Katherine Does K-POP

Katherine’s Top K-Pop Releases of 2020: #1-10

I’m really excited about this year’s Top 10 because it’s a little different from past ones. As a K-pop fan, I usually just jump from one comeback to the next and love whatever’s trending at the moment. So normally, my Top 10 list is filled with songs from the end of the year – generally October, but sometimes in November or even December. Many early songs often get moved out of the Top 10 and get relegated to a few spots down. But for the first time in a while (maybe ever), the majority of the songs here are from the first half of the year! Also, this list is not dominated by SM artists for once – which is nice, because it shows that my tastes diversified a *tiny* bit over this year. That being said, there are three SM artist songs on this list, and they all happen to involve one person… Taeyong. Apparently, 2020 was the year when he almost became my ultimate bias. (I’m still sticking with Donghae since I’ve actually met him and all, but Taeyong was everywhere this year.) So, my #1 song of the year is one that he’s a part of… but which one is it?

Katherine’s Top K-Pop Releases of 2020: #11-20

The closer we get to the top of this list, the easier it is to see how much my personal preferences come into play. Many of the groups here are my long time favorites, and have appeared in similar rankings on previous lists. A lot of the songs also share similar traits, either in the concept or the music itself. These were the comebacks that I really enjoyed and happily listened to on repeat for weeks, perhaps even months. Which, as we’ve established, is not all that common for me.

Katherine’s Top K-Pop Releases of 2020: #21-30

Back in June or July, I made a list with a bunch of K-pop songs that I liked from the first half of 2020. With two exceptions, all of the songs in this post were originally high up on that list. Originally, I was drawn to them because I thought they were really creative and innovative (and probably pretty underrated). But although these comebacks have slid more towards the middle of my final rankings, that’s really just because of my overall interest level. I don’t know why, but it’s pretty typical for me to be more absorbed by the summer and fall releases of any year than by the earlier ones. Maybe it’s because I live in the moment, and the later songs still seem somewhat new and exciting by year’s end. But I still have a lot of fondness for the releases in this section of the list, and I revisit them often. They’re still definitely worth checking out (if you haven’t already).

Katherine’s Top K-pop Releases of 2020: #31-40

This section of songs feels a little random to me, but I think it boils down to how absorbed I ultimately was by them. I mentioned before that I tend to hop from comeback to comeback, and I devote my attention to new music for about two weeks on average. I spent a little more time on these songs, maybe a month or so – which is a lot for me. But I while I thoroughly enjoy all these songs and would highly recommend them, I guess I just wasn’t in love with them – like, I didn’t go into full on stan mode. I still like them a lot, though!

Katherine’s Top K-Pop Releases of 2020: #41-50

Even though I just did my whole 2019 list in one post, that was a bit of a rush job/last-minute decision. So, I’m going to go back to my tradition of breaking my Top 50 into five different pages. I can go into more detail, and it’s easier than making a post where you have to endlessly scroll or keep clicking on sub-pages. This first set of ten is all guy groups, which I find very interesting. Normally, the attention I pay to male and female artists is split pretty evenly. But this year, I have 29 boy group songs and 20 girl group songs (and one co-ed song). I think it’s because of NCT and its various subunits, but we’ll see as we go along. Speaking of NCT, there are a lot of SM artists in this portion of the list. If you know me at all, that should be no surprise.

Katherine’s Top K-Pop Releases of 2020: #51-100

After taking a couple of quick detours to previous years, I’m finally back on track and ready to unveil my favorite songs of 2020! I mentioned in my last post that I was much more focused on my favorite groups in 2019, and I didn’t do much exploring. This year, I did a complete 180. Because of COVID-19, I was basically forced to spend all my time at work or at home. That meant I had a LOT more free time to listen to and K-pop (and music in general). And I soon discovered that my habit of listening to the same song/artist every day caused me to get bored REALLY quickly. So, I soon returned to my ways of checking out most of the releases that came my way – and I’m so glad that I did! There was a lot about 2020 that COVID-19 ruined, but we still got a lot of great K-pop songs. My playlist for this year reached 100 songs, so I’m at peak multifan again. But I don’t have the time or energy to write about every single one, so I’m just going to cram half of them into one post.

Katherine’s Top K-pop Songs of 2019: A (Somewhat) Brief Summary

Hi all! I know I said I’d be posting my 2020 favorites soon, but the perfectionist in me just feels weird not putting up a 2019 list when I have one for every other year on this blog. So even though I’m really just making things harder for myself, I decided to take another quick detour before officially moving on to 2020. I basically wrote this in a day, so it’s very stream of consciousness – just my basic reactions and thoughts – but at least it’s here for continuity and my own peace of mind.

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Katherine’s Top K-Pop Releases of 2018: #1-10

Yes, this does in fact say “2018.” I WAS planning on writing my regular Top 50 list for 2020, but I came across this as I was going through my drafts and cleaning out some old posts that never got written. I TOTALLY thought I had posted this before I moved to Korea and went on hiatus! Now I’m just super embarrassed. And since I am a perfectionist/completionist and I already started this project two years ago, I feel compelled to finish it before I move on to 2020. So, let’s all just pretend like I actually posted this in early 2019 when I was supposed to… (^^”’)

UPDATED BTS Profile!

Hi everyone! It’s been almost two months since I’ve (noticeably) remodeled one of my group profiles, but I’m finally ready to deem the BTS one sufficiently updated. Much like with EXO, I will admit that this one is not fully complete. I knew there would be a lot of work involved with such a big group – which was why I was dragging my feet about it for so long – but it took even longer than I expected because my work schedule was constantly changing this fall. I have now discovered that a month and a half is the maximum amount of time I’m willing to spend on any of these profiles, especially now that there’s so much on my blog to-do list. But even if the BTS profile isn’t 100% done, it’s at least 75-80% complete! I just chose to forgo updating all the video heavy pages like Variety Shows and Special Stages, but I will circle back to those once I’ve taken a breather and finished some of my other more pressing tasks.

MAMA 2020 Recap: Predictable Awards, but Epic Performances

Ah, MAMA. Out of all the Korean music awards shows, MNET’s is probably the most talked about and the most divisive among the K-pop fandoms. Personally, I have a love-hate relationship with it. Much to my frustration, the awards have been getting more and more predictable every year. I’m proud of all the groups and artists who win awards, but there’s just no fun in trying to guess the winners anymore. And I find that a shame, because that’s always been a big part of my awards show experience. But putting that aside, the show itself is really entertaining. Most of my favorites are invited to perform every year, so I tune in every year to see all the amazing special stages (#thatmultifanlife). This year was no different; I happily sat through the whole thing eating fried chicken and FaceTiming my bestie Jess (Jei’s Kulture Notes) to compare notes. We didn’t expect the show to last SIX AND A HALF HOURS, but we made it through to the end and it was totally worth it. But since there was so much to recap, it predictably took me two weeks to make my write-up. As you can probably guess, this is going to be a looooooooong post. (I broke it into several pages to avoid endlessly scrolling.)

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