At the end of each month, I look back at my three favorite title tracks by K-pop artists. I take my own ratings into account, but there’s a bit of wiggle room as certain songs tend to grow or fade. March 2024 Overall Thoughts Okay, this year’s already a little weird. We kicked off with an … Continue reading
Though it has yet to be officially confirmed by their agency, there have been reports that this will be TAN’s final comeback. Hopefully that doesn’t end up being the case, but Hyper Tonic is bittersweet for more than one reason. It’s likely the last new song we’ll hear from the late, great producer Shinsadong Tiger. … Continue reading
K-pop’s title tracks might gain most of listeners’ attention, but many album tracks are worth equal spotlight. I call these “buried treasures.” Beyond this, K-pop’s albums deliver thousands of additional tracks that settle for a more limited audience. It’s these songs that will become a part of my “battle of the b-sides” feature. In this … Continue reading
Now that I’ve finished all my K-pop related countdowns of the year (yay!), I liked to take a macro view and determine which specific comeback or debut was my overall strongest of the year. There are always some personal surprises here, but the numbers don’t lie. As before, I took five categories and gave them … Continue reading
One of the unique features of The Bias List is its “buried treasure” write-ups. I try my hardest to comb through every major K-pop album released each year and when a song catches my ear I highlight it on the blog. This countdown is an encapsulation of those write-ups, ranking my top 40 b-sides and … Continue reading
One of the unique features of The Bias List is its “buried treasure” write-ups. I try my hardest to comb through every major K-pop album released each year and when a song catches my ear I highlight it on the blog. This countdown is an encapsulation of those write-ups, ranking my top 40 b-sides and … Continue reading
By now, Bias List readers know that I wasn’t thrilled with this year in K-pop, and part of that rests on the strength (or lack thereof) of albums. I could barely find any full K-pop albums I loved this year, meaning the structure of this countdown has changed a bit. I still think it’s unfair … Continue reading
Now that I’ve taken a look at the new acts that colored 2023, it’s time to focus on their established counterparts. For me, most K-pop years are defined more by their rookies than older artists, and 2023 was no different. As usual, the criteria is built around these three facets: Quality of work Quantity of … Continue reading
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
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
As per tradition, the next few weeks on The Bias List will be stuffed with all sorts of year-end countdowns, mostly concerning the year in K-pop but also encompassing J-pop, global pop and even Japanese dramas! Basically, it’s a chance for me to take stock of my year in fandom and celebrate the things I … Continue reading
At the end of each month, I look back at my three favorite title tracks by K-pop artists. I take my own ratings into account, but there’s a bit of wiggle room as certain songs tend to grow or fade. August 2023 Overall Thoughts For the first time this year, I could have easily filled a … Continue reading
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
A K-pop act’s title track isn’t always the best song on their album, even if it’s the one most people will hear. Sometimes, b-sides deserve recognition too. In the singles-oriented world of K-pop, I want to spotlight some of these buried treasures and give them the props they deserve. The second half of summer has … Continue reading
TAN have done a nice job mining the sounds of second-gen K-pop to craft an appealing discography, most notably with debut single Du Du Du. That song (and others) gave me strong Beast flavor, but new single Heartbeat echoes classic SHINee. Or to be more specific, it feels like NCT’s 2019 version of 2013-era SHINee, … Continue reading
At the end of each month, I look back at my three favorite title tracks by K-pop artists. I take my own ratings into account, but there’s a bit of wiggle room as certain songs tend to grow or fade. April 2023 Overall Thoughts I’ve been complaining about K-pop a lot this year, but April was … Continue reading
At the end of each month, I look back at my three favorite title tracks by K-pop artists. I take my own ratings into account, but there’s a bit of wiggle room as certain songs tend to grow or fade. March 2023 Overall Thoughts So… when does the good stuff start? Seriously, we had yet another … Continue reading
In what feels like the longest tease ever, TAN first released a short version of Fix You alongside their debut in March of last year. On the one-year anniversary of that debut, the guys have finally followed through and unleashed the full song and music video. The result plays pretty much how you’d expect, complete … Continue reading
Yesterday was an opportunity to spotlight established artists who had a great year. Now, it’s time to look at 2022’s new debuts. It was a pretty big year for debuts — particularly girl groups. Many of 2022’s highlights came from these acts, making this list difficult to compile. The ranking is so dependent on what … Continue reading
The end of the year on The Bias List always feels like the K-pop Olympics. I spend 365 days writing about every major (and most minor) releases, and it all culminates in a weeks-long celebration of great music. Yes, there was great music in 2022. We also had to wade through a boatload of not-so-great … Continue reading
The Bias List // K-Pop Reviews & Discussion 