The Prime Three Okay-Pop Songs of January 2025

On the finish of every month, I look again at my three favourite title tracks by Okay-pop artists. I take my very own scores into consideration, however there’s a little bit of wiggle room as sure songs are inclined to develop or fade.

January 2025 Total Ideas

It’s a brand new yr! Nevertheless it… sort of doesn’t really feel prefer it but? Sandwiched between Western New 12 months and Lunar New 12 months, this January was largely sidelined with out many new releases. I’ve watched Music Financial institution each week since 2014 and discover its weekly line-up to be a very good barometer of the place Okay-pop is at any given time. This month, about 50% of every new episode was full of ballad and trot singers. There simply weren’t sufficient idol comebacks to match the operating time.

This was in stark distinction to January of final yr. It’s laborious to consider, however practically a 3rd of my high ten 2024 Okay-pop songs got here from final January. Past that, there have been a whopping six (!) different January releases that made my high 50. That may definitely not be the case this yr. Taking a look at this by way of an optimistic lens, I suppose it means we will solely go up from right here.

The order of my high three Okay-pop songs is perhaps shocking this month. Battling it out for the highest spot was a comparatively generic model of a track fashion I have a tendency to like and a quirkier model of a track fashion that doesn’t all the time attraction to me. In the long term, “quirky” ended up successful, which may typically be the case since idiosyncrasies are what are inclined to preserve a track recent after its newness has worn off. With that stated, I don’t see any of my high three tracks difficult the higher echelons of my year-end countdown in December.

J-pop had a stronger January, with one new single I completely adore and some extra that I discover very strong. My high choose is my favourite observe on this whole round-up. There are a number of thrilling comebacks on the horizon so I’m hoping the trade regains my consideration after a considerably middling 2024. And talking of different music markets, Finland was my massive winner this month. New songs by Neea River, Nelli Matula and Erika Vikman completely dominated my January. Straight 9’s throughout the board for these tracks. Let’s carry a few of that power to Okay-pop!

As for the weblog itself, this month noticed the debut of a brand new function: my weekly Okay-pop round-up! Sundays are actually your go-to spot for a weekly abstract of latest Okay-pop and J-pop singles. I used to be additionally capable of full my recaps of Okay-pop’s year-end festivals with MBC’s delayed Gayo Daejejeon.

As underwhelmed as I used to be by January, I really feel like there’s so much to stay up for in February and past. With none disruptions in promotions (I hope!), the discharge calendar ought to begin to fill out. We’ve already bought some thrilling issues promised for subsequent month. Comebacks for ONF, IVE, ZEROBASEONE, RESCENE, Chungha and seemingly all of BLACKPINK are on the horizon. Plus, there’s SM’s new woman group looming within the distance. I hope a minimum of one in all these new releases knocks it out of the park!

Month Cumulative Score: 7.9

(compiled by averaging the scores of each Okay-pop evaluate from this month)