The 15 Best K-Pop Songs of 2024

K-pop has had its share of scandals, controversies, and accusations of unfair label practices. Yet, 2024 was when it felt like some of the industry’s darkest machinations became alarmingly visible.

While the dissolution of LOONA and dismantling of 2023’s crossover rookies FiftyFifty in years prior felt like one-offs, few could’ve imagined that NewJeans, one of the most celebrated and trendsetting girl groups of the modern era, were all but ripped apart by insider label politics that played out in the tabloids. Meanwhile, the “global girl group” that was formed by Geffen/Hybe via the American streaming series Popstar Academy: Katseye gave several people a first-time view of how uncompromising the K-idol training regimen can be, and AppleTV’s excellent series K-Pop Idols dove into one of the most candid views yet record of the brutal expectations that Korean idols and labels operate under.

While legendary K-pop innovator HyunA shelved an international tour under the weight of a controversial public romance and the toxic response of a member returning to boy group Riize resulted in nothing short of international condemnation, there was still much to celebrate in a year that was oversaturated with surprising narratives. While Babymonster put up streaming numbers like the Blackpink replacement they were clearly designed to be, the solo activities of the Blackpink girls ran a panoply of fascinating styles, proving that YG Records’ extremely delayed release pattern was perhaps holding them back creatively.

Girl groups like (G)-IDLE, aespa, and Le Sserafim all battled for A-list status (and all won in their ways), while upstarts like Kiss of Life, tripleS, and ALL(H)OURS proved that even small labels could make big waves so long as you had the songs and the talent. The world’s most consistent boy group, Seventeen, continue to feel unstoppable. BIBI remains the only idol who can release any song in any style (no matter how controversial) while still garnering acclaim and comebacks by Hwasa and Twice‘s shock solo champion Nayeon hit that feel-good dance-pop spot. Even ICHILLIN’, a young outfit that never stuck to a style long enough to develop an identity, closed out the year with their best single (“Official”) since their first two back in 2021. (While we’re at it, young rapper Daniel Jikal’s solo debut failed to unleash the shockingly creative and fun energy of his TikTok originals, and P Nation would be wise to tap into that sense of fun in the future.)

So get out your photo cards, turn on your light stick, and embrace the fun, wild ride of 2024’s top-tier K-pop offerings.

15. Dreamcatcher – “Justice” (Dreamcatcher)

Dreamcatcher have come a long way since debuting as the bubbly outfit MINX in 2014. “Justice” is a single from Dreamcatcher’s tenth mini-album, and with each new release, their blending of hard rock textures with the K-pop aesthetics gets more and more refined, as if sharpening a blade to a state as polished as it is deadly. While songs like “BOCA” and “Maison” had elements of play to their six-string squalls, “Justice” finds the girl group at their most dramatic, using a simple snare beat and swelling synth verses to lead to a chorus that gives us their most stunning of vocal climaxes.

The lyrics talk about struggling with internal pain and finding one’s passion through a sense of justice, but the performances by the whole septet after the bridge are nothing short of hair-raising (with Yoohyeon giving possibly the best belt we’ve heard all year). Dreamcatcher’s secret is that they never fall into melodrama, instead tackling their songs head-on with serious intent. “Justice” isn’t only one of the year’s best songs, but it might even be Dreamcatcher’s best title track, period.

14. BOYNEXTDOOR “Nice Guy” (KOZ Entertainment)

While rapper Zico’s KOZ Entertainment label has previously been disclosed as a loss leader for massive parent company Hybe, the label’s sole boy group BOYNEXTDOOR, have been slowly building up a fan base while releasing increasingly-risky songs. The manic energy of this year’s earlier hit “Earth, Wind & Fire” proved that this sextet didn’t need to play by conventional boy band wisdom to find success, and the playful, warm-hearted “Nice Guy” takes an even bigger swing. A laid-back, horn-driven mid-tempo number that opens with Woonhak saying, “Don’t be such a wuss”? It’s genuinely playful in a way that most cutesy-concept groups only attempt to be, with a self-doubting chorus that is effectively played for comedy.

While so many younger-skewing K-groups need their singles to be unmissable events, BOYNEXTDOOR have discovered the power of counter-programming, going soft and laid-back when everyone else is trying to be so loud. When Taesan tries to claim, “Sexy and about my business / All my works delicious,” it’s clear that the group toe the line of pure camp. Just like their namesake, BOYNEXTDOOR is iLike relatable, and now that they’ve figured out their identity, they might soon become K-pop’s first truly casual superstars.

13. (G)-IDLE “Wife” (Cube)

Some loved it with a passion. Others thought it was the worst song of the year. Yet no matter where you stand, there is no denying that “Wife” started a conversation, and in a year where the self-made idols (G)-IDLE put out both thundering anthems (“Super Lady”) and cloying radio wallpaper (“Klaxon”), “Wife” might as well be the group’s most distinct release to date. Over a simple dance beat, Soyeon and team describe simple domestic matters like cooking and cleaning while also implying a sense of otherness: are they fulfilling the role of a wife? Are they complying with societal standards or doing these begrudgingly? Is any of this sexy to you, the almost-husband?

On the outro, they say they want their partner to feel so high even if they “don’t wanna wife”. For its simple setup and meme-worthy music video, a surprising amount of socio-political commentary is packed into this winking, suggestive song. It might be (G)-IDLE’s most divisive song to date — and it might just be their masterpiece.

12. Kep1er “Tipi-Tap” (WakeOne)

As fun and talented as Kep1er have always been, their timing never worked out as intended. While debut single “Wa Da Da” was a certified hit, their quick entry onto yet another idol survival show (Queendom) after literally being formed in one did little to break them out of their perceptions as little more than excitable rookies. They put out exciting title tracks, but none of them could match the success of “Wa Da Da”. Following an amicably planned member reshuffling following a contract renewal, Kep1er is now a tight seven-piece, and “Tipi-Tap” is the sound of a group recapturing its magic.

Over a smooth electro beat, the girls reflect on the emotions that arise over text messages (hence all the tipi-tapping) and how they’re convinced that digital romance can be real, all until that chorus comes in and gives us waves of clattering computer percussion. While “Wa Da Da” and the perennially underrated “Up!” had the girls delivering big and colorful refrains, there’s a melodic maturity to “Tipi-Tap” that could only be executed by a group that was confident in their sonic identity. Despite losing two beloved members, Kep1er came back more determined than ever to prove their worth, and they ended up tipi-tapping into our hearts.  

11. loossemble “TTYL” (CTDENM)

After the contentious and very public dissolution of the 12-member girl group LOONA following multiple accusations of entertainment industry malpractice, LOONA fans (ORBIT) were poised to support these dozen idols in their post-lawsuit endeavors, and, surprisingly, their success has been moderate. While LOONA were more beloved by international fans than by the local Korean market, simple metrics like YouTube view counts only point to how the LOONA fandom has been whittled down to its core. It’s a strange thing to witness, especially given that several of the girls, whether in newly formed groups or as solo artists, have been consistently putting out the best K-pop singles of any given year.

Loossemble (consisting of HyunJin, YeoJin, ViVi, Go Won, and HyeJu) are already on their third mini-album and are currently three-for-three when it comes to title tracks. Over an amped-up dance beat and percolating keyboards, the quintet plays hard-to-get in flirty conversation while all the “la la las” and easy-to-learn dance moves in the music video create a sense of pure bubblegum escapism. Iconic pop diva Robyn once speculated that writing happy songs was harder than sad songs because it took so much more effort to make joy feel genuine. Under that logic, it’s clear that much love and labor went into something as breezy-yet-perfect as “TTYL”.

10. Kiss of Life “Sticky” (S2)

Many attribute Kiss of Life’s ascent to near instantaneous stardom because of their pedigree, as Julie, Natty, Belle, and Haneul all trained at different high-profile agencies before ultimately linking up. Yet what made them stand out from the rest of their contemporaries from the onset was their songs: dynamic, trend-avoiding tracks that used elements like acoustic slide guitars and woodwinds to create a vibe that felt distinct in the cluttered Melon charts. “Sticky” might be their most conventional-sounding song to date, but this lush mid-tempo number radiates a natural warmth. One of the most dynamite non-album singles in recent memory, “Sticky” will stick around for a long time.

9. ALL(H)OURS “Shock” (Eden)

ALL(H)OURS’s debut single, “Gotcha”, barely made the earth move when it dropped in early 2024. Eden Entertainment is a small label, and it seemed they had gambled much of their fortune on a very generic boy-crush sound. Yet “Shock” was truly a shock. While SM’s experimental ScreaM sublabel could have potentially been a breeding ground for the darkwave-meets-EDM styling of “Shock”, the fact that it came out on such a small label — and as a lead single for a boy band, no less! — felt like the kind of bold move a label would make when they genuinely have nothing left to lose.

The gambit paid off, as “Shock”, with its absolutely pummeling synths, is so far removed from conventional K-pop aesthetics that it immediately turned heads. While the younger vocal range of this seven-piece sometimes belies the hard concept, the heavy vocal filters — to say nothing of that group shout of a chorus — give the song a powerful push. “Kickstart the beast!” they shout during the refrain, and it’s less an instruction than it is stating what they just did: launching a thundering new era not just for themselves but potentially all of K-pop.

8. NewJeans “How Sweet” (ADOR)

NewJeans have crammed the arc of a decades-long music career into three years. Debuting in 2022 with songs that didn’t even try to replicate the trends of contemporary K-pop, they became an overnight sensation with a bold new vision, a daring new release model (why not release videos for every song?), and even topped the US album charts with a six-song EP in 2023. After their label founder and mentor Min Hee Jin got roped up in a very public battle with parent company Hybe, all NewJeans were able to give us in 2024 was a smattering of throwback singles, Japanese releases, and tracks tied into promotions, which sound like the behaviors of a group on the decline.

It’s true that while the group have fallen victim to commercial tie-in blandness before (the less said about their League of Legends contribution, the better), “How Sweet”, their Miami bass-indebted dance track backed by the Coca-Cola corporation, ended up being another stunning highlight in a discography full of them. Turning simple terms of endearment on their head (the chorus is “Don’t you know how sweet it tastes / Now that I’m without you?”), NewJeans lean into the bubbly beat with effortless charm, proving that no matter how many acts try to cop their sound, no one does it better. “How Sweet” is yet another high-water mark for a group that do nothing but push the envelope, but sadly, given the way their label in-fighting is turning out, it looks like it might be their last for a while.  

7. Lee Young-ji “Small Girl [ft. D.O.]” (Mainstream)

As the winner of multiple rap competition shows, few would’ve guessed that Lee Young-ji would eventually score a Korean chart-topper with an adult-contemporary empowerment anthem, but that’s what “Small Girl” did. Sung almost entirely in English (save for the guest verse from EXO’s D.O.), Young-ji’s casual tale about not feeling like you can fit into a relationship or even be an object of desire is so earnestly rendered it can’t help but feel relatable.

Her sweet and effortless singing voice perfectly matches the Sunday morning slink of the backing pianos and kick drums. It’s so outside the realm of what is expected of modern K-pop that it makes sense people would gravitate towards, in Young-ji’s own words, her “big laugh, big voice, and big personality.” After spending years dropping solo singles and guesting on hits from the likes of Hyolyn and a Seventeen subunit, it’s empowering to see such a young new artist become a pop star on her own terms. No matter what she has planned next, we’ll be listening, and that’s something we would guarantee.

6. fromis_9 “Supersonic” (Pledis)

At first, it seemed like fromis_9’s success was random. Having been signed to and swallowed up by numerous labels during their career, it occasionally felt like when they stumbled across a synthpop confection like “Love Bomb”, it was by accident. Their title tracks wildly oscillated in quality, and this inconsistency was evident in their similarly sporadic chart placements. Yet the one constant throughout these years was how the girls of fromis_9 only became more skillful over time, and 2022’s delightful “DM” started turning some heads and reversing their also-ran narrative.

While 2023’s “#menow” signaled a new era for the group, “Supersonic” capitalized on that momentum by delivering a contemporary classic. Over percolating synth plinks and charging beat, it’s that vocal line on the chorus that keeps us coming back time and time again. Whether it’s sung by Hayoung, Nagyung, Jiwon, or any of the other girls, the sustain on that rising note is the hook we’ve been looking for, proving that the group don’t need the often-designated “lead vocalist” role in a unit: they can all do it.

Add in some of the sharpest and cleanest choreography they’ve ever served in the corresponding music video, and it’s clear that all fromis_9 needed to do stand out was just to be themselves. While it’s taken them some time to figure out what a perfect fromis_9 song should sound like, they have finally cracked the code and feel nothing short of unstoppable.

5. Illit “Magnetic” (Belift Lab)

Unfortunately, rookie superstars Illit ended their breakout year fending off accusations that their handlers plagiarized the NewJeans sound to help move units because this fresh-faced quintet came out of nowhere to deliver the year’s biggest crossover smash since FiftyFifty’s “Cupid” the year prior. Yet if “Magnetic” should be compared to anything, it should be Twice’s 2016 landmark single “TT”, where the song was packed with so many pop hooks that any section of it (The 2nd verse! The pre-chorus!) could’ve been auctioned off to a lesser group who would’ve made it their lead single.

Thankfully, “Magnetic” is everything you want in a pop song: a chorus you can sing back even after hearing it for the first time, a total drop-everything-and-stop moment built right into the refrain, a viral dance that anyone can do, and so many quirky synth squiggles jumping around the production you want to capture them each and give them cute names. It’s as sweet as a sugar rush and somehow even more addicting.

Their B-side “Lucky Girl Syndrome” proved that “Magnetic” wasn’t a fluke, but their second mini-album didn’t have that elusive “Magnetic 2” that so many were looking for so floundered in comparison. We know the girls will keep reaching for new heights, but even if they disbanded tomorrow, “Magnetic” still easily has a place in the K-Pop Hall of Fame.

4. Riize “Impossible” (SM)

In a year plagued by controversy, SM’s hot new boy group Riize seemed like the last possible act that would fall under public scrutiny. However, when Seunghan was put on hiatus after photos were found of him smoking with a woman in bed, the six remaining members carried on promotions until he was reinstated. Some fans revolted at the news of his return, sending hundreds of funeral wreaths with Seunghan’s name to SM headquarters in a move that made him retract his membership in the band. It’s a deeply unfortunate stain on Riize’s success because while the group scored several major hits in his absence, these actions color what should otherwise be an outright celebration of “Impossible”, the group’s best song to date.

Over an immediate house beat full of 1980s synth zips, the boys dance to a constantly building rhythm that’s nothing short of addictive. So many groups leaned into Western dance music tropes this year, but few pulled it off as successfully as Riize did here. The lyrics aren’t the focal point here because the vibe is immaculate, inviting everyone into a party that feels like it will never end. While SM has announced that Seunghan will be debuting solo, the fact that we’ll never see him perform “Impossible” feels like a dream deferred.

3. XG “Woke Up” (Xgalx)

To this day, some want to dismiss XG as not being truly “K-pop”. After all, they’re a Japanese seven-piece girl group whose songs are sung entirely in English, which has given some in the YouTube-driven K-pop fanspace enough reason to exclude them from any conversation. To counteract this narrative (which international girl group BLACKSWAN also grappled with in the Apple TV K-Pop Idols series this year), XG simply put out songs that were impossible to ignore.

“Woke Up” was one of the purest, most perfectly distilled rap songs to ever enter the K-pop atmosphere, where every member of this talented ensemble has time to shine over the hypnotic, pounding beat. There are too many good lines to share, but Harvey’s opening couplets (“Right away, ride the wavе, ride away / ‘cos we had thе right of way”) ranks high up. Western rap fans were shook by how powerful the track was, but XG weren’t done making their mark yet.

With the release of their second mini-album, Awe, the group included the “Woke Up” Remix, where they don’t sing a note but instead ceded the beat to a litany of well-known Japanese and Korean rappers (including the legendary Jay Park), effectively getting a cross-border co-sign that validates their status in the industry. It was a clever gambit that paid off in spades, as now many people have finally woken up to see that XG is one of the best groups doing it now.

2. Suho “Cheese [ft. Wendy]” (SM)

Outside of his main gig as the leader of SM’s long-running boy group EXO, Suho’s solo releases have been all over the place. His debut breakout, “Let’s Love”, rode Coldplay’s MOR-rock vibes to the upper echelon of the pop charts. Still, his 2022 singles “Grey Suit” and “Hurdle” showed him mixing more pop flavors with his evident rock inclinations to somewhat diminishing returns. While his time with EXO always pays the bills, nothing could’ve prepared fans for a Suho solo event like “Cheese”.

The most upbeat, vibrant, and colorful track he’s ever released, “Cheese” glides along a Britpop piano bounce, rolls around in 1960s synth chords, stacks his vocals like he’s in a 1970s harmony outfit, and ends with a dual-layer rock guitar solo, all within the space of barely three minutes. The lyrics are goofy (the chorus talks about how a romantic couple’s hearts are gooey and that they can be “forever stringy”), but Red Velvet’s vocal powerhouse, Wendy, is more than game to play along.

Some thought it was nothing more than a fun trifle when it came out, but “Cheese” is so melodically grounded in so many confident ideas it feels like a pop group’s greatest hits album condensed into a tight package. K-pop acts always manage to give us light and bubbly songs year after year, but few reach the luminous level of escapism that Suho is serving here. Criminally slept on, we think this slice of “Cheese” will age incredibly well.

1. Yves “Loop [ft. Lil Cherry]” (Paix Per Mil)

We certainly couldn’t have predicted that the best K-pop song of 2024 would have the line “I got that stank up on me, mmm,” but few artists can pull off some feats quite like Yves. Taking her sweet time to drop a solo debut after the dissolution of LOONA, Yves going solo (like her bandmate Chuu) was unsurprising given her abilities. Still, while Chuu leaned into an expectedly cutesy concept, Yves went straight to the club.

Over a minimalist dance beat that feels close to early New York ballroom, Yves finds herself caught in the push and pull of uncertain romance, unaware of her standing but admitting that “I’m lost, and I like it.” The high-pitched Lil Cherry guest ad-libs, the seamless flow between verse and pre-chorus, the addictive ooh-ooh-oohs after the refrain, that rolling bass synth lick: there isn’t a second that feels out of place. Instantly hummable but endlessly replayable, Yves called it “Loop” because she knew that’s how people would play it, over and over again. K-pop doesn’t get better than this.