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

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!


June 2010 Overall Thoughts

June of 2010 didn’t have a ton of releases, but it marked the debut of three of K-pop’s best groups. First is Sistar, who went on to become a huge force in the industry and the reigning queens of K-pop summer. Next is Orange Caramel, who splintered off of main group After School to become an incredibly fun and quirky sub-unit. And finally, we have my ultimate bias group Infinite, who are undoubtedly my own musical highlight of the past decade.

June also gave us the solo debut of Bigbang’s deep-voiced rapper T.O.P, as well as a (so-so) pre-debut track from upcoming girl group miss A. Things were definitely moving!

And if the new blood wasn’t to listeners’ tastes, first-gen coed dance group Koyote were back with the aptly titled Return. This track doesn’t seem to be remembered by many, but it’s a pretty fun example of its era. The same could be said about little-known boy group T-Max, whose Don’t Be Rude is definitely trendy and overly autotuned, but pretty satisfying nonetheless.

However, let’s talk about those debut groups again. My biggest surprise is how little their respective debut tracks foreshadowed what the acts would become. Push Push and Magic Girl are nowhere near Sistar and Orange Caramel’s best, but each group would go on to deliver classics. Infinite’s Come Back Again, on the other hand, is K-pop perfection. Yet, it sounds nothing like any other songs in their discography. Chalk that up to experimental producer Hitchhiker, who never worked with the group again after dropping this phenomenal debut.


Honorable Mentions

Koyote – Return (video)

Orange Caramel – Magic Girl (video)

T-Max – Don’t Be Rude (video)


TOP THREE SONGS

3. Sistar – Push Push

2. T.O.P – Turn It Up

1. Infinite – Come Back Again (review)


14 thoughts on “Looking Back: The Top Three K-Pop Songs of June 2010

  1. Come Back Again is one of my favourite Infinite songs. I love it so much!

    T.O.P.’s Turn It Up has fond memories attached to it, though. I did not know about k-pop in 2010, but later when I discovered BigBang and went through my first kpop phase, this was one of the songs I played on repeat. At the time I did not know what a ‘bias’ was, but I was more than a little obsessed with T.O.P. I return to Turn It Up every time I go through a ‘nostalgic’ kpop phase.

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  2. Before your blog, I only knew about infinite’s “bad” and “you’re mine”. I’m glad they show up often in your reviews because they’re not a group I’ve been very invested in. I’ve been going back and listening to the albums of groups who have title tracks I love ( I’m doing b1a4 right) and the more you talk about Infinite the further up the list I have to place them. I can’t believe I haven’t heard “come back again” before, I’ve been a kpop fan since 2011(I was 10)!

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  3. Hitchhiker is basically my god. His songwriting and producing is so impressive to me, where he can be the sole credit on such a wide variety of tracks that all sound insanely different and nearly all have some degree of experimentation…I’m always so impressed with his body of work.

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