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, songs must have had a Korean release as a title track, follow-up or promotional video between Dec. 1st, 2024 and Nov. 30th, 2025.
Curious about past countdowns? Check out the masterpost here!
Honorable Mentions
Songs 50-41
Songs 40-31
Songs 30-21
Songs 20-11
10. AHOF – Pinocchio
I’ve always thought that a group’s first comeback is more important than their debut, and if they can cement themselves (and their sound) with this track that’s usually a positive sign. Thankfully, we’ve got nothing to worry about with AHOF. Pinocchio doubles down on their stirring rock-infused style, adding big, singalong refrains and hitting us with that rarest of K-pop unicorns: a climactic key change! (full review)
9. fromis_9 – Like You Better
Momentum is everything for a song like Like You Better. From the moment the chugging percussion opens the track, we’re promised a consistent wave of acceleration. Years of musical fumbling from producers has made me cynical, so instead of simply enjoying the track I’m on pins and needles thinking: “Please. Don’t. Drop. The. Ball.” Well, Like You Better never drops the ball. It’s one speedy highlight after another, pinballing from crest to crest. My favorite bit of added oomph happens during the pre-chorus. Here, most producers would bring the energy down and give the listener time to breathe. Instead, Like You Better whisks us along with an unbothered confidence. (full review)
8. TWS – Lucky To Be Loved
Every K-pop group has a fan song. TWS aren’t even two years into their career and they already have several. These are often treacly ballads with trite lyrics, laser-focused on their specific intent. Lucky To Be Loved manages to transcend both the idea of a rote fan song and its own reliance on the overused UK garage genre trend. It does so with that simplest and most important element of songwriting: melody. I’m head over heels in love with this melody. It’s a microcosm of TWS’s general melodic approach: ascending lines that hit generous crescendos again and again throughout the song. That happens most clearly during Lucky To Be Loved‘s stunning pre-chorus, which offers the perfect match of song and artist. The group’s unassuming sweetness shines through in every lilting note. (full review)
7. CRAVITY – Set Net G0?!
CRAVITY have been on my radar for many years now, often making it to the lower reaches of this countdown. But in their fifth year, something special happened. Maybe it’s the confidence that comes with time. Maybe it’s their desire to stake their claim in an industry that quickly moves on to the newest, freshest thing. Whatever it is, the guys brought their A-game with Set Net G0?!. It pulls a nice hat trick by meeting and subverting expectations in equal measure. On one hand, it’s the kind of light, funky summer track I tend to love. Yet at the same time, it’s a deeply weird single, playing around with structure and tone in ways that keep you on your feet and rushing back for more. (full review)
6. Close Your Eyes – All My Poetry
If given a choice between a banging dance track and a soft mid-tempo, I will almost always choose the banging dance track. That’s just how my musical mind is wired. For a mid-tempo to make it into the top ten of my year-end list, it must be exceptional. Thankfully, All My Poetry is exceptional. The first time I heard it, I thought, “Oh, that’s nice. They’re mining that mid-00s era of soft, poppy R&B I never really loved the first time through. Well… at least it’s a different 2000s facsimile than everyone else in K-pop is making!” But then the song grew… and grew and grew each month until I realized what a sleeper classic this is. The vocal melody and performance glistens and the groove works its way under your skin with such ease. There are certain days — and certain moods — when I’m convinced this was the best thing released all year. (full review)
5. NouerA – N.I.N (New Is Now)
A debut track is no place to pull your punches. You must tell us you’re new. In fact, not only are you new — that newness is NOW! And don’t stop there. Hit us over the head with your newness. There’s a rookie debuting every other week. You must feel the urgency! NouerA were formed via one of the industry’s many audition shows, which often represent the most corporate corner of K-pop. The group could have released some subdued, trend-chasing track and been forgotten as quickly as they came to be. Instead, N.I.N (New Is Now) struts out of the gate with bounding synth and an almost dizzying swagger. It borrows equally from the past and the present, all the while forging an instantly recognizable sound for the group. (full review)
4. The Boyz – VVV
In a year that felt as though song producers were constantly pulling things away from their music, VVV kept piling things on. It’s a full experience carnival ride. You get plenty of bang for your buck. It’s the longest song on my countdown, yet feels as if it passes by in a flash. This is testament to its undying momentum. VVV starts strong and never lets up. Grooves become stickier and more dynamic, vocals gain renewed passion, and just when you think we’re drawing to a close the track hits you with another volley of hooks. It says something that a group in their eighth year has the confidence to stick to their guns and release something so counter to today’s trends. And it’s even more impressive that — this far into their career — they unveiled their greatest masterwork. (full review)
3. TWS – Countdown!
Countdown presented a challenge I’d never experienced before on this list. It’s my most played song of the year, but the version I’ve played is my own three minute twenty second concoction that adds an extra synth breakdown before verse two and an extended outro. In comparison, the officially released version of the song feels incomplete, yet it’s the edit I must consider when crafting this list.
Regardless, either version of Countdown boasts my favorite intro of the year. It never fails to excite my ears, blending the group’s intensely melodic approach with stabs of jubilant guitar and percussion. Since Plot Twist hit it big last year, many newer boy groups have transitioned to a brighter sound, but few are as perfectly matched to the vibe as TWS. They sing as if they can barely contain their excitement. It’s exclamation point after exclamation point with this song, and that joy feels authentic and earnest, allowing the listener to lower their guard and shove cynicism to the side. Like so many great pop songs before it, Countdown‘s energy pulls you away from the demands and doldrums of your day and points toward a different, more colorful and impassioned reality. (full review)
2. TWS – Overdrive
I don’t like placing the same artist back-to-back on these countdowns, especially this close to the top. However, I waffled between this and Countdown as TWS’s ultimate 2025 title track and could barely choose the victor. I’ve played both to death, after all. Overdrive ekes its way to the top thanks to its sense of completeness. This is pop song structure doing everything you’d hope it would. Dynamic verses collide with a mammoth chorus before making room for a meme-worthy hook that’s become more viral and ingratiating by the day. We get an explosive bridge and a well-defined climax and through it all the song never wavers.
However, it’s the details that gave Overdrive such longevity on my playlist. Its rugged guitar riff is contrasted by bright, bubblegum melodies, forging a tension that gives the song real bite. Its pre-choruses and second verse are short and snappy, injecting just enough structural diversity to give Overdrive‘s big melodic centerpiece as much of a wallop as possible. And above all else, the song simply sounds enormous. It’s a coiled spring of soaring energy, bounding with eagerness to put on a show and please its audience. (full review)
1. AHOF – Rendezvous
Criteria for my top song of the year can be a bit nebulous. I’ve got some firm data to pull from: my rating and review on the blog, play count numbers from my music library. But when it comes down to it, the top spot becomes more of a feeling. Rendezvous was not my most played K-pop song of the year. And when looking back at past lists, it must be the first number one ranked song whose initial rating landed below a “9.” Yet, when I lined up this year’s offerings, no list made sense without Rendezvous at the top. A top song of the year requires a sense of gravitas. It can’t be slight or simply check off a list of musical tropes and tricks I tend to enjoy. It needs to mean something… even if that meaning is a little undefinable.
To be clear, Rendezvous is stuffed with musical tropes and tricks I tend to enjoy. It does what so many of those fantastic second-to-third gen K-pop songs do, weaving sentimental melodies with angsty rap in a way that’s designed to reinforce and regenerate the strengths of a song rather than simply give its various performers disconnected moments to shine. It builds to several distinct climaxes, starting with an anthemic chorus and building to a cathartic, multi-part finale. It impressively introduces a ragtag group of distinct K-pop characters, assembled from multiple corners of Asia as an all-star, global team.
But when it comes down to it, Rendezvous just offers more than what most of 2025’s musical output seemed willing to give. It sprints right past the three-minute mark and almost to four, taking its time to build scenery and story. It delays its payoff until the most effective moment, beckoning its listener deeper into its world rather than insulting their attention span. In a landscape of truncated TikTok highlights, I’ll take Rendezvous‘s sense of open, cinematic wonder any day. (full review)