2023 Kpop Rookie Boy Group Of The Year (ManelyKpop Awards)
In the next stage of the ManelyKpop Awards, we have Rookie Boy Groups. As always a few reminders: our year is December-November, rookies count as having debuted in the last two years, and if a group was nominated for this award last year, that’s their only chance and they can’t be nominated again this year. All that aside, let’s rock!
8. Xodiac
Losing our 7th place tie is Xodiac. They have some fun music, but nothing that really stood out across the panel. I will say I think they manage to do the light hearted and cool stuff without feeling like they’re being too extra in either way which is pretty rare.
7. Riiize
The newest SM boy group… has not really done anything to make the panel excited. This group just feels like an NCT expansion, and I honestly think they should have debuted into that system as a new subunit, like Dream, where they can be in core NCT and NCT U songs. If SM wants to make a new group not in the NCT system, it needs to feel like a new group.
6. Nine.i
Nine.i feels like a more refined Xodiac to me, the sound is more defined and refined. The other panelists actually both had this group at 4, but I couldn’t quite click enough with their music to move them that high. I will say I see a lot of potential here, kind of how I saw with Verivery, who, admittedly, did lose me over time.
5. Xeed
Let’s go old guys! They aren’t actually old, only one is older than me, but they did debut in this group all in their mid to late 20s which is rare and cool. Dream Land was a solid and unique debut, and while their most recent release, Blue, isn’t as much my vibe, you can see this group’s talent. I honestly really hope that they can get momentum and succeed, because they are basically all redebuts from failed groups such as TST and Target, who made the great song Awake in 2018.
4. Xikers
Ateez’s little brother group, they almost fall into the Riize trap of sounding too similar to Ateez in fact, but are just different enough to stand apart. Tragically, one of the ways they don’t feel like Ateez is in the fact that their music isn’t quite as good, but with KQ Entertainment at the helm we can expect them to figure it out, and Tricky House was a solid debut. This was the top pick for one of our panelists as well, so they definitely have an audience.
3. &Team
Another top pick from a panelist, &Team is the one of the newest Hybe groups, technically under their Japanese label but they are more of a Korean/Japanese hybrid group, so they count here. They have put out a decent amount of music already and it’s really musically diverse. For some of our panelists, this was a huge plus, for others, maybe the diversity left a feeling of quality inconsistency. But, you can be sure that if they haven’t put out music you like, that they will at their current rate. And apparently their variety content is really good as well.
2. Aimers
And our third panelist’s number one pick, Aimers also has a bit of sound inconsistency, although their discography is notably small compared to some others. The real standout for them is Fireworks, a song that made every panelist’s top 50 songs for the last year, which is admittedly unusual when two of the voters are girl group biased.
1. Trendz
Hilariously, Trendz took first by being literally all three panelists’ 2nd place group. My Way is their standout song, which gets better for me every time I listen to it, just a very catchy, Ateez-esque track, which is funny when Xikers is also on this list. TNT and New Dayz also have some aspects that I really like too. They seem to still be finding a sound like all the rookies this year. But clearly they’ve carved out a position that is pretty appealing across the diverse tastes of all our panelists, which means they are more than deserve of getting Rookie of the Year this year.
