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!
October 2009 Overall Thoughts
October 2009 was a busy month, packed with big-name comebacks and notable debuts. Among these were the very first songs by Beast, MBLAQ and JQT, along with solo debuts from 2NE1’s Park Bom, Fly To The Sky’s Hwanhee and Battle’s Jin Taehwa. That’s a lot of new energy!
In between, we had the return of some of the era’s biggest acts: SHINee, SS501, Brown Eyed Girls, 4minute and Secret. Those last two didn’t quite make my honorable mentions, but I know they’re well-loved by others.
Picking my top song of the month was a challenge. I kept switching around the top two, and will likely continue to do so. Both have similar elements, and are very of their time. But in the end, I opted to go with the more iconic track.
Taking third place is SS501’s addictive Love Like This. I’m more enthused with that great chorus than the slower verses, but it’s still a great track. Taeyang’s Where You At, Hwanhee’s Because I Missed Your Heart and Brown Eyed Girls’ Sign made for some stiff competition, though.
October also delivered a few big follow-ups. G-Dragon continued to promote his album with the subdued Butterfly, and T-ara reinvented their TTL single with a sprightlier remix. And though they only debuted at the beginning of September, f(x) quickly released their first CF with Chocolate Love, alongside Girls’ Generation’s version. Both mixes are great.
Honorable Mentions
Brown Eyed Girls – Sign (video)
f(x) – Chocolate Love (video)
G-Dragon – Butterfly (video)
Girls’ Generation (SNSD) – Chocolate Love (video)
Hwanhee – Because I Missed Your Heart (video)
Jin Taehwa – Fallen Angel (video)
JQT – Bling Bling (video)
Lyn – New Celebration (ft. Dok2) (video)
MBLAQ – Oh Yeah (video)
Park Bom – You & I (video)
Taeyang – Where You At (video)
T-ara – TTL Listen Part 2 (ft. Supernova) (video)
The Bias List // K-Pop Reviews & Discussion 
The top 3, all classics that got me into K-Pop, even if none are really perfect.
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That’s a good way to put it. I don’t think I’m *always* in the mood to listen to these three songs, but they’re so foundational to the industry and I love them despite their flaws.
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I was playing Ring Ding Dong before i checked this post lol
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Pingback: Looking Back: The Top Three K-Pop Songs of October 2009 | Beatsway
Ring a ding ding for the win.
Also, the b-side Jo Jo is really good too. It never had a video, but Shinee did perform the song a few times on the music shows, live vocals too. Here is a two-fer of JoJo + RIng a Ding on Music Core
‘https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5PKLjM4I60
The recorded JoJo link is below – they never sing live those long low sustained notes in the chorus 1:02-1:04, and they get washed out under the crowd on the backing, but in my car it sounds awesome.
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Bad Girl’s structure is odd but still cohesive. And fun. The “buchako buchako shipeo” line is stuck in my head.
Ring Ding Dong is quirky, angsty, and melodic…phenomenal.
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