Ever since an October 2011 New York Times account of an absolutley ridiculous-sounding sold-out K-pop showcase at Madison Square Garden, I’ve been spending altogether too much time chasing the feeling that I got watching my first K-pop video. SHINee’s “RingDingDong.” I’ve been able to get that feeling pretty often. South Korea, see, has figured out pop music pretty much perfectly over the last couple of years. Throughout Asia, and in pockets of the West as well, the music coming out of a few different management companies in Seoul has become absurdly popular, and it’s done it by taking the musical and visual vocabularies of late-’90s American teenpop and amping them up into Blade Runner pleasure-bombs, looking and sounding like an optimist’s idea of the future. The clothes and hairstyles and camera-angles and cheesed-out CGI effects are all cranked up way past 10, and so are the songs’ hooks. If you have any love in your heart for willfully weightless, blissed-out, shame-free pop music, there is a whole lot to love in the 20 videos below.
K-pop is a genre in its relative infancy, really only coming into its own in the last three years and pushing itself to giddier heights every couple of months or so. Though many of the stars do help write their own music, the K-pop assembly line is a very serious thing, one that puts even Nashville’s pop-country industry to shame. These management companies find talented kids, spend years training them, and then debut them in boy- and girl-bands that have all been assembled in the least organic way possible. There’s very little pretense at artistic expression here; instead, these groups are hook-delivery systems polished to a blinding sheen. But that all-surface craftsmanship, in its way, can be just as moving as anything else; it’s humbling to watch people so insanely good at what they do.
I should point out, at the outset, that I am no kind of K-pop historian, and almost everything I learned about the genre comes from clicking the YouTube links that appear after a video ends. That means I’m probably missing a ton of stuff, and actual K-pop aficionados will probably get annoyed with me for ranking some things higher than others and for leaving out classics. I’m a total neophyte, and if I’m leaving out anything important, then by all means set me straight in the comments section. Anyway, this list is less about ranking and more about the sheer abundance of awesomeness that K-pop is giving us right now.
20. SHINee – “Lucifer”
A pretty good indication of what you’ll find futher down this list: Flashy choreography, haircuts that seem like they leaped straight from a William Gibson novel, hooks so efficient and powerful that they almost hurt your brain. I don’t think that anyone on earth knows what “love-a-holic, lovertronic” means, and none of us will probably find out either.
19. Girls’ Generation – “Oh!”
A massive hit, and a song that a lot of fans consider to be the defining high-water mark of the entire genre. I’m not as nuts about it, but it is fun in a frothy, sunny way. The video is practically a K-pop take on Saved By The Bell; I can’t seriously imagine what a football helmet even means to Korean culture.
18. Kim Wan-Sun – “Be Quiet”
Wan-Sun has been a star in South Korea since the mid-’80s, and this is the comeback effort that introduced her to the current K-pop wave. Naturally, it features dancers with speakers for heads, a bleach-haired rapper who stomps on a computer keyboard, and a backing track that veers awfully close to early-’90s rave. Fun!
17. TVXQ – “Keep Your Head Down”
In this one, the members of this boy band shoot fireballs from their fingertips, lip-sync in rooms riddled with bulletholes, and swing bits of rubber tubing around like nunchaku. Also, one of them wears a cape and acts like that’s not even a big deal, and there are at least three points where I was convinced that a couple of the boys were about to start making out with each other.
16. f(x) – “Nu ABO”
Everyone’s favorite member of this girl group is Amber Liu, a Taiwanese-American rapper from L.A. who’s probably the single butchiest person, male or female, in the entire K-poposphere. The fact that she can become a teen idol in Korea, a place not exactly known for fluid sexuality, is some kind of testament to K-pop’s power, or to her own charisma, or something. And even though “Hot Summer” has a pink tank in it, the infernally catchy “Nu ABO” probably has their best video.
15. B.A.P. – “Warrior”
DMX-influenced K-pop, it turns out, is a thing that exists. B.A.P. is a new boy band whose name stands for Best Absolute Perfection, which is so awesome but which doesn’t have anything to do with their hardcore persona. And I think it’s pretty great that all the members of K-pop’s most thugged-out boy-band have bleach-blond hair, like they were the evil gang from Meteor Man. Also, the members keep pretending to shoot each other in the head Reservoir Dogs-style, and there’s a guy in a Deadmau5-looking light-up rabbit head who smashes car windows with a sledgehammer.
14. Trouble Maker – “Trouble Maker”
Male/female duets are pretty rare in K-pop, for whatever reason. This is a total event-song, a collaboration between two big stars in Hyunseung of the boy band Beast and Hyuna, a member of the girl group 4Minute and the singer of the awesome “Bubble Pop!,” which you’ll find further down. Naturally, it’s a sexed-up James Bondian fantasy that proceeds according to a logic that I’m pretty sure nobody understands.
13. BigBang – “Love Song
The track itself is a better Coldplay song than anything Coldplay themselves have done since A Rush Of Blood To The Head. The video, meanwhile, is one long Children Of Men/Touch Of Evil-style tracking shot (with sly edits, sure) that takes place entirely a post-apocalypic wasteland full of flaming debris and exploding car husks that fall from the sky for no reason. There’s nothing about this thing that I don’t love.
12. T-Ara – “Roly Poly”
The song’s Euro-club bounce is so relentlessly catchy and direct that it gives me Abba vibes, but for some reason it comes couched in this 12-minute period piece mini-movie in which some lady discovers her old photo album and then flashes back to the days when she and her friends would execute big nightclub dance routines to this song. I have no idea everyone’s saying during the storyline bits. But the part where that stops and the song starts is absolutely glorious, and the dance bit, with a whole ton of moves stolen from John Travolta’s Saturday Night Fever throwdowns, is adorable. (It starts around 4:25 if you want to jump right there.) For some reason, T-Ara love making these long-ass videos; the mini-crime movie that they made for “Cry Cry” is even more ridiculous.
11. miss A – “Bad Girl, Good Girl”
Sometimes, the language barrier is no barrier at all. This video, where the high school’s black-clad tough chicks take over the ballet-practice room and stage their own elaborately choreographed routine, is one of those times. Also: Good lord this song is catchy.
10. SHINee – “RingDingDong”
This was the first K-pop video I ever watched, and it turned out to be a pretty perfect introduction. Those haircuts! Those nonsensical English baby-talk hooks! The part where they all inexplicably sprout angels’ wings at the end! What really grabbed me, though, was the beat: A tense and rubbery electro-house thing that managed to be utterly accessible and totally punishing at the same time. Nobody in Europe or America is using those Euro-club tropes better than the producers in Seoul are doing right now.
9. Girls’ Generation – “The Boys”
“Oh” may be this group’s genre-defining classic text, but I prefer the robotic turbo-sass of “The Boys” to that song’s over-the-top cuteness. This one reminds me of Writing’s On The Wall-era Destiny’s Child, if they had nine members instead of four, and the video seems to take place in some supremely girly version of Superman’s Fortress of Solitude. It sounds like pure urgency. It’s also the first modern-era K-pop song to get any kind of serious American push, with its English-language version getting an Interscope release and everything.
8. Hyuna – “Bubble Pop!”
This seems to be the American indie-dork massive’s favorite K-pop song, and, I mean, I can’t disagree. It’s practically a fucking Junior Senior song, except with actual good singing, and that chorus sounds like a Fluxpop manifesto brought to glorious life. The video is just an awesomely sunny and flirty good time, with those Roy Lichtenstein comic-book title-cards occasionally turning it into a Monkees clip and that inexplicable dubstep breakdown at the end coming out of absolutley nowhere. The entire comments section on this YouTube video, at least the comments in English, seem to be one vast argument over whether Hyuna is a slut or not.
7. GD & T.O.P. – “Knock Out”
Probably the first non-English rap song I’ve ever managed to enjoy. (Second if you consider “Gasolina” a rap song.) G-Dragon and T.O.P. are the two rapping member of BigBang, and their all-rap side project is reliably just awesome. G-Dragon’s also one of the musical masterminds behind his own group, exceedingly rare in K-pop, and if I’m to believe Wikipedia, he started rapping after the first time he heard Wu-Tang. But he sounds nothing whatsoever like Wu-Tang! This song was apparently banned in South Korea because “Knock Out” is Korean slang for being drunk, which is awesome. And the video itself takes place in some Bugs Bunnified alternate universe that reminds me, more than anything else, of a prime-era Missy Elliott video. The part where they dance under the tank turret is the best. Also, this one is probably the most immediately Stereogum-relevant song on the whole list. Diplo produced it, swiping a big chunk from Cajmere’s Chicago house classic “Coffee Pot (It’s Time For The Percolator)” in the process.
6. 2NE1 – “Ugly”
Rest assured: You will see 2NE1 on this list again. They are awesome, and they’d probably take up a third of this list if I wasn’t limiting things to two songs per artist. But this one gets special consideration because it’s their emo-ballad moment, their obvious take on TLC’s “Unpretty,” and they still dress like refugees from a Hot Topic explosion. Also, if any American emo song in the past five years or so has brought this kind of dizzily positive energy, I haven’t heard it.
5. Super Junior – “Mr. Simple”
There so many people in Super Junior! 13 members! That’s like two and a half American boy bands! Can you imagine the sheer volume of hair product at work here? My favorite member, naturally, is the kinda-fat late-20s guy with the dyed-red pageboy haircut who looks perfectly awkward every time he’s on camera. A friend pointed out that he imagined someone at SM Entertainment looking at an old picture of Joey Fatone, shrugging, and pulling the trigger. This video is almost lo-fi by K-pop standards, built entirely from its choreography. But that choreography is great, and so is the song. Between this, “Sorry Sorry,” and “Bonamana,” Super Junior are the kings of direct, unshakable earworms; good luck getting any of those songs out of your head all day.
4. GD & T.O.P. – “High High”
It took real restraint to keep myself from populating the top five entirely with stuff from the BigBang/2NE1 braintrust, and I just couldn’t help myself here. This one doesn’t have the cartoonish avant-garde force of the “Knock Out” video, but it does poppy American club-rap better than any American has done it in many years. I love the way T.O.P. manages to look like Don Draper even with this goofy spaceman clothes, I love the way way G-Dragon says “like ninja,” and I love that dance they do with their hands on the “high high high high” part. More than anyone, I love how these two guys appear to be having more fun than anyone else on the global pop-music landscape. Also, I hope Slick Rick is making so much money from that sample.
3. Brown Eyed Girls – “Abracadabra”
K-pop videos do future-shock extremely well and cute probably even better, but they don’t often go for sleazy. From what I’ve read, South Korea has pretty stringent rules about anything the tiniest bit explicit, so videos like this one are rare things. But this giddy dominatrix cheesecake confection shows the sort of thing that might happen if those restrictions got lifted. And it’s all incredibly well-done: A merciless electro pulse set to a story that, as far as I can tell, concerns a gigolo figure who gets tortured via shock-treatment. And the hips-rocking dance that the group does on the song’s first verse is pure steely-eyed badassery.
2. BigBang – “Fantastic Baby”
This one is only a few weeks old, so it seems faintly ridiculous to be putting it so high on a best-of-all-time list. But in K-pop, the groups that last do it by pushing their shit to new extremes every time they’ve got a new single out. And right now, BigBang, a dominant commercial force throughout Asia, are Lady Gaga circa-”Telephone.” I mean, look at this thing. It’s a post-apocalyptic Daft Punk adolescent Tumblr fantasy, and nothing about it makes the tiniest bit of sense, the haircuts especially. I can’t tell you how happy I am that it exists. Amrit will tell you: I kept myself awake enough to write all my SXSW coverage stuff by watching this video every 15 minutes.
1. 2NE1 – “I Am The Best”
Images that fill me with an immediate and visceral sense of joy: WWE title belts, spiked gauntlets, futuristic sports cars with gullwing doors, bustiers with nails sticking out of them, CGI trains, CGI pyramids, leather jackets with Misfits backpatches, Westminster-ready poodles, jewelry that spins, cartoonish machine guns, chainmail, designer straightjackets, spinning chairs that quote Scarface, haircuts that look like Viking helmets. The song is ridiculously catchy and propulsive, and everything about the video — the editing, the choreography, the sheer volume of what-the-fuck imagery — works to support it. In the past few months, I’ve watched this video at least 100 times, and I’ve convinced myself that it’s the greatest music video ever made. I refuse to budge on this. I mean, “Thriller” was great and all, but did it have a crew of ’80s-movie punks smashing walls of platinum plaques with baseball bats for no reason? No. No, it did not.
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No Rain?
Blind Melon weren’t Korean.
Counterpoint:
I demand this exchange be an Editor’s Comment of the Week
I thought Ninja Assassin was pretty good, but none of his songs or videos have really grabbed me like that. Weirdly, he kinda predates this whole wave, which is heavy on groups and light on solo stars.
Yeah, he’s more of an actor now anyway, right? I still laugh when I think about this though:
I’m Coming should definitely be in the top 5. I mean, the guy explodes at the end of the dance break.
The surprise of the week for me is Donnytilla not replying to this one. It’s practically on a tee for him.
I knew it! I knew the video with the WWE spinner title would be number 1! My fav as well.
Also, if there were ever a thread to say this, it would be here: WHO ELSE IS EXCITED ABOUT THE S CLUB 7 REUNION?
No Gee? Seriously? We’re probably talking about the greatest k-pop song/video/single in history.
Pure personal preference. I pretty much left Beast out of it altogether too.
I have listened to love song by big bang over 100 times since you linked it on twitter 2 weeks ago. It’s bafflingly infectious!!
their discography is huge since all members are successful soloists…search them up on youtubedotcom/BIGBANG, there’s plenty more to watch/listen
That was my second Big Bang song & it had such a universal appeal….it’s just the song & them!! No crazy hairdos, outfits, crazy set, & complicated dance sequences. Also, I love that they experiment w/ different genres and just aren’t the hip-hop group that they started out as.
I dunno if you’ll find their Japanese tracks on their YT channel but here’re a few: Beautiful Hangover, Tell Me Goodbye, & Koe wo Kikasete
i agree on this, not because i’m pretty much BigBang/GD&TOP/YG-biased kind of fan. it’s just that they’re really on a whole another level, higher than any other kpop idols these days.
and they sampled old songs too in their own songs. check GD&TOP’s “Intro”..it’s a sample of Freda Payne “It’s Yours To Have’, and if you listen carefully to Big Bang’s “Alive (Intro)” song, there’s this Bee Gees “Staying Alive” feel in it. Very good.
The ALIVE intro is seriously THE BEST intro i have ever listen to.
That Bubble Pop song is really sweet until the terrible dubstep breakdown. Why dubstep, WHY!?
I agree. You take out that awful dubstep wob-wob bridge, and you have a perfect pop tune with glorious hooks.
Um… Wonder Girl’s “Tell Me” needs to be on here as does Girls Generation’s “Genie” as does the TARA butt dance.
Also, KPOP goes back way further than three years ago AND I’m going to be pedantic and say that actually “idol group” is more accurate in describing these KPOP than “boyband” or “girlband,” which are Western terms and more appropriate for acts like O-Town. Though you could flip it and call a boyband like NKOTB an idol group.
I’m going to be more pedantic and point out that the butt dance belongs to Kara (fun fact: that song didn’t have a video and it still became their breakthrough hit).
You’re referring to KARA’s “Mister”, right? well, yeah, it’s a cool song and dance, but I think filmigirl means T-ARA’s “Bo Beep”. You know, the “Bo beep bo beep bo beep, Ahh!” cat dance )) I love to dance to it
this article has made my life. thanks.
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Yeah, well, that’s just, like, your opinion, man.
I could respond to this comment, but I have to listen to “Fantastic Baby” again.
Bubble Pop is WAAAY too low on this list! I mean, that’s gotta be a top spot contender, no?
Wow, this fucking rules. Girls’ Generation is awesome,
and I wish so much that Four Get Me a Nots were K-pop, but they’re neither K…nor pop.
Enjoy anyway: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxG8lGdj2zU&feature=fvst
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PiaVgmwKvy8
eyes and ears bleeding
I went through a heavy J-Pop phase in high school (still hold Utada Hikaru and Shiina Ringo close to my heart), but I haven’t kept up with any Asian pop since.
If anything, this collection of tracks shows that Korean producers are getting a much, much greater variety of styles from their soundboards than American producers. When I go out dancing with friends all the tracks, the Katy Perrys, David Guettas, Flo Ridas, etc. all sound like they came from the same factory. It’s fun to dance to, but after a half-hour I’m pretty bored.
I don’t know if I’m rushing to my nearest Asian import store to buy any of these kids’ singles, but as much as Koreans have borrowed and re-interpreted 30+ years of American pop music, it’s time our big-name producers start borrowing back.
Also, that Bad Girl, Good Girl song/video is great.
Edward James Olmos!!!!!!
Robert Miller!!!!!!
No need to go to a store. Most of the mainstream releases (and quite a few not-so-mainstream ones) are on iTunes in most territories, but especially in Japan and the US.
Speaking of big-name producers, Teddy Riley produced “The Boys”, as well as EXO’s “What is Love”. As I’ve said often in many places, K-pop is American music, or at least what American music was before we forgot what we were doing.
Girls Generation is playing a gig in my town this weekend. On the same night my band is playing. Man I sure hope we’re sexy enough to pull in some audiences
I live in Korea and have such a hatred towards K-pop, but only because it’s EVERYWHERE. It is inescapable to a degree that no Western genre or band has ever been. That said, I think I appreciate this list all the more because I can sit back and objectively consider what makes these songs and acts so endlessly ‘hummable’, something that is considerably harder to do when faced with 4 different songs blaring from 4 different stores while you’re walking down the street.
I feel your pain. When I lived in Korea all my American friends loved the KPop and it IS pretty inescapable. I sort of made peace with Miss A and a few. However, I saw a great Korean band in Busan that played basically Irish inflected punk music. There were some western expat bands there too. I can’t remember the name of the club, in was in the Gwan go li beach area but they have live bands all the time. The only landmark I can give you is that it is close to where the Turkish kabab truck sets up. A friend that’s been in Korea for 4 years or so told me there’s a pretty thriving scene there in Busan and in Seoul too if you know where to look.
I too live in Korea and while I realize that finding this weird futuristicy teen idol sensation from the other side of the world is a fun novelty, you waeguk-in have no idea what you are unleashing.
I think Nothing’s over by Infinite should be somewhere on the list.
No MV, unfortunately, but:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DeeySDky_Ns
In South Korea where boy bands have the balls to release a video where they beat the shit out of each other.
Infninite’s BTD
http://www.youtube.com/embed/JvNUilVWFDs
Always have loved J-Pop and K-Pop but I am wondering if the appearance of this list has anything to do with those Elite Gymnastics mixes that popped up fall last year…
http://fortyounce.co.uk/elitegymnasticsmix
some of the songs on this list are definitely very popular in korea (and overseas) but i have to say that 2NE1 and BigBang are by far the best, most mature, and accessible. I mean…these are great songs. If any of them were in english and released in the US they would be instant radio hits.
and by saying “these songs” im talking about 2NE1 and BigBang, which at the moment i can only see being hits in the US
“Shampoo” by After School is a great song, surprised it wasn’t on here.
History by EXO is possibly the best thing I’ve ever heard in my life. Honestly I’m a little bit worried, I’ve been listening to it non-stop for weeks and I don’t normally like pop music.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdejiaoEhFc
It has these sleek, cold ableton live synths and faux tribal percussion. The production is just like better than any Neptunes or Kanye track. Also, every vocal part sounds so perfect, like no other kpop song makes me think “Korean is the coolest language in the world” just the way the words sound is so cool. The rap bit also works really well and doesn’t sound forced like in many kpop songs. And I just love all of the boys and how there voices sound.
The video is set on some kind of cold desert planet and there’s no real story line. The choreography is the main focus which is pretty good but not any different from most kpop videos. The song is so good though so like any video would have worked fine.
Also some people are talking about Infinite and I feel like undoubtedly their best song is Come Back Again with a really enjoyable homo-erotic video to match.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hi54WjHr-DA
I’ve just commented on what I think the best songs are but this list is about best videos so it does it’s job very well and I can’t find much fault.
You should listen to TVXQ’s “O” and “Purple Line”. You’d get from there why EXO is being branded as TVXQ 2.0 with a bit of SHINee (vocals-wise)..
You might also check out the Mandarin version of “History” by EXO-M (the Korean is done by EXO-K). One thing the pop-factory system can produce is group concepts that wouldn’t grow organically, but are interesting nonetheless, like EXO, with 12 members in two 6-man teams, one performing in Korean, and the other performing the same songs in Mandarin.
My Mandarin being weak as it is, I still have yet to figure out exactly the reference to “Meiguo” in “History”. I noticed it because the Mandarin version is subtitled in Simplified Chinese.
Well thanks for the miss A introduction, I’m really loving their album.
Better version (HD) of BTD where the Infinite member’s wail on each other. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikPRIJeA0gM&hd=1 Lots of fighting and wire work, definitely my favorite, but I’d also like another commenter suggest Nothing’s over for a more surreal abstract video. Even though Infinite is from a smaller entertainment company, they churn out better videos than two of the big three companies jyp&sme. I agree with YG being top dogs in the music/video dept, YG knows how it’s done.
Oh! is definitely not Girls’ Generation’s defining song. Gee is. By far. Could even say that Gee defines the genre more than any other song
I definitely agree. What a ridiculous hook, my god.
And the song is versatile: there’s a very credible slow take commonly done by Kim Tae-woo, and a more traditionally-instrumented version done by Sorea (another non-mainstream but interesting group that makes modern music with traditional Korean instruments).
Pretty much as expected, BIG BANG and 2NE1 topping the list with the western appeal, and rightfully so, the productions look way more elaborate. It’s also hilarious to see these k-pop fans name dropping their favorite groups to recommend, as delusional and crazy as they might be, they sure are dedicated.
To comment, BEG and BIG BANG are the exception to the “lack of artistic expression” rule. BEG are hardly considered idols since most are nearing their 30s. Although they’ve never hit it big, and maybe because of that, they have more control over their music.
As for BIG BANG, when they first started out, YG was still very much a underground hip-hop company, they basically shaped YG, not the other way around; also the aforementioned fact they write their music, it’s actually not just GD, the others write on their solo albums as well. 2NE1′s image is for the most part fabricated, the same goes for all the rest.
I’d recommend anyone: Dear TV by Tablo
This song is in english to just give you a taste. The dude produces lyrical mindfucks. Although for the rest of his songs you have to search for translations.
Even though you snidely razzed on me for name dropping infinite (Who can blame me with a bloody mean video like that from a boy band) lol I agree with you, and I wholeheartedly agree with your name drop of Tablo, and recommend “Bad” (another mean bloody/heartbreaking video) and raise you a Verbal Jint, “You look good” or “Thank You” Hell, let’s go king of Korean hip hop and throw in Tiger JK “Monster” fuck show me a dark gritty video with a damn good song, I’ll be a crazy delusional fan……fuck if we’re talking dark and gritty Epik High’s “Breakdown” …..sorry I like violence…..
Hehe, I’m basically a hypocrite and did the same thing though. Yeah, those were the good old days, can’t blame the writer though, his timeline began in 2009, ironically the exact time kpop started heading downhill(personal): when quality went down and quantity went up.
Where’s G-Dragon’s “Heartbreaker” MV??
you HAVE to check out the following awesome sexy, badass video by Brown Eyed Girls
Sixth Sense http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdH1GwyZJuY
and these two are part 1 and part 2 of T-ara’s music videos that are basically a mafia movie. think The Professional but with a hot chick and a younger, better looking lead. plus a great twist in the storyline.
part 1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Ju79e8rM0c
part 2 http://youtu.be/_sa1GWrN6eQ
Sorry to say, but i think SuJu’s MV Mr. Simple is nothing than the others, it shouldn’t have been on 5th, i mean i’m kinda awkward to see an ordinary MV on that high rank (what i am talking about is about MV, not its song or its group) no offense
Nicely done, Big Bang!! :D Since BB’s & the individual member’s discography is quite extensive I wanted to rec GD’s ‘A Boy’, Big Bang’s ‘Haru Haru’ & ‘Lies’….these are beautiful tracks w/ MVs that are quite good!
I wish MBLAQ was on this list. Or even Seungri’s (of Big Bang) solo stuff. Or even Itawon Freedom?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3N8c1t1QTDI
And though off on a kpop tangent, this is a perfect little song featuring a guy from 2PM.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCYOTV92rpE&feature=player_embedded
ugh, Itaewon.
NA NA NA NA ITAEWON!!!! xD
well i think this list is too mainstream
i mean no epik high, leesang, UV, and sunny hill?
and out of awesome BEG release you choose abracadabra which is the crappiest?
it’s like comparing MJ’s Thriller with JB’s Baby
and you only put JB’s Baby tier MV
FUTURE POP purity ring lofticries video here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpLDI5gwIaY
I love the list, and it’s not only because you keep praising Big Bang & 2NE1.
I would like to suggest some more MVs for your consideration next time you revisit or expand the list:
- Wonder Girls – Nobody (yes, that’s a classic)
- JTL – A Better Day (if you do older stuffs)
- After School – Diva or Bang
- Davichi – lots (you should check them all out, esp. 8282 & Don’t Say Goodbye)
- Co-ed – Bbiribbom Bberibbom (it’s just too fun)
- Sunny Hill – Midnight Circus & Pray
I bet the one who made this list already took a GLIMPSE of your MV suggestion..who would not know Wonder Girls-NOBODY? Its just that the list made where the ones who stand out from all other KPOP videos..=)
Yea kpop world domination!!!!!! 2012 is the year of BIGBANG!!!!!!
2NE1
Really? Is K-Pop going to be the “thing” now? Are you just trying to be ironic? Stop taking the things I’ve loved before anyone else and making them cool :(
I know right
That’s a pretty impressive list, got most of the classics in there, and the only video I’d never seen was ‘Be Quiet x 200′. Although I agree that Bigbang&2NE1 combined could easily take up more than half of the list, no complaints here. ;)
I’ve been seeing more ‘Introducing Kpop’ articles and shows in western media lately, but your witty comments took the cake here. Not to mention the impressive name dropping – makes me feel so out of it man.
“I don’t think that anyone on earth knows what “love-a-holic, lovertronic” means, and none of us will probably find out either.” HAH!! Nailed it there buddy – but might I mention, ‘loveaholic’ is actually in the urbandictionary?
I get the feeling you’d get along really well with Simon and Martina from the blog eatyourkimchi.com. Heard of them?
This list is ridiculous. None of these can even hold a candle to this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEaKX9YYHiQ
thank you so much for creating this list and put it here so that anyone who has never listened to kpop before could now find out that there this other genre that they can enjoy. i’ve been a fan for less than a year (this May will be my 1st anniversary of being a kpop world resident..lol). i’m very much into Big Bang and GD&TOP (Big Bang’s “Stupid Liar” was the song that got me into kpop), so i’m happy to see that they’re on this list.
Thanks again, because of this list kpop now has received much more attention from many many many more people.
Where’s 셋, 하나는, 하나는?
I know your new too kpop but I think a song you would like is “Wa” by Lee Jung Hyun. It’s an awesome techno song and video. The video can still hold it’s own today even though it was made in 2004.
Some classic *mainstream* K-Pop suggestions for you because I think you’ll actually have something amusing to say about them:
5-membered TVXQ were considered powerhouses of mainstream Kpop in Korea and Japan. A personal favourite is Wrong Number (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwagNDrh1DA) but most would probably recommend the fanservice-y Mirotic. Purple Line and Survivor are worth checking out. Some other ones are amazing songs but their fashion would require you to give them some slack, particularly earlier singles like Rising Sun and O.
Wonder Girls – Tell Me and Nobody dominated back in the day and were responsible for the earworm trend. Girls Generation’s Gee and Genie were of much better quality than their more recent releases, as was Super Junior’s ‘Sorry Sorry’.
Lee Hyori’s U Go Girl was pretty much the forerunner to Hyuna and just really, really fun. BoA and Epik High are also worth a listen.
It’s a very good list and I agree with most of it, though I would have switched the first two :) I watched 2ne1′s only once and it was enough. I keep raping the replay button on Fantastic Baby, though. That MV is just the best I have ever seen in my whole three decades of years. :) Bigbang is seriously THE force in today’s K-pop, and if there’s a God up there, he’ll help them conquer this bloody *boring* pop scene worldwide. I have stopped lisrening to US/Anglo-saxon pop LONG ago, and I’,m so glad I discovered K-pop, because as cheesy and manufactured as they are, it’s *fun* to listen to, dance to, never bores you because it is so versatile in styles and genres. Especially Bigbang, I could do with listening to their discography all day long without turning the player off once!
By the way, Steregum, maybe ou should do some more in-depth research on how K-pop works and what this industry is like, because behind the glitter you’ll find some pretty nasty stuff like, these kids (cause most of the idol members are still teens or arely out of their teen years) are worked to nosebleeding, and IV stands are literally part of the tour buses. I could tell some stories on how many times the Bigbang boys ended up in hospital for exhaustion. It’s just a pretty cruel world, that K-pop scene. If you don’t work 130% 24/7 you might as well just flush your career down the toilet. Would be worth a nice article IMHO.
Those jackets are alright, but all these chicks look the same.
By the way what I really love in Bigbang is their ability ON STAGE. They are simply hyper, and you can’t help but drool over the way they control the stage. Lady Gaga, please take a look and *learn* :) Fantastic Baby live on SBS Inkigayo. And those clothes, holy grace, it’s friggin awesome! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbUio-vt5Vk&feature=relmfu
I used to be a lurker on your blog a few years back until kpop dominated my playlist. But BigBang brought me right back here! (Your post is currently trending and re-blogged in other kpop blogs). I do hope you post more about BigBang in the future because your comments hit all the right spots–not to mention, they are ridiculously hilarious. I think BigBang’s full album is coming out later this year and GD is also coming out with his solo album this August. :3
Finally, slowly, the world is seeing that KPOP has become the new force in the Music Industry. Seoul is getting way ahead of even the US market.
The artists that come out are not only singers, but dancers, composers, choreographers. It’s a whole packet – not just pretty faces :))
P.S. BIGBANG hwaiting!
C’mon son. This music has 0% chance of succeeding outside of Asia. I like watching the sexy girls and some of the hooks are catchy, but K-pop will never be a big deal in the west. Why?
Plagiarism
Sexual abuse of trainees
Racism
Concepts of “cute” and “sexy” which won’t play well in the west
A super-incestuous system of linked endorsements and media coverage which doesn’t exist in the west
etc
etc
http://www.streetbonersandtvcarnage.com/blog/the-dark-side-of-k-pop/#comments
as if sexual abuse and plagiarism didn’t exist in the western entertainment world :) the only valid reason here is racism. The US will certainly not embrace kpop into mainstream trends very easily. I think Europe is more open.
eh lol?
dbsk – mirotic = more than 80 mio views?
10 mio views in 1 1/2 day
a legendary kpop music video
it deserves the first place lol
I just want to let y’all know my favorite way to watch K-Pop videos. I search youtube for something like “big bang fantastic baby english sub” and click on the ones that have the lyrics in hangeul, romanizations and English translations. A lot of the songs (especially Big Bang and 2NE1) have lyrics that are just as over the top, hilarious, and ridiculous as the videos themselves. I’ll give you two examples:
2NE1, “I am the Best”. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CK3H2X5vESQ&feature=related The repeating line “Ne ga jae il jal na ga” means “I am the best”. Each of the verses is just amazing braggadocio, with my favorite lines being “pretending to be an athelete, this slobby clumsy ‘playa’/Like you’re a flat tire, i’ll dump you good for people to see” and the next verse, which starts with “I refuse to be compared, I’m telling you the truth/If we’re talking about my value I’m a billion dollar baby!”
GD&TOP, “Knock Out”. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nuLNvN5dLPI The line that TOP repeats “aju ppeog gi ga yo” is translated as “It’s a knock out”, but this is one of those slang words that has several meanings. I think it can mean “getting drunk” but it also means something like “That girl is a 10″ or “this is the best”.
My favorite lines for GD: “‘bling bling bling’, I can wear anything I want and still look photogenic.” and this gem, the best verse in the song “G-Dragon has come by separating the clouds/Fly super board, beat above Son Oh Gong/My mic is a baton, I’m Napoleon on stage/’and when you see me swags’ you wanna be the second Gwon Ji Yong”. The first two lines he is comparing himself to the character Son Oh Gong(Sun Wukong), kind of like a Chinese Hurcules, who can fly in the clouds. “Gwon Ji Yong” is G-Dragon’s (actual) name. Oh, also, “Yong” means “Dragon” in Chinese Characters, so his stage name G-Dragon is almost a translation of his korean name “Ji Yong”. Awesome.
TOP’s best lines: “My rap is Korea’s favorite food/all the youths are copying me”
“I’m original, even the corner store’s coffee’s name is T.O.P.” This is a great line, and it’s literal, because the most popular iced coffee sold in convenience stores Korea is called T.O.P. GD has a line in his solo song “the Leaders” where he says (in English) “You want fame, playing your stupid little games?/Check out your girl’s phone, that’s my face on the frame”. That one’s funny because BigBang has an endorsement with LG phones, so cell phone stores usually have a big cutout of an LG smartphone with BigBang on the screen.
TOP’s best verse is the last one “I was born with this impressive voice/TOP & GD are like almonds and chocolate/D-D-D-Diplo and our combination/an unrealistic dream of your previous night”. Diplo is the American DJ who produced the song.
No GEE?
WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU SMOKING JESUS FUCKING CHRIST.
FIRST YOU DEFEND SKRILLEX, THEN YOU POST A SHITTY KPOP LIST AND LEAVE OUT GEE.
WHAT NEXT ARE YOU GOING TO BLOG ABOUT HATSUNE MIKU?
Stereogum: 2012 is the year this blog failed and I stopped reading, bye.
Oh Wesley, please don’t leave! What would we do without your edgy comments and innovative “all caps” formatting?
This list is fantastic, darling.
this music is all terrible junk. it’s too bad k-pop is all derivative an uncreative, guess it’s true about asians not being creative. they should go back to playing to kill themselves playing starcraft
hahahahahahahahah.. this is ridiculous… the hell this list doing here..?…. hahahahahaha omg..
No.
I’m a born-Korean who pays a leetle too much attn to K-pop (who also haven’t read Stereogum for at least five years) and I have to say this is a damn solid list. Now I’m going to go back and read all the descriptions then maybe even the comments :O
I haven’t read all the comments yet, but to the person who mentioned TVXQ/DBSK’s Mirotic – while I agree that it is near “flawless” in performance, package and production, I feel like it is really geared towards a more J-pop crowd (or eat least people who can appreciate a Japanese sensibility when it comes to pop music).
I am really glad and somewhat relieved that the focus of this article were the videos and not solely the music itself (though we all know that much of Kpop is the entire package, including the mvs, not just songs). I wouldn’t have put some in the top 20 list that you did, but this only makes me realize that there are people who see K-pop as a slightly different thing than I do. I was a child when the first wave of K-pop first started but K-pop 1.0 was nothing like the current K-pop.
If I read this article/watched the videos alone, I would think K-pop is very systematic, super-produced, super-futuristic, shiny as fuck, with a shit-ton of money to back it up. Those things may apply to the big 3 companies (SM, YG, and JYP), but besides the Big 3, many Kpop groups are a lot “less” than they pretend/wanna be, though some fake it well (I’m looking at you HyunA). That said, there are exceptions (like my newest favourite B.A.P. and singer IU from Loen Entertainment) in which impressive material come from non-SM/YG/JYP origins. There are also groups and artists that don’t quite fit into the “K-pop” mold like Epik High/Tablo, Clazziquai, The Movement crew, even some more mainstream K-Indie bands – groups that are actually popular but have more artistry to their music than some of the groups listed here.
Another thing I wanted to add is that #4 GD&TOP’s High High was an actual party held at a club. I think it was held for two consecutive days or something like that. This might explain how GD&TOP may appear much less contrived as if they were really enjoying themselves. Sure enough all the usual suspects are there in the video – YG producers Teddy, Kush/e.knock, fellow Big Bang members Taeyang, Daesung, Seungri, &etc. It was a real party!
PS. fuck yeah for putting 2NE1 at #1
PPS. people stop saying ‘hwaiting’ it embarrasses me
Tablo’s now gone major-label, too (at YG), but who can blame him after Woollim didn’t back him up during the diploma scandal? I wouldn’t be surprised if all three members of Epik High ended up at YG after Tukutz (I think it is) gets out of the service.
@ Jenny: 한국 인들 항상 “화이팅” 말 한다. Deal with it.
http://www.streetbonersandtvcarnage.com/blog/the-dark-side-of-k-pop/
i don’t have a problem with 화이팅… i have a problem with hwaiting
what the fuck going to stereogum btw, you better give a solid review to Shugo Tokumaru than this. Dont get me wrong, I like some K-pop but talk about K-pop in stereogum it’s like talk about sex with your grandma.
PS: SNSD – THe BOYS is straight trash, Gee is better song
and if you had a time to search K-Pop why dont you tell us a post about Japan Girl Group called Perfume which has an unique music, android-likey and hipster appeal than K-pop
So this K-POP article is fuckin serious? I thought it was a joke! You dont need to go to korea to spend a idiotic week trying to find the worst uncreative music? You find crap like this in every country in the world , this is like low crap mainstream pop, the worst part is that it sounds like some 90´s euro pop mixed up with some vocoders and crazy pads and new beats, point is, it sucks. In my country there´s music just like this, and its the fucking musical cancer that doesnt let other way more creative artist evolve and go up in the music industry . Especially big bang sound like some LFMAO imitators. There´s VERY GOOD music in korea, this some Korean MTV best 20 shitlist. And I watched them all. Dear God
100% true. next thing you know stereogum is going to be bumping “Die Atzen” from germany.
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Nice to see music carrying on on the great tradition of Woody Guthrie!!!
You should really change this to “The 20 Best Mainstream K-Pop Videos of the Last Two Years.” Otherwise, your ignorance is showing.
Wouldn’t “Mainstream K-Pop” be a redundant phrase? I mean the whole genre is completely artificial and manufactured for maximum, broadest appeal. One reason I really love it is because they’re so open and honest about how superficial it is. That and the music is so goddamn catchy!
which one of these songs is best to get fingerbanged to? any suggestions?
Wow! Years reading Stereogum and i´ve never left a comment. But K-Pop deserves it! Nice selection for begginers but I think there are MVs lesser known and more enjoyable, such as:
Lee Hyun You are the best of my life
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwqpMHhDBAU
2AM – I did wrong
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yo0zsqa06ZE
Sistar – So cool
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pj3q0ZChgFE
After School – Because of you
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tHh1Ca-eCI
And Norazo – Cart Bar
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=saRW2XmUEG8
Anyway, thanks for the story, it´s really great that K-Pop appears on this site.
Just when I am about to go to bed I clicked on this post. Now, I’m too hyped up to sleep.
I like the San Diego Chargers poster in the bedroom in video number 19.
Um Wedding Dress by Tae Yang should definitely be on this list. Where are all the k-pop dramas?
Gee.
Like, what a fucking magical song that was when I first heard it. Missed out, Tom.
Also, EXO is a good upcoming group. Their song “What Is Love” has this ridiculously catchy guitar riff that just loops.
“Gee” is a pop classic, anywhere, anytime. Kim Tae-woo’s downtempo R&B take on it is pretty good.
You know it’s a classic when you can get a random crowd of people to join in: Sorea performed it at a cultural festival in New York, and on cue (like at Kim Tae-woo’s show, or SNSD concerts), right after “Keudae keudae pakk-e moreuneun”, people shout “Babo!”
What about DB5K? MIROTIC?!??? ._.
Hi guys! please go to http://kpoptop100.blogspot.com to check out for the best 100 kpop songs of all time! ;)
Wow! I am so impressed! It was just what i was looking for. i have been wanting to know more about kpop. thanks for the videos in the blog (which is beautiful, btw), because I’m especially interested in the videos. i’ve learned a lot already from the blog; you’re very knowledgeable. Thank you!
Hey Esther Ahn,
Thank you! If you haven’t check it out, I have updated another 20 songs! Of course, I will try my best if I have time to update the whole list. I am grateful for you having learnt the wonderful world of Korean music through my list! ^^
sayA!
Vote for your favorite kpop bands. Feel free to add more candidates. http://bit.ly/Nrr32m
Too bad this post was made before Big Bang’s Monster, which is pretty much the best kpop song ever.
SM Entertainment artists are really doing well these days. If this article was posted today, I bet Taetiseo (Twinkle) or f(x) (Electric Shock) would be #1. Then again, Big Bang could easily be # 1 with Monster MV. Anyway, great post from a non-kpop site. This comment is from the blogger at: http://www.kpopcraze.com. Check it out if anyone is interested in the latest k-pop news and music!
abracadabra on 3rd biatchhh
surely this lists needs to be updated now that GANGNAM STYLE exists…?
yaaa this is a nice list for beginners…..