THE TOP 20 K-POP SONGS OF 2017

The Dazed Top 20 K-pop list is really not winning me over this year. It is all subjective, of course, which is why I am offering my own. Cannot believe it has been a year since we last did this but when I say this is the Top 20 K-pop Songs of 2017 I obviously mean this is the Top 20 Songs of 2017. And so many more I could have added. I have limited myself to one song per band but there was a lot to enjoy this year: Suzy's solo bow for JYP (complete with the sumptuous Wong Kar Wai inspired video), the mind-melting hodgepodge of Weki Meki's brilliant I Don't Like Your Girlfriend, SNSD's Hyeyeon with the air-punching Wannabe, Hyuna's predictably provocative and amusingly self-aware Lip & Hip, NCT 127's snarling Cherry Bomb and their arguably even better Limitless, IU's effortless cover of Last Night Story, B1A4's understated Rollin, B.A.P's atypical Honeymoon and their first class rocker Wake Me Up, Dreamcatcher's Chase Me - which is what Babymetal might sound like if they were way more interesting - and T-ara's 'is this it?' possible (but not confirmed) final single of What's My Name?

It has been a tremendous year for K-pop buffs but what made the top 20? Without further delay, let us get started...


2NE1 - GOODBYE

The year began with this conclusive moment and even then it felt surreal. At the crux of 2014, YG's 2NE1 were, along with Girls' Generation, the top selling and most dominant girl band in Asia. Then it all went wrong. Bom got caught trying to smuggle speed into South Korea and aside from the briefest of reunions all the attention was put into CL and that, it seemed, was that. Minzy did not join the band for the final single but what we did get was a fitting farewell - an acoustic, heartfelt conclusion to an incredible career and a fitting successor (six whole years later) to their standout fan favourite classic single Lonely.

GIRLS' GENERATION - ALL NIGHT

Girls' Generation have ruled the K-pop scene for a decade and as members went on to achieve acting and solo accolades the end was undoubtedly coming. But, whooo boy, did things implode fast. Just three months after the release of their tenth anniversary album the legendary group were no more with Sooyoung, Seohyun and Tiffany calling time on their activities with SM. Some fans, expecting at least the customary Asian (re: Japan, Korea, Bangkok and Taipei) tour were outraged but they need not have been. At least we got a fabulous final album and whilst kiss-off single All Night probably will not be remembered as the eight-some's finest moment it still has enough of the group's genre-bending experimentalism to make your mind scramble and to demand further listens.

And isn't that why we all loved the greatest K-pop group in history in the first place?

MAMAMOO - YES I AM

Every year it happens. Every year when I do these lists I miss out on an absolute classic and last year it was undoubtedly the outstanding Decalcomanie (yes, quite a mouthful) by Mamamoo, merely one of the greatest K-pop 'belters' of all time. Really. Click and listen. It is stunning. The charismatic foursome's 2017 single Yes I Am is not nearly as strong, but it is still a super-fun example of Mamamoo's brilliant blend of camp, kookiness and high notes. They have reached some admirable heights already and I suspect their sometimes admirably ambitious pop-operas are only getting started.

SONAMOO - FRIDAY NIGHT

Pure party this one... get your coat off and get on the floor. Basically. It seemed to come from nowhere and it has just the right mix of retro and right now - which is a bit of a theme to the most DJ-friendly K-pop tunes of 2017. As you will see...


JIMIN - HALLELUJAH

From the opening Spanish guitar to the usual 'hey' (which typically signals the start of an AOA song), Jimin made a cracking start as an artist in her own right. The rapper of the can-you-push-this-any-further K-pop band AOA - who had their own share of controversy this year - this pounding anthem felt as if it had been stolen from the Madchester period and given a spit-shine with 2017 production values. Given the title, the Hacienda-groove is obviously on purpose and, to the surprise of many no doubt, Jimin sells this song far, far better than her sex-pixie reputation would have many AOA-critics believe. A strong round of applause.

MINZY - NINANO

Having left 2NE1 in apparently less than acrimonious circumstances - and indeed left CL to falter with her apparent mission to break America (clue: one single but otherwise still waiting) - Minzy made a very cool comeback with this mix of Bollywood, tough vocals, hip shaking, a bit of hip-hop and a dance groove that looks to the future whilst sounding like it has been brewed in the late nineties. This is a brilliant composition and even in a year filled with excellent solo comebacks positively stands tall with 'I am woman, hear me roar' confidence - more than echoed on the fuck-you-YG sound of flip-side Super Woman. As we eagerly await what YG has in store next for 2NE1 alumni Dara and CL, and hope for a Bom resurgence, it is certainly first blood to Minzy in the soap opera ashes of one of K-pop's defining collectives.

EXID - DDD

Exid had a phenomenal 2017 with their jazzy and whimsical Night Rather Than Day proving to be an appealing and successful diversion from their more identifiable retro-disco sound. DDD offers some fairly sexy and satirical lyrics (in keeping with the provocative video, also typical of the band - this is the same group who had a hit with a tune called Hot Pink, less we forget) and a chorus that feels beamed from the glory days of Studio 54. All sandwiched between an aggressive EDM beat. Will this band ever produce a disappointing shortplay?

BTS - DNA

So the big news is that BTS (as I predicted a year ago) broke America. Sort of. They played the AMAs and millions of people who had never discovered K-pop (or just thought of it as Gangham Style) seemed to have a collective orgasm. DNA is the strongest BTS single to date and its flawless marriage of indie guitar with the genre's token EDM chorus is undoubtedly brilliant. There is always the worry that your favourite thing becomes the mainstream and DNA might well be the song that pushes a K-pop band further into the mainstream and paves the way for more. With that said, given the likes of NME still have not caught on I am not too worried. Yet.

BOA - CAMO

Veteran K-pop icon Boa delivered her best shortplay to date with Camo. Sounding like pure seduction, it gives her token husky voice a chance to breathe, flirt and ooooooh its heart out - all to a pounding dance beat that should fill the floor at any self-respecting Korean nightclub. It is 'last drink' music - and for good reason. She knows how to get you home.

SUPER JUNIOR - ONE MORE CHANCE

Super Junior have never been a band that, I felt, released an entire album of classics but their tenth solo LP Play - two and a half years in the making - was tremendous with nary a dud moment. Whilst their 'big' comeback song was the excellent Black Suit, which returned the legendary SM band to their usual sound of suave-pop (it sounds like an aspiring Bond theme at some points), it was their against-type ballad One More Chance that impressed me the most. Featuring a returning Shindong (welcome back) this is a feel-bad weepie that gives the lads - now entering their thirties - a chance to go all bombastic about breakups and even (sssssh) suicide (yes, he really does sing 'I want to end it all'). Brave and bombastic (South Korea's enormous suicide rate is an open secret), it is a shame that the band got plunged into controversy just as they just embarked on their most ambitious comeback to date. I can personally bask in this ballad on repeat.

TWICE - LIKEY

JYP's biggest band had a few biggies this year as they continued their climb to being one of the hugest selling K-pop bands in history. I have not been big on talent show winners Twice - their bubblegum sound was, I generally felt, aimed at young teens but then mid-year single Signal won me over with its oddball glam-space sound (this is only going to make sense if you click on that link). Even better was Likey a homage to social media romance, with some admitedly dubious lyrics, that still managed to chuck together rap, repetition, synths and a squirrel-voiced chorus that is still lost in my brain and annoying my sleep.

Don't say you weren't warned, you click 'play' on this at your own peril...


SEVENTEEN - DON'T WANNA CRY

I was always bummed at Pledis for chucking away the oh-so-underrated After School in favour of Seventeen but this unexpectedly tough electro-pop gem finally won me over. From the melancholy opening to the build-up of voices and then the eventual back-and-forth chorus medley this is such a well crafted depiction of uncertainty (the chorus is about denying the want of an ex-love basically) that it eventually, especially combined with the dance routine, feels like a genius moment of pop ballet. And, yes, I just said that. Their next single of 2017, Clap, is not half bad either.

TAEYANG - WAKE ME UP

G-Dragon's Big Bang bandmate returned with this initially sinister-sounding growl of electro-balladry that emerges into a slow-motion unravelling of the muscular frontman's apparent vulnerability. And that brief break from verse to chorus is such a perfect tease. Taeyang had one of the biggest K-pop solo hits of all time with 2013's beautiful Eyes, Nose, Lips so expectancies were high for this comeback. He, probably for the best, avoided a retread of the angst of that contient-conquering eye-watering ballad, and instead opted for this expression of heart-clenching obsession in the early throws of romance. A shockingly good return.

EXO - KO KO BOP

Last year's standout Monster was not going to be an easy act to follow, but Exo emerged (minus their final Chinese member Lay) with this fit-as-fuck raggae-dance number that sounded like yet another reinvention for K-pop's most consistently experimental boy band. Beginning with the sound of Carribean dancehall, with a whispery sexiness, this evolves into something else completely and, like all good K-pop, keeps you thirsty for the resolution. What times we live in when any music can be this amazing and when a band can continue to produce work of this standard on such a frequent basis.


STRAY KIDS - HELLEVATOR 

JYP lost two major acts in the past couple of years with Miss A and then The Wonder Girls but by the sound of this debut effort from new boy band Stray Kids they have things in hand and then some (yes, I know they also have Twice and Got7 but still...) Stray Kids launched themselves into a crowded market and yet accomplished this EDM-fuelled anthem that mixes rap and rage and a huge skin-tearing chorus that is absolutely enormous. This was a statement of arrival and whatever the future holds, it is now unthinkable that Stray Kids will not emerge into major players in the K-pop scene.



RED VELVET - RED FLAVOUR

You could not move in Seoul or Tokyo without this blaring from cars, shops and restuarants. It was, probably, the song of the summer. Insanely catchy, this was the sound of Red Velvet undoubtely taking the mantle from the soon-to-disband Girls' Generation and the where-the-hell-are-they F/X as SM's top all-female band. No, it doesn't quite reinvent the wheel but - as with many an SM classic - who could expect that lead-out at the end, the mid-song rap or the amount of catches hidden under the bouncy, disco hall stomp? It is a tune that gets rooted into your skull and then demands repeat listening - much like their almost-as-amazing follow-up single Peek a Boo (which should be on here too but I have limited myself to one song per band).


SUNMI - GASHINA

The ex-Wonder Girl Sunmi had one of the year's biggest homegrown hits with Gashina (meaning a 'bitch' - but she is playing with this term thanks to this enormous FU to an unappreciative ex-boyfriend). Sexy, addicitve and featuring a fast-slow tempo that builds to a stop-step chorus is, at first listen, difficult to follow but eventually cathartic, this was and is a solo effort to cherish. And man... that video is all levels of amazing.

 BLACKPINK - AS IF IT'S YOUR LAST

YG's new girl group had big shoes to fill after the demise of 2NE1 but they played a blinder with this, their fifth and best single to date. It has three choruses. And each one clings to the next in a sort of build-up of anguish, desperation and then relentless throw-caution-to-the-wind celebration. It is pure pop and yet there is something beautiful about the way the totally divergent vocal ranges compliment one another. It really shouldn't work, especially when Rosé utters her tinged-with-some-uncertainty-wail of  'Kiss me like it’s a lie/ As if I’m your last love' - which breaks into an extended plea - before Lisa picks-up with the central hook of 'As if it’s the last, as, as, as if it’s the last'. It is one of the greatest bridges I have ever heard in a pop song. It's just... awesome.

G-DRAGON - '무제(無題) (Untitled, 2014)

A document to lost love. G-Dragon's comeback was hotly anticipated but who could have anticipated this? Not his usual rock-dance-rap-indie-mash-up but instead an understated piano-led wistful longing for a figure of past (and brief?) romance. His Kwon Ji-Yong concept album promised audiences a more personal look at the human being behind the icon (he has to do military service in 2018) and it was a blinder complete with a literal fuck-you to his critics and schmoozers as the opening track that comes complete with a twisted rambling Shaun Ryder-esque mix of venom and vulgarity. Untitled 2014, however, is one of the most beautiful and delicate pieces of music in recent years and, without a word of English, registered with audiences from continet to continent, resulting in a rare three-date UK tour.

TAEYEON - FINE

Oh boy, it comes to this.

Maybe it was 2017. Or at least my 2017. Maybe it is just her voice. It broke me. She breaks me though. It was the first concert I wept at. My concert-buddy Naomi wept too. I was all, 'Really? Both of us?' The tour bus afterwards was silent. Everyone, it seemed, had been battered by over two hours of Taeyeon. That soaring chorus. It glides and it punches. It is an indie-anthem with stadium-filling lungs. It is beautiful. Upsetting but haunting. At least at first listen. A simple guitar line opens the song but once you know what is coming that very first few seconds produce goose-bumps. Or maybe I just never fell for the whole diva-this-is-my-pain thing before. There is a first for everything. She's been slowly slaying me for years. I always felt Dog Man Star by Suede was safe as my favourite album of all time. My Voice by Taeyeon replaced it in 2017. From the delicate but hugely ambitious widescreen sadness of Time Lapse to the piano melancholy of Love in Colour and even the confident but against-type smoky strip club sex n'sweat swagger of I Got Love it is perfect. Just perfect.