Last year, Music Bank’s Global Festival was interwoven into KBS’s year-end festival. This year, they’ve chosen to broadcast it separately but I thought I’d cover it anyway because (like last year) parts of it were stronger than many of the proper year-end stages. This year’s theme was “The Golden Path” and the show was held … Continue reading
Tag Archives: jyp
Year-End List Recap: The Best Overall K-Pop Comebacks of 2025
Before I move on to my J-pop and global pop countdowns over the next few days, I like to sum up the K-pop lists that have filled the past few weeks. The title of this post should technically be called “The Best Overall K-pop Comebacks & Debuts of 2025,” since not every album on this … Continue reading
The Top 10 K-Pop Music Videos of 2025
For a moment, I debated whether or not to go forward with this particular countdown this year. Yes, K-pop music videos are generally great, but to be honest I just don’t watch them as intently as I used to. I’m much more familiar with the music than the visuals, which threatens to turn this list … Continue reading
New & Noteworthy J-pop of the Week (December 28, 2025)
In connection with my desire to fully keep up with the J-pop industry, I’m planning to do a weekly round-up of any new releases that have caught my ear. Some of these may have been covered on the blog already, but my hope is that this will become a one-stop shop for anyone interested in … Continue reading
The Top 40 K-Pop Album Tracks & B-Sides of 2025 (20-1)
Now that I’ve taken a look at my favorite title tracks and singles of the year, it’s time to move on to… everything else. This countdown encompasses any track that didn’t receive a full music video. This becomes more nebulous by the year, with “track videos” and “special videos” and the like. I allow myself … Continue reading
The Top 40 K-Pop Album Tracks & B-Sides of 2025 (40-21)
Now that I’ve taken a look at my favorite title tracks and singles of the year, it’s time to move on to… everything else. This countdown encompasses any track that didn’t receive a full music video. This becomes more nebulous by the year, with “track videos” and “special videos” and the like. I allow myself … Continue reading
2025 SBS Gayo Daejeon: Recap & My Top Performances
After KBS’s festival-that-didn’t-really-feel-like-a-festival last week, it’s time for the celebration to truly begin with SBS’s Gayo Daejeon. This is the show that airs every Christmas and usually features a ton of festive stages. It’s also held in a big venue with tons of artists in attendance, so it makes for a nice seasonal gift for … Continue reading
The Top K-Pop Albums of 2025: Mini Albums
This year, I’m breaking my “Top Albums” list into two: one focused on full-length albums and one focused on minis. For the mini album category, things get a bit repetitive because many of the year’s strongest acts released multiple projects and I don’t limit myself to spotlighting just one. As far as qualifications, I consider … Continue reading
The Top K-Pop Albums of 2025: Full-Length
I’m going to try something a little different this year. I have a number of albums I want to spotlight and it doesn’t seem fair to compare full-length projects to mini albums. So, I’ll have a countdown for each. Today, I’ll share my top five full-length albums of the year and tomorrow I’ll post my … Continue reading
The Top 10 K-Pop Artists of 2025
Though rookie groups defined this year in K-pop for me, that doesn’t mean there weren’t great things coming from the industry’s established artists as well. As usual, my criteria for these artists is built around these three factors: Quality of work Quantity of work Influence of work on the industry The first criteria far outweighs … Continue reading
The Top 50 K-Pop Songs of 2025 (Day Four: 20-11)
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, … Continue reading
The Top 50 K-Pop Songs of 2025 (Day Three: 30-21)
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, … Continue reading
The Top 50 K-Pop Songs of 2025 (Day Two: 40-31)
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, … Continue reading
New & Noteworthy J-pop of the Week (November 30, 2025)
In connection with my desire to fully keep up with the J-pop industry, I’m planning to do a weekly round-up of any new releases that have caught my ear. Some of these may have been covered on the blog already, but my hope is that this will become a one-stop shop for anyone interested in … Continue reading
Song Review: Stray Kids – Divine
Stray Kids almost always follow up their title tracks with additional videos, but this time they’ve designated Divine (신선놀음) as a double title track, complimenting the relatively subdued Do It that premiered alongside the mixtape. I’ve seen quite a few fans say they prefer this one, and it certainly leaves more of an impression. Where … Continue reading
THIS WEEK IN K-POP: Ranking the New Releases from November 16 – 22
At the end of each month, I compile my top three K-pop title tracks and list a ton of honorable mentions. In 2025, I thought I’d try something new and add a weekly feature to supplement my monthly round-up. Each Sunday, I’ll offer a compendium of the week’s new releases featured on the blog. And … Continue reading
K-Pop Risers & Fallers: November 2025
Rather than contain my “Risers and Fallers” feature to a single post in June, I’m going to share a bite-sized version at the end of each month. This will let me account for more songs and make a nice lead-in to the monthly round-up post. I anticipate most of these ratings adjustments will be negligible: … Continue reading
Song Review: Stray Kids – Do It
Out of curiosity, I went back to see the last time I was genuinely excited about a Stray Kids track (ie: rated it an 8.5 or higher), and that turned out to be all the way back in 2022 with their Mixtape track Time Out (which wasn’t really promoted beyond a music video). Since then, … Continue reading
Grading the K-Pop Agencies 2025: JYP ENTERTAINMENT
It’s that time of year again! While December is filled with year-end countdowns, I like to take a look back at some of K-pop’s biggest agencies during November. Before reading (especially if you’re new to the blog), it’s helpful to know that my grading focuses most heavily on music releases and how comebacks are managed … Continue reading
Song Review: NEXZ – Next To Me
After not caring for much of their music last year, NEXZ has slowly and surely won me over in 2025. This culminated with last month’s Beat-Boxer, a song that has proven to be one of my biggest growers in recent memory. I love its stupid, cartoonish energy and nonsense lyrics. It’s made me realize that … Continue reading