This is a strange era for K-pop… at least when it comes to my own experience. On one hand, there are a handful of acts I feel more invested in than ever, which is the feeling everyone wants as a fan. In some ways, I’m more interested in K-pop than I have been in awhile, but this interest is pretty funneled into the acts I follow. If I zoom out to the industry on a larger scale, the overall song quality is definitely lacking this year and even the standouts don’t necessarily feel like future classics.
For this mid-year countdown, I’m casting my net somewhat wide. Included are a few tracks that are certainly making it into my year-end top ten alongside many that will more likely fight for spots in the top twenty or thirty. As ever, I’ve alphabetized the artists rather than rank them. That final ranking will come in December.
Readers, what were your favorite singles during the first half of 2025?
TOP SINGLES
BOYNEXTDOOR – If I Say, I Love You
My preferred track of their two 2025 singles and a song that’s quickly become their biggest-ever hit. Its quirky sound is a great conduit for their colorful character. (full review)
The Boyz – VVV
One of the very few 2025 title tracks that offered an extended runtime to unleash as many musical highlights as possible. I’d go as far as saying this is The Boyz’ best ever single, and that’s quite a feat given their past discography. (full review)
CRAVITY – SET NET G0?!
A quirky little wiggle of a summer song, anchored by a rugged electro stomp and wisps of vocal melody that give it a unique flair. (full review)
Fairy Mai – Light Please
Exciting sounds often emerge from K-pop’s indie side, and idol-member-turned-soloist Fairy Mai harnesses engaging rhythms that eclipse many of her big-budget peers. (full review)
fromis_9 – Like You Better
A bounding, buoyant summer dance track with open hearted melodies that encourage you to sing along at the top of your lungs. This is a rollicking antidote to K-pop’s current love of subdued sounds. (full review)
Hearts2Hearts – Style
After a muted debut, SM Entertainment’s newest girl group delivers the kind of bubbly house track that often heralds the summer season. This sound gets me every time. (full review)
NouerA – N.I.N (New Is Now)
Harnessing elements from K-pop’s past results in the year’s strongest debut so far. Refreshingly, this sounds nothing like global trends, opting for a specific style unique to this industry. (full review)
NTX – Over N Over
Speaking of eras past, Over N Over recalls the upbeat, carefree sound of the early-2010’s with energy to spare. It’s a tried and true formula that hits all the pleasure centers. (full review)
ONF – The Stranger
ONF have topped my year-end chart twice, and their consistent track record expands with this synth-funk banger. Their music is just so reliably great. (full review)
RIIZE – Bag Bad Back
Probably my biggest grower of the year? Initially, I balked at the song’s NCT-like sound, but its sense of humor and bombastic production kept it going on my playlist. (full review)
RIIZE – Fly Up
An old school rock n roll beat collides with High School Musical cheese for this upbeat sing-along. It’s not necessarily RIIZE’s strongest point, but the infectious energy is difficult to resist. (full review)
STAYC – Bebe
“Sing-talk” has been a major problem this year, but when you marry it to an exciting dance beat I can’t help but bop along. This was another huge grower for me this year. (full review)
TWS – Countdown!
This song shares many facets with the group’s 2024 work, but I might actually prefer the melodies and production here. In 2025’s sea of laidback energy, TWS burst forth with thrilling force, fueled by one of the year’s best choruses. (full review)
TWS – Lucky To Be Loved
Showcasing their range, the moodier Lucky To Be Loved was a slow-burn success, buoyed by a beautiful set of melodies that draw out the most appealing aspects of boy group sentimentality. (full review)
The Wind – Only One
Speaking of “boy group sentimentality,” The Wind has this particular brand of “Christian horse boy” music down pat. With this track, they manage to deliver a sweet, classically girl group sound I’ve been missing. They’re living up to their “BFriend” nickname. (full review)
ZEROBASEONE – Blue
ZEROBASEONE are on a roll, and this widescreen pop anthem presents them at their best. The surging chorus is addictive, egged on by a bombastic arrangement and upbeat energy. (full review)
The Bias List // K-Pop Reviews & Discussion 
Ooh, the contenders for the top song of this year sounds SOLID. Money’s on either VVV, Countdown or N.I.N lol, but well, only time will tell :p
Anyways, here’s my top 10:
1- VVV (The Boyz)
2- Like You Better (fromis_9)
3- N.I.N (NouerA)
4- Blue (ZB1)
5- The Stranger (ONF)
6- Lipstick (Fairy Mai x KAIOS)
7- Light Please (Fairy Mai)
8- Zen (Jennie)
9- Air (Yeji)
10- Rock Steady (Younite)
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top 5 is the same as mine!
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Which song is your personal favourite of the bunch? Mine would probably be Blue 🙂
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You know I’m not going to reveal that until December! 😏
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Midyear 2025 My list, my rules, bisdes are fine. My list goes up to about mid-June 2015
1 Riize “Odyssey” – sounds like the New Jeans vocal styling meets Carl Sagan, which is to say it sounds both contemporary and far out like nothing else in the kpop universe this year
2 The Boyz “VVV” – Nick might say “propulsive”. He did not but he should have. It’s awesome and does not stop. The bridge just makes you want to mooooove.
3 ONF “The Stranger” classic kpop boy group sound done well
4 Daesung “Universe” – full leading man with full belting voice showing how its done
5 NouerA “NIN – New Is Now” – apparently I listened to this one a lot, I mean a lot
6 NouerA “Bring the Crunk” – also this one, apparently a lot. Note: no actual crunk was harmed in the production of this song.
7 Riize “Ember to Solar” – it has ambition and delivers on it. If I have a quibble that brings the ranking down, it is that the refrain of the title words as sung does not match the meter of the same words as spoken, and quite awkwardly so. It drives me nuts every time. I pretend the syllables are in Korean to get over it.
8 NMixx “Know About Me” – slinky
9 CIX “Thunder” – just like their “Cinema” from a few years ago, sometimes their songs just work well
10 QWER “Dear” – bright poppy uncomplicated, and I am all for it
Guilty Pleasure: P1Harmony “Duh” – I mean, duh, and it is so dumb, but I seem to play it anyway
KBallad worth knowing: Zo Zazz “Don’t You Know” – the complete unknown debuting at middle age with a cover of an old Davichi written by Rocoberry. It is a classic kballad sound that has been at the top of the Gaon/Circle charts for a long while, ahead of all of the above.
Kpop adjacent find of the year: Fairy Mai “Lipstick” and “Light Please”
Worth following more: TOUCHED “Last Day” and Dragon Pony “Not Out”
Finally, the “I don’t hate it” award: idle “Good Thing” good thing. Holy moly shit.
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I’m relieved to see someone else is just as obsessed with Odyssey (the track) as I am. I’m loving the entire album, but I just keep going back to that awesome moody synth loop, the understatedly catchy melodies and vocal delivery, and the nostalgic-but-modern house music feel. It’s so good. Another Life is incredible as well so sometimes I’ll just play those two back to back nonstop lol.
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Me too. I wonder if it’s the same brains behind the intro for NCT Dream’s Dreamscape, because that was a mini masterpiece as well.
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Would Ember to Solar have made it in the countdown if it had a proper video? I’m so annoying at how little SM promoted the track along with Another Life (a crime, reminds me of the wasted potential of ATEEZ’s Cyberpunk as a promotional single).
Anyways, sounds like BBB was this year’s Love 119. I personally still have some aversion to it, but it’s definitely grown.
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Ember To Solar definitely would have made it. I’m annoyed as well that they didn’t just go all in and promote with a full music video.
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I was peeved at that “track video” too. Why release half a track like that? Makes sense as part of the movie they made but as a standalone it’s just confusing. A performance video would have been better.
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Surprised CIX’s Thunder didnt make it onto here……..I listened to it a week ago for the first time in a while and the chorus just hits like a sledgehammer…..
oh and also speaking of sledgehammers I also listened to MVP’s Take It recently……and HOW WAS THIS SONG AN 8.75???!?!? Easy 10 right out the bat from me lol
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nick, you wrote like you more instead of like you better 🫠
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Thanks! 😅
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my favorites in order of how much I listened to them:
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This year’s been so dismal, I honestly can’t hum a single one of those titles above. I know I’ve heard them, but I can’t recall a single melody.
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Okay, I’ve been relistening to these now, and I was unduly harsh. These are good tunes, I guess I’ve been listening to indie a lot lately and kind of strayed from K-pop:)
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By the numbers, so far in 2025, I have downloaded 39 kpop songs. In 2020 to end of June, it was 141. In 2019 to the end of June, it was 179. And so on.
My list above for 2025 to mid-June is just about the end of list. There is no more on the list. That is how 2025 is going.
Anyway, The Boyz VVV yassss.
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i know this post is supposed to celebrate the best songs of the year but honestly this just reminded me how half of the year is already over damn
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Title tracks:
1.VVV, The Boyz
2. The Chase, Hearts2Hearts
3. Blue, ZB1
4. 100!, One Pact
5. Like You Better, fromis_9
B-sides:
6. Lucky to Be Loved, TWS
7. Another Life, RIIZE
8. Love Like That, EVNNE
9. How to Dance, Close Your Eyes
10. Run Wild, &TEAM
This is in no particular order except I have the feeling VVV will be my top song of the year.
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Listening to all the lists made by everyone and reflecting on my favorites, I’m actually still quite happy with this year so far. There is actually a nice amount of variety, even if it can feel like we get release after release that sound so similar. I think there’s simply so much music coming out, I forget the highlight reel is really quite great.
I would include most of what everyone has already mentioned as some of my favorites, but some of my highlights on the half year that I haven’t seen mentioned yet are…
Minnie – Her: This one grew on me so much. The bass and style of the song is so addicting.
NMixx – High Horse: Such an interesting vocally focused song. I just don’t tire of it.
Kickflip – Freeze: Monster chorus, and the fun they have with it is just nice.
Chuu – Kiss a Kitty: She puts so much personality into it, it’s just silly and not subtle at all and i love it.
LSF – Hot: all the vocal melodies are so good in this and it is such a pleasant listen. Nothing too flashy but still a really nice song.
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My enthusiasm for current kpop has been in the pits this year, and I’m holding it all with a looser hand than I did the previous couple of years. Nevertheless, I’m still spending a notable amount of time attempting to keep up with it all. I have some things I haven’t got to yet and a lot of things I need to relisten in order to fully suss out their standings, but here is where things currently stand in my current sorting system of A-list and B-list.
Anyway, it’s mostly been G-Dragon, RIIZE, and Xdinary Heroes for me. HM to Zico’s kids.
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VVV supremacy!
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My top 10 songs:
1. Minnie – Obsession (feat. TEN) 10/10
2. LISA – Born Again 9.8/10
3. NMIXX – Know About Me 9.6/10
4. Minnie – Blind Eyes Red 9.5/10
5. Jennie – ZEN 9.5/10
6. NMIXX – Papillon 9.5/10
7. Hearts2Hearts – The Chase 9.4/10
8. Minnie – Cherry Sky 9.2/10
9. IVE – REBEL HEART 9.2/10
10. (G)I-DLE – Girlfriend 9.2/10
Best albums:
1. Minnie – HER
2. NMIXX – Fe304: FORWARD
3. Le Sserafim – Hot
4. Yeji – Air
5. Seulgi – Accidentally On Purpose
I honestly didn’t expect to like Minnie’s album this much. 3 songs from her EP made it to my top10 songs and if I were to make top11 then there would be a 4th one (“It’s Okay” is amazing damn!). Good acts from NMIXX (this album changed my life), Jennie (just experimental & iconic songs) and a nice H2H debut. But other than that I haven’t enjoyed most of the comebacks and I gotta say this year has been dissapointing so far.
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NMIXX Know About Me, that’s my favorite song of 2025 so far. Do The Dance is growing more and more though.
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kpop so far has just been fine, only thing exciting me right now is bts’s imminent return after exiting their military service (have saved a bunch of money to go see them soon, have plenty of time to earn more so pls give me some art commissions on twitter, my @ is SantouryuZorosh (shameless plug i know))
my top 5 kpop songs would be:
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My rough top 10 without any artist repeats:
1 – NMIXX – Know About Me
2 – ATEEZ – Lemon Drop
3 – MARK – Fraktsiya (December!)
4 – TEN – STUNNER
5 – KiiKii – I Do Me
6 – xikers – BREATHE
7 – RIIZE – Ember to Solar
8 – KickFlip – Knock Knock
9 – Daesung – Universe
10 – QWER – PLAY, WE, DEW
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I’ve not been blown away by this year’s output thus far, but I have liked songs here and there.
My current top 10 for this year (alphabetical):
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Mine will include December-May. All of June’s releases need to settle a bit before I can assess their longevity. Sadly, this was an easy list to curate:
TITLES:
BSIDES:
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I remember thinking this time last year that K-pop was literally reaching a peak. Now, 2025, feels a little bit less exciting and releases have been less consistent? Anyway, we still got a couple more months ahead of us, more comebacks, EPs and albums to drop.
For my list, I’ll just take my top 10 most replayed Apple Music songs but will only include one per artist for the sake of variety?
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As many others, I’ve noticed that my K-pop playlist hasn’t grown as much this year, but a few highlights really stuck.
VVV – THE BOYZ (hands down my favorite of the year)
All My Poetry – Close your eyes
New is Now – Nouera
Ember to Solar – RIIZE (a single in my heart)
Another Life – RIIZE (now I’m just cheating)
Blue – ZEROBASEONE
Lucky To Be Loved – TWS
We’ll see what the next few months bring…
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Nice to see a lot of comments here on the best of the year. It will make consensus analysis easy. Anyway, here is what I think best summarizes the best of the state of Korean music in 2025!
SET NET G0?! – CRAVITY
Born Again – LISA, Doja Cat, RAYE
New Is Now – NouerA
Rendezvous – AHOF
All My Poetry – CLOSE YOUR EYES
Icarus – ARTMS
Not a Dream – Song Sohee
KNOW ABOUT ME – NMIXX
ZEN – Jennie
STUNNER – TEN
ExtraL – Jennie, Doechii
Stop the Rain – Tablo, RM
The Stranger – ONF
High Horse – NMIXX
Never Ending Story – IU
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I’ve been keeping a list:
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I click these list out of curiosity as my only Kpop interest is Ateez and Xlov (outside of those two, I listen to too much electro rock.) But, I’m hoping to find a song from the list that I can add to my collection of songs, overall. Kpop has never been my thing but I will find a good song every so often. Thank you for these list!
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I don’t even understand what is it about Lucky to be loved that makes it so good for me. Of course I know why I prefer it to Countdown, since I naturally gravitate towards the moodier more sentimental sound. But still, it shouldn’t grip me so much in theory, it is a pretty straightforward feel-good song and the main idea of this type of song often doesn’t appeal to me. And yet. There is something so flawless about the execution of the song, the singing and the dancing and the genuine excitement and emotion they convey that just gets me every time. My point is, there are songs on this list that are objectively better than this one, but this is the only song that truly makes me want to stan a group. The last time I said “oh look they are genuinely so excited and happy to perform, this is so endearing” I became an army so, yeah. Kudos to TWS.
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In no particular order, the songs that have stuck with me the most this year have been The Chase by Hearts2Hearts (wow melodies, and it genuinely feels like a distinct concept), Melt Inside My Pocket by NCT Wish, Mars by Twice, Flu by IVE, Stress by Chung Ha, Watching TV by Mark, Crash by Rescene, and Stunner by Ten.
It hasn’t been a super overwhelming year for me in regards to good music, but I have really high hopes for Key’s upcoming album given his track record.
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Oh! And High Horse by NMIXX and Icarus by ARTMS. Those were incredible.
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A new “Soda Pop” like song that might be fun to throw into to your rotation for Halloween Music. A blast of sugar ode to halloween candy. You can hear it below.
part of a 4 song Halloween K-Pop EP by Vvviid.
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