The Bias List has been around for over five years now, and ever since the start I’ve been featuring monthly round-ups. This gives me a chance to look back at the end of each month and determine my favorite music from that period. Of course, some months are stronger than others, and that’s what I’m counting down today!
Looking back at every month since January 2016, I’ve compiled the ten most exciting. These months had legendary title tracks, killer albums and momentous debuts. Some of them were just stuffed with releases, offering quantity and quality. Others stake their claim on a few iconic songs that went on to become Bias List favorites.
I limited my pool of choices to 2016-2020. I didn’t want to include any 2021 months since I don’t yet have enough perspective to accurately rank them.
Read on to see which months made the cut. And click the “full round-up” links for extra details (as well as some woeful opinions that haven’t always aged well!).
Honorable Mentions
June 2018
May 2019
September 2018
10. April 2016
What lands it on the list:
- NCT’s incredible debut
- Seventeen’s first album (with the awesome Pretty U)
- VIXX’s last bright, funky comeback
- Twice’s first comeback
- Plenty of great, melodic girl group songs (Laboum’s Journey To Atlantis, April’s Tinker Bell, Lovelyz’s Destiny, Berry Good’s Angel)
FULL RECAP
9. October 2020
What lands it on the list:
- Strong Golden Child comeback with a brighter sound
- DRIPPIN’s debut
- Excellent mini album from TXT
- Twice and BLACKPINK’s best title tracks in years
FULL RECAP
8. March 2019
What lands it on the list:
- My top two songs of 2019
- The excellent debut of TXT
- Strong comebacks from Sunmi, Key and Pentagon
- Park Jihoon’s solo debut
FULL RECAP
7. September 2020
What lands it on the list:
- My favorite song of 2020
- Two other songs that made my top ten that year
- Fantastic albums from YooA, The Boyz and SuperM
- The debut of GHOST9
- BDC’s first release in their “moon” series
- Strong titles from Stray Kids & Wonho
FULL RECAP
6. July 2017
What lands it on the list:
- A pair of iconic legends (Snuper’s The Star Of Stars, Red Velvet’s Red Summer)
- A great EXO album
- AKMU’s return with a more dance-focused sound
- Fantastic summer pop songs from Monsta X and KARD
FULL RECAP
5. November 2016
What lands it on the list:
- So many excellent titles (BLACKPINK, Mamamoo, Astro, B1A4, SHINee)
- One legendary title that should have been my song of the month (Snuper’s It’s Raining)
- Debut of The East Light
- A couple of great full albums (B1A4, B.A.P)
- Some really strong minis (UP10TION, BTOB, Astro)
- Some killer singles (Sistar, Taeyeon)
FULL RECAP
4. July 2016
What lands it on the list:
- Two absolute legends (Seventeen’s Very Nice and GFriend’s Navillera)
- A trio of very strong albums (Astro, Seventeen, GFriend)
- NCT 127’s debut
- A surprise release from Infinite
- Wonder Girls’ final comeback
- Beast’s last album before renaming as Highlight
FULL RECAP
3. August 2017
What lands it on the list:
- The debut of Bias List favorites Golden Child and ONF
- Wanna One’s debut with the iconic Energetic
- Girls’ Generation’s first new album in years
- N.Flying’s first release with new member Hweseung
- The long-awaited return of Bigbang’s Taeyang
- NCT Dream’s last bubblegum pop single (and first mini album!)
- Pristin’s final single
- Samuel’s strong debut
FULL RECAP
2. October 2019
What lands it on the list:
- Albums, albums, albums! So many great albums! (TXT, ATEEZ, DAY6, SuperM, AB6IX, Super Junior, ONF, Taeyeon, etc)
- Stellar title tracks from those albums (TXT, ATEEZ, SuperM, AB6IX)
- Fantastic b-sides (DAY6’s Deep In Love, SuperM’s I Can’t Stand The Rain, ONF’s All Day, etc)
- Very strong titles from Nu’est, Lim Hyunsik and Youngjae
- The first tease of Stray Kids’ new album
FULL RECAP
1. January 2018
What lands it on the list:
- Woollim supremacy (the long-awaited return of Infinite, plus Golden Child’s first comeback (with their strongest mini))
- Sweetune supremacy (Golden Child’s It’s U, Lady – Target’s Tempest)
- Sumni’s Heroine!
- Two iconic 2018 earworms (Momoland’s Bboom Bboom and iKON’s Love Scenario)
- Super strong returns for Oh My Girl, Red Velvet, TRCNG and The East Light
- fromis_9’s debut mini
- Excellent b-sides (Infinite’s Wind, Rainz’s Open Ur Heart, Golden Child’s I’m Falling)
- EXO’s amazing Japanese album
The Bias List // K-Pop Reviews & Discussion 
Huh, June 2018 wasn’t your only 8+ rated month, cuz Sept 2020 had that too 😛
great list though :DDD bit surprised January of all months took the crown but it deserved it
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Oh thanks! I forgot about that one despite it being in my list…
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It’s kind of funny how January used to be the month of nothingness and nugu releases and debuts but has actually shaped up to be fairly impressive over the past few years. Also interesting that no May or Junes made the list considering how often they are jam packed with big name comebacks and releases. It’s made me realize how much the “little guys” (ie. not super A-list groups, especially for boy groups), soloists, and girls have been pulling their weight these days to balance things out and inject some fun and energy into the mix.
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March, August, October 2015 or October 2016?
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I appreciate that the debut of Ghost9 and BDC’s Moon Series are reasons for Sept 2020 making the list lmao
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Personal fav would be Sept 2020 as well. Mainly because it’s the only of these I actually experienced BUT it also gifted me my current favorite kpop song with Criminal as well as the amazingly amazing tracks Favorite Boys, LaDiDa, Feel Good (Secret Code), The Stealer, Think of Dawn, Shoot the Moon, One, and of course Back Door. STELLAR month for kpop
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100% agree on September 2020. I was still a couple months away from moving from casual to serious k-pop fan, but “Favorite Boys” and “Back Door” would end up being big contributors to my becoming a serious fan. I didn’t get into Ghost9, Taemin, or BDC until later, but they’ve become favorites as well.
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I LOVE January 2018, even if would not be my top pick personally haha. Heroine might be one of my favorite songs of the 2010s by miles, and Wind would make it into any top 100 really.
September 2020 is pretty great in my memory too, even if recent.
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will we get a worst months in bias list history?
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I was thinking about it! This July immediately came to mind…
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September 2019 was one of the first things that came to mind, and that’s despite Dreamcatcher releasing some of my favorite material of theirs…
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I tried to play along but it ended up just being a ranking of 2021 since this is the first year I’ve been actively following new releases. July ended up in 7th place but only because of indie and hip-hop releases, plus A.C.E’s “Spark”, which is probably my favorite release from them this year. If I’d limited it to major k-pop releases it would definitely have come in last place.
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that would be great! you can talk about what external factors might have impacted them, what disappointments there were, and maybe the “saving graces” of those months 😛
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I don’t think I can narrow it down to a singular month but I do remember that a good chunk of early 2020 kpop was super dry.
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Oh he hates Savage. Oh he HATES that song.
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