Normally, this time of year I’d be publishing a post about my “songs of the summer” for 2026, but the state of K-pop has forced me to write something else instead. Trust me, I didn’t want to!
I’ve been writing about K-pop for a decade now and been a devoted fan for years longer than that. During this period, I’ve usually looked forward to summer as a time for many K-pop highlights. Music during this season is often upbeat, enjoyable and plentiful. Unfortunately, the summer of 2026 stands out in another way. In all my time doing this, I can’t think of a more disappointing seasonal stretch. With this in mind, I offer a referendum on the past few months. What went wrong this year?
1. “No-chorus” choruses
Structurally, this has been one of the trendiest things to happen in K-pop songwriting over the last few months. Rather than write a full, melodic chorus, the majority of songs opt for spoken-word repetition. No matter how great the production might be, this severely limits a song’s potential for me. It makes me feel like I might as well be listening to an instrumental instead. The artist becomes kind of extraneous. Without a melody, there’s no sense of timelessness. It’s just disposable TikTok-bait. And sadly, this TikTok bait has been rewarded with commercial success.
For reference, half of MelOn‘s current top ten songs fall into this “spoken chorus” category. It’s a dire state of affairs and I fear the industry will learn all the wrong lessons from this.
2. Hyperfixation on trends
K-pop has always been trend-conscious, but this summer felt like we were listening to the same 3-4 songs/sounds repeated over and over again. There just wasn’t much variety, and if you’re someone like me who follows (and writes about) every new comeback, the monotony starts to wear on you.
3. Dull, incomplete songs
The vast majority of songs are still restraining themselves these days, whether that be through sound, runtime or melodic variety. So many summer songs capped out at just over two minutes, giving them very little room to progress toward the kind of climaxes that make a great pop song satisfying. More often than not, I felt like I was listening to incomplete ideas hamstrung by a corporate need to fit within our current streaming ecosystem.
In a similar way, too many summer songs felt designed to be played in the background rather than the foreground. I’m not here for background music – especially when it comes to K-pop! Especially during summer!!
4. No highlights
If we count the summer season as kicking off in mid-June, there were no 9+ rated Korean title tracks on the blog this year. Not a single one. Given that summer is usually a high point for me, this is pretty much unheard of. For reference, last year had six 9+ rated title tracks during this same period. 2024 had four. Without big highlights to anchor all the mid-tier music, it was difficult to find a clear path through all the murk.
5. No big hits
If you look at MelOn‘s top ten songs at the end of this summer, only three were actually released this summer. One was released just a few days ago, one is a remake of an old song and the other is… well… bad. The summer’s biggest hit was actually released all the way back in 2024. This sense of stasis mirrors the issues with global charts right now, but it also says something about the (inert) state of K-pop at this moment.
6. Many singles, fewer albums
A pop career is all about context. A so-so single can sound so much better within the context of an album that makes an intentional statement. But with few actual (good) albums this summer, there was no reason to return to so-so singles on their own. Even the strongest songs felt isolated without a larger musical experience to fit within and play off of.
7. World Cup cancellations
Big summer events can affect K-pop’s release schedule, and at least some of this summer’s fate must be blamed on the World Cup, which led to frequent music show pre-emptions during the entire first half of the season. This still doesn’t explain the lack of quality, though!
8. Lopsided comeback scheduling
Everyone has different biases when it comes to K-pop groups, but the way comeback schedules have been working this year, the vast majority of the acts I usually count on for solid material promoted between April and early June. That left us with a vast swath of time without these acts. This stretch just so happened to correspond with the summer season. This is probably just bad luck on my part, but it does feel like agencies need to space out promotions for artists with similar fan bases so they’re not all competing with each other and us fans can enjoy a more consistent slate of new music.
The Bias List // K-Pop Reviews & Discussion 
Man… the past few months have been DIRE, like I can barely find one monthly highlight…
Anyways, since in India, we generally count April to June as summer and late-June to early September as monsoons, I’d personally count Glow, Mmchk, Atmos, You, You, Motto as my summer highlights. I hope I didn’t rub salt on your wounds with that one though 😅
Anyways, I’d also blame Atmos for this cause that song was so good, it put a curse on the songs that would follow right after to not dare to be even half as good as her! Damn you Atmos!
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Yeah, not gonna lie, almost all of the good “songs of the summer” of the year were released in the spring. :(((
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so everyone just doesn’t listen to BIGBANG
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Anyways, heeseungs title track for his mini album sounds really good if you haven’t listened to the preview! 🥹
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I say anyways because every point you have listed it true. This is the worst kpop summer we I’ve had since becoming a fan in 2021…
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Meanwhile, on my US iTunes, there is all Dolly Parton across the top. Below it, bannered across the middle, is a vast swath of paid placement for Enhypen. A lot of Enhypen. If at first you don’t succeed, market and market again.
Anyway, sometimes I think its just me, me getting old, having heard it all, but really that is it. I look to pop music for fun and hearing something new and hey and wow. Not hearing some 2 minute long poor imitation retread of a sound I heard back in college. If it must be a nostalgia piece, at least make it well done.
For me, so far this year its SHINee Atmos for the win alongside the whole album. Darling daughter has taken a serious liking to Dodree.
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I agree. Atmos is my song of the year right now and may Dolly Parton rest in peace. The magic from kpop is fleeting and when shall it ever return?
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Even in such a barren summer like 2019, we got hits like Boogie Up, Side Effects, Missing, Hit, etc.
Here, we got nothing worthy of a top 10…
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Also Nick, do you think you’ll have to make adjustments to your year end countdown, like making a top 40 songs instead of 50 because you don’t want to include an 8-8.25 in your countdown that would just be taking up space?
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I’ll do a Top 50 regardless. It might not be as strong as past years, though.
J-pop, on the other hand… I don’t know what I’m going to do about that.
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ill say this much: however bad u think this year is for kpop its at least still running laps around the us top 40 (n jpop too tbh)
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I’ve been listening to KiiiKiii’s EP for the past few weeks and their two singles is by far my favorite during this season.
Also Nick I think you’re way too generous to write this. Take away the summer in your title and it basically a sum up of this whole terrible year of K-pop releases.
I’m so scared of this year’s top 50 from you.
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It’s going to look so depressing when an 8.75 is in the top 10 or an 8.5 in the top 25
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Even so, I have a feeling the number of “9+” rated tracks will be enough to cover the top 10 by the end of the year. A lot of times this year, Nick talked about how some songs he initally rated in the 8s grew on him and he’d rate it a 9 now.
I’m rooting for Atmos being in #1 for him lol.
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I know Voyager by Xdinary Heroes grew to a 9 for him. And the other 9+ tracks I know confirmed so far are You, You, Mmchk, Glow, Motto, All the Possibilities and Atmos. So that makes 7 9+ rated songs so far but I’ll try to be optimistic and hope we got 3 more by the end of November
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im hoping odd youth’s cant go back also grows to a 9
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I read an article last month that described the current landscape of KPOP where they branched out into two main success strategy: one built for instant virality on short-form platforms (instantly consumable) and another driven by emotionally immersive music (emotionally durable). This drought of good music cannot be solely blamed into KPOP industry as the global enviroment play a big part as well, especially overreliance on SNS algorithm and streaming culture. Its a nice light reading material.
https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/entertainment/k-pop/20260518/k-pops-2-speeds-viral-hooks-and-poetic-pop-grow-side-by-side
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This is how the article explained the reasons for KPOP song formula changes:
Across the global music industry, tracks have grown shorter, choruses arrive earlier and repetitive hooks have become increasingly central to streaming performance. Songs designed for rapid replay and easy clipping tend to circulate more efficiently online, especially when paired with choreography tailored for fan challenges and short-form participation.
Within the industry, this formula has become less of a stylistic choice and more of a commercial expectation. Streaming platforms reward immediacy, while social media algorithms favor clips that capture attention within seconds. In response, entertainment companies are compressing songs into fast-moving structures designed to maximize replayability and retention.
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The ENTIRE music industry needs to open their eyes. Becasue what happened to making honest and sincere music regardless if it does well on streaming and charts or not?
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I was just at a Polish festival in Chicago. The DJ was blasting ABBA’s Dancing Queen and I said to my friend, “We’re never going to get music this good again, are we?”
It’s a sad thought, but I really can’t see a future where we get another song as life-changing as that one.
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i think you just aren’t looking in the right places. there’s plenty of good music to be found, even if it’s not kpop or top 100 radio fare
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Yea, there are still alot of good songs out there but the standard used to be way higher.
But still going to “expect the unexpected”.
The answer might be right underneath our noses.
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But without monoculture bringing them to the forefront, they lack that universal appeal/transcendence of a “Dancing Queen.” I miss that shared cultural tapestry.
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Band members or indie artists might get away from the trend culture, but idol industry which relied on corporate investment and focused on generating profit just can’t help to accept and to fall victims to such insidous trend. Even BTS and Blackpink with all their success are still helpless before such mighty foes, how would other groups fare……
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Band members or indie artists might get away from the trend culture, but idol industry which relied on corporate investment and focused on generating profit just can’t help to accept and to fall victims to such insidIous trend. Even BTS and Blackpink with all their success are still helpless before such mighty foes, how would other groups fare……
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It’s been a thinner summer K-Pop-wise, but I’ve still found enough music to feel fed.
June
– New IZNA album
– MEOVV Hit ‘Em as a go-to song at the gym
– Lemon Tang album (deleted the title track and put Rude as track 1)
– STAYC 2 LOVE
– RIIZE In a Loop
July
– KARD Back to Life
– BB Girls Body Wave
– FIFTY FIFTY Genie Magic
August
– NOWZ Achilles
– Zerobaseone Existence
– ODD YOUTH Can’t Go Back
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I thought last year was just as bad. NMIXX’s High Horse was the only song I loved last year, and I think that was a b-side. My only interaction with K-pop these days is to check in on this blog, to see if I’m missing anything. TWS does nothing for me. I wish they did, at least I’d have that to get excited about.
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I wish they did, too! TWS are one of the main pillars keeping me connected to K-pop at the moment.
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What does this mean lol?
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Oh nvm it’s talking about the commenter not connecting with TWS. MYREADINGCOMPREHENSION
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The xdd rats are truly everywhere…
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Do you watch Caedrel or not?
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I completely agree with this list. And if I can add one more observation… Harmonizing. I feel like groups harmonize so rarely anymore (especially in a chorus where you may expect it). This goes along with your first point about melodies, but it’s really struck me lately how few groups sing together. And I’ve noticed this applies even for the more “vocal-first” type of groups.
It makes me wonder if maybe new groups don’t because they can’t? Like, maybe companies aren’t assembling groups based on how they will sound together as a unit; rather, it’s a bunch of individuals all put together, if that makes sense. Or perhaps it’s for some of the other reasons you mentioned (trends etc.) that I don’t hear that as much.
But it’s a shame regardless, and makes everything feel so flat.
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For real because harmonizing is what makes a group feel like a group.
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I went on so many rants about vocal skillz and harmonizing on this blog starting with later 3rd gen to the present that I wore myself out on the topic.
Yes, actual singing in harmony is what music is all about. Is there anything more beautiful in the world than human voices singing in harmony?
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I realized this while listening to songbird by nct wish (which I discovered thru this blog obviously) and the POTENTIAL for harmonizing in kpop is insane but sadly neglected.
I have more of a 4th-gen kpop taste so earlier kpop’s vocal mixing doesn’t hit as hard for me, even tho I acknowledge the pure quality of music back then. However, the few glimpses of harmony that I hear nowadays do it for me and I wish there was more, especially since theres SO many great vocal tones and vocalists in kpop 😞
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Agree very, very much with this. I miss harmonies like you wouldn’t believe. It really doesn’t feel like agencies put together groups with vocal compatibility in mind anymore. It’s so much more visual-oriented. Or, in the case of so many survival series, the group is built by voters/fans and the agency has to decide what to do with them after that. It’s a completely different model.
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its cuz kpop has become so obsessed with making all of their members “all rounders” when in reality theyre mid at everything or not utilized to the best of their strengths n more specifically making it to where the line distribution is as fair as possible so no one complains abt favoritism or wtv tf
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It’s interesting to see WHAT’s made this summer in K-pop so bad but I want to know WHY. Why did everyone decide to not put in the work this time? Is it really just because of trend-chasing and the trend just happens to not sound good? Did the world cup really have that big of an effect? Sometimes I wonder if the fact that BTS was coming back signaled other companies to not put effort this year thinking they will get overshadowed anyways? Or maybe there’s some secret underground conspiracy we don’t know about…
I mean I still have a couple faves from this year but my playlist this year has been a lot smaller compared to previous years like this is literally one the worst years we’ve had in K-pop in a while.
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All questions I’m interested in as well, though I suspect the answers would only depress me!
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It was a really cold summer that’s for sure 😞😞
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Even if I only added 10 good songs a year, I’d be content and would still sample everything. All the bad songs can go hang. I empathize with you though Nick needing to have to try and come up with intelligent reviews on them every day. I wouldn’t blame you if you just did micro reviews for these kinds of songs.
Red Velvet being such a dud was very sad. The song that screamed summer the most to me and that I’ve continued to really enjoy is BABYMONSTER – I LIKE IT
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honestly underscores has been doing kpop better than most actual kpop this year 😭😭
on that note she has a new (well not exactly bc shes played it at all her tour dates this year) song called unlimited love out at the end of this week n im so excited it was phenomenal when i saw it live n ik the studio versons gonna make it even better. i feel like nick would rlly enjoy it bc it kinda feels like smthn on robyns body talk but like. the weirder end of that album (ie fembot none of dem n dont fucking tell me what to do)
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even so d-d-done by riize would probably be my pick for kpop song of the summer like waiter more sm house songs please!
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Atmos aesseo matchuji ana
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can we talk about winter songs in K-pop?
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Winter? We’re already feeling pretty cold-hearted about the releases this year TT.
Anyway, Ditto aged very well in my fall-winter list.
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Some Koreans lately seem to be expressing the sentiment that, in a similar way that Ditto is an iconic moody song for winter, Deja Vu has now become an iconic moody song for the summer. And I agree!
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TWS’s “Dream With Us” and Shinee’s Atmos was Sally R in disguise AINTNOWAY. Cancelled the rest of the summer being good.
MYKPOP inting like MYACE against KT in game 5.
xdd.
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since there’s been a 2:30 and under pandemic going on in the music industry, i wonder what is everyone’s favorite long songs? i’ll go first, these are not in any particular order
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Heavy co-sign on Elton, Janet’s This Time, Celine, Prince, Darren and The Sound Of Arrows (though it has to be the Fear of Tigers remix for me!). And, I’ll add:
The Ark – 2000 Light Years Of Darkness (8:09)
Bob Sinclar – Love Generation (8:54)
Dannii Minogue – Someone New (9:23)
Dave Matthews Band – Don’t Drink The Water (7:01)
David Bowie – Station To Station (10:14)
Fire Inc. – Tonight Is What It Means To Be Young (6:56)
Girls Aloud – Untouchable (6:43)
Janet Jackson – Any Time, Any Place (7:01)
Meat Loaf – I’d Do Anything For Love (But I Won’t Do That) (12:00)
Meat Loaf – Paradise By The Dashboard Light (8:30)
Michael Jackson – Earth Song (6:46)
Michael Jackson – Will You Be There (7:41)
Nightwish – Poet and the Pendulum (13:55)
Prince – Gold (7:22)
The Rocky Horror Picture Show – Rose Tint My World (8:19)
And my favorite “longest” (it’s all relative) K-pop song:
Lucy – Flare (6:03)
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oooo lemme add on:
edge (triangle mix) – perfume (8:43)
jumper/e.d.i.t/crazeee skyhopper – capsule (6:55 6:00 n 6:15 respectively)
teqkilla – m.i.a (6:19)
kodak moment/experimental skin+how to teleport (leroy remix) – jane remover (6:07 n 6:08 respectively)
lovestoned – justin timberlake (7:24)
dance yrself clean/all my friends/someone great – lcd soundsystem (8:56 7:42 n 6:30 respectively)
amai zeitaku/supersonic/make love (6:01 7:22 n 7:20 respectively)
in the closet – michael jackson (6:32)
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waitttt omfg how did i forget the second to last r all songs by meg
n if u cant tell by the list ive been on a huuuuge yasutaka nakata binge over the past month or so n i feel like megs name doesnt get bought up nearly enough when it comes to his many acolytes over the years. which is a shame bc she actually has my fav front to back nakata produced album (2008s step) n notably unlike most of the other artists nakatas associated w she penned all of her songs herself which gives his work w her a bit of a rawer more organic edge than much of what he was doing at the time which i loveeee seriously go check that album + 2009s beautiful out
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Glad to see MEG mentioned! I’m a big fan of Nakata’s work (edge triangle mix and jumper also big long favourites of mine) and I love what he and MEG did together. I agree MEG is massively overlooked today compared to her contemporaries. Album-wise, Step is great and I’m also quite fond of Maverick, but over the years Beautiful has become my clear favourite MEG album. To me anyway, lyrically it’s so full of her yearning and desire, and the music rides that line of sentimentality so perfectly without ever becoming maudlin because the tunes were just banging. This one’s “only” 5 minutes which barely counts as long in my millennial brain but linking it anyway.
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If we are talking about long songs, its hard to beat the classics
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I am a child of the 80’s, so I fondly remember the 12″ remixes on vinyl of the songs back when especially the British New Wave wave.
I have linked in the past to many New Order mixes, so I will change it up slightly and link to OMD “We Love You” 12″ from my misspent youth. I have heard this version in the oddest places – like at the gas pump in the middle of nowhere.
Also below, Pet Shop Boys “Suburbia (the full horror)” which is the 12″ remix version on Disco. There was also an original album version on Please and the shorter radio/single version.
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No one has mentioned LCD soundsystem here but they champion long songs
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Big fan of Draconian, so it’s tough for me not to just drop their whole discography, but I’d definitely say It Grieves My Heart (7:30) has to be here. Then we got:
Coma (10:13) by Guns N’ Roses
Hallowed Be Thy Name (7:11) by Iron Maiden
Sinnerman (10:19) by Nina Simone
Grazes (6:43) by Sneaker Pimps
Unison (6:45) by Björk
The Dull Flame of Desire (7:30) by Björk
Black Lake (10:08) by Björk
Family (8:02) by Björk
Someday Is Tonight (6:01) by Janet Jackson
To Bid You Farewell (10:54) by Opeth
Heroes (6:11) by David Bowie
Flying Whales (7:44) by Gojira
And, of course, finishing off with my favourite kpop boy band:
Y Si Fuera Ella (5:14) by Shinee
Apologies for the old dad rock dump… I do need to branch out more, but I’ve gotten into the habit of finding new music by just randomising my spotify and listening to whatever. I would love any suggestions/recommendations.
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i should also mention i really enjoy oasis’s 7:27 epic champagne supernova, i didn’t put them bcuz they tend to be a polarizing band and im not sure if nick enjoys them, but yeah i enjoy that song
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My highlights this Summer:
June
BND Adiós
ONF Open the Door
RIIZE In a Loop & DDDone (Bsides)
July
WHIB First Love Never Dies (Jap)
YOUNGK Shut the Door
KIHYUN So Good
August
NOWZ – Achilles
WAYV – Vision Wings
NEXZ – Saucin’
JAEJOONG Tonight
These days it’s hard to get excited about anything, there’s certainly a sense that things are going in a direction I don’t enjoy as much, but these few releases made me feel something special and I appreciate that, a lot!
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Nick, do you read Dave Moore at all? He does a lot of writing on how global pop music is shaped by regional cultures, but what he’s focusing on right now is, say, trends within Brazilian and Caribbean pop.
I’ve been kinda checked out on K-pop and pop music in general for a while now, so I’m underqualified to comment here, but I’ll throw up a few things:
1) Kpopalypse linked to Ella Dorn’s great essay on giallobrutalism, and I wish I had the vocabulary to make the link between the visual trends she documents and the musical output.
2) I feel like part of the death of the monoculture is that our understanding of what counts as a hit has changed and become less stable. There was always a fair amount of bullshit and estimation in Nielsen ratings and the Billboard charts, but by and large the (somewhat but not totally) manipulated numbers were accepted as truth. Now measurements are either game-able or concealed. To take one example: how popular is Katseye? How would we know? What measurement would we use? Tweets, Reddit users, YouTube views are all vulnerable to bots. Radio play has always been vulnerable to payola, and streaming now is too. The group gets a lot of media play, but that may be as much a testament to HYBE/Geffen as to the actual demand. Or it could be that there are lots and lots and lots of genuine Katseye fans and I’m just in a silo where I don’t see them.
(Another example: it can be simultaneously true that music is trending towards wispy non-choruses, and that five of the biggest Western hits of the last couple years, by five very different artists — Golden, Tipsy, Ordinary, Pink Pony Club, and Choosin’ Texas — are all very chorus-dependent.)
3) I think K-pop’s main influence was never musical (although you know I’m consistently intrigued by clearly K-pop-inspired groups outside Korea; previously Ninety One and the other Q-pop groups, now Bini and Manifest) but in cultivating parasocial relationships with fans, and now that’s pretty much a known global strategy. (The proof that BTS is past its imperial phase isn’t lukewarm reviews for Arirang, or the tour happening to very little buzz [that I know of], but the reaction to Heated Rivalry.) And I suspect the decision-makers in Seoul don’t know what to do. We had two different cases of post-BTS/Blackpink groups getting global attention only to completely implode (Fifty Fifty and NewJeans); K-Pop Demon Hunters seems to be its own self-contained thing (in part, as the Idolcast pointed out, because its depiction of K-pop was 10-12 years out of date). So now what? I suspect it’s a lot of panicking and playing it safe.
4) I do wonder what falling fertility rates will do to pop culture — pop music has always thrived on its appeal to teenagers, but what happens when there are fewer and fewer teenagers? South Korea is early to this trend, and though I don’t think it applies to this summer specifically, it could have implications for marketing down the line.
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