Over the past three weeks, we’ve been voting on a series of K-pop summer songs. Throughout the match-ups, we’ve seen titans fall and underdogs rise. It all culminated in yesterday’s final battle, where SHINee’s View went up against Golden Child’s Let Me. So… which track won?
Well, the Goldenness have descended.
I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, being a proud member of the fan club myself. I clearly have a lot of like-minded readers (and twitter followers!). Fandom loyalty is a powerful thing, as a retweet campaign powered Let Me to unexpected victory after initially trailing View by double digits. The final tally stands at 59.8% to 40.2%.
Congratulations, Golden Child!!
As for me, I’m of two minds about this result. Obviously, I’m thrilled for my favorite new-gen group. I adore Let Me, both as a summer song and a pop song in general. I really can’t complain about its victory. In fact, I wouldn’t complain about any of the songs in the bracket taking the top spot.
At the same time, I’m irritated that this bracket (as with everything in K-pop) ultimately turned into a fandom pissing contest. It only reaffirms my choice to keep The Bias List a site that focuses on music over fandom.
In case you’re curious, here’s how I would have ranked the songs in this summer bracket, had I been able to vote. This is my ranking based on “summer song,” not “overall favorite song.”
Sistar – Loving U
SHINee – View
Red Velvet – Red Flavor
UP10TION – Tonight
B1A4 – Solo Day
ATEEZ – Wave
ONF – Complete
Golden Child – Let Me
Astro – Breathless
Girl’s Day – Darling
WJSN – Boogie Up
BLACKPINK – As If It’s Your Last
ITZY – Icy
f(x) – Hot Summer
EXO – Ko Ko Bop
Girls’ Generation – Party
I hope you all enjoyed listening to some great summer songs and rallying around your favorites!
The Bias List // K-Pop Reviews & Discussion 
What if the song for SISTAR was Touch My Body 👀
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Honestly, I’m not sure if it would have mattered. Being an older group who isn’t active anymore, they just don’t have the same kind of fan base these days 😦
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But you put the links up and people could listen to the songs and judge them and ….never mind.
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Meanwhile me, still sad that Solo Day didn’t win lol! But all great songs really.
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Haha me too! But honestly, even I would have voted Sistar on that one. It had bad luck being paired with them on that first round.
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How my summer ranking goes-
Red Velvet – Red Flavor
–
–
-(there’s a big, fat margin between my 1st and 2nd place)
–
–
ITZY – Icy
ONF – Complete
SHINee – View
Golden Child – Let Me
B1A4 – Solo Day
EXO – Ko Ko Bop
ATEEZ – Wave
Sistar – Loving U
UP10TION – Tonight
BLACKPINK – As If It’s Your Last
WJSN – Boogie Up
Astro – Breathless
Girls’ Generation – Party
Girl’s Day – Darling
Its kind of sad how everything needs to be boiled down to fandoms and views. Even though I like Let Me way more, View is the more summery song, at least for me. I literally can’t read the comments section of K-Pop music video without someone going “str3am to blah blah views”. If there’s one thing that American pop does better, its probably this whole streaming thing, as I’ve haven’t read many comments saying lets reach to _ views on them.
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Wave put up a good fight! Didn’t it lose for the same reason Let Me won today? It’s a modern day summer classic, along with the quite robbed Red Flavor – a song full of life and is a definite one-two punch for the summer.
As someone who didn’t experiece Sistar’s heyday, I am curious. I haven’t searched if you wrote about Loving U on this site…is there a reason for this specific song (and not other Sistar songs) to be your top one?
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I’ve written about it in the context of a few countdowns, but haven’t yet done a full review. I adore their full suite of summer songs (Loving U, Touch My Body, I Swear, Shake It), but for some reason this one just feels like pure euphoria. Maybe it’s because Loving U was the first time they tackled this sound?
IDK. But, I’m not alone because it’s their highest-selling summer song (and second highest-selling song overall) in Korea. However, I fear it’s been somewhat forgotten by newer fans — especially international ones.
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Yeah, i saw the fandom calling people to vote. Not that they’re not allowed to do that but, it’s kind of interesting to see that happens on a small blog that probably won’t impact the winning group in anyway.
My top pick is “View” tho. Chill summer jam with just an absolutely killer song. I’m satisfied with the results
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Yeah, fandoms… suck. This is why I got rid of my stan account. I will just enjoy my favorite groups in peace without dealing with the associated drama.
On another note, have you seen the Dreamcatcher announcements/teasers? Mini-album on the 30th called Summer Holiday. They’ve done a tropical house sound on Breaking Out before but I wonder how they’ll approach a summer song this time around.
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Yay! We finally get *something* this July! Is it wrong for me to hope that they use this summer mini to switch things up and totally experiment with their sound? (before reverting back to rock in the future, of course…)
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Well. I was a fierce defender of their rock sound, and clung to it because it’s a huge part of what sets them apart. But at this point they and Leez and Ollounder have earned enough of my trust that I will accept any promotional decisions they make. Even more so now I think that as of late, solid as their rock titles are, their not-rock B-sides have really been the highlights of their albums (I mean, Poison Love is my SotY frontrunner). At this point I’ll just take any* new music from them.
(*As long as it’s not like Be The Future. Idk if you’ve heard that one, it’s their collaboration with AleXa and IN2IT. I adore Dreamcatcher but that song is awful lol. In Leez and Ollounder we trust.)
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Well, let’s not act like a song that was cobbled together to promote hand-washing early in the pandemic is really a Dreamcatcher track, lol. It’s kind of like saying wow I really like BTS and Gfriend but this “Wednesday Everyday” song sucks!!!!
(Throwback to simpler times lol)
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Haha, fair! I just mentioned it because it’s one of the few hints we have of a lighter, more summer-y sound (aside from their MINX stuff) from them. I don’t think it will sound anything like it. XD
God this song though. :))))))))) Thanks for making me miss GFriend for the 2978652389th time :(( Even songs I’ve never been a huge fan of (like Fever) hit different now.
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WHAT!!!! I mean, both songs are amazing but I did not vision ‘View’ losing in a million years… oh well.
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Ahh congrats to Let Me but it IS annoying it won in that way. I appreciate that this blog is a relatively fandom-free space. That is unfortunately pretty hard to find in the K-Pop world.
Oh well, this was still a lot of fun and I got to discover some great songs! Btw, I took your recommendation to listen to the entire Solo Day mini album, and it is SO GOOD! I especially really like A Glass of Water.
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I’m so glad you liked it! A Glass of Water (which was originally supposed to be “beer,” I recall…) was my instant standout as well. In the years that followed, the album’s slower, groovier tracks became even more addictive as well. I LOVE You Make Me A Fool.
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I just looked up the translation of the lyrics, and beer definitely makes more sense within the context of the song lol! You Make Me a Fool is also great…maybe my third favorite after the title and A Glass of Water… but I don’t know, they are all really good!
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I totally agree. I mostly listen to girl groups, and I didn’t know these summer gems existed.
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Yeah well… we all hoped that it would be a genuine voting contest based on the merits of each song instead of a silly pissing contest. However, we all know that this is one of the tenets of the Kpop culture. Fandom-driven, fandom-based, fandom-crazed. It was entertaining, to say the least.
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Kind of frustrating, but expected. After Aroha did the vote-rigging, I knew the competition would not be safe. If it was any compensation, I appreciate Loving U and have given a lot more listens after the competition.
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I’ll take that win!
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Thanks for letting me know about Dreamcatcher!
I’m hoping they mix up the summer formula and go full metal. Part of their charm is that you can always count on them to come through with SOME kind of rock, even if the B-sides are more experimental.
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My “Songs of the Summer” ranked (higher is better):
==Favorites tier==
ONF – Complete
Sistar – Loving U
f(x) – Hot Summer
SHINee – View
BLACKPINK – As If It’s Your Last
==Still solid==
Astro – Breathless (Thanks for introducing me to this one)
Golden Child – Let Me
ATEEZ – Wave
ITZY – Icy
==All songs below here in the same level of “I listened to them for the poll then forgot what they sounded like”; AKA mid-tier==
UP10TION – Tonight
B1A4 – Solo Day
Girl’s Day – Darling
WJSN – Boogie Up
==I actively dislike songs below here==
Red Velvet – Red Flavor
EXO – Ko Ko Bop
Girls’ Generation – Party
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Loving u would’ve been my top pick too! I don’t even know Sistar that well. I’m a SNSD fan but I can admit that party is one of the weaker songs on the bracket. I like that I didn’t know most of the boy groups songs (I knew solo day, view, and complete) so I was able to be more objective with those. Thank you again Nick, for being about the music and not the idol worship. I can even look at the comment sections of most kpop videos because it’s so cringe 😬. The bias list forever!!!
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My intellect: Well, I love Golden Child, and this is about as perfect a slice of sunny pop-punk as you would ever want. It’s nice to see them get attention. Congratulations!
My heart: IT BEAT VIEW? What are you guys smoking?
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Fandoms are so funny, the way they’ll mobilize for literally anything. I have to wonder what they thought they were achieving here… as I understand it, most of the readership of this blog are already fans of Golcha, so it’s kind of preaching to the choir.
Maybe it’d be easier to avoid the votes being skewed if you used a platform other than Twitter next time? (I know the polling service you used to use started charging an arm and a leg, but maybe there is some other way.)
All that being said, I’m happy to hand this one to Golcha, according to my personal preference. View is a legendary song, but it doesn’t put me in the mind of summer as much as Let Me, personally.
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