Before dropping the bomb that was Color Outside The Lines, HYBE was tapping Martin, the main creative force behind CORTIS, for lyrics and production. Gotta get some fresh blood in the writer's room, after all! Martin was also working behind the scenes on illit's “Magnetic” and TXT’s “Deja Vu” in 2024, but “Outside” is the track that most resembles a CORTIS song, and is way outside of Enhypen's wheelhouse, no pun intended. Of course it's catchy in the same way a CORTIS song would be, but it's a fun listen mainly due to the fact that we get to hear the usually clean-cut Enhypen try to posture as legitimate rappers, with standout lines such as “Was a pretty boy, but it's getting ugly” and “I need melatonin”. They're a really intimidating and scary gang of young men, but they still know to stay away from Ambien. I encourage HYBE to keep up the inter-group writer-swapping, keeps things fresh!

After seeing increasing levels of success overseas, Ateez have decided to party like it's 2006 and release an all-English track reminiscent of the era ruled by Timbaland x Timberlake - one of the smartest moves made by the western-aiming groups this year. Like just write a damn song with verses and a sticky chorus and a fuckin coda! And make it about a booktok-style toxic hookup so you can shirtlessly oil up on stage and get those Y/N panties soaked! The more overtly sexual Ateez dare to get, the more success they see with their i-fans, and I do have to admit it's refreshing to see the topic be addressed without the usual wink-wink nudge-nudge dogwhistles and roundabout perversions found in kpop meant for a domestic audience. It's nothing complex, nothing too special, but it bangs and that's all it had to do.

Written largely by hyperpop auteur Alice Longyu Gao, Gnarly sounded like absolutely nothing else released this year, and makes me wonder if the stranger side of hyperpop could finally be worming its way into kpop at large. Go listen to a song like Come 2 Brazil and then listen to Gnarly, and like, this is very clearly an Alice Longyu Gao song gifted to a standard girl group to shock and build promo. It worked, Katseye was very hyped and very talked about this year. Even though Katseye are an international group whose songs are in English, they're promoting using kpop methods, are produced by a kpop company, and even appearing on Korean music shows. It's also worth mentioning that Longyu Gao’s entertaining lack of respect for the English language serves as a wonderful template for future English-language kpop tracks - it doesn't have to make sense, sometimes it's actually better to spit in the face of sense.

Released at the tail end of November like a nice after-dinner mint, illit's latest effort was dropped a bit too late for me to include on the list, seeing as it's not very immediate. I found the urge to go back to it multiple times, though - it's been marinating throughout December, and now I can say that if they'd released this in the spring, it might've grown on me enough to make the top 20. I think it's the theme of the song that I like so much, with the laid-back production and warm, intimate vocals serving as the vehicle to deliver the titular message. Depending on how you look at it, the song can be read as a desperate attempt to finally be seen as an adult, or as a cute girl's struggle to give up her hobbies and interests as she senses she's aged out of them. illit discuss listening to 90s Britpop on vinyl (instead of the cloying slop that's on the radio…like illit), removing all the keychains and trinkets from their handbags, and embracing the no-makeup makeup look…all over a vaguely sad, organ-led track. Kinda breaks my heart.

Despite everything, I do sorta miss peak BLACKPINK, especially given the absence of true girl crush music in kpop at large recently. Luckily for me and anyone who doesn't wanna have to replay the same 5 good songs they made over and over, MEOVV are here to deliver a suitable replacement! This is structured exactly like a BLACKPINK track a la “As If It's Your Last”, with raps padding space between that deliciously sticky chorus. The catchiest part is delivered as a chant, so you can shout along! Vocalist Narin even sounds a little like Rosé. Fittingly, the final quarter of the song is just an unnecessary breakdown, so unnecessary that I found it sweet and nostalgic. This won't be on heavy rotation or anything, but it really hits the spot.

I am just in awe of the creative decisions made here lol. Like the song is nice and it was nominated for the best list but didn't quite make the cut…I think because what I really like about it isn't the song itself but all the bells and whistles it comes packaged with. First off, the concept of the hospital for sick and/or dying Cute Boys who are in such toxic situationships that they're being literally poisoned…holy PEAK. Second of all, the implication that said poisoning is a result of the girlfriend's Munchausen by proxy and yet…ZB1 still want her more than anything…how romantic, how grotesque. Fittingly, the cover art is an illustration commissioned from legendary horror mangaka Junji Ito, depicting one of the Cute Boys laid out on a stretcher, clutching his chest and reaching out for HER while the doctor looks on in interest. The X-ray shows his body filled with flowers, a nod to the Hanahaki trope of death-by-onesided-love. I just don't get weird, morbid stuff like this in kpop very often, and it's much appreciated.

I'm not sold on h2h as a group yet, they're all like 16 years old and have a very uniform look to them. It doesn't help that they're wearing school uniforms most of the time, either. I think that so far, their title tracks have been age-appropriate, at the very least, if not really my thing. “Style” comes across as being made primarily for their school-aged peers, and while “Focus” was more ambitious, it needed a better performance to really work for me. No hate to the girls, they're so early on in their career that I'm not holding them to very high standards…okay, maybe I am, but that's only because of that damn debut. Short, understated, enigmatic yet accessible - and most importantly, effortlessly cool and chic. This was a song that I think we're going to appreciate more in hindsight, as both a mission statement and an example of forward-thinking, ultra-modern kpop that was a little ahead of its time.

Say what you will, but nothing else united fandoms this year quite like the collective urge to shit on ADP. Posed as villains from the start, I almost feel as though the inclusion of the turbonepobaby and “Tarzzan” (who, of course, had his hair in box braids and promptly got himself into hot water for singing the N-word) served mainly to drum up attention for the group. All press is good press yadda yadda yadda. It helps that turbonepobaby has enough moolah to fund whatever the fuck TBL wants to do with this group and that “Tarzzan” was a somewhat acclaimed contemporary dancer before all this. Anywho. How was the music? You can fake popularity but you can't fake impact, and for better or worse, ADP has made a massive impact on the kpop landscape over the past several months. This is largely due to the catchiness of their debut single, “Famous”. Some of the first lines we hear are “once we get on stage, we fake it” and “all eyes follow me, but we ain't even famous”. The shamelessness of it was kinda refreshing, what can I say! The slick, minimal production and the unpolished performances of the members make it stand out. “Tarzzan’s” verse is both the best and worst part of the song.

NMIXX have, by all accounts, improved their sound in leaps and bounds this year. However, they stubbornly cling to their original “mixxpop” concept even now…this song, their first all-English track, is maybe the first time one of their genre-bending efforts has made sense musically, feeling cohesive throughout. Over the course of its runtime, it turns from a slow, lurching electronic track to a rolling, rock-tinged empowerment anthem. I'm not too sure I'd actually…like, listen to this…but I just wanted to shout it out for being interesting, and the first time their convoluted, ill-advised musical concept came together in a way that made sense to me.

I don't really listen to J-pop, but due to ME:I being born from a Produce 101 offshoot, it landed close enough to me that I was able to give it a listen and really appreciate the production. There's a little bit of complextro influence that harkens back to the days of NCT 127’s “Superhuman”, which, coming from me, is a glowing compliment. The girls themselves don't deliver anything special in terms of performance, but I wasn't expecting them to - especially not when the production is so in-your-face and busy! Give this a listen if you ever get bored of the truckload of easy-listening NewJeansified kpop that 2025 brought us. It's something fresh!

The catchiest, most bombastic track from the Korean hyperpop scene is, fittingly, a posse cut featuring some of the most prominent and exciting artists in the genre. Production was handled by kimj, who seems to want to be the Skrillex of Busan. With bright synths reminiscent of the best Frost Children songs mixed with AG Cook’s early attempts to produce true pop tributes like Beautiful, there's a sense of deep joy and appreciation baked into the track. I don't think anything else this year sounded quite so hopeful, so grateful to be alive. With more distinctive voices than you'd hear in kpop, the theme of female friendship and emotional fulfillment is brought to life by the girls in a way that's honestly really cute and sincere. It also warms my heart to know that even in the misogynistic hellscape that is South Korea, women are still finding each other and seeking alternative paths together. I hope that this scene can grow bigger and more influential, and I really look forward to hearing more in the future…

Tomatomat are a DIY girl group and are thus not actually part of the kpop pageant circuit, otherwise I'd have this all the way at the top of the year. There's something absolutely, devastatingly beautiful about this track, largely due to the keyboard skills of vocalist Sueun. For once, a group’s aesthetic actually reaches their music…in fact, their aesthetic may be based on the sound of their music, which is unthinkable for other groups. The blend of genuinely nostalgic sounds with ultra-modern sounds that almost verge on hyperpop territory is thrilling, and the vocal effects used throughout tell a clear story, even without knowing the meaning of the lyrics. I strongly recommend anyone who enjoys NewJeansified 2020’s kpop to go give this a listen, you deserve a treat, and Tomatomat deserve more recognition for the love and time they put into this track!

Originally, I was gonna put this on the worst list, because it's just a terrible kpop song. However, my kid sister Ryan pointed out to me that while this may be a terrible Kpop song, it's not necessarily a bad song. She described it as “George Michael trying to make GGUM”, and ever since then, I've been enlightened. This is actually awesome and totally the creative direction Yeonjun should be following. Like hey, at least he HAS a vision! How many of our faves can say the same??? That scary glass-wiping chrome sound in the background and the wailing backing vocals…this haunting track. This is how you know Yeonjun was successful in contract renegotiation, he was like “let me make whatever the fuck I want from now on, and let me be naked on my photocards.”