(Part 3/3)
10. Jin – Running Wild
The biggest mystery in K-pop history is how BTS got big with arguably one of the most generic discographies (though we do know how that happened, but I digress). Thankfully, we’re now past the era of BTS being everywhere, and the playing field in K-pop now is slightly not as skewed to their favor anymore. I’ve always set low expectations for BTS releases, including the members’ solos, and so far, my expectations have generally been met. So, imagine my surprise when Jin, out of all the members, would be the one to actually impress, up to the point of securing a spot in my year-end favorites. Yes, I did notice that he has been going to this musical direction in the recent years, but I genuinely didn’t think it would lead to something as fantastic as
Running Wild. At least someone in the team actually has some taste.
9. Taemin – Horizon
Taemin’s solo career has been stuck on emulating Michael Jackson (and almost every male solo from then on tried to follow this concept, too), and while the songs are decent, none of them were really able to reach that pantheon that is the Favorites Lists. I’m sure Taemin himself knows this too, and I can only imagine him looking at his groupmate Key’s better discography, especially last year’s
Killer, and muttering sulkily, “
I want something like that, too”. Thus,
Horizon was born—another excellent take on that darker 80s synth sound that always yield great results. Taemin still gets to dance the way he does, sing in his usual sultry, “squeezed” style, while we get his best song ever.
8. Solar – Colors
Solar is like Taemin, too—we’re all aware of her talent, it has long been established already, but the songs just … don’t cut it. Solar must be tired of working with lazy producers who don’t even try to write actual songs for her just because she can “make it work” anyway with her vocals, and she must have dreamt of releasing songs that are actually worth the time. One day, she went into a gay club and heard their voguing dance numbers, and then exclaimed, “
I want something like that, too! I’m tired of belting, I already know I can sing!” Hence,
Colors. Look at that, her best song is the one that is the least vocals-driven—point proven.
7. ILLIT – Cherish (My Love)
Gosh, ILLIT really are the biggest copycats of this generation, aren’t they? First, they copied the whole concept of NewJeans, from the styling, to the number of members, to the members being attractive that brands wanted them as models, etc. And now, they copied Fifty Fifty’s
SOS, but made it faster, used a circle-of-fifths progression, and gave it an addicting hook chorus a la T-ara style which I surely miss? How preposterous! Also, they copied
The Beatles’ Abbey Road photo in the cover pic of their album! It’s almost like the girls are deliberately copying everything and have autonomy over their concepts, unlike everybody else! How can I even—
Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch—like this song? It’s morally wrong to enjoy something—
Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch—that came from a bunch of thieves. Good thing I—
Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Cherish my love! Okay, who cares, I love this.
Not even God can stop me …
6. Chung Ha – I’m Ready
Chung Ha is also another one who discovered gay club voguing anthems and wanted one of her own, after years of being handed with mediocre songs. This resulted in the best song in her entire discography, and the second part of the fantastic vogue anthems trilogy (*wink wink*) of 2024. While
Colors had more sing-talking because Solar was that sick of having to prove she can sing,
I’m Ready is more melodic, yet also catchier, which I ended up preferring after debating on it for a long time. Its main refrain, the “
I’m ready to get this” part, does verge into repetitive territory at times, but the whole song is just so impactful for that to be a dealbreaker. For that, all that’s left to say is:
SLAAAAYYYY.
5. yurisa – NYA?
We now take another short break on the gay club anthems and head into early 2000s weeb music in our next entry—
wait, don’t scroll yet! I know, I know, you now think I’m sick in my head for placing a weeb song in this highly reputable, prestigious and totally legitimate year-end Favorites List, but let me raise my case, okay? First of all, in this current music scene where everyone is doing lousy trap beats, snail-pace tempos, and [insert boring music trend], the high energy of “early 2000s weeb music” (which is really just Eurodance but with anime high-pitch vocals) is an oasis in the scorching hot desert. Of course, I won’t even look twice at this song if it didn’t deliver on the most important element of music, which is
melody—but it
did, with standout parts like the first verse and, most importantly, the two-part chorus. NMIXX should also take notes from this song on how to do change-ups, because this has lots of them, and they’re all done very well. Everything is just so chaotic and extra with the orchestral hit samples, vocal chops, and other instrumental touches, but it’s also anchored by an effective chord progression, and the overall execution was just so thoughtful and deliberate. The whole experience feels like an insane but fun rollercoaster ride, and while you may not want to do a second round in the rollercoaster because you just threw up,
NYA?, on the other hand, is something that you’ll want to replay.
4. ONF – Bye My Monster
The ever reliable boy group ONF lands 4th on our list, and is the highest ranking boy group overall for this year. It’s no surprise, since ONF is among the top active boy groups in terms of song quality (with TXT probably competing with them). ONF has worked with
MonoTree since their debut, and just by running through their discography, you can tell that there’s so much sophistication and high taste level in their songs.
Bye My Monster also succeeds in the change-ups (NMIXX, take notes)—from the slower, jazzy first verse, the rock band chorus, the various orchestral sections, and even a short dancehall part in the second verse—and weaves them seamlessly through gorgeous melodies and intricate harmonies. Using
Rachmaninoff in the post-chorus also adds another layer to the angsty but grand mood they were going for, and let me segue a bit to say that sampling, when done right, is still creative, because it takes musicality and taste to actually choose
what to sample and
how to use sample. There’s lots of great parts in this song, but I’ll just highlight that final chorus: when the members took turns in delivering their lines (and the vocals had a little bit of panning in the mix), that was genius. Overall, an excellent song that also caters to the sadboi in me *weeps*
3. aespa – Whiplash
And now we’re back with the final part of the voguing anthem trilogy, with a title that already speaks on what you’ll get after listening to it—
Whip-whiplash. I’m sure everyone has heard of this song already, but for the purpose of this post, let’s talk about its selling points. First, that bass—very cool, instantly impactful, produced to perfection as expected from SM. That bass riff is just so great, that there’s so much pressure for everything else to be as excellent, because when something goes wrong and the song screws up, it’s on them, the bass is innocent. Thankfully, the topline also delivered, with a great balance between the monotonous sing-talk parts and the more melodic sections, all of which are equally memorable. The song ends up as a more “fashion” take on Viviz’s
Untie last year, and the whole package is just so streamlined and restrained, yet still serving the drama. This is first aespa song ever that I’m instantly sold, and I hope to see more of this from aespa in the future.
2. IVE – Accendio
IVE may have not delivered the best IVE chorus of 2024 (see #12), but they’ve instead served us with one of the coolest songs of the year, and that more than makes up for it. That opening synth riff that runs throughout the entire track is hauntingly intriguing, setting the tone that was kept consistent all throughout. The dancehall beat and drum sample choices give it a touch of industrial music, most notably showcased on that left-field but perfectly fitting bridge. As for the topline, once again, there’s an excellent balance between the girl group-style raps and the melodic sections, and the sing-talk chorus is super catchy and surprisingly effective (I love Wonyoung’s delivery, especially). The whole package offers a witchy, girlypop vibe, successfully represented by its MV, too, which I also thoroughly enjoyed. IVE is definitely among the reliable girls, and with the quality of their releases, their success feels completely well-deserved.
So that was my 2nd favorite K-pop song of 2024. What song comes out on top, then? Drum roll, please...
1. STAYC – Stay WITH me
Oh wow, a fan song topped the list. A
fan song, when throughout history, all previous iterations of fan songs have been snoozefest ballads. What has happened to me?
But yeah,
Stay WITH me is my favorite K-pop song of 2024, it’s just it. I was honestly in denial, even up until last night. But now, I’m locking it in. So, I’ll talk about why.
Well, the reason is precisely because of the same fact that it’s a fan song—or rather, the direction they took in making a fan song. Rather than boring their fans to death with a ballad, just like everyone else have previously done, STAYC decided to create something that
interacts with their fans instead. Let’s watch below live performance and observe.
First of all, the song is upbeat and in a faster tempo, which instantly livens up the energy of the room. The crowd cheers for them during the intro at 01:58, showing that they’re already hyped even before the vocals start. Throughout the song you can catch lots of line that are deliberately written to generate a call-and-response effect with the audience, such as “
Stay with me until the end” (02:58, you can hear the crowd sing this line, too) and
“Come come come with me” (03:06, the audience also sings along). Of course, this call-and-response effect won’t work if the melodies were a slouch, but they also nailed it with the melodies. This is because the whole song has a compelling chord progression as a foundation, and they built on it masterfully (this was actually what sold me of the song initially). The best line for me is
“Na na nan neoman isseumyeon dwae”, but almost all parts are memorable, and this is due to excellent melody and lyric writing.
If you look at STAYC's discography, you’ll see that their songs are generally very production-heavy—interesting synth patches, polished drum samples, lots of instrumental tricks.
Stay WITH me is different, in that the instrumental actually steps back a bit to allow for the songwriting to shine. You can hear a good guitar riff there, too, but overall, it really didn’t need to do too much, and it was just there to support the songwriting. To me, this means there was a confidence on its songwriting, and it was the right call.
Most K-pop songs are meant to be performance pieces, and I’m sure we enjoy watching our faves do their crisp choreographies and facial expressions. However, there is also magic to songs that
engages with the fans, just like what
Stay WITH me did, and this is something very refreshing in the K-pop landscape. If we go back to the video, you can see that this is not the usual K-pop performance—this is a close celebration between a group of singers and their (small but decently-sized) crowd of admirers. It was less about delivering a spectacle and more about creating a shared, intimate moment. Just watch the cheers after the performance, and you’ll (hopefully) see my point.
Finally, I just want to add that
Stay WITH me also feels like a great karaoke song to sing
together with friends. You don’t need to perfect every note to sing it; you can just have a great time. To me, this singability is one that's shared by the best songs, and this certainly made
Stay WITH me become my favorite K-pop song of 2024.
******
So, that's it, my 2024 K-Pop Favorites list! I hope you enjoyed it, and maybe picked a couple of songs that you may have not heard of before. If not, then it's fine, too, because music taste is subjective, after all!
Here is a
Youtube playlist of the top 30 songs, sorted in descending order. Also, I made a
Spotify playlist with all the top 30 plus the honorable mentions!
Once again, thank you for your time and for giving me this space to share my love for K-pop. Happy holidays!
i do wish there was another album closer (ahem ahem still waiting for a proper deep house release ahem) but i'm sure someone out there will appreciate it.
beedrillmega
