The Top 50 Kpop Songs of 2021

The year is over, and it’s time to get down to the top songs of the year, at least, according to myself. There’s been a bunch of movement, and I’ll absolutely be changing things as I write this, so let’s hop to it and see if my opinions have gotten even spicier from last time.

50. Oh My Girl- Shark (NEW)

This song is pretty crazy, it’s pretty solid until the absolutely bonkers chorus. It’s jarring and I’m not even sure I can call it good, but it’s pretty addicting and I love how bold it is. I could not justify putting this higher, but it felt wrong to not include this bizarre earworm.

49. Kwon Eunbi- Door (-10)

There are going to be a few songs with big drops due to the new songs coming up, 11 to be exact. I’m still happy to listen to door when it pops up on my playlist, but this quarter had some real bangers that got ahead.

48. Woodz- Waiting (NEW)

This is coming in place of Feel Like, I think it’s a little more interesting, even though Feel Like would probably be at 51, they’re both fantastic songs. Woodz had pretty consistently high quality output across 2021, it’s a shame I feel like people are paying less attention to him.

47. Weeekly- 7 Days Tension (-13)

Let me just slightly edit what I said last quarter: Don’t let the 1613 spot drop distract you from the 54 times they say “tension” and you like it during this song.

46. Yukika- Insomnia (-8)

If you still aren’t listening to Yukika, it’s time to start.

45. Woodz- Touche (-16)

I stand by this being the best Woodz song this year still, just straight smooth groovin’ for 3 minutes, and a great blend with Moon.

44. Everglow- First (-21)

This year is just too hard for song rankings. I listen to every song and it fills me with self doubt about where I’ve put it, because everything is so incredibly good. If you told me when First came out it would end up at 42 I would have laughed in your face, but here it is.

43. WJSN- Unnatural (-12)

I would have felt like a pretty bad Ujung for where I have this rank, but luckily Universe became aware that their app is the worst and a terrible way to release music, so now I have an extra WJSN song that I didn’t think I’d have this year, and that will show up later.

42. IU- Lilac (-15)

This placement was one of the harder decisions this time around, IU is amazing and I am always so happy to just listen to her sing, and I love what she does in this song, I’m more likely to seek out the songs above this first, which I’ve decided is ultimately how I need to rank things. What I’m most likely to listen to when given this list of 50 songs 6 months from now after I’ve had time to digest them all and none has that new exciting feeling.

41. Dreamcatcher- BEcause (-11)

While I think this is the most interesting Dreamcatcher title in the last two years, the competition for 2021 is absurdly high, so here we are.

40. Weeekly- Holiday Party (-18)

Weeekly is permanently good when it comes to title tracks, incredible rookies.

39. Purple Kiss- Cast Pearls Before Swine (NEW)

This is a really good b-side that I just had no awareness of until a week or two ago, despite listening to it the day the album dropped.

38. Woo!ah!- Pandora (NEW)

I don’t know why I didn’t have this on here before, it has absolutely been a top 50 song for me since release, every song on this album is a top 50 song.

37. Ichillin- Got’ya (NEW)

This song's chorus is insanely good, top 10 of the year maybe, but the rest of the song is very much not, so it averages out to 37. I also only clicked on it originally because Ichillin is a ridiculous name, which is why you don’t judge a song by a group’s name.

36. Cherry Bullet- Love So Sweet (-4)

Let this song being at 36 inform you of how much of a bloodbath this year was in terms of quality songs. Love So Sweet is incredibly good and there are past years where I probably would have had it in the top 20 and maybe even top 10, and this year it can’t even break the top 35 here at the end.

35. GWSN- Like it Hot (-5)

I know this dropped, but this song has grown on me throughout the year, I like it more every time I go to do my rankings. It's catchy, fun to listen to, and pretty unique on top of that.

34. Dreamcatcher- 4 Memory (-8)

Fantastic song, great little b-side. Love that Jiu wrote this, love how they used Dami’s voice, and Yoohyeon’s super high harmonies with Handong are absolutely insane.

33. Somi- XOXO (NEW)

Somi basically only releases good, the one YG artist I can’t ignore.

32. Everglow- Pirate (NEW)

Somehow Sihyeon feels like she’s only getting better, and she debuted amazing, and E:U saying both “ahoy” and “shiver me timbers” is hilarious. Everyone is great here though in general, and this song feels like I shouldn’t like it musically, but for some reason it works.

31. Loona- Not Friends (NEW)

I hadn’t included this throughout the year because I was just really torn on giving any credit to the producer because he seems awful, but I finally decided I’m willing to put it on for Loona. The members here are great, as always, good song.

30. Cignature- Boyfriend (NEW)

I’ll be honest, I never expected to see Cignature again, I was positive they were going to disband. Instead they came back with another atypical song based on the landscape of what’s popular, and like always, it’s pretty good, I would go so far as to say it’s their best yet. I especially love the general musical deconstruction, leaning heavily on the vocals and simple synth beat. I think it’s innovative in its simplicity considering how much is going on in songs these days.

29. Woo!ah!- Purple (-5)

I still think this song is ridiculous, and I still love it.

28. Fromis_9- Talk & Talk (-16)

My biggest problem with this song, that made it drop so much after having more time to listen to it, is that I need to be in a very specific mood to enjoy it to the top level. In that mood it ranks higher, but in other moods, it stabilizes around this spot.

27. TXT- Loser=Lover (-10)

Emo rock masters, TXT made me happy with their musical direction this year, if they keep living in this niche they’ll keep being on my rankings, if they go more like the other HYBE boy groups, they won’t, what they have going for them, at least to me, is a general uniqueness and lack of conformity with what other boy groups are doing.

26. Rocket Punch- Ring Ring (-13)

I’ve cooled off on Ring Ring with time despite Rocket Punch being one of my favorite groups, which makes me sad, but it does happen, every year is different with songs, and it doesn't stop them from being one of my favorites, I’m willing to rate songs fairly and I treat songs and groups separately in my mind, it helps keep my song rankings from being too informed by my group and idol biases.

25. WJSN- Let Me In (NEW)

So, I had refused to rank Universe app songs because of the exclusive music video release being through a platform that forced fans to use a bad app on a phone instead of a big screen, I didn’t want to support this. That said, they realized their model is bad too and are now releasing to Youtube day 1 with new Universe songs as well as bringing Let Me In and all prior songs to Youtube as well. As a Ujung, I’m quite happy for this, Let Me In is the best WJSN song this year in my opinion, it’s fun, it’s light, and it’s even got some interesting choreo, and an MV where the quality definitely would be missed on a mobile device with a small screen.

24. Rocket Punch- I Want You Bad (-3)

It’s crazy that my top group in WJSN is peaking at 25, and my rank 2 or 3 group in Rocket Punch is peaking at 24, but never tell me that I work entirely off of bias. I think that this is just a pleasant song to listen to, it’s got an interesting sound to it, but that keeps it feeling unique to me.

23. Majors- Rain On Me (-9)

I fell off of this song, but it still goes hard. Bian is also one of those idols with a nice lower tone in her vocals that I think is way more pleasant to listen to generally.

22. IU- Celebrity (-3)

IU is just so good, that’s all.

21. Aespa- Next Level (-6)

Still a great song, and not the last we’ll see of Aespa on this ranking.

20. Somi- Dumb Dumb (-3)

Somi has had a really good year for me, I actually think she has an even better song this year in Anymore, but I don’t count fully foreign language releases.

19. Chungha- Killing Me (NEW)

I’ve always liked Chungha the person but never liked her music, so I was genuinely surprised to like this song so much. It is very heavy in the EDM direction that I often enjoy, but still has that Chungha touch, it almost feels like she jumped on this musical trend after it had started fading in popularity, which made it not feel samey, which it would have a few years back.

18. Aespa- Savage (NEW)

Aespa is just so consistent, the songs are ALMOST never songs that I would consider to be in my wheelhouse, and yet they’re always so good that I like them anyways. There’s just a bunch of little vocal, lyrical, and choreo moments that I love throughout this whole song that add up to me valuing it quite highly.

17. Woo!ah!- Scaredy Cat (+3)

And with this, every Woo!ah! song released this year is on my ranking. They're definitely going to climb my group ranking, the music is actually that good, and one member is making waves in my individual idol rankings too, but those are articles for a later week. This is one of the few songs that climbed up despite all the new songs that made it on this quarter, it’s just catchy and fun, super easy to listen to.

16. Jo Yuri- Glassy (NEW)

Despite being a huge Eunbi bias, the post Izone solo battle has so far been won by Yuri, Glassy is a fun song, and Yuri has some cool and interesting little vocal moments throughout. The way she sings “glassy” is the highlight of the song, followed by the high “seven” in the “twenty four seven” section.

15. Lightsum- Vivace (NEW)

Lightsum’s debut made me not care about them AT ALL, I thought Vanilla was totally uninspired. On the other hand, this is clearly inspired, inspired by Iz*one that is, the niche had opened up and Lightsum dove in and did a really good job, I think Vivace is more listenable than a number of Iz*one songs, but the members need to learn how to hit a little harder, Lightsum is missing the fire and power that Iz*one brought with Eunbi and Yena. Regardless, they’re close to having the formula down perfectly, and Vivace is absolute fire.

14. GWSN- Starry Night (-3)

This beat is still absolute fire.

13. Lucy- Hero (-3)

It’s a good time, it makes you feel optimistic and hopeful for a brighter future, which I think we could all use right now.

12. Fromis_9- We Go (-5)

I still think this is the best summer song of the year, I honestly worry that it’s fallen just because of the weather outside my window.

11. Aespa- Dreams Come True (NEW)

Ahh, an Aespa song in my wheelhouse, it can happen… as long as it’s a cover of an S.E.S. song. Either way, I think this is good enough despite being a cover to land as the highest Aespa song this year, they really own this song and it’s nice getting something softer from them that isn’t boring. I also do think this is a great reimagining of the original song, really makes it feel genuinely Aespa and different enough that I’m willing to rank it at all.

10. Everglow- Promise (-1)

Speaking of being really happy to see groups show a softer side, this is Everglow doing just that, and just like with Aespa, it’s my top song for them this year, weird how breaking the mold of just trying to be super cool all the time works out, even for the two gen 4 girl groups who are the best at the cool concept.

9. Purple Kiss- Zombie (-1)

Zombie, but twice over belongs in this spot, the halloween remix is also absurdly good, and either one could fit here.

8. Ive- Eleven (NEW)

Our highest ranking newcomer from the last quarter of the year is from a rookie group! Although that doesn’t quite account for Wonyoung and Yujin both being among the most popular Iz*one members, this group still has power on their own, debuting at a similar level to Itzy and Aespa in terms of sales and they even picked up music show wins almost as fast as humanly possible, these three groups could be the groups to beat if Ive can maintain the momentum to stick with the other two.

7. Azer- Elegante (-3)

I could put this song anywhere from 7 to 4 and feel good about it depending on the day, that’s just insane to me, I know I’ve said competition was steep this year, but this was legitimately the hardest ranking for me to do since I started doing rankings long before this website was even a dream for me. Elegante is incredible and Azer deserves all the credit for making some so fantastic with so little in the way of resources and support. I think a few of the girls from this song should be picked up by companies looking to put together girl groups, they’ve got talent and knowledge.

6. Stayc- ASAP (-1)

ASAP is just a never ending happiness, all year it’s been exciting to me whenever it comes up on my playlist, it brings such an absurd level of fun and happiness that is unwavering from start to finish.

5. Weeekly- After School (-3)

This is probably a top 20 or 25 girl group song of all time for me, and I have it at number 5? This year is nuts, Weeekly hit absolute gold with After School, they’re a little over a year into their career and they’ve created the beginnings of a legacy, they’re one of the groups that I am most excited about going into the future, and that’s saying something with all the potential greatness sitting in the 4th gen groups.

4. E.So- Orgel (+2)

This song is just so dark and beautiful, it has an emotional weight to it that most girl groups can’t pull off to the same level, maybe the advantage of being solo? Or is it just that E.So can bring that better than most? Either way, she is an incredible artist who I hope can make more music in the future.

3. Stayc- Stereotype (-)

As I said with ASAP, Stereotype is just fun every single listen, if you’re having a bad day, these songs will help pick you up, Stayc brings such a good energy, thanks to great songwriting and production, but also to the members just being the perfect fit, they just feel right as a unit in the same way that Twice or Red Velvet does.

2. Lucy- Stove (+14)

You know how the more you consume something the more desensitized you tend to become? Well the more I listen to Stove the more emotional it makes me feel, without understanding any of the words the music, the composition, the instrumental, the production, the vocals, just everything put into the song, it’s beautiful to me. It makes you want to cry for no other reason than it’s just that beautiful, it makes you feel like the most beautiful songs where the lyrics are built to make you feel moved, but, again, it does that without you understanding a word. Maybe not everybody experiences this song the same way, but if you don’t I wish you could.

1. GWSN- Burn (-)

Speaking of songs that just make me feel something, GWSN does the same here, they make me feel moved and emotional. The message in the music is a hard one about moving forward, something that all of us, by nature, are usually terrible at. We don’t like to let it burn, we want to preserve and hold onto things, even the bad things, sometimes especially the bad things. The best part is Burn isn’t just quiet and contemplative, when they actually sing “you gotta let it burn” the instrumental gets emotional, turbulent, maybe even aggressive, and that’s exactly how pushing forward in life often feels. It’s a perfect encapsulation of that feeling while being an absolutely fantastic song in it’s own right. When I first listened to this I looked at my wife and said “you know, sometimes you do just gotta let it burn” and that’s something that I think about regularly now, and when things are feeling tough I turn this song on and close my eyes to be reminded of that. Things have been extra hard for almost everybody the last two years now, so it’s nice to have a song that can remind you to just keep pushing forward. Burn is the right song at the right time, but I think it’ll be a song that always means something to me. Meaningfulness aside, I can absolutely headbang to this in my car or just at home and get pumped up, it’s really well made and performed.