The end of the year countdowns are finally here! As always, we’ll kick off with the big one: The Bias List’s top 50 songs of the year! Each day this week, I’ll be counting down ten of the year’s best, until number one is revealed on Friday.
To be eligible for this top 50 list, songs must have had a Korean release as a title track, follow-up or promotional video between Dec. 1st, 2022 and Nov. 30th, 2023.
Curious about past countdowns? Check out the masterpost here!
Honorable Mentions
SONGS 50-41
SONGS 40-31
SONGS 30-21
20. Soyou – Aloha (ft. Bora)
My dream of a full summertime Sistar reunion remains unfulfilled, but songs like Aloha get us halfway there. Like a cool drink on a hot summer’s day, this is so pleasant and refreshing. (full review)
19. from20 – Beat It
from20 hit us with two synth bangers this year, proving that there’s still life in the beat-drop-chorus format if the beat drop in question is this dynamic. It’s a commanding sound. (full review)
18. Jungkook (BTS) – Standing Next To You
While Jungkook’s pre-release tracks were total earworms, Standing Next To You served the full musical meal. He fits this old-school funk sound like a glove, offering a smooth performance over the track’s sinewy groove. (full review)
17. TXT – Back For More (ft. Anitta)
TXT’s main title tracks didn’t quite soar for me, but this pre-release collaboration caught the group at their funky best. I actually prefer the version without Anitta (that second verse!), but whichever track you choose, make sure it’s equipped with the outstanding dance break outro. (full review)
16. The Wind – Island
Like their namesake, The Wind blew in like a fresh spring breeze, bringing a bit of debut-era GFriend cosplay with them. It’s an approach I’ll gladly celebrate — especially when stacked against the dark, shouty fare delivered by many of their peers. (full review)
15. Jeon Somi – Fast Forward
Many have called Fast Forward little more than generic dance pop, but this is a style that hits all my pleasure centers. From the dynamic pre-chorus to the warped vocal hook at its center, this was one of the year’s most enduring club anthems. (full review)
14. RIIZE – Memories
RIIZE toed the line between NCT-style hip-hop and refreshing melodies on pre-release Memories. I prefer the latter approach for their music, but the song’s hodgepodge structure works surprisingly well. The chugging chorus is a real standout. (full review)
13. The Wind – We Go
The Wind took a stronger rock influence for their first comeback, surging out of the gate with classic K-pop style and a soaring chorus that takes advantage of their strong vocals. (full review)
12. Tempest – Dangerous
Tempest continue to face a musical identity crisis, but when they embrace their funk side they’re nearly unstoppable. Dangerous is anchored by a barreling beat and freewheeling energy that keeps things light and bouncy all the way through. (full review)
11. NCT Dream – Broken Melodies
I did not expect anthemic pomp rock from NCT Dream, but Broken Melodies‘ sense of bombast brings it the closest to the top ten that any NCT act has managed in years. The go-for-broke bridge is absolutely huge. (full review)
The Bias List // K-Pop Reviews & Discussion 
The Wind had so poor stayability on my list. Might not even make top 50 D:
Looking at some of these songs though. Are we even reviewing kpop anymore? The songs by txt, somi, jungkook feel more like standard western pop fare than anything else.
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Times have definitely changed, haven’t they?
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So true actually
I mean, I’m not surprised that Jungkook is releasing pure western songs in english, but these others ones tho…
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surprised to see Fast Forward so high, but honestly, deserved. it’s a massive bop. hope it’s Somi’s sound going forward but knowing that man it’s unlikely. love Standing Next To You, Back For More, Memories and Broken Melodies as well.
either Kitsch didn’t make it, or it’s top 10…
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The damn gold gold gold song is also a secret guilty pleasure. *sigh*
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lip gloss top 10 😩
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4 of these make my top 25 or so (NCT Dream – Broken Melodies, JK – Standing Next to You, Soyou & Bora – Aloha, from20 – Beat It), but the rest never clicked with me.
I’m starting to think we’re not going to see NewJeans on your list! HAHA 🙂
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Why would we? Their music was extremely lackluster this year.
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I think millions of people around the world would disagree with you that their music was “extremely lackluster”: Ditto spent an unprecedented 14 weeks at #1 in the Korean charts, shattering previous records by BTS, Girls’ Generation, Brave Girls, Wonder Girls, et al. OMG wasn’t that far behind, being the 23rd most-streamed song on Spotify this year.
Critics would disagree as well, as Ditto won Song of the Year at both the Melon and MAMA Music Awards. Meanwhile, Super Shy was named the 2nd best song of the year by the NME, 3rd best song by the Guardian and Stereogum; as well as Rolling Stone (6th), Pitchfork (7th), Vulture (10th), Billboard (38th), NPR, etc.
I mean, it’s fine not to like those tunes. But objectively speaking, they had a huge year, and their music resonated with millions around the world.
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I don’t consider Ditto a 2023 release, seeing as it was released in december 2022.
I would also point out that Ditto released in the dead of winter and had zero competition. Both Ive and New Jeans’ later performances outdid its Melon numbers and would’ve removed it.
Ditto would also have been outdone by Celebrity, Lilac, Still life, Dynamite/Butter, Tomboy and any of the other songs that hit PAK on ichart the last years.
That being said, Ditto was still a massive hit.
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I seem to remember Ditto came out a few days before Christmas; it’s a ’23 song in that most lists (including Bias List) exclude December releases; and the fact that its chart success was throughout the first half of ’23. I agree though that one reason for its success was that it didn’t have much competition. But its drum&bass/flamenco beat was pretty innovative, and imo the music video is the best of the year. I love Spanish literature like Borges, Cortazar, and Garcia Marquez, and the MV taps into that kind of vibe.
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I don’t really care what critics have to say about anything.
Music critics, like movie or game critics, are nothing, lol.
You can take Soshi’s name outta your mouth as well. They did their entire sets live at MAMA while winning Daesangs and selling more albums than any BG at the time.
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If you studied art or literature, you’d spend a great deal of time studying how works were received by critics of their time, and how the understanding of a text changed over time. You can’t study Joyce or Van Gogh without studying how their works were understood and received. Popular culture theory looks at this as well. I’ve always been fascinated by critical reception (and this is a critic’s blog, after all), and it’s always interesting to see paradigm shifts in real time, as works formerly dismissed (or conversely, championed) are re-evaluated.
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I have studied literature, and that does little to convince me that their 2023 releases haven’t been extremely lackluster.
New Jeans are carried by their brand and HYBE money.
No western critic would’ve bat an eye if Rocket Punch released Supershy or ETA.
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Personally, I love NewJeans’ work *despite*, not because of, their association with Hybe. In my opinion, Hybe’s artists’ work has declined precipitously across the board, from BTS to TXT & Enhypen to Seventeen to Le Sserafim. I love those artists, but I don’t love the work they’ve been putting out of late; or at least, it’s not at the level it used to be. IMO, NewJeans is the one thing going right for Hybe at the moment. I know JK, V, and Jimin had huge streaming numbers this year, but I personally don’t rank anything they did as being in the top 10 of their best work. And while Le Sserafim debuted the same time as NewJeans, I don’t think they matched their previous output.
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Looks like you guys are going to have to agree to disagree on this. Nothing wrong with that!
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there was no chance, not even an indication, of NewJeans ever making the top 10.
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Oh I know. It’s not Nick’s thing, I was just teasing him. They’d be all over my top 10 or 20 list (with Ditto & Super Shy at 1-2), but I don’t come to this site to see my own tastes reflected back to me. Just the opposite, I pick up a lot of tunes to love that I’d otherwise might not find, and Nick compellingly writes about the tunes he loves, so that I often come around on a lot of them. It’s my favorite K-pop site, there’s no competition 🙂
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It’s always interesting to read what people here have to say😅 I wanted to ask this, lately when I stumble upon a MV from NewJeans, I end up wondering how things on youtube aren’t as they used to be. What I mean is that the number of views there on their videos just seemed weirdly low. For example I can compare them to some of Seventeen’s b-sides, whose audios have milions of views, I’m talking about just the audio of the song.. But the thing with MV is definitely different than a few years ago, and I wonder what happened there?
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Actually I retract my statement. OMG might make it into my top 50 lol.
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ETA was an honorable mention for OP haha.
I didn’t vibe with their output this year as much as that of last year (“Hype Boy”, “Attention”) although I liked ETA.
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I can definitely see The Feeling (SHINee), Get a guitar (Riize), and Turn it off (nine.i) in your top 10 for this year. Curious to see what the other 7 will be, maybe Lip Gloss (The boyz) and I Am (IVE)
I know it’s unlikely since you mentioned you didn’t really love these, but maybe Guilty (Taemin), Chill Kill (RV), Perfume (NCT DJJ) or Hear me Out (Exo), I don’t know if Hold on Tight (aespa) counts? Eve (Le Sserafim)
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The question is, will Turn It Off rank #1? Last year, I was sure RoaD-B/Sweetune’s Nonstop would be his #1, but it went to Replay. I’m wondering if Golden Child can pull if off again, or is there a dark horse lurking (like IVE’s I Am?)… I’m anxious to see who it is;)
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Predicting the Top 10 would have Get a Guitar, I Am, Killer (maybe?), The Wonderful Escape (maybe?) and Feel Me (It’s Golcha ❤).
I haven’t listened that much to stuff to have such detailed top 50 this time – might attempt a top 10 with HM though! 🙂
Also there were definitely some unexpected surprises in the rankings this time! 😀
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It was hard for me to have a top 50 too being an off year for kpop for me, so I just have a top 30.
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To get to this 11-20 section on my list, a song had to have above average play count, I can sing along to it very well (or at least intone an approximation of the consonants and vowels), but I will admit to skipping the song from time to time. (My top ten are all unskippables.)
In alphabetical order
Ateez “Halazia” a nice quietly dramatic mid-tempo
Dreamcatcher “Bon Voyagee”
Le Sserafim “Eve, Psyche etc” – my biggest grower
NINE.i “Turn it off” though I still think it sounds like “Turn it on”
Purple Kiss “Autopilot”
Roy Kim “We go high” – so easy to harmonize with
SF9 “Puzzle”
The Boyz “Stealer”
Xikers “Rockstar”
Zerobaseone “Back to Zerobase”
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Did you mean The Boyz’ Watch It or maybe Soar? Stealer was a few years ago😬
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The Boyz “Stealer” from some OST in Spring. Perhaps called “A Stealer” instead of “THE Stealer”, but they are two different songs.
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Ah! Sorry for the mix up then. I don’t know anything about OSTs except for the Boys Over Flowers one😂
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This Stealer kind of sounds like THE Stealer + Watch It + the sax from Talk Saxy + traditional Korean singing!
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Definitely surprised that “Back to Me” and “Standing Next to You” made it this far. Nothing wrong with the songs, I think they are really nice and all that but, are they Kpop? Not in my books✌🏻🙃
My 20-11:
20. AIMERS – Fireworks
19. BoyNextDoor – But Sometimes
18. &TEAM – Fireworks
17. BxB – Fly Away
16. ONEUS – Erase Me
15. Monsta X – Beautiful Liar
14. EPEX – Sunshower
13. TRENDZ – New Dayz
12. RIZZE – Memories
11. TAN – Fix You
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you just said that bfm and snty aret kpop in your books and proceeded to name fireworks by &team lmao
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Hi! I don’t get what’s funny🧐
As far as I know &Team’s “Fireworks” has Kpop elements so I’m not sure what prompted this comment. They even have a Korean version with a performance music video so….🤷🏻♀️
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Oh no I feel like Twice wont be in this years top 50. Can’t really blame nick though their single comeback this year seemed to fade away from memory.
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Oh. My. God.
“The Feeling”, “Killer”, “Get a Guitar”, and “I Am” all made it to the top 10. I repeat, they ALL made it to the TOP 10.
I never expect to enjoy Jungkook’s solo work as much as I did but boy I enjoyed all of his promoted singles for this year (aside from the 3D rap lol).
I cannot wait for tomorrow. It’s going to be a huge battle for first place because based on some of your posts of songs that are rated high and aren’t ranked yet, you enjoyed them a lot. I have a feeling you had a hard time ranking those.
Here’s my top 20-11 bracket:
20. Kwon Eunbi – The Flash
19. DoJaeJung (NCT) – Perfume
18. NMIXX – Love Me Like This
17. ATEEZ – Halazia
16. NCT Dream – Broken Melodies
15. TXT – Back for More (with Anitta) (Performance ver.)
14. NMIXX – Roller Coaster
13. Cravity – Groovy
12. æspa – Spicy
11. RIIZE – Memories
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Bro, I totally though killer was released last year because when Nick made a post on Kenzie and mentioned Killer, Forever 1 (snsd) and Pop (Nayeon), I seemed to be under the assumption that it was last year
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so i dont really have that many kpop songs in my top 50 this year, so my 20-11 is gonna include a mix of korean, japan, and global songs
20. a real man – news
19. tapestry – snow man
18. killer – key
17. crazy love – xy
16. satellite – bebe rexha and snoop dogg
15. purple rain – sexy zone
14. like a saviour – ellie goulding
13. standing next to you – jungkook
12. feel me – golden child
11. 2 much – ryugujo
anyway, pop base is doing their “song of the year” awards on twitter, and most of the songs are pretty lame lol. i already posted my ranking of each song on my twitter account, but i’ll post it here as well tomorrow
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ok so heres my prediction for ur top 10:
1. turn it off – ninei
2. feel me – golcha
3. i am – ive
4. the feeling – shinee
5. the wonderful escape – ukiss
6. lip gloss – tbz
7. heartbeat – tan
8. summer vacation – the wind
9. killer – key
10. get a guitar – riize
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Loved seeing RIIZE with memories up on here. that chill youthful vibe really suits them and it was personally my favorite of the 3 releases!! Surprised Fast Forward is on there especially because of its lack of longevity but heyyy cant hate in my girl for too long. She tapped into a old genre (EDM/ vogue) that needed a breath of life AND delivered
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Yeah, I figured “Sugar Rush Ride” wouldn’t make it, but that’s okay. This is still a great Top 50 list.
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“Standing Next to You” is a great song, I feel it’s better than “3D” and “Seven” production wise and performance, but I like “3D”‘s chorus better. “3D” probably would have been my favorite if it had a better rap part, but overall, I think “Seven” wins this battle as I like the song as a whole.
Didn’t expect to like “Broken Melodies”, but that melody in the chorus just captivates me because it sounds different from what I thought that song would be (a ballad).
“Back For More” was very good, and Anita seems to fit fine, but knowing that I could understand what she was saying. there was one like line where I was like “huh?”
Also enjoyed “Tempest” and “Fast Forward”, the latter giving me Lady Gaga/Madonna vibes plus europop which has sense of funness that I like.
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