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 2010 Overall Thoughts
In January of 2010, the K-pop industry was a very different place. Idol releases were not nearly as frequent as they are now, and while the music had international appeal, its global reach was largely restricted to other Asian countries. With this in mind, 2010 felt like a tentative leap forward for K-pop, as the second and third generation began to bleed together before 2011 marked an unofficial transition point.
This month was pretty darn unremarkable. Ballads outweighed dance tracks by a very large margin. It’s almost unbelievable how many ballads were stuffed into January. Some came from big names (2AM, Gain, Younha), while many did not. Ballads aren’t usually my thing, so my honorable mentions list is quite small. Almost nonexistent, really.
Soon-to-be-great groups ZE:A and F.Cuz both debuted this month with tracks that… weren’t so great. Mazeltov. Jiggy. Oof. And, oof. They’ve long-since been forgiven, but these heavily autotuned productions illustrated the worst aspects of this era’s trends.
Luckily, there was also a bright side to January. My number one pick is a stone cold classic, from a group who had established themselves as one of K-pop’s most legendary. 4minute’s Hyuna also made her solo debut with Change, which is a fine track but far from her best. Still, it was slim pickin’s this month!
Honorable Mention
Davichi x SeeYa x T-ara – Wonder Woman (video)
The Bias List // K-Pop Reviews & Discussion 
NOOOO….
Loner deserves number one, and Can’t Let you go Even if I die should be number 2, at least honorable mention. Oh comes in at number 3 for me.
We differ a lot here!
LikeLike
Also, I dare anyone to look me in the eye and say they have shook their head and laughed like a mad person after seeing Mazeltov’s lyrics. I mean like, what was the lyricist thinking. My theory is that the CEO’s teenage kid must have randomly typed the countries from where he wants to date, and everyone was too scared to tell the CEO or correct the lyrics.
Far Fetched theory? Yes. More logical than the lyrics? Yes.
LikeLike
we all know we are just tuning in to see Lucifer grabbing the Top Spot in anyone of these Top 3 songs of the month.
Seriously , when It comes to 2010 , LUCIFER IS THE REPRESENTATIVE!
LikeLike
Oh! is my favorite SNSD single. I see it as some kind of water mark for that particular cute-ish, hyperactive sound. Literally everything on this song is a hook, it goes from catchy sections to even catchier sections, and that finale will all those “oh-oh-oh-oh” “ah-ah-ah-ah” is a brillant earworm.
Genie, The Boys, Into the New World, I Got a Boy, Paparazzi, Mr. Taxi… are way bigger and arguably better than this song, but the replay potential of this one is INSANE.
Genius-level pop songwriting overall, I think.
LikeLiked by 2 people
My End of Year Lists are arriving tomorrow! Please check them out if anyone is interested!
Here is the link for the honorable mentions post 🙂
https://108ent.blogspot.com/2021/01/top-50-songs-of-2020-honorable-mentions.html
LikeLiked by 1 person
There is a very very short list of songs that can get away with the days of the week as lyrics, and Zea Mazel Tov is way way way off the list.
Instead, let’s listen to The Cure.
And to the Monkee’s while we are at it. I played this song on vinyl a lot – I think it was my aunt’s old copy.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Does that short list consist of Rebecca Black’s Friday??
LikeLiked by 1 person
Let me think for a mo …. No.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hyuna and sexy is almost synonymous that I was surprised she debuted with such a hard-hitting concept. But she’s a 4minute member so…
LikeLike