Honorable K-Pop Mentions of the 2010s

I know, it’s March and I still haven’t finished this list. My mental health hasn’t been in the best head space for the last couple of months. I hope to finish this series before the end of March.

Here’s hoping!

Now onto some honorable mentions of the 2010s. I know I’ve sprinkled some recommendations on my list, but this time it’s a list of bops that almost made the cut. I was just being really picky about trying to visually capture what these years were to me musically.

‘Fancy’ – TWICE (2019)

I would’ve placed Twice on my list but it was super hard to find a way for me to fit them on the list. There were plenty of songs that I debated with and I ended up having a tie between the two songs they dropped last year. ‘Feel Special’ has amazing lyrics and resonated with me. I ended up picking this one instead because this dance for me was everything in the first part of 2019.

‘Fighter’ – Monsta X (2016)

I got into this group late. I think I heard some of their songs before but I hadn’t really listened to them often. When I came up on this song during a night of binge-watching Monsta X videos, I went further into their catalog. I absolutely love their bops and everything they’ve releases so far. This song stands out the most due to it’s message.

‘Icy’ – Itzy (2019)

I know they totally just debuted early in 2019 but they most definitely have got this ‘girl crush’ flow that I love. Aside from messages in their lyrics meant to empower their audience. I absolutely live for WANNABE, their newest release, but this song became an anthem for me during the summer. I learned most of this dance as well.

‘What’ – Dreamcatcher (2018)

I was initially going to go with ‘Piri’ but then I remembered that in fall of 2018, I played the crap out of this song for days. I absolutely lived for this track, the energy, the vocals, and the lyrics. If you haven’t listened to Dreamcatcher, you’re totally missing out on a shining gem in K-pop. This is definitely the ‘pop-rock’ image in K-pop that no other band has been able to replicate this successfully.

‘Warm Hole’ – Brown Eyed Girls (2015)

Let’s be real here. Only Brown Eyed Girls could get away with a song like this…and I AM ALWAYS HERE FOR IT. It’s by far one of the raunchiest songs in K-pop history. There’s nothing here between the lines, it’s all out there for the world to understand that it means exactly what it sounds like.

To me as far as a package, this was hilariously explicit message with the most random beat you could put into it. I would’ve never expected as song this explicit to have this much of a retro sound, that makes the tune all the better for it.

‘Singing in the Rain’ – Jinsoul (2017)

I got into LOONA late. I will admit that as a multi-stan and working the full-time job that I had at the time this came out, stopped me from going to check out new groups or solo releases.

When I finally started listening to the pre-debut LOONA solos, this one stood out to me the most. It’s beautiful, hypnotic tune, melodic notes, and the underlying back-beat captivated me. Jinsoul’s release is my favorite out of the solo releases. No, it has nothing to do with all the blue in the music video. Cut me some slack will you? XD

‘The Eve’ – Exo (2017)

Okay, I’m cheating a little here by putting Henry’s demo up before the actual track so, let me be fair and share the song before I ramble.

For real now, I absolutely loved this song. When I first heard it, while I was playing the album in the background, I loved it. It was a song that I hadn’t really expected from EXO in a long time. I’m not a huge EXO fan but I admit that they’ve released some unforgettable bops.

When I saw that Henry had actually written the demo, of course I lost my mind. This man is my ultimate bias, him writing this song and releasing partially his version was absolutely mind blowing. I wouldn’t mind hearing EXO sing this version either but, Henry’s voice has gotten so much better over the years, I love this.

And that’s it for some honorable mentions. I could keep going with more songs but then I’d drag this post on forever. I gotta save some of the fangirling for later. 😛

Until next time!

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