. I’m so stupidly excited for their comeback it’s not even funny anymore.

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  5. “Lucifer” is the definitive example of Iconic. Everything from it’s collection of anthemic melodies, hard-hitting staccato, choreography, that chugging beat. This is literally peak K-pop!

    And that is why it deserves first place this month.
    Oh…….I should decide my second place and third one too?
    here I’ll throw in two randoms, Teen Top’s Clap and…… that 4Minute song.

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    • Very off topic, but when I used to be Muslim, I had this one Muslim friend on Instagram, they were a fan of K-pop, of course. They were a big fan of Infinite and Teen Top, and especially of second gen boy groups. Weirdly enough, they never listened to Lucifer, because they were afraid Allah (Islam’s god) would punish them.

      Weird experience.

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        • I don’t want to make a religious talk in a music site and Not everyone might be comfortable. So I’ll go ahead and say. I am agnostic.

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      • Back in my Catholic school days, there would have been some girls sharing the same thoughts about a song called “Lucifer”. The nuns too, if they ever heard of it (probably not). All hell and damnation and fire and brimstone. I really truly had to write an essay once for theology class called “What would Jesus do?”.

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  6. NICK! You are missing Super Junior “No Other”, video release July 7 2010.

    I mean, like only the song that is somewhere in my SuJu personal top 10.
    I mean, the song that made Kyuhyun my bias, starting at 1:06 and 3:25. Gorgeous.

    So here is the ELF story about this song and video. Last summer, heading towards the video’s 10 year anniversary, the song was about about 95 million views on youtube, or thereabouts. So we elves set about a project too get it over 100m before its anniversary. It took about a month. I mean, other groups can get +5m views in an hour, but we elves have lives and it took us a month. I think technically also we pushed it over the line a week late or something, but did we fret about it? No.

    No one has been able to figure out why Kyuhyun is not in the dance – he only appears just enough in the line up shots to make the thumbnail look like they are all there, but count the dancers and Kyu is missing. A lot of people also credit this video for creating the Ye-sex moniker, because despite that Eunhyuk is showcasing his abs a lot, it is Yesung in those pants and sleeveless combo that look mighty fine.

    Nick, you can atone for your trangression by redoing your SuJu top ten in time for their 15th+ a half year anniversary album release expected in mid-March.

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