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.
January 2025 Overall Thoughts
It’s a new year! But it… kind of doesn’t feel like it yet? Sandwiched between Western New Year and Lunar New Year, this January was largely sidelined without many new releases. I’ve watched Music Bank every week since 2014 and find its weekly line-up to be a good barometer of where K-pop is at any given time. This month, about 50% of each new episode was filled with ballad and trot singers. There just weren’t enough idol comebacks to match the running time.
This was in stark contrast to January of last year. It’s hard to believe, but nearly a third of my top ten 2024 K-pop songs came from last January. Beyond that, there were a whopping six (!) other January releases that made my top 50. That will certainly not be the case this year. Looking at this through an optimistic lens, I guess it means we can only go up from here.
The order of my top three K-pop songs might be surprising this month. Battling it out for the top spot was a relatively generic version of a song style I tend to love and a quirkier version of a song style that doesn’t always appeal to me. In the long run, “quirky” ended up winning, which can often be the case since idiosyncrasies are what tend to keep a song fresh after its newness has worn off. With that said, I don’t see any of my top three tracks challenging the upper echelons of my year-end countdown in December.
J-pop had a stronger January, with one new single I absolutely adore and a few more that I find very solid. My top pick is my favorite track in this entire round-up. There are a host of exciting comebacks on the horizon so I’m hoping the industry regains my attention after a somewhat middling 2024. And speaking of other music markets, Finland was my big winner this month. New songs by Neea River, Nelli Matula and Erika Vikman absolutely ruled my January. Straight 9’s across the board for those tracks. Let’s bring some of that energy to K-pop!
As for the blog itself, this month saw the debut of a new feature: my weekly K-pop round-up! Sundays are now your go-to spot for a weekly summary of new K-pop and J-pop singles. I was also able to complete my recaps of K-pop’s year-end festivals with MBC’s delayed Gayo Daejejeon.
As underwhelmed as I was by January, I feel like there’s a lot to look forward to in February and beyond. Without any disruptions in promotions (I hope!), the release calendar should start to fill out. We’ve already got some exciting things promised for next month. Comebacks for ONF, IVE, ZEROBASEONE, RESCENE, Chungha and seemingly all of BLACKPINK are on the horizon. Plus, there’s SM’s new girl group looming in the distance. I hope at least one of these new releases knocks it out of the park!
Month Cumulative Rating: 7.9
(compiled by averaging the scores of every K-pop review from this month)
J-Pop Highlights
New & Noteworthy J-pop: Weeks One & Two
New & Noteworthy J-pop: Week Three
New & Noteworthy J-pop: Week Four
TOP J-POP SONGS OF THE MONTH
3. &TEAM – Deer Hunter (review)
2. ZEROBASEONE – Now Or Never (review)
1. Genic – It’s Showtime (review)
K-POP
Honorable Mentions
BABYMONSTER – Really Like You (review)
BBGirls – Love 2 (review)
Eunhyuk – Up N Down (review)
GFriend – Season Of Memories (review)
IVE – Rebel Heart (review)
Jennie – Love Hangover / ZEN (review / review)
ZEROBASEONE – Doctor! Doctor! (review)
2Z – Great Force / Something Special (reviews)
This Month’s Risers and Fallers
This Month’s Global Pop Round-Up
TOP THREE SONGS
3. Kim Wan Sun & Seulgi – Lucky (review)
2. CIX – Thunder (review)
1. BOYNEXTDOOR – If I Say, I Love You (review)
Top Three K-Pop Songs Of December 2024
Top Three K-Pop Songs Of November 2024
Top Three K-Pop Songs Of October 2024
Top Three K-Pop Songs Of September 2024
Top Three K-Pop Songs Of August 2024