At the end of each month, I look back at my three favorite title tracks by K-pop artists. I take my own ratings into account, but there’s a bit of wiggle room as certain songs tend to grow or fade.
August 2024 Overall Thoughts
Over the past few years, the month of August has trended toward being the strongest period for K-pop releases. I guess all trends have to change sometime, because this August veered in the exact opposite direction. Much of this can probably be blamed on music show cancellations due to coverage of the Olympics, resulting in a pretty barren slate for the first two weeks of the month. But even though there were strong tracks during the second half of August, none stood out as major highlights.
In fact, after a very strong start, K-pop’s 2024 summer kind of fizzled. There really weren’t any massive, season-defining hits. Instead, spring tracks held on for much longer than normal. Aespa’s Supernova is still sitting at the top of the charts!
Though I didn’t rate any title track “9” or above this month, there were a handful of songs that impressed me. Many of these came from acts who I wouldn’t have expected. Young Posse totally won me over, Moonbyul got me with her TWS-cosplay and ZEROBASEONE improved upon their mixed singles run. Other highlights came from Rescene and DRIPPIN. I’m still not completely sold on Taemin’s Sexy In The Air (though I like the album), but Horizon would have topped my picks this month had its video been released. Alas, that will have to wait until September.
On a more biased note, this was the month we learned the fate of Golden Child’s contract renewal. Given the lack of promotion over the past two years, I honestly expected them to leave Woollim and disband. So while I’m gutted to lose Bomin, Jibeom and Tag, the bad news was tempered by the fact the group will be carrying on. I hope we get new material this year after Y is discharged from the military. I can’t imagine a year without a killer Golcha single.
In contrast to K-pop’s dull month, J-pop had a stronger than usual slate of releases (at least where 2024’s concerned). Multiple new tracks caught my ear in the second half of August, including some from consistent groups who have had a more mixed track record this year. My top three choices are all a little unhinged, which I also appreciate. Honorable mentions would be &TEAM’s Aoarashi and One Or Eight’s Don’t Tell Nobody. I hope J-pop’s second half of 2024 will bring some big highlights, and with new albums from Ryugujo and Snow Man on the way I feel like I can be a bit optimistic.
Unfortunately, we have two truncated months back-to-back this year, with September’s Chuseok holidays likely stalling releases for another week or two. It honestly feels like we’ve been in a musical drought since late-June, so I’m eager for some new music to really break through. Looking forward, I’m most excited for BOYNEXTDOOR’s upcoming album, but there are a few teased projects that sound promising. Hopefully we’ll get something epic from a place we’d least expect it.
Month Cumulative Rating: 7.6
(compiled by averaging the scores of every K-pop review from this month)
J-Pop Highlights
New & Noteworthy J-pop: Week One
New & Noteworthy J-pop: Week Two
New & Noteworthy J-pop: Week Three
New & Noteworthy J-pop: Week Four
TOP J-POP SONGS OF THE MONTH
3. Number_i – INZM
2. Snow Man – Empire
1. Hiromitsu Kitayama – Comic (full review)
K-POP
Honorable Mentions
Atlantis Kitsune – Oh My! (review)
Bang Yedam – O-HE (review)
DRIPPIN – Weekend (review)
Lisa – New Woman (ft. Rosalía) (review)
Oh My Girl – Classified (review)
Rescene – Love Attack (review)
SF9 – Don’t Worry, Be Happy (review)
Taemin – Sexy In The Air (review)
WEi – LOVE2YOU (review)
This Month’s Risers and Fallers
This Month’s Global Pop Round-Up
TOP THREE SONGS
3. Moonbyul – Is This Love? (review)
2. ZEROBASEONE – Good So Bad (review)
1. Young Posse – Ate That (review)
Top Three K-Pop Songs Of July 2024
Top Three K-Pop Songs Of June 2024
Top Three K-Pop Songs Of May 2024
Top Three K-Pop Songs Of April 2024
Top Three K-Pop Songs Of March 2024
The Bias List // K-Pop Reviews & Discussion 
can i ask why a song with an 8.5 ranking is higher than two 8.75 rankings?
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It grew on me and will be included in the next “K-Pop Risers & Fallers” post.
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Ooh, Young Posse as 1st? This is unexpected! Ate That is definitely a grower and gets more addicting with each listen! (thank you YP for a nice birthday gift even if it was technically on the eve according to my timezone lol) Anyways, August was an underwhelming month thanks to the Olympics and maybe some unfortunate luck or timings or whatever, but still managed to give some nice songs here and there.
My Top 3 would be:
If B-sides are included, then Dignity’s Fire would be 3rd. But well, hoping for a stronger September!
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Damn, did WordPress mess with the numberings? The order’s 1, 2 and 3 btw (Love Attack’s a 9, the other two are 8.75) .^.
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My top 3 are :
3 – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Sam1z8KLWY
2 – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDXsgfeaHKw
1 – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yweVfHiinCQ
The first 2 are too nugu for you to review, Bébe Yana as a former member of EvoL hasn’t made huge waves but her music has been really solid so it’s sad we never got a review, but I guess she’s a bit too niche/uninteresting for you to review
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August was certainly weird for me since only one Korean track made it to my top list:
BAP – Gone
&Team – Aoarashi
Riize – Lucky
Dreamies – Rains in Heaven
Honorables:
ZB1 – Good So Bad
Drippin – Weekend
SF9 -.Don’t Worry, Be Happy
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PS: that SF9 song would’ve probably made my top list if Zuho had participated (since his parts are usually my favorites). As it is it’s ok, but I can’t help but wonder if he would’ve elevated the song🤔
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A pretty good month.
I include b-sides.
ZB1 – Insomnia, Good So Bad
Jaehyun Jamal Jung – Roses, Can’t Get You
UNIS – Curious
MCND – ADDDDDDDD
SF5 – Don’t Worry Be Happy, Just
His Highness Taeminnie – Crush, Deja Vu, Horizon
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fiestar randomly dropped a 2024 version of “you’re pitiful”. It’s cool seeing them together (I guess?) but this song didn’t need a remix
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this ver sucks out the bounciness of the original…
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I agree. I think this is a good exhibition of what’s wrong with current trends
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im sorry but for the life of me ill never be able to get into ate that 😭 i mean im happy that sonically theyre doing smthn different but the entire concept of this group + the horrendously butchered aave in the song just doesnt sit right w me at all
and ik one of yalls gonna be like “but niko isnt all of kpop based on cosplaying black culture tho” ya no shit sherlock….its a whole other thing when thats what a groups WHOLE ENTIRE CONCEPT is based off of and its so blatant in the mv too like why tf r these girls throwing up smthn that can be read as a gang sign (towards a black man too) and i shit u not CRIP WALKING???? its so wild
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I’m with you, I said that I liked the song back on the review, but I’ve only listened once since. The goofiness helped but I feel they may go down a more problematic route as they age
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2024’s summer might be the weakest k-pop summer in a very very long time lol
My #1 August song is “Ice Cream” by Jeon Somi with a 8.5 rating (THAT CHORUS SLAPS I SWEAR), and my #1 July song is “Bloom” by (G)I-DLE with 9.5/10 (random b-side I know)
Last year I had multiple 9.8/10+ rated songs and in 2022 literally 2x 11/10 songs. I’m looking forward to October since this is the month that always has the best releases for me
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I haven’t caught up on August’s releases but I enjoyed ZB1’s Good So Bad so this would be my top song of the month. I also liked Taemin’s new album.
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It’s a short list.
Nmixx “See That”, and that is all.
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Glad to see I’m not the only one who liked the nmixx comeback 🥹
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Rescene’s “Love Attack” is my favorite song this month, Love Attack has been stuck on my mind since it was released AAA! I also liked UNIS’s Curious and Le Sserafim’s Crazy, they were pretty fun! 😀
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i didnt know wordpress would turn : D into 😀 , this emoji is cursed
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