Five years of Kpop: My top 20 ever

This february I celebraty five years of blogging. The world is actually moving on from blogs towards other arenas, but in my small world I'm still going to share the 20 videos that I subjectively see as the ones I still like, ones I would listen to as much as watch. There are many great kpop videos out there to watch, but to be the best the melodies and songs themsleves also have to be spot on. I sometimes call them "no skip"-videos as I never feel the urge to even skip a short segment of them.

There is no internal order, I have ordered them after the name of the artists(s). So here goes nothing...my top 20 of all time. Enjoy!

A) 2PM - A.D.T.O.Y. The guys of 2PM sits upon a scene and just sings and shows of their great charisma and delivers a great musical performance.

B) 4minute - Volume Up. That saxophone gives me the chills every time, but the drama of this song in geenral is unsurpassed among girl groups. if I every decided to drive a car in extreme speeds, this would be the song for it.

C) 9muses - News. I was surprised to realize that it was actually one of their oldest hits that still is my favorite. The group that for several years produced stable melodies with honest but tasteful pin-up videos is not the smae anymore, but they still have left a nice inheritance.

D) Bubble X - Hit It. The one and only "indie" song to make it into my top list. Its not that there aren't that many good indie songs, its just that this is the only one that delivers the whole package with a perfect song and great video.

E) Dal Shabet - Big Baby Baby (B.B.B). The refrain actually distracted me at first then became the thing that together with the retro visuals made med love it.

F) Exid - Every Night. This song had such a distinct Id, all their vocals having such character, the refrain and all of it being just so soulful.

G) f(x) - Hot summer. This song is together with "Electric" iconic for the cool girls of f(x), and "Hot summer" wins narrowly for being one of the few sommer kpop songs that is actually good.

H) Girls Day - Expect. This was the big turning point for the group as they went from a group among others to the mature and sensual ladies that was just unresistable with whatever they do. The success for Girl's Day I personally believe is one of the points when the kpop industry in general started to let go of some of its inhibitions about sexuality.

I) Kara - Step. They have given us so many great songs with "Step" showing of what they do best with a refrain that just is such a happy and unsurpassed extacy of pure happiness.

J) Orange Caramel - Magic Girl. My first kpop song ever and even though it is kitchy and naive it is also have a great melody that is just unresistable.

K) Secret - Talk That. There is no denying, this is one sexy video, but the song is what makes it sensual not the visuals, they just heighten it.

L) SHINee - 1 of 1. I always expected the classic "Ring Dong Dong" to be their best song but then came this 2016 retro perfection and I was completely sold on it.

M) Sistar - Give it to me. The melancholy in this show number balances happiness and sorrow in a way that Sistar always has done so well, without needing to loose tempo ever. The song always gets to me.

N) Stellar - Marionette. If Girl's Day opened up "sexiness" for the kpop community as a whole in a relatively milder way, this song with Stellar was a much bigger jump as the video became known for its explicitness. Even though it was seen as slightly plump, many have followed in their steps and Stellar themselves has evolved the concept to an almost metaphorical level later on.

O) T-ara - Roly Poly. They have a lot of hits, but this one is the one that always is my number one for its happy baseline and unresistably dance-friendly refrain.

P) Tey - Dangerous. Not to belittle Tey's talent as a kpop artist, but this is one of those "one hit wonders", as the song far surpasses anything else I have seen (or will see) from him.

Q) Tiny G - Miss you. This odd and small group is tempting to pass over, but this song is just sucks me in every time like a chewing gum that don't want to let go.

R) TVXQ - Catch Me. It's a tough choice between this and "Mirotic", but "Catch Me" is unprecendented for me in kpop in general in the level of visual, almost physical, drama that builds up in the video, which also carries over to the song very well.

S) Up10tion - Attention. The best kpop song of 2016 is a sweet song that carries you all the way with a tempo that find a sweet spot between the more common "ballad slow" and "dramatic speed" that defines most good boy band tracks.

T) VIXX - Eternity. They boys of VIXX have always had a thing for giving us videos with a strong story and drama, and Eternity is the one I would choose (in hard competition) as the best one.

Kpop: Top 20 of 2015

If my yearly top 20 of jpop is about variation and oddness, the kpop top lists is more about perfection and honing that hit recipe a bit more, adding that extra spice or trying a little new. This may sound boring but it is what has made kpop tha shing beacon of musical success outside the local asian community, instead nowadays almost everyone knows someting about kpop.

The five outside top 20, which deserves some mention of course, were:

25. Jimin & J.Don - God. She may not be a 'real' rapper but that attitude just gets to me every time.
24. Girl's Generation - Catch Me If You Can. A masterpiece choregraphy-vise hides a rather average EDM song. But that dance oh it is perfect.
23. Red Velvet - Dumb. Visually a top 10 video, a must see, but the song was just a tad too much.
22. Primary ft Lena Park - Hello. Stylish and intelligent kpop again from Primary.
21. Crayon Pop - FM. My favorite nerds with their celebration of otaku culture.

Moving on to my absolute favorites:

20. Kara - Cupid. Yet another trademark Kara song, polished and shining kpop that I never tire of hearing.

19. Hong Jin Young - Love Wifi. My number one trot track this year.

18. 9Muses - Drama. A bit of a step down for the girls compared to last year song-wise, but Drama was quite good.

17. Rainbow - Black Swan. A dark theme and a well crafted song (though a bit repetitive) from the experienced girls brought them into my favorite list.

16. Twice - Like OOH-AAH. Even for kpop, twice seemed like a very artificially constructed group, but in the end I found it hard to defend myself from the song's inherently catchy sound and refrain.

15. Jun Hyo Seong - Into you. She really got something going for her in her solo career with already several nice videos under her belt, this being the best.

14. Tahiti - Skip. The strength and weakness of this song is its accessibility bordering on tediousness depending on persective.

13. PSY - Daddy & Napal Baji. The lightning never strikes twice and all that...this placing is honestly somewhat unfair to PSY, but I still after 3 years find myself comparing him to his historical hit Gangnam Style. This is his best try so far, but it still stands in the shadow of that landmark.

12. AoA - Heart Attack. This song really grew on me after a while, and the eye-contact version really did it for me.

11. Girl's Day - Ring My Bell. A burlesque and at times but ugly video that is (because of this also) very fascinating and addictive. And as usual their charm is unresistable.

10. Jonghyun ft Zion T - Deja Boo. Super smoth and soulful but still with passion.

9. Jay Park ft Genius Nochang & B-Free - Want It . So. Cool. The Man in kpop 2015.

8. Melody Day - Speed Up. A surprisingly everyday kpop melody for a top 10 song, but it delivers on the points that matters in the long run, not just in impressive visuals or gimmicks.

7. Fiestar - You're pitiful. A melancholic uptempo track that didn't have any weak spots really.

6. Stellar - Vibrato. Stellar managed to make the theme so openly sexual that it almost took the step into sex ed instead, in a video that actually had again a really nice song too.

5. Got7 - If You Do. The popular boy band got to me with this well tuned ballad where both refrain and all the other parts works so well.

4. Stephanie - Black Out. The almost embarrasingly explicit video aside, I just dig this track so badly, its a killer.

3. Tey - Dangerous. Even though I'm more into girls, I must say Tey is sexy in this video, with a dramatic song to match.

2. IU - Twenty-three. Gloriously well written and intelligent lyrics sung with a new-found mature charm that really makes the Alice-in-Wonderland-styled video shine.

1. miss A - Only You. So what makes this the number one kpop song this year? Well, the girls really pull off a superbly choreographed feat with a music score that has such an enjoyable combination of instrumental and singing fun that it is hard not to love this track every time I hear it.

Kpop: Top 10 of the first quarter of 2015

The first quarter of 2015 has passed and again I find myself with many good songs. I may become more demanding as my relationship to kpop matures, but there are obviously still quite a number of good videos to be had.

Honorable mention goes to Yoonmirae, Tiger JK & Bizzy in MFBTY for their colorful "Bang Diggy Bang Bang".

10. Infinite H - Pretty. An easy and charming video that mostly fascinates by the (un?)intentional homo-eroticism.

9. Skrillex ft Diplo, G Dragon & CL - Dirty Vibe. If this is what we will be getting, I'd love to see more of these kind of east-west crossovers in the future.

8. 9Muses - Drama. New member constellation but keeping with the successful concept, this time 9Muses used a cafe meets theater set as a background for their usual beauty contest.

7. Lizzy - Good Bye PMS. The video is really just super fun with mixing Godzilla like fights with a PMS medicine commercial (sic!), and the song isn't bad either.

6. Crayon Pop - FM. I love what Crayon Pop stands for. More nerds in kpop! The video is pure anime/super hero nerdiness, and the song is better then most they have released the last year.

5. Fiestar - You're pitiful. This is basically a well crafted and very traditional girl group kpop song, and it works well for giving their fans a great time. But, and yes there is a but, it should have hade a bit more variation to make it really take off.

4. Rainbow - Black Swan. A dark return for the girls of Rainbow, the song has all the right drama and with just a little more variation it would have been top 3 this quarter.

3. Jonghyun ft Zion T - Deja Boo. Charming and smooth singing in this video from Shinee member Jonghyun.

2. Tey - Dangerous. A cool and sexy debut from Mr Mr's Tey, with a song that is precisely the right level of dramatic while keeping up the tempo.

1. Hong Jin Young - Love Wifi. This isn't cool. This isn't updated. This is old school, before there even was kpop. And it is super charming. I love trot when it is done with this much fun.