Kpopular's Top 40 K-pop Songs of 2016 (Part 1: Best Singles)

Happy New Year everyone! 2016 is over, and that means it's time for me to do what every other K-pop blogger and their mum (well, okay, not their mum—she probably hates K-pop and wishes her child would just accept that they will never marry that "Jikook" guy) did three weeks ago: list their favourite songs of the year in numerical order, because K-pop fans love ranking things just for the sake of it. This was a pretty awful year for K-pop, with many groups disbanding and others simply absent from the promotional circuit, but there was still a small number of great songs which were a cut above the rest. Note that this post only lists favourite singles; a similar post for album tracks will come soon. (Also this is a fairly long listicle with many embedded videos and as such it may be slow to load for some readers)

20: DIA — "Mr. Potter"

2016 saw many girl groups attempt to one-up Nicola Roberts' "Beat of My Drum" Red Velvet's "Ice Cream Cake" and "Dumb Dumb", and for the most part they all fell flat, quite literally—often these songs feel so crowded that any hook is almost completely lost. "Mr. Potter" is yet another case of girl group pop turned up to eleven but the reason it succeeds where so many others fail is its wonderful chorus. Here, the light vocal delivery actually helps the chorus melody stand out instead of being hopelessly buried in the mix like so many others—there's no need to fight against the instrumental if it sounds distinct in the first place, hence the adorable "Matjyo~, oneureun neukkimi ttak watjyo~" line sticks effortlessly. Take note, songwriters!

19: I.O.I — "Very Very Very"

Yes, this song sounds "Very Very Very" much like "Gee". Yes, this song is on the list because it sounds "Very Very Very" much like "Gee". I.O.I proved to be nothing more than a bland pastiche of every other girl group in the business over their thankfully brief 10-month run, releasing dud after dud after dud, but through some small miracle (i.e. Park Jinyoung) they were finally given a good song before dissolving. Hook songs are nowhere near as popular as they used to be—if anything they're now seen as passé—but when done well it's a formula that can easily pay off, and what could suit a group like I.O.I more than a knock-off of one of the most iconic hook songs in the genre?

17: EXO — "Lucky One" & "Monster" 

I never thought I'd see the day where EXO released even one of my favourite singles in a year, let alone two, and these are both so good that they're sharing a spot on this list as I really can't choose between them: the former boasts a fantastic funk-based instrumental while the latter is a sort of spiritual successor to "Overdose" with brilliant vocal harmonies and moody overtones. Both are easily EXO's best singles, so good that they made the atrocious follow-up single "Lotto" sting even more.

16: Hyomin — "Sketch"

Sex is everywhere in K-pop (yes, everywhere), but rarely do the songs actually sound sexy; often, attempts at "sexy" songs in K-pop keep the instrumental rather simple and clean, too afraid to go very far in case they're labelled Filthy Iljin Slut Whores by virtue-signalling K-pop fans who insist that K-pop stays "pure" and never sexual. "Sketch" takes a very different approach, crafting a thick, viscous atmosphere for Hyomin's soft vocals to echo through, and the clever layering of her voice makes up for any weaknesses in her delivery. Overall it's a huge improvement over the wooden "Nice Body", which showed Brave Brothers at his most insipid.

15: Red Velvet — "Russian Roulette"

Red Velvet's music up 'til now has slotted in one of two very distinct categories: bubbly dance-pop which bounces with the energy of a rabbit on a sugar high, and sedate R&B with an emphasis on more relaxed production. "Russian Roulette" isn't quite either: not as loud as their "red" side, but not as slow as their "velvet" side—though it still has qualities of both: a bright sound built on chunky '80s synths with a focus on delivering simple hooks, but also a fairly stripped-back backing and smooth vocal melody. Despite many fans concluding that "Russian Roulette" belonged squarely to their "red" concept, it's more fitting to view it as the group's first single which shows both sides of the group at once, and hints that—rather than a black-and-white (or red-and-velvet, hurr hurr) dichotomy—the dual concepts can exist as a spectrum for the group to experiment and play with even further than they already have. This may be a simple song but it has opened many possibilities for the group, which I hope SM Entertainment take full advantage of.

14: SNUPER — "Platonic Love"

The '80s revival has easily been one of my favourite trends to come from pop music in recent years, and SNUPER team up with production team Sweetune, masters of retro '80s tunes, to teleport K-pop fans to a time before 95% of them were even born; a time when their parents were in their prime, perhaps only just meeting the love of their life for the first time, completely unaware that together they'll conceive a godless heathen who spends all their spare time cyberbullying celebrities by writing "die bitch 🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍" on their Instagram posts over and over. Wonder Girls always receive a lot of praise for going all-in on their retro concepts, but "Platonic Love" is so faithful that it somehow manages to out-'80s the '80s.

13: Lovelyz — "Destiny"

Lovelyz are at their best when working in collaboration with producer OnePiece, whose Britpop-inspired singles allow the girls to truly stand out from the crowd musically; at a time where a ton of rookie groups are running around testing out what works and what doesn't, Lovelyz have already developed a core identity for themselves. "Destiny" utilises stirring strings and twinkling synths to create a song which perfectly balances the mix of whimsy and melancholy they're becoming known for.

12: 100% — "Better Day"

After two years in limbo 100% finally returned with another smash, proving themselves to be far and away the most consistent boy band in K-pop. Okay, that statement is a tad less impressive when we remember that they've only had five singles, but at any rate their hit/miss ratio is better than labelmates Teen Top and UP10TION, the latter of whom laughably have the same number of singles as 100% in just over one year. Heavily reminiscent of INFINITE's early hits such as "Be Mine" and "The Chaser", "Better Day" is full of delicious melodrama which is capitalised on by the group's formidable vocal talents in the high-flying choruses, particularly Rokhyun who never fails to amaze with his pipes. If there was one good thing to come out of 2016, it was the return of Rokhyun this excellent group.

11: Tiffany — "I Just Wanna Dance"

Rather than doing her best Ariana Grande impression as we all feared she would, Tiffany made a fabulous solo debut this year with a slightly left-field synthpop gem. "I Just Wanna Dance" has effortlessly catchy hooks but its real draw is the simply gorgeous instrumental, with warm synth washes lifted straight out of Carly Rae Jepsen's E•MO•TION. She also doesn't try to reach for notes outside of her vocal range! Truly a blessing.

10: Hyosung — "Find Me"

How did we get to the point where "Find Me" is a fast-paced song? Over the past few years we've seen K-pop become much more obviously influenced by R&B rather than dance, leading to a very unfortunate shift in sonic climate towards mushy "slow jams" instead of the upbeat dancefloor numbers which led to the genre's international recognition in the first place. Consequently, at a blistering 124 BPM, "Find Me" is faster than the majority of idol singles from this year, maybe because anything that isn't some miserable dirge is too exciting for Koreans now. Fear not, though: Hyosung is here to remind us of the good times, times when people actually thought K-pop could take over the world, when trap breaks were non-existent, when BIGBANG were actually fairly consistent in terms of song quality and even Super Junior occasionally dropped the odd jewel. What's that? You got into K-pop post-"Gangnam Style"? Ah... never mind, then.

9: SNUPER — "It's Raining"

This definitely wasn't popular among international fans: I've barely seen anyone say much about "It's Raining" other than criticising the chorus for sounding "strained". Dismissing it on these grounds however seems strange to me, firstly because the vocals are so weak that they're not present enough to grate, and secondly because that's not really the song's hook: the chorus melody acts as a kind of anchor for the backing, which provides the actual hook (and a cracking one, at that) through harmonic movement. SHINee and INFINITE tend to consistently release my favourite boy band tracks but neither even came close to SNUPER this time, and SNUPER's singles along with "Better Day" prove that, while nowhere near as popular as they once were, Sweetune can still bring their A-game and produce stellar tracks.

8: Luna — "Free Somebody"

Honestly all Luna had to do to get me on board for her first solo effort was sing anything other than yoloswag garbage, but fortunately SM were kind and gifted us with this anthemic dance number (I believe the trendsetting youths call it a "banger") which combines K-pop's two latest obsessions into the best debut by any solo artist in the industry. The wonderful instrumental packs enough of a punch as it as, but Luna manages to take it to new heights with an outstanding vocal performance; it's the energy of her delivery that gives this song so much verve and spunk, and we should expect nothing less from a woman who is easily the best girl group vocalist going (and she doesn't need some worthless ballad to show this).

7: Taeyeon — "Why"

"Why" and "Free Somebody" are more or less the same song with a different aesthetic and are pretty interchangeable, but for this list I'm placing "Why" in a higher spot for being possibly one of the best summer songs in K-pop. It's not necessarily the vaguely "exotic" tropical house influences that make "Why" so suitable for warmer months but the carefree lyrics and sunny melodies which turn Taeyeon's third solo single into a perfect poolside track (it's also free from brass, which is hopefully less prominent in 2017).

6: Berry Good — "Angel"

A rare case where rampant ad-libs don't threaten to completely ruin a pop song—apparently needless improvisations and money-notes are necessary in popular music even if they contribute nothing whatsoever and, in worse-case scenarios, clash horribly with the main vocal track. One of the best things about "Free Somebody" is that Luna doesn't throw as many ad-libs into the track as she can, nor does she go overboard when she does, and the end result is that she comes off as a smart vocalist with enough understanding of both music and her own voice to know better than squawking out that E5 just to remind everyone that she can. On the other hand, the Berry Good girls don't hold back oh, at all in "Angel", and the song culminates in a huge warble-fest over the last chorus. So why is it on this list at all? Well, the keyword here is "culminate": "Angel" builds up to its explosive finale as the song progresses so when it eventually arrives at that point we're expecting them to get their Whitney on. If you're not going to hold shit back show restraint then at least prepare us for it—never go in dry, people!

5: STELLAR — "Sting"

STELLAR have been golden since 2013's "Study", so having them show their faces on this list is hardly a shocker. "Sting" is much bubblier than their best known tracks—in fact out of all their singles it's probably closest to "Study" sonically—though the message of calling out hypocritical netizens still rings loud and clear. Needless to say this flopped, because only Gain is allowed to be self-aware, but as always that says nothing of its quality: "Sting" is a delightful ride with its bouncy bassline and super-sweet melodies, sporting not only a catchy chorus but also an even lovelier refrain. Also sort-of-of-note-but-not-really is that this was released on my birthday, needless to say I couldn't have asked for a much better present from the K-pop gods I'd quite like a Girl's Day album this year please.

4: 4TEN — "Severely"

A lot of people claimed that this sounds like something out of an anime soundtrack, and though I can certainly imagine this playing during a fight in Gunbuster, I can just as easily imagine it in any other '80s cartoon. Speaking of the '80s, a much more fitting comparison in my eyes is KARA's legendary 2012 single "Pandora"; it's not quite as good (then again, what is?), but if an inferior "Gee" clone muscles past most of 2016's music, an inferior "Pandora" clone obliterates nearly everything in sight. "Severely" has everything that made KARA's singles so consistently fantastic: rocking guitar riffs, melodramatic ad-libs, a rap break so bad it's good, and copious amounts of camp; why, it's like KARA never disbanded after all! Also, Seungyeon wishes she could screech like the main vocalist here with the face of a melted candle, what a gal.

3: SISTAR — "I Like That"

After the stinking turd that was "Shake It" I feared SISTAR would never again match the quality of "Give It to Me" or "Alone", and instead Starship Entertainment would hand them increasingly safe rehashes of "Loving You" so they could focus on Monsta X (and now WJSN). Suffice to say, then, that "I Like That" was the last thing I expected from the group: a thundering pop-anthem that makes Girl's Day seem as mellow as Apink by comparison, this was by far the biggest surprise of 2016 and quite possibly SISTAR's best track. Hearing Hyorin and Soyou carry the whole song a given in a SISTAR release, but Dasom makes a triumphant return from the shadows to work most of the verses, and her breathy coos provide a great contrast to Hyorin's powerful belts in the chorus.

2: Dalshabet — "Someone Like U"

Okay guys, this has been really funny, but can we stop pretending Dalshabet aren't one of the best girl groups in K-pop now? Not to be outdone by all these other idols muscling in on their own turf, Dalegend pair up with Brave Brothers to remind everyone who the true faux-retro queens are, and add yet another fabulous earworm to their discography. Woohee's sharpness mesmerises as always in the chorus, but the real MVP here is the new top madam Serri, who out of nowhere goes and drops The Greatest Rap Break of All Time™ on all of us. Kendrick who? Danny who? They're all gone now—now there is only Serri.

1: FIESTAR — "Mirror"

Is my taste in music that bad? I guess the fact that this is a K-pop blog answers that pretty bluntly, but over half of the songs on my list this year have been miserable flops (12 out of 20, 13 if you include "I Just Wanna Dance"). I suppose it's not too important, though: what is important is that FIESTAR's "Mirror" was my favourite K-pop song last year, and a lot of the reasons for that have been mentioned for other songs.

"Mirror" saw FIESTAR firmly settle with a core concept they had been building to since 2013's "Whoo": sexy, chic, and—as the title of their second EP put it—"delicate". The resulting single draws inspiration from miss A's "Touch" (one of the standout hits of 2012 and K-pop's golden days in general) to create an elegant single that carries itself on melancholy keys, subtle bass, and understated 808s (and heartbreaks too, if it wasn't clear by the overall mood). All four vocalists hit the mark with their delivery without hamming it up, and Yezi's rap breaks fit seamlessly between the verse and chorus; it's pretty obvious she's now able to write her own lines instead of being foisted with whatever the songwriter came up with last-minute when they remembered the group had a rapper. Speaking of which, the rest of the song was written by Linzy, so K-pop fans can even take the moral high ground and claim FIESTAR are not just idols but #artistes—what more could you philistines want? To think three years ago this just might have been their breakout single. At this point I think even FIESTAR themselves know they won't make it, but at least before they go they've followed in Rainbow's footsteps and released both an outstanding single and EP.

"You're telling me I read all of that, yet I'm not even on the list?"

And with that we say goodbye to a terrible year for K-pop and music in general. As mentioned at the beginning I do have a second article for best album tracks coming out but I can't say when that will be—in fact I'm not making promises with this blog at all anymore, as each time I've planned to actually be active I've been hindered mainly by academic things (last year in particular as I was working towards a place in university). Still, I seem to have gotten a surprising amount of traffic since my last post, so maybe I should make use of it at some point. Regardless of when I next post though, have a safe and happy 2017!