K-pop!

When I was on the Global team at The Motley Fool we had a intern who had a list of “My five favorite…” on a range of topics including Korean pop music a.k.a. K-pop. I didn't care so much for the first, second and third but then Cheer Up! blew me away and I haven't looked back since! Thank you Chandler! There is so much great music coming out of Korea that it is hard to keep up with.

There are a handful of big entertainment companies and a bunch of smaller ones that hold auditions for those who think they can be a star and in practice, this means 13, 14, 15-year olds. (Here is the information page for JYP Entertainment's auditions for example. You can read in the original Korean if you wish though it is not strictly necessary to speak Korean.) Alternatively, one of the company scouts might spot you while shopping, think you have the look and personality they want and ask you to audition.

As I understand it, if a child is selected then they leave regular school and move into the company dormitory and will then spend the next few years training more or less full-time in singing and dance. There are constant evaluations and some will drop out. Trainees must behave appropriately in public, are told what to eat, have very limited contact with their families, or anyone else in the outside world and are not allowed to date – the myth created is that K-pop stars are desirable but yet somehow “available”. Indeed, the agreements have been called slave contracts and girls may be required to get cosmetic surgery!

Then in their late teens they will be assigned, or compete for, a place in a group – all girls or all boys – and they will debut. By then, after years of practice they should be amazing… but they are the only visible part. The company employs/contracts song writers, musicians, choreographers, hair stylists, mark-up artists, fashion designers and video/sound producers and technicians to make a complete “product“.

It is worth mentioning that the unblemished image created for K-pop idols means that the lyrics and the music vidoes are free from overt sexual overtones and as best I can tell from subtitles, no one swears. Performers and anyone else in the videos are fully clothed (though I will concede that skirts/dresses can be very short but they wear shorts for safety; it seems that even women showing belly buttons is a bit taboo in Korea). So, good clean fun.

Hopefully the song is a hit and the trainee becomes a star (fans will adore them but they are merely company employees and the company takes the money) but that can bring its own set of pressures, sometimes with tragic consequences as the suicide of SHINee singer Jonghyun demonstrates. More likely your catchy, beautifully executed song will get the interest of a small group of fans that will love it but most will never hear it and after a few years, the group will be disbanded. I make a point to listen to some of the lesser-known groups as some of their songs are as good as any and it is sad that they get so little recognition.

Interestingly, K-pop has a known starting point in the way that Rapper's Delight is for hip hop. In April 1992, 3-member Seo Taiji & Boys appeared on a talent show on MBC, one of Korea's TV networks performing a highly choreographed song that featured rapping. The judges were baffled and they came last. However the public loved it and the song was #1 in Korea for 17 weeks! The song: I know.

If K-pop is completely new to you, I suggest that you start with the following, each of which are mentioned again below. Click the "CC" (closed captions) button on YouTube since many have English subtitles but perhaps surprisingly, they aren't necessary to enjoy!

• A song from the world's most popular musical act:
  

  

• A song from, what was, the most popular girl group:
  

  

  
  (See BlackPink below for the currently most popular girl group.)
• Not really standard K-pop as it is a solo act with no dancing but it is beautiful (more explanation below):
  

  

• A fantastic song from a girl group that even K-pop fans probably know of only dimly, if at all. A great example of why you shouldn't limit yourself to just the most popular and also of a great, really cheap music video:
  

  

• Such a fun, bouncy song that tells a heart-warming story so you can't help smiling by the end! The music doesn't actually start until about 35 seconds in:
  

  

(As of 14^th August 2025)

If there was a song in my head since mid-2016, it was probably one of theirs. They are wonderful! As with most K-pop, it is not serious music but it is so much fun! Three of the members are Japanese and one is from Taiwan which led to a diplomatic incident with China in 2016. Their songs all have bits of English in them, especially in the chorus, which is good marketing since it is everyone's second language no matter where you are in Asia. I think all the official music videos have English subtitles too.

To the relief of fan's everywhere, all 9 members have signed a new contract as the original ends in October 2022 and there was speculation as to whether they would go their separate ways.

• 2015-04-24 Cheer Up! (The last 20 seconds is odd and completely disconnected from the song; I have no idea why it is included.)
• 2016-05-02 Touchdown (live)
• 2016-05-07 Woo Hoo (live)
• 2016-06-30 Precious Love (live)
• 2016-07-14 Truth A dance practice video – the dance routines require so much precision and you can really see where all the practice time goes which is not evident in the actual music videos; they have to keep shifting positions so that the person singing is generally front and center.
• 2016-10-23 TT I don't especially like this song but I include it as it is their most popular with over 500 million views.
• 2017-02-19 Knock, Knock Possibly my favorite though it is hard to pick. Also the dance practice video.
• 2017-10-30 Likey The official music video has 450,942,423 views as of 2020-05-28 but this live performance is way more fun.
• 2017-12-11 Heart Shaker The video gets weird and disconcerting in a fun way at 2:27!
• 2017-12-21 Merry and Happy
• 2018-01-11 Candy Pop This one is in Japanese! The three Japanese members – Sana, Mina and Momo – had to learn Korean while they were trainng but for the Japanese songs, the other six members had to memorize their lines in a foreign language!
• 2018-02-18 Brand New Girl In Japanese.
• 2018-08-16 BDZ In Japanese) is not an outstanding song but I include it here for its strange video. It may or may not be a coincidence that the key words from the chorus happen to spell BTS.
• 2018-04-09 What is love?. For a severe cringeworthy moment, see well-rehearsed dance cover and skip forward to 1:51 where some older women join in and get in the way.
• 2018-05-21 Really Really This is a fun cover of the song by boy band Winner – see if you like the original better.
• 2018-07-09 Dance the night away
• 2018-11-05 Yes or Yes The official music video is weird whereas this very informal version, shot in vertical like an amateur, looks like a group of friends mucking around https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGT1uFe5Rls. Also worth seeing is the dance routine
• 2019-04-22 Fancy As noted above, there are a huge number of dance covers and videos posted under "Kpop in public" and this was a popular song to cover of which these are four notable examples:
  • girls from Hong Kong whose costumes mimic that Twice wore at a concert
  • another fabulous one from Vietnam Watch carefully at 1:30!
  • a lone girl in Germany who appears to be singing along in Korean
  • my favorite cover by a dance group from Brazil at what I take to be a gay nightclub
• 2019-09-23: Feel Special. This song comes after Mina had to withdraw from performing and her part starting at 1:30 addresses her crisis.
  By way of comparison, check out Dahyun's emotional solo; I think the style is better suited to the lyrics of the song.
• 2019-10-29: Luv Me This is one of my favorite songs!
• 2019-12-23: A Christmas present from Nayeon as she covers Ariana Grande's Santa Tell Me
• 2020-06-01 More and More. I am not sure I like it but I included it here because it is their latest and it seems to be popular. Just not with me.
• 2020-06-18 Fanfare! This was a surprise as I had no idea that it was coming though that is usually the case for the Japanese releases and is a welcome return to bubble-gum pop. Bear in mind that only 3 of the 9 members speak Japanese so the other 6 had to just learn their lines phonetically. No English subtitles yet.
• 2020-05-13 Strawberry. This song was co-written by Chaeyoung and it took me a while to warm to it but now I love it.
• 2020-10-26 I can't stop me, the “comeback” single from the Eyes Wide Open album.
• 2020-10-26 Go hard Another song from the Eyes Wide Open album that has an Arabic sound and has what I consider to be the best song lyric ever: “My opponent is the woman in the mirror”.
• 2021-04-20 Kura Kura for the Japanese market. Not a great song overall but it has a great chorus which prompted each of them to do a 30-second video such as this TikTok from Mina.
• 2021-06-09 Alcohol Free A bit of a departure for Twice as it has a Latin vibe to it and I am still not sure if I like it but it may yet get stuck in my head. Music groups with several years of success can either keep doing the same thing forever but that may get boring and they lose their audience… or they can try new musical directions but then they risk losing their audience. This is the single from the album Taste of Love and I've not listened to the other tracks yet. Will update this list soon.
• 2021-06-27 Me! Actually, this is just Tzuyu doing a cover of Taylor's Swift's song but I love it! It is just the sort of catchy, upbeat song that drew me to Twice in the beginning. Also pleasing to see is that Tzuyu appears to have found her self-confidence as in many videos she appears to shy from attention. She should feel confident given all that she has achieved, notably in this video, singing in English. As a bonus, there is a delightful video of “big sisters” Momo and Nayeon seeing it for the first time.
• 2021-10-10 The Feels Their first English-language song! This got them on The Tonight Show and Good Morning America though apparently the hosts of the latter didn't get it. Their loss. Their loss I think it is one of their best. Also noteworthy:
  • choreography video 1 with a static camera
  • choreography video 2 with moving camera (31 million views as of 2021-11-17!)
  • hilarious “random unit dance”, a variation on the “relay dances” that are often made in K-pop to make use of the vertical video format. They manage to incorporate a very Asian way of making decisions. If you only watch one video, watch this one!
• 2021-11-10 Scientist A hypnotic song, I loved it from the first listen. As far as I know, this is the first time that Mina has been the opening singer. Some of the comments note that it is in a lower register and that Momo (starting at 2:04) is singing in her natural range and she has such a beautiful, sultry voice. This song is released as part of their Formula of Love album. Associated videos:
  • choreography video 1, noteable becaues because Jeongyeon is in it. Like Mina before her, she's had to take time off because she was suffering anxiety attacks. At the end they show an earlier take where Tzuyu forgets the next move; I can feel her soul being crushed. She is the youngest in the group and I suspect that she rarely smiles in performances because she is concentrating so hard on getting her part right.
  • choreography video 2 with moving camera
• 2021-12-19 Snowman, Mina's Melody Project, a cover of Sia's original.
  “Please don't cry no tears now, it's Christmas, baby.”
  How can we when Mina sings this? She is so sweet, so vulnerable, so precious.
  I also draw to your attention to another fabulous cover by a Black man with a gorgeous voice. I have listened to both covers over and over trying not to cry. It has been a fabulous year for us fans.
• 2022-05-27 Monsters, Dayhun's Melody Project, a cover of Katie Sky's original.
• 2022-06-24 Pop!. Nayeon's solo debut! I did see a comment on Reddit where someone said that Nayeon found it strange at first to work with other dancers rather than the other members of Twice since they have been together so long.
• 2022-07-14 Celebrate (Japanese).
• 2022-08-26 Talk that Talk. This is the lead track from their album Between 1 & 2.
• 2022-08-26 Brave. I “slept” on this one until a year after it was released! As sometimes happens with Twice songs, I didn't initially love this one but then it just started playing in my head and stayed there so it took me a while to appreciate how great this song is. I include a concert performance since there is no music video.
• 2023-03-10 Set me free, the lead single from their mini-album Ready To Be. Interestingly, the launched on the American Tonight Show rather than in Korea as they now have global ambitions. The Empire State Building was lit up in apricot & neon magenta, the group's colors and a “world” tour was announced that includes Australia for the first time but not Europe. I initially thought the song was boring but like I had the sense that it might grow on me and I now keep finding it in my head – I didn't initially love Likey or Fancy either but now I love them both. There is a real music video too, of course and having watched that, I encourage you to watch this fascinating analysis on the scene transitions
• 2023-03-10 Blame it on me. Twice meets rock music! This song, also from Ready To Be, instantly became one of my favorite Twice songs. When Jihyo starts singing at 0:55, I have visions of being knocked over by an ocean wave. There is no music video so I've linked to an unauthorized video where someone has provided translations and worked out who is singing which lines. JYP Entertainment has posted the official version with just a picture of the album cover. I am surprised that it is the least popular song on the album based on views.
• 2023-03-10 Got the thrills. Another “B-side” but the second best song on the new album. It took a few listens for me warm to it but now I love it!
• 2023-03-10 Crazy Stupid Love
• 2023-03-10 Wallflower. Don't be fooled by this song's melancholy tone as it will get into your head and stay there. The lyrics about social isolation resonate with a lot of people – it is the most popular B-side on the album. Now I've listed every song on the album except Moonlight Sunrise which was the album's pre-release single but I thought the weakest song on the album!
• 2023-06-15 Marshmallow from MiSaMo.

• 2023-07-13 Don't touch me from MiSaMo. Like works of art in a museum that are referenced in the video, you can admire but you cannot touch.
• 2023-07-27 Bouquet (live) from MiSaMo, the sub-unit of the Japanese members Mina, Sana and Momo. The music video for the song was released on 2023-01-24 but at the time I did not really appreciate it whereas this version is just so beautiful it brought tears to my eyes when I heard it. All three of them are perfect in their own way but I am particularly proud of Momo who is primarily a dancer and normally forced to sing outside her natural range. If members had equal time on each song (they don't), she would normally have one-ninth of the singing but here it is one-third so I suspect she was out of her comfort zone. Her voice is instantly recognizable and here she it combines so well with Mina and Sana.
  
  They did five shows in Japan and at the end of this, the final concert, there was a video of support messages from the other members. While Sana and Momo are smiling, Mina appears overwhelmed with emotion. Obviously this was organized by JYPE but if the members don't truly love and care for each other, they are do an incredible job of faking it.
  
  Then MiSaMo were told that Nayeon was in the audience! At 13:12 Mina appears to be trying desperately not to cry (or possibly she is upset that Nayeon is stealing some attention) but I think the former.
• 2024-02-01 I Got You, the preview for their upcoming album. This is a more contemplative song than usual and while it did not grab me immediately, it keeps playing in my head and I've come to appreciate it. However, after watching the official music video, you really need to see the cheering guide in which you see them at their raw, chaotic best… and they manage to stretch the word "Twice" into too-why-ee-sa. It's hilarious.
• 2024-02-24 One Spark, the single from I GOT YOU-th.
• 2024-09-06 Run Away Tzuyu has a solo album, AbouTZU! I need to listen to the rest of the album. It is lovely to see the other members helping to promote the work of the youngest of the group: Nayeon, Dahyun, Nayeon and Dahyun, Jihyo, Chaeyoung and most especially, Sana
• 2024-10-27 Identity The spectacular backdrops are both in Spain—the City of Arts and Sciences in Valencia and the Old_Cathedral_of_Lleida.
• 2024-11-05 Runway from Misamo.
• 2024-11-05 Misty by Mina on the same Haute Culture mini-album as Identity and Runway. She has such a gorgeous voice. The live version is the one I normally listen to.
• 2024-12-23 Magical. As I noted in the comments, I love the whole thing but what really caught my attention was 1. Mina's smile at 1:04, 2. At 2:07 Nayeon sending informationi by mental telepathy to Tzuyu which she gets and acknowledges (or at least that is how I interpret what I see), and 3. their English pronunciation is fantastic!
• 2025-02-02 Kimagure Romantic. Nayeon does a cover of a hit from 20 years ago by IKIMONOGAKARI. It is in Japanese which she does not speak and I saw one comment that she has a softer voice when singing in Japanese than Korean, presumably because she is concentrating to get the pronunciation right, or at least intelligible since I can't judge.
• 2025-06-23 Takedown (Jihyo, Jeongyeon and Chaeyoung) from the surprise blockbuster Kpop Demon Hunters.
• 2025-07-11 Let Love Go (Jeongyeon, Momo Sana and Tzuyu. This is the best song on the new album as I have not (yet) fully-embraced "This Is For". Momo's deeper, husky voice works so well in this song.
• 2025-07-11 Mars.
• 2025-07-11 Dat Ahh Dat Ooh (Sana, Jihyo, Dahyun, Chaeyoung, Tzuyu) This is an unusual song and initially I passed over it but then bit of it got stuck in my head.
• 2025-10-10 Meeeeee The AI summary for this song written by Nayeon gets it about right: NAYEON delivers a confident vocal performance, asserting boundaries and exploring themes of attraction with a direct tone. The upbeat track highlights a firm stance on not being trifled with.