Yes, it’s the post that the k-pop Internet has been secretly waiting for all year, welcome to the list of Kpopalypse’s favourite k-pop songs of 2025!
So, welcome to Kpopalypse’s favourite k-pop songs of 2025! So how was 2025 as a year in k-pop? Well, to be honest, it was pretty shit! However there were still some excellent songs to be had, and I’ve compiled what I consider to be the best 30 of them right here for you, my lovely readers! Those who check my weekly roundups and livestreams will probably be able to guess a lot of this content, but those of you who don’t follow this site closely (or ever) should expect some surprises!
New readers, or readers who are easily confused, may wish to read the following dot points, which make clear this list’s scope and intentions:
Songs are eligible if they were released between 1st January 2025 and 31st December 2025, although the cutoff does extend a little bit prior to both dates to catch songs that were released in the dying days of the previous year, as this list does take multiple days to prepare. This list was published on 31st December 2025 but may appear earlier for some readers due to timezones.
Songs have to be feature tracks/singles, but B side and album tracks are eligible if they were also “debuted” on TV shows or had their own official video made for them.
Songs for OSTs are not eligible for this list, because they’re almost universally terrible and just not worth the effort to cover.
Songs for festive and sporting events are not eligible. Christmas songs have their own separate list, and sport event songs are ignored in the hope that if we ignore them they will just stop making the sport ball shape.
Chart performance, cultural relevance, attractiveness of the members, who won something on some awards show that nobody with a brain cares about, whether someone is a morally upstanding citizen or otherwise etc are not relevant factors for this list and just like with my weekly roundup series these aspects are only commented on for “narrative colour”. This list is my 100% subjective opinion on music quality only and is purely reflective of my own personal taste, it does not constitute an authority of any kind.
“K-pop” is deliberately defined a little loosely for this list – as music either originating from or existing/trying to exist in the Korean industry. Songs that aren’t strictly “pop music” are eligible. Songs from Korean agencies trying to break into non-Korean markets and/or singing in non-Korean languages are eligible. K-pop artists featuring on non-k-pop artists’ tracks are eligible. Non-Korean attempts at “being a k-pop” and trying earnestly to exist within the Korean system are also eligible.
I write these lists for fun, good times, the joy of sharing good music with others, an easy way to collect songs that I like so I can play them later, and as a fun writing exercise because I enjoy writing. If you’re enjoying these lists for what they are (harmless subjective opinion, expressed with twisted cunty humour) then cheers to you and I appreciate your support and readership! However if you hate it, then that’s good too, please keep coming to this advertisement-free site that does no self-promotion at all and upsetting yourself over someone else’s opinion, I promise to continue to serve your special needs.
On the other hand if this post was too sunny, bright and positive for you, you may wish to consider reading my worst k-pop songs of 2025 list instead so you can feel appropriately miserable. There’s also an honourable and dishonourable mentions list which has more songs that this list doesn’t cover!
Without further ado, let’s get on with the list!
KPOPALYPSE’s 30 FAVOURITE K-POP SONGS OF 2025
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30. KATSEYE – Gnarly
Is it k-pop or not, I don’t fucking know, but it’s great and since k-pop fans tend to talk a lot about Katseye (even if it’s just to argue about how much they should talk about Katseye), in this list it goes. “Great sounds do not make a great song” has always been a mantra of mine on these lists, but if a song ever got a big boost just due to being exactly what it should be on a sonic level, “Gnarly” is that song. Highly reminiscent of Nada’s “Trippin” in texture (but noticeably not in mood), the song is a real grower just because some of the production ideas are so addictive and out there, like that part in the chorus where the beat stumbles over itself and sounds like it’s kicking in a door, the pingy snare coupled with the occasional warp-speed bass drums colliding with each other, and even that supposedly controversial porn sample… actually not really, I’ve listened to this song a ton of times and I still never even notice where it is, and I’m supposedly the target market for that kind of thing. Then there’s the lyrics and “Gnarly” got a lot of ridicule outside of k-pop circles for “dumbing down rap” or whatever, but this blatantly isn’t a rap song, and should be considered more along the same lines of Alice Longyyu Gao’s “Korean Girls“. Alice co-wrote “Gnarly’s” lyrics and it shows, and the two songs have similar vibes and appeal for similar reasons. Oh my god, this song’s so lit, congratulations!
29. ILLIT – Not Cute Anymore
I always admire k-pop attempts at reggae-lite even if they fuck it up half the time, but Illit’s “Not Cute Anymore” gets it right by keeping things straightforward and catchy. There’s not actually an awful lot to the song, but that’s fine, in pop music simple ideas tend to work best. It actually reminds me of Paris Hilton’s “Stars Are Blind” (which was also a weirdly good song despite coming from someone writing for Paris Hilton), except that the Illit version of the same idea is slightly less reggae-ish and (ironically) a lot cuter. The song is light, breezy, and over with quickly which makes it very replayable. Definitely a winner.
28. YYOi – Pathfinder
Rock music has definitely dominated the best list this year as well as the honourable mentions list, with several entries containing a guitar-based sound, but YYOi have a different approach to that sort of style compared to everybody else who made it to the Kpopalypse favourites. A shoegaze rock song dominated by crashing waves of distorted guitar, “Pathfinder” is something really cool and special. The guitar work reminds me of The Smiths, and also My Bloody Valentine, the latter where the vocals are often treated more as part of a “soundscape texture” rather than something you’d sing along to, but it’s better than both of those groups because if you listen close there actually is a melody to give a fuck about in there somewhere. Also you don’t have to put up with Morrissey, which is always a plus.
27. QWER – Dear
For those who don’t know, QWER is Korea’s girl rock group feminist sleeper cell specifically designed to drain the cash of Korea’s male gamer incels by edging them with carefully curated gamer girl/rock music content. Through this strategy, QWER aims to keep men spending and financially struggling while girls rock out, it’s a clear committment to feminism, which is why you’ve seen the girls hang out with other feminist celebrities like i-dle’s Soyeon and Chuu. Of course to maintain their deep cover they’ve had to say a few anti-feminist things, but anyone paying careful attention knows the truth. Anyway I encourage you to support feminism and listen to “Dear” which is definitely one of QWER’s best songs, full of the fast tempo and melodic highlights characteristic of their best material. Supporting QWER by listening to this song will definitely win friends in the k-pop community as well as favour among your university gender studies research group, or maybe it won’t, but it’ll certainly enhance your life with better music, so you should probably get right on that.
26. Nam Woohyun – Only Forward
I originally had this song a lot higher in the favourites list, but I dropped it about a dozen places or so because of the pro-sportball video. In the video, Woohyun throws the ball a bit and feels some upper body aches and pains. Instead of recognising this as a sign of shoulder bursitis, a medical condition which has a years-long recovery time, and quitting the sportball to do something useful to society instead, he receives encouragement for some rando lady to keep going and conquer his sportball dreams of making the ball go through the thing so the digit goes up. At least we can take solace in the fact that he’ll be punished eventually for his errant ways by having the severity of the bursitis increase to the point where he’ll have to endure expensive and painful shoulder replacement surgery… and also the fact that the song that accompanies this horrible immoral messaging is actually pretty good. Just remember kids: sportball – not even once.
25. – VVUP – House Party
There’s been an increase in second-generation k-pop vibes coming out of new releases lately, and I think we’re going to see a lot more of that in the coming year as some of those sounds have a resurgence. VVUP definitely have a song here that recalls the sort of dance track a top-tier girl group might have done a decade and a half ago, but “House Party” is actually better than most of that because while it’s swiped that era’s melodic sensibility it doesn’t have the dated production style from back then. It might be crazily repetitive with that “party” chant happening a lot throughout the song but it works because the elements it does have are addictive, hearing something 50 times per song is fine if it’s something that you’d be happy to hear 100 times per song. It’s catchy as fuck and definitely one of my most played songs of the year.
24. Poser – S.U.N.G.I.R.L
Thanks to the reader who sent this song into my clearing house submissions for the 2025 end of year survey so I could scoop this into the favourites list at the last minute, and for reminding me why I still insist on doing those surveys every year. They mentioned that they didn’t follow k-pop much but they did like rock music and they sure had a good selection here. A punk song as good as any other I’ve heard recently, “S.U.N.G.I.R.L” rocks hard and has great melody writing to rival the best punk acts from absolutely anywhere. It also has a cute and charming video that clearly was made on a tight budget but it does the job nicely without looking like amateurish crap or resorting to AI slop. Short, sweet and to the point, this is a band I’ll definitely be looking out for more stuff from.
23. Hwina – Panic Attack
The reason why a lot of your favourite k-synthpop gems of 2025 are either absent from or lower in this list than you might have been expecting is because of Hwina, who has just been smashing it this year plumbing the same territory and making your bias look relatively shit. I don’t know who this girl is really or what her origin story is (I’m sure I was told and have just forgotten) but she sure has some catchy songs up her sleeve and “Panic Attack” is definitely one of those catchy songs. I have no idea why Hwina is sitting on such a low viewcount give the quality of this material… wait, yes it do, it’s because the general population of k-pop listeners sucks and doesn’t like good music. That settles that then, anyway stan Hwina.
22. Shin Euijin – Anthem for You
Since Dreamcatcher and everything related to Dreamcatcher has been a pathetic disappointment this year, it’s good to know that Shin Euijin our great Dreamcatcher stand-in has still been rocking it all this time. If like me you’re tired of Dreamcatcher’s agency waiting to discover a clue about why people even liked their group in the first place, you could do a lot worse than check out all Shin Euijin’s material as it’s all of roughly this intensity and roughly this quality. Here is someone who isn’t into the rock music as a marketing gimmick or because it’s trending, as Shin Euijin had this sound years ago and has been delivering banger after banger very consistently all this time. Once again she’s being basically ignored because the general population of k-pop listeners suck and don’t like good music, which is a theme you’ll probably hear a lot from me, but she’s not getting ignored here at kpopalypse.com no siree. If I was to nitpick I’d say it could be heavier and more guitar based still, but it’s a great song anyway so it’s not that big of a deal, it will do nicely until someone else in k-rock discovers a clue.
21. SinB – Hipnotic
One of three solo efforts by the Viviz girls, Kpopalypse biases Eunha and Umji didn’t have all that much in the tank for this but SinB’s song is a total banger. It’s the outstanding synth work that makes this dance track really happen, and SinB’s monotone delivery in the chorus enhances the song greatly. Elsewhere it’s not quite as good but the fantastic backing track keeps things moving, and SinB also keep things moving in the video with some pretty wild dance moves that I don’t remember ever seeing anything like on Gfriend stages. Definitely a production where the visuals, vocals and music are very much in sync, and you know I’m being 100% honest about my musical opinion of this because as if I wouldn’t put Eunha in this list instead if I was in any way biased towards visuals. Mind you SinB might be creeping up my bias list a little thanks to this, it’s just that good.
20. Rockit Girl – Silence
Rockit Girl have never been terrible, as all their music is by the same songwriters and they clearly know how to write good songs – behind singer Leeseul’s endless aegyo and willingness to get in a bikini at the drop of a hat lies one of Korea’s most consistent rock groups. However nothing of theirs has ever really reached the stratospheric heights of “Little Cat” either. While shoving Leeseul in endless attractive outfits is definitely appreciated I’d happily swap all of that for another song that recaptures what made “Little Cat” work. I’m not sure if we’ll ever get it, but “Silence” sure works on a slightly different level, a lighter-waving power metal ballad that brings on the heaviness and then some. Leeseul has improved vocally in leaps and bounds, her high-flying vocals here fit the material perfectly and don’t make me feel the absence of Della like I used to with this group, all that experience belting it out on live stages over the last few years has clearly paid off. If you’ve previously felt turned off by Rockit Girl due to their sometimes gimmicky presentation and the idea that they’re not a serious rock group, you should give this a listen, it might surprise you.
19. Rumkicks – Mosquito Fighter
Rumkicks have always been a great punk group, but what they’ve always lacked is great punk group production style. Not that punk music really needs a ton of production to make it work but early Rumkicks recordings didn’t even have the basics sorted, with the group suffering greatly from gutless, tinny mixing that never captured their live sound in the way that it should have. I’m glad to say that all seems to have been fixed now as “Mosquito Fighter” really packs a punch, everything sounds chunky and powerful the way that it should. Of course it would be nothing without a great song but Rumkicks deliver the goods there too, a great yell-a-long that rips along at a breakneck speed that I’d love to see more of from them. Easily their best song so far, here’s hoping that now they’ve got their recorded sound sorted, we get even more tracks like this.
18. STAYC – Pipe Down
A song elevated by absolutely golden synth and programming work, “Pipe Down” is super cool and really should have been promoted more or something. There’s definitely a pattern with StayC lately that their best tracks seem to be the B-sides that just get quick-and-dirty performance videos rather than the full comeback treatment, I’m not sure why that is, maybe someone over at their agency is afraid of good music, but then it seems a lot of agencies have that problem in 2025. There isn’t really a lot else to say about “Pipe Down” other than this, and I was going to go off on a tangent here and talk about my workout routine or what I learned about buying cars after my most recent car debacle or what’s really hitting from my JAV collection this week but StayC told me to “pipe down” so I’ll just move on.
17. Baby Don’t Cry – F Girl
I miss the days when pop songs were driven by basslines first and foremost. Le Sserafim brought that kind of style into k-pop for a little while in their debut era with songs like “Fearless” and “Blue Flame” but when Kim Garam left the group so did the bass guitar, and unlike say NewJeans where literally every group wants to clone them, few groups have picked up where Le Sserafim left off. Baby Don’t Cry have the right idea though and “F Girl” excels almost solely on its choice of bassline. The parts with Kumi’s sassy vocal delivery and also the chant chorus are easily the best parts of the song, and that’s because there’s no singing in those parts, which again emphasises the song’s main strength which is the bassline. As soon as one of the girls actually starts doing a proper melody the song becomes a little less interesting because it interferes with the groove just slightly. It’s still absolutely great anyway even at its weakest points though, so I’m glad to have this sound back, now all it’s missing is Kim Garam’s chalk art.
16. Lipstickerz – Back To You
Apparently Lipstickerz is actually a very well known person in the k-pop world who has chosen to hide his face so he can “be taken seriously, for the music, man” or something. I always hate it when people do bullshit like this. Just be honest that pop music is mainly about image, as any attempt to present a “lack of image” by hiding your face (Hitchhiker, Primary) just means that things other than your face become the image instead, so there’s really never any escaping it. People are visual creatures and we like to look at stuff, that’s why there’s pretty clothes, and Wonho’s Instagram, and music videos, and why I keep needing to delete old stuff to fit new stuff on my hard drive. In this case we’re looking at whatshisface wearing some awful masquerade mask and also some other lacy blindfold thing and it all looks pretty crap, it actually made me miss Hitchhiker’s ugly silver reflective hazmat onesie which was at least amusing. The biggest shame of all though is that because of all the bullshit secrecy I assumed he might have been someone knee-deep in Burning Sun as “evading cancellation” as seems like a much more logical reason than “artistry” for keeping his identity quiet, but it turns out he’s probably from forgotten second-generation boy group Cross Gene? Now I just feel sorry for him, but it’s still puzzling – why keep your identity a secret when noody knew who you were in the first place? Anyway I hope he pops out a few more decent songs before he kills himself by accident during an alcoholic drug binge or whatever, let’s support him because he probably really needs it.
15. The Deep – Kpop Bitch
Second generation k-pop style (from the start of the Hallyu Wave around 2008) was cool, but it also had its problems. The best things about k-pop from around then was that the songs weren’t so coated in bullshit, everything was quick, short, sharp, shiny, one tempo, one basic idea, no slamming the brakes on for no reason, no “let’s insert this gimmick because it’s trendy now” (of course then dubstep came in and ruined that of course, and it’s been a slippery slope ever since), just straightforward pop goodness. The worst thing about second generation k-pop was that very few people knew how to produce songs properly back then, the standard procedure was to slap hard Autotune robot voice and annoying grating mushy synths on everything and that one beat everyone else uses. There’s slight rumblings of a real second-generation resurgence that I think is actually going to happen soon and I think it’s going to be great, because at their best the songs will all be like “Kpop Bitch” which takes all the good stuff from second-gen but none of the crap. Of course I know I’m being way too optimistic and k-pop will find a way to fuck it up as usual, probably by inserting some bullshit new trend that’s just on the horizon but hasn’t really taken off yet, but at least when we look back in a few years we’ll have The Deep to show us what could have been.
14. Chuu – Only Cry in the Rain
Damn, when I saw that thumbnail and the song title, I was concerned. “Could this be an awful shit ballad?” I thought. After all Chuu has done forgettable ballads that have ended up on worst lists before, so the risk was definitely present. However I need not have feared as Chuu has come through with the goods once again. “Only Cry In The Rain” is actually pretty fast tempo, and shows that you can have a sentimental sad song without it being some boring as shit tune that goes at 45 BPM and is full of vocal wank. It’s got some of those nice Fifty Fifty vibes, but without sounding like a direct ripoff of any particular Fifty Fifty song which is nice given how many clones of “Cupid” have been popping out lately, and there’s nothing drastically wrong with “Cupid” but I really don’t need every single k-pop performer’s take on that sound. “Only Cry In The Rain” comes complete with a touching video which probably isn’t about lesbians but then maybe it is because it’s Chuu, who knows really, but it’s good anyway and you could watch it if you wanted.
13. TREASURE – Now Forever
Okay so it’s just the “Flashdance” riff but made into a boy-pop song, but I’ll take it. It worked for IVE when they just straight up stole the string arrangement hook from Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive” (via that other musical thief Robbie Williams) for “After Like“, and it works just as well here. Of course like “After Like” it’s not a complete carbon copy of what they’re blatantly stealing “drawing inspiration” from but rather using the basic harmony and melody as a jumping-off point from which to write a whole new song and it works great because the originals are good enough to make that kind of reinterpolation work. Even the bullshit cringe raps don’t really hurt things too much (oh XG hurry up and start influencing other groups to make better raps soon), although they did make me mark this down a little, it would have been a top ten song without them.
12. Seo Eve – ZampaTT
I’m going to write something here that absolutely nobody wants to read, including me. Seo Eve is the most consistent k-pop solo artist that has ever existed in the history of k-pop. Yes, you read that right. Unlike your bias, who has at least one smelly turd of a ballad buried on an album somewhere, Seo Eve has literally no bad songs. She doesn’t even have any mid songs. At worst she’s like “Super Girl“, and “Super Girl” is still a pretty good song, and it’s only up from there. Of course this is a bummer, because she was 12 years old or less when she did all these songs, and I’d much prefer if it was someone of mature age, but in a way that’s still a good thing too because she’s showing how k-pop from minors can actually be age-appropriate and not be creepy. In “ZampaTT” she does what nobody else in k-pop has the ballsack to do and addresses the elephant in the room directly, singing “It’s not a nasty party, but a pajama party”, she’s read your “I don’t want minors debuting in k-pop” threads, she knows what you’re thinking and she’s having none of it. This would be the equivalent of Danielle Marsh turning to the camera in the middle of “Cookie” and saying “no, we don’t mean it like that, we mean literal cookies, just to be clear, don’t get any funny ideas asshole”. But HYBE would never let their groups do that because that’d interrupt half the groups’ fans in the middle of their fetish fantasy which is what’s paying the bills. Anyway “ZampaTT” is cool and groovy and lots of fun and catchy and it doesn’t even sound shit when it has a style changeup because the style changeup makes sense narratively, probably the first time a style switch has actually fit like a glove into the song’s lyrical concept instead of being some random “let’s bring it back to 420” bullshit. The only downside is it references “Malatanghulu” very briefly, Seo Eve you really gotta move on from doing that, it reeks of trying to force more virality like PSY throwing the horse dance into every single song after “Gangnam Style“. You can’t necromance a viral hit, give people new reasons to remember you, not the same old reasons. Anyway, this is great.
11. SMORZ – I Want You To
Since Twice don’t seem to have much interest in being Twice anymore (at least not as far as their Korean-language content goes) someone else has to step up to the plate and make it happen. Smorz are another one of those “global k-pop groups” if you consider the globe to be about the size of Hong Kong, and they’re eligible for this list for the same reason that XG, Chad Future, Lana etc are, they are clearly trying to be a k-pop and doing the Korean TV circuit etc. Their song “I Want You To” harks back to Twice’s pre-“Fancy” era where the songs and the music were both bright and straightforward. The return to catchy simple pop songs is much appreciated, as is the music video which isn’t cast in about 70% shadow. Maybe this will inspire Twice to do more songs like this… but it probably won’t, because Twice are older now so they get “mature” concepts which means “yell about being female a lot while we make everything look dark and shadowy and AI-crop your wobbly bits because if anyone notices that someone in this group is over 25 and has a normal female figure the world will end”. Who knows how they deal with this stuff in China and if the fate of these girls will be any better, I suspect probably not because the world is getting more bigoted every day but here’s hoping we get a few more good songs like this out of Smorz before they get accidentally photographed within 50 metres of someone waving a Taiwanese flag and shipped off to the salt mines.
10. NMIXX – Reality Hurts
NMIXX are the queens of the “change-up” trend in k-pop and they certainly weren’t the first, but on “Reality Hurts” they’ve probably done it better than anyone else ever has in the k-pop realm. What makes this song work is that we’re changing from something that’s a complete electro-industrial styled banger, into something else that’s also a complete electro-industrial styled banger, and then from there into another complete electro-industrial styled banger… that’s how you do it, people. You can’t just staple a bunch of shit together and call it a day, consistent threads in the individual parts matters. Whoever’s calling the creative shots for NMIXX has probably figured this out by now thanks to the overwhelmingly negative reaction to their debut songs, and you can kind of tell they got the message because even their old messy songs now get performed with each part as its own standalone song in live concerts, which is definitely the way to go. Never fall into the trap of toxic positivity, it’s important to give negative feedback when you don’t like something because it’s an opportunity to learn. NMIXX have learned because they were given so much shit on debut, and this much better song is the result.
9. Kep1er – Bubble Gum
Kep-one-er were the surprise breakout group of 2025, definitely scooping this year’s “most improved” award. The songwriters behind this group have been responsible for some truly awful songs in the past so it was cool to see someone finally get it right so the girls in this group plus everyone else who has to hear them can all stop suffering. “Bubble Gum” works mainly because that chorus is just so punchy, a rare case of a melody-less chorus in k-pop that actually works really well. I like plenty of non-melodic music, but the reason why so many “chant choruses” fuck up in k-pop is that they’re often yelling over something anemic and stupid so all you hear is the voices dominating over everything. Here the instruments actually fit the vocals and everything just rocks along nicely with no stupid interruptions or crap getting in the way. Also, I’d pay good money to see a Bahiyyih vs Chodan boxing match, just saying.
8. MONSTA X – Baby Blue
If you’re hoping for any boy groups to be higher up in this list you can now stop hoping, because none of them did better than Monsta X this year. “Baby Blue” is just great, the kind of simple, effective pop song that shouldn’t be beyond any boy group really, but it definitely appears to be as not much came close to them this year. No wonder Saja Boys’ “Soda Pop” hits home so well in Kpop Demon Hunters as an authentically-terrible mockery of shit boy-pop when the real deal is also so lame, most of the time. Anyway I’d write less about how other boy-pop is shit and more about how Monsta X absolutely killed it here, but I don’t really have a lot else to say about it other than it doesn’t suck and can we have more of this quality of music in 2026 please.
7. ILLIT – Almond Chocolate
If you’ve been missing the early-era sound of Lovelyz, or more recently the early-era sound of CSR, before both groups jumped the shark and started making dogshit music for no reason, then Illit’s “Almond Chocolate” might be just your thing. This type of “Christan horse girl” conceptual space is actually a pretty obvious spot for Illit to occupy seeing as how almost nobody else is doing this sound in k-pop right now, so it’s enough for them to retain the “cute concept” HYBE wants to lumber them with while also setting them apart from everything else out there right now. Yes it’s not the best song in this style but I’ve also heard this kind of thing done a lot worse so I’ll take what I can get from a “genre” which really should be pushing out way more of if they know what’s good for them. Also listening to this over and over will help me write my new book about a Christian horse girl who auditions for a variety show and then a bunch of bad stuff happens and it gets very fucked up, after finishing my last book series that a few people actually managed to read all the way through I’m trying to now write the kind of horrible book that nobody should ever read ever and it’s going great but I had to temporarily stop this month to make these lists, so I hope you appreciate me taking time out of my buttsex-writing schedule to bring you this review of this great song you’re welcome.
6. XG – Gala
Whoever person or group of people who has been writing the raps for XG is fucking seriously good at it. We know it’s not the girls themselves, because on any XG track they all seem to coincidentally have exactly the same type of very fluent lyricism that could only come from someone who is fluent in hip-hop culture and a native English speaker, and none of these girls tick both of those boxes to the level that they’d need to in order to be able to write raps like this. (Don’t give me that “they contributed ideas” crap, sure they did but the ghostwriters are doing the heavy lifting and we all know it. It’s not a criticism anyway, there’s nothing wrong with being a pretty face who delivers lines well. Just be real about it. It is what it is.) However the singing parts have always been some ultra lazy-ass R&B crap and that’s consistently let the side down. Not this time, someone actually decided to write some proper vocal hooks and scatter them lightly throughout this song and it works like a charm, giving just the right amount of melody to break things up before the raps get too monotonous. As usual the video looks great too, with XG still being the only k-pop (or k-pop adjacent, or whatever the fuck this is, whatever) group to know how to use AI filters correctly (another thing their Kool-Aid-sipping fandom are in constant denial about), but the star of the show is definitely the music, racing along like Madonna’s “Vogue” on rap steroids, in a way most k-pop simply wouldn’t dare. It’s a fantastic song and I can’t wait to see what this group does in the future with a transitioned breakdancing Cocona, if they’re smart they’ll use the opportunity to push the envelope conceptually even more.
5. Kep1er – Yum
Yeah so Kep-one-er were really on a roll this year, in a way that most other girl groups failed to match or even come close to. “Yum” is relentless ear-bashing fun, that starts fast, keeps going hard, and doesn’t stop until it’s all over, unlike every other k-pop song this year which has seven parts where the beat completely cuts out and three needless change-ups for no reason. Heavy bass drums and fat synths take command of the sound and while the vocals are fairly tuneless and unspectacular for the most part it’s fine because it really works over stuff like this, the girls do the right thing and just get out of the way of the beat. All you need to get a k-pop song over the line is a good backing track and some sembalnce of a clue as to what to do over the top of it so as to not fuck it up, and “Yum” manages that just fine.
4. Seo Eve – Talk Talk
Oh did I mention that Seo Eve is, on the basis of song quality averages, the best soloist in k-pop to date? Well let me fucking remind you, and hey maybe her run won’t last so I have to gloat about it now to annoy everyone while I still can. “Talk Talk” is a great ska-pop song that’s not only better than most k-pop attempts at ska but also better than the vast majority of ska-pop songs I’ve ever heard from actual ska-pop groups worldwide. A little more guitar and a little less girls dancing around on rooftops being all happy and shit and nobody would even know the difference, but ska fans will never go for it with presentation like this because they’re worse than jazz snobs with their relentless gatekeeping “oh it must be ‘real music’ man” bullshit. They’re missing out because “Talk Talk” is fantastic, with catchy melody plus keyboard and drum parts exploding everywhere, the mix has “Gee” levels of detail. Just listen carefully to the backings and you’ll soon notice just how many interlocking parts of total virtuostic madness there are, but somehow none of it swallows up the mix or gets in the way of the main vocal or the general catchiness of everything. Oh and if you like the song as much as I do have this cartoon video version (that’s been curiously delisted for no obvious reason), plus Seo Eve’s Japanese language version with a completely different video again, you’re welcome.
3. Hwina – No, Not This Way
Hwina’s choice of fashion in “No, Not This Way” might seem odd, but I know exactly what she’s doing. She’s wearing that raincoat so as not to get all the blood on her clothes from the lives she ended by destroying every single other Korean pop performer with a “synthwave” song. Every bubble you see in this video represents one trapped soul who wasted their lives trying to write a song that could beat Hwina and is now stuck in songwriting purgatory. It’s a musical murder and we’re all invited. The best bit is, Hwina doesn’t even look or sound like she’s trying, she probably writers ten songs this good before breakfast each morning but didn’t even bother to share them with the world because it would be too much for the weak cunts who populate this earth. I hope you’re going to be stanning Hwina because I sure am, I know she’s got a lot more like this up those puffy sleeves. Bring on 2026!
The next two songs were almost impossible to decide between, as they’re both exceptional for very different reasons, but since this is a numbered list I have to pick an order of some sort so here we go.
2. AtHeart – Good Girl (AtHeart)
Okay so “Good Girl (AtHeart)” is basically a Rancid song. Someone just took the guitars out and k-popped it, that’s all. I’m certain that Rancid didn’t write this song, but they easily could have. If you went right now to the AI music plagiarism hell machine creation tool of your choice and gave it the prompt “make a cover of AtHeart’s ‘Good Girl (AtHeart)’ in the style of Rancid’s ‘Time Bomb‘” and let it run, presuming the AI was any good at figuring things out, you would just get… a Rancid song that would stand up easily with any of the better Rancid songs. This is great because Rancid in the “Out Come The Wolves” era that “Time Bomb” was from was just peak pop songwriting in a spiky denim jacket so anything copying that stuff is a winner in my book. Of course lyrically AtHeart’s song is different, mentioning MBTI which is a shame and yes they mention it negatively which is good but it’s better to not mention it at all so as not to give that thought cancer any attention, because MBTI is basically eugenics for the TikTok generation and boy do the TikTok brainrot kiddies cape for it like the bigoted little bitches they are when you point that out. It’s not their fault – the kids learn racism early these days thanks to being always-online, we pray that they unlearn it. Anyway that lyrical weakness is probably the clincher that kept this song away from the #1 spot in the end, great as it is. Oh and the little gap that happens two thirds of the way through the song is kind of annoying and stupid too but that’s not really part of the song itself so here’s a dance practice version without that.
It’s even the same length and structure as every Rancid song ever once you remove that silly gap in the middle. Punk influences in k-pop, that’s what I want, more of this please.
So what’s #1? Drumroll please…
1. IVE – Rebel Heart
So IVE’s “I Am” from 2023 is a great song, it was #1 on the favourites list for that year and that’s because it’s actually very nearly perfect. It’s clearly the song that was the template for “Golden” from Kpop Demon Hunters, which sort of feels to me like what “I Am” would sound like if the average moronic k-pop fan decided to improve it, because “Golden” has so much more focus on the vocals and as we know k-pop fans are weirdly, creepily obsessed with vocals for some strange-ass reason in this “genre” or whatever where every single performance is an electronic creation anyway. It’s obvious with “Golden” that it’s a creation designed for the studio only, because no human can actually sing it in the original key without tons of pitch correction or without straining their larynx halfway through their asscrack. The result is that “Golden”, while still good, is also a bit annoying and screechy, and repeated listens of the song really wear the listener down. It’s a solidly decent song but it’s far from an improvement on “I Am”, it’s actually a noticeable step backward.
If I on the other hand were to improve “I Am”, here’s what I’d do to it instead. Firstly, I’d add guitar, I mean, obviously. “I Am” is slick and polished to a tee but I think it’s just a little too polished and smooth for my taste, so some distorted guitar in there would definitely help add a little roughness to it. You could actually really enhance the dynamics of the song a lot with the guitar and drums working together at key moments, coming in and out at the right times to enhance the climactic moments of the song, because one flaw of “I Am” is it’s just a teensy bit dynamically flat. Speaking of which I’d also change the messaging a bit. “I Am” is a very typically aspirational k-pop song with typically aspirational k-pop lyrics, and quite good ones too, but they could be better. Maybe if we had something in there that played more to my lower-class Australian cultural taste of supporting the underdog, being yourself, following your own path in life, not caring about too much stuff that doesn’t matter, and not worrying about what other people think about you… in other words, the kind of caonimaish values that drive kpopalypse.com in general. I think that would be good. I think that a song that was like “I Am” but also added all those elements would be so good that it would practically move me to tears. I’m sure that could happen. If you disagree… well, I guess you’re just not a rebel in your heart.
Here’s some bonus content to amuse you… or maybe just me.
As per the AtHeart song, if you want just a dance version of “Rebel Heart” with no intrusive segues or drama video sounds, here you go.
Here’s one of those “it’s live we promise, pinky swear” TV show things where they obviously pitch-corrected it later. Hey, it’s not a drag on IVE, it’s the same with literally every group. The band arrangement here is nice, it works, even if some members of the band can’t help but jerk off a bit on their instruments, like what is that bass player doing at 2:41, you just had to play the root note, you dick. It reminds me of those YG group band arrangements where the band sounds great but they can’t stop doing little soloettes everywhere, I guess because they’re hired guns who feel like it’s “just idol music” so they might as well show off. Oh well.
IVE’s live concert performances of “Rebel Heart” aren’t terrible or anything but they sadly waste the song’s huge potential, because k-pop on the whole is poor at being a “live music experience” and doesn’t know what to do with something of the quality of “Rebel Heart”, to them it’s just another song to get through before the next overlong parasocial-connection-building audience talk break. Who can blame them, the k-pop system is what it is. For anyone with open ears who is schooled at arranging music for live performance, it’s obvious that “Rebel Heart” is a song that when performed live should have the length extended, and should have crowd interactivity through the song. It should be treated with the appropriate amount of reverence as a lightstick waving rallying call, much like X Japan do with “Endless Rain”:
I want to see an IVE live concert appearance where all the girls stop singing, the band stops playing and the audience carry that fantastic chorus all on their own without any prompting. Until that time, I’m convinced that k-pop, as a whole, doesn’t understand on a fundamental level what a live performance actually is for, and likely won’t anytime soon. That’s why Dreamcatcher could never be Korea’s answer to Babymetal, and it’s why a made-for-streaming-services movie was easily able to steal IVE’s thunder. Or maybe it isn’t and I’m just talking shit because I like this song a whole lot. But here, have a full live IVE concert anyway:
Personally I think they shine in the recording studio more, which isn’t surprising. K-pop is fundamentally, at least at this point in history, a studio creation, and the power of k-pop to be a truly engaging live experience has not yet been harnessed properly by anybody in Korean idol pop. That’s not an IVE problem, that’s a genre-wide problem. But for now, whoever produced “Rebel Heart” has definitely made a song good enough to stand IVE directly on the cusp of what might’ve been.
Thanks for reading! Please enjoy this video of the Kpopalypse 30 favourite k-pop songs of 2025!
Thank you to all readers, and I’ll be back again in 2026!