There are a number of acts who have debuted in the past few decades and have dozens of song ratings on this blog. I thought it would be fun to lay these ratings out in chronological order, line-graph style, and take a macro view of their careers so far. Then, similar to my “Underrated K-pop” features, I can average their ratings into one mega-score and place them in a pantheon alongside other acts.
As always, this feature has some rules of its own. I’m including any “Song Review” ratings as part of this graph, including Japanese releases and collaborations with one other artist. I’m not including Buried Treasures or solo/sub-unit releases. For the ratings themselves, I’m using the most current number on this blog, so if a song was part of a “Risers and Fallers” or “Legendary Songs Inauguration” post, that’s the rating you’ll see displayed here. That means there will still be a few ratings here and there I find slightly inaccurate, but it’ll mostly reflect my up-to-date feelings.
Finally, these scores are completely subjective. Feel free to agree, disagree and argue (that’s part of the fun!), but know that this chart reflects the opinion of only one person (me).
Check out ILLIT’s placement on the ULTIMATE ARTIST RANKING page!
ILLIT: A Career In Song Ratings
The Breakdown
Highest Rated Songs
Lowest Rated Songs
Imperial Phases
Little Monster -> Toki Yo Tomare (2025)
Slump Phases
Lucky Girl Syndrome -> Almond Chocolate (2024-2025)
Not Cute Anymore -> It’s Me (2025-2026)
Rating Average: 7.80
Overall Trendline:
The Bias List // K-Pop Reviews & Discussion 
Oh Do The Dance, you’ll never be the bad song they so paint you to be ❤
But yeah, it’s prolly their only good song (Magnetic comes close), rest is just meh.
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Do the dance is definitely their best song.
Their first EP is all solid songs though. I think this is way too harsh on lucky girl syndrome, and in my world is amazing.
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I agree their first album was actually decent and cohesive. The second one is their worst in my opinion
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They rip off a group, the group ends up in trouble, and now Illit has no material to pull from to rip off
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There’s Katseye. But even Katseye is in trouble now.
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they can go in literally any direction (including the one you mention). Katseye is going to be fine mostly due to how many kids love them. Older fans might decrease though
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The entire industry tends to cannbalize itself. It happens over and over. To say they have nothing to pull from is weird when new jeans had sources they were pulling from. Yhey didn’t create their own sound, they created their own lane for their generation of kpop. The rip off comment can be applied to many groups and songs when you use such a low standard for it and illit has always been distinct enough by adding more electronic and dance elements to their music. Their Japanese discography is also unlike the other hype gg’s in sound
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That’s the thing. Pretty much every idol group is derivative of something. There are very few (if any) new ideas in pop music. That’s not necessarily bad either, as long as the songs are good. That’s why I tend to harp on an element like melody, which to me is the most timeless piece of a song and can cut through even the most derivative material and leave its mark (or draw power from the nostalgia attached to derivation!).
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Just like BAP, all the boy groups that debuted after them were derived from the BAP project which ended the 2nd generation and started a new wave in kpop.
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Magnetic is the song that got me into K-pop!
5. Little Monster
4. Jellyous
3. It’s Me
2. Tick-Tack
1. Magnetic
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I’ll probably just sound like a hater for saying all of this, but we’re here not only for the music, but because of the artists too, right? So this has to have some degree of relevance when talking about them. It’s not like we’re here ready to listen to parrots put together a band, we’re talking about artists. That said… Illit is one of the most disappointing contemporary K-pop groups. It is a group heavily shaped by trends, even though a lot of this stems from hybe itself, that is the result. And, as has happened with so many other groups, I think this is the kind of group that will only make sense once some time has passed and we can look back in retrospect, understanding what actually endured from it all. And in this case, I’d say it’s going to take years, because it’s the kind of group you don’t even feel like revisiting, given how disappointing they were right from the start. The worst part is that there’s a strong possibility time won’t be kind to them, that years down the line, I’ll still listen to the songs and see nothing but a wave of sound that capitalized on a fleeting moment of hype. I’m somewhat indifferent, really, I simply don’t care what (or who) they draw inspiration from, or about the concept or the intensity of the performance, I just want good material, that’s all
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I believe you are talking about most KPOP groups then, especially the newer 5th gen where most inspirations to draw trend from had already been exhausted. KPOP is never about originality as they became famous through concept aesthetic (visual) and performances. Using trend is just their way of marketing the song.
KPOP industry itself capitalized on trend, its nothing new it is just a matter of which trend period they used. From newjeans 2000 Y2K era to KiiKiii 2010 electropop era. Its never about material problem, but its execution. As long as its done right and we get good music, I don’t really mind where it came from.
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I believe this is also purely a matter of your own perceptual construct, rather than an established norm, much in the same way I explained that it is subjective
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the best
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I appreciate a lot of their material more than you do. That being said, billyeoon goyangi is a 10/10 for me and I’ve been very disappointed by their failure to keep expanding on that sound.
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