Top 51 Kpop Songs of 2023

It’s that time again, I’m bringing you the top 51 songs of the year. While 2023 kpop didn’t hit the same peaks as 2021 (Burn by GWSN, Stove by Lucy, Stereotype and ASAP by Stayc, Orgel by E.SO, After School by Weeekly, and more; 2021 was nuts) or 2022 (Eye To Eye by Limelight, La Luna by Ichillin’, Play by Lucy, Lovin Me by Fifty Fifty, Underwater by Eunbi) for me, the level of the songs was pretty even and fairly good, despite the overall drop for the rest of this decade. Honestly, so many of these songs are so close that I’ve been moving things up and down a hair constantly, and I expect that will happen while I write this article. I may even end up making big changes, you’ll never know. Anyways, excited to start writing this, so I’m going into the music now. Oh, and as always, my taste is uniquely my own, always will be, don’t be surprised if there are songs you expect to see but don’t, NewJeans hasn’t clicked for me for example, I won’t have them here, it’s not that I think they’re bad, they just haven’t made a song for me (although Super Shy is very catchy). Also, I don’t have Cupid by Fifty Fifty because everything that happened with that group was so frustrating to watch that it ruined the song for me entirely.

51. H1-Key- SEOUL (Such a Beautiful City)

Title is absolutely true, Seoul is beautiful. Despite the fact that I’m not convinced this song was paid for by the Seoul tourism commission, this song is fun and I think Hwiseo’s vocals are very nice. She was the surprise for me from watching Queendom Puzzle and continues to deliver back in her main group.

50. Le Sserafim- Eve, Psyche & The Bluebeard’s Wife

Dancy club music is more my wife’s style than mine, and I don’t think I’ve ever had Le Sserafim on a list unless Blue Flame snuck in last year. The thing that gets this song into my top chart this year is the super EDM opening, it’s so much fun to listen to. And there’s something so absurd about the whole “boom boom boom” section that just works.

49. Itzy- Cake

I mentioned in the opening that I have been moving songs around constantly, this song only crept into the top 50 yesterday, and here’s why: Yeji’s singing part at the start of the first chorus, and all versions of that section to follow, but I love Yeji’s voice on it the most. I’m not really a fan of the song as a whole, but that section is just that good.

48. KARD- Icky

Did I mention club music earlier? This song is just so aggressively and hilariously sexual all topped off with the lyric “my innuendo” like there’s any amount of subtlety. Did I say topped off? I meant tipped off, and I’m not talking about guidance. That doesn’t make sense but please laugh, I need the validation.

47. Purple Kiss- Agit

This is the second Kpop song called Agit I like, following Oh My Girl’s song on their Coloring Book album. It’s fun, it’s charming, nothing too interesting either, but sometimes a solid, more standard song is exactly what we need.

46.Lucy- Haze

Another solid song but it does do something interesting with the “Ah-haaaaaaaaa” notes, but I’m not actually big on it structurally in the chorus. Lucy is such a treat to listen to even with little sections that I’m not as much a fan of though. Also, those notes are executed beautifully, just not where I want them.

45. EL7Z UP- Cheeky

I normally don’t watch survival shows but Girl’s Re:Verse and Queendom Puzzle (which formed this group) both had an interesting enough concept to make me tune in. The thing that really makes this song work is the member quality of the group. This group is what a Kpop super group looks like to me, every member is one of the best pieces from their primary groups. If this were just a random isolated song it would be lower for me.

44. Viviz- Untie

This was a very tricky song for me to rank. If I add in the performance of the song, this absolutely climbs up a decent margin for me, styling is great, and all 3 girls are great for this song. That said, if I judge on just the song itself, which is always my goal since I am primarily a music critic, not a performance or a popularity judge, it ends up here. I actually think this song is really good, but it’s not really a style that I’m into in spite of the clear recognizable quality.

43. Rocket Punch- Boom

I love RoPun so much, they’re such a fun group that seems so close to making a true hit and just can’t get the song quite right. This is another in a string of fun retro-sounding tracks from them, great to listen to, but not able to climb too high in my rankings despite the fact that I just want to pump it up more.

42. Lightsum- Bye Bye Love

I have 60% of this song in my brain as “fine” and then the whole rest of the song with the EDM beat as “dope.” That’s good enough for me.

41. Jini- Bad Reputation

Jini leaving Nmixx is still one of the bigger mysteries in modern kpop to me. But regardless, I feel strongly that her first solo effort is far more interesting than anything Nmixx has put out without her. While this song is far too short for my taste, it’s a very fun listen, and I really like the “bye” and the chorus lyrics are catchy

40. Odd Eye Circle- Air Force One

This is a good song, but it’s also a huge drop from their songs half a decade ago for me. I think they approached the chorus with the idea of making something that sounded on trend while being OEC still, and I think it didn’t get enough of that OEC vocal quality, but it was close. I do like everything else though, and I’m so happy to have OEC back at all. I have long said that if they were more than a short burst of a subunit that they have all the tools to be the best kpop group for me, and I think that’s still true.

39. Feverse- Time Takes Me To Love

I’m not married to the original version from the competition or the official Feverse version, so slot your favorite in here. I think that the Feverse version is a little more cohesive in my opinion, as Hayoung’s vocals fit in much better than Bora’s (she’s an amazing singer, but naturally tends to stand out for better or worse). I will say that if you haven’t watched Girl’s Re:Verse to do so though, it’s a fever dream of a survival show and an absolute blast.

38. Ichillin’- Kick-start

It wouldn’t be a 2020s Steven list without some Ichillin’, so here they are. I love the energy of this song’s chorus, it’s so fun, and summery. It makes me want to go outside and hang out with some friends, maybe grab some skateboards and good off, really good high-school years energy.

37. CSR- Shining Bright

CSR does it again, another great, almost anime sounding bop. They’re consistent and have a good niche. I'll be interested to see what happens when they branch out, the talent is there, so it should be fun.

36. Heeo- Beautiful Monster

I’m so happy I picked up on Heeo last year, her music is so interesting. I like the music box instrumental that slowly gets overwhelmed by the strings and electronic track before going fully electronic. The instrumental tells a great story here, great job from the composer and producer.

35. Weeekly- Sweet Dream

I don’t really know how to explain the chorus to be honest, but I really dig it. It’s this weird ethereal vocal and instrumental, but there’s this slight darkness and dissonance going on that really gives it a fantastic texture. The rest of the song doesn’t quite keep pace with the chorus, but it’s all interesting.

34. Dreamcatcher- Reason

Dreamcatcher’s music has not been clicking for me for a while now, the only title I’ve liked since Boca has been BEcause, and the b-sides haven’t been as strong either. But this song, it’s much more in my field house, it actually made me pick up my guitar to learn the riff because it’s just so cool. While I’m happy that Dreamcatcher is exploring new ideas, I hope we can get more of this, because this just clicks.

33. Kwon Eunbi- The Flash

I am very biased towards Eunbi, this is nothing new, so it may be a surprise that this is the highest point she reached on my list this year. I think The Flash is a really good song, and I love how much fun Eunbi looks like she’s having when she does the little hand beckoning move. But, ultimately this song doesn’t stand up to her absurdly high release quality last year, but like with Dreamcatcher, I’m happy that she’s exploring, she’s talented enough to succeed with anything.

32. Queendom Puzzle- Charismatic

This song was performed by two separate groups (DROP The Beat and PICK on the Top), and they’re both good versions, so take your pick based on who you think sings and/or performs it more to your taste. This is a really solid girl group song, it’s almost a shame it was just used for a competition show, I could imagine a couple groups doing this really well. Hopefully we get an official EL7Z UP version eventually.

31. Aimers- Fireworks

Aimers just kind of ended up all the way up here, I tossed them on my playlist and just noticed that I never really skipped this song, which is a good sign that I enjoy it, and that has been true for months, so longevity is there too. Really good track, kind of has an Infinite energy to it that I can get behind, but with some modern sensibility.

30. Stayc- Teddy Bear

What a great song to start the year off with. While the verse is just solid, the chorus is so much fun and so cute, just addictive like candy. I don’t rank based on dances, but the choreo is also so cute on this one.

29. Aespa- Drama

This is an interesting one for me, it’s not really my style, but it does something that I value very highly: it’s incredibly dramatic. I know the title would imply this, but titles can be disconnected from the song so easily. This chorus is just absurd, the drama, the intensity, it comes in spades, even the pre-chorus builds it up really well. Not my style, but executed so incredibly well and I love dramatic music.

28. TripleS- Girls’ Capitalism

I literally didn’t realize until yesterday how good of a year TripleS had musically for me, this song is great. The chorus is catchy, the vocals work really well together, the “lalala”s are a signature of TripleS at this point and continue to be good, and even the verses hold up well. Solid entry into this year’s list.

27. Ateez- Bouncy

Much like Dreamcatcher, Ateez hasn’t hit for me as well after the Treasure sage, but they have hit better relatively. And, obviously based on how high it is, this song worked well for me. The whole production is fantastic, and the chorus is so absurd and so catchy that even the high pitched voice that should be annoying is good.

26. (G)I-dle- Queencard

Another group that hasn’t been hitting for me for a few years shows up! Weird year this one. Queencard has all the audaciousness and college party sensibility of a 3OH!3 song in a kpop wrapper. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned it ever on the website, but 3OH!3 are one of my favorite artists ever, so that’s a huge compliment. I will say, this doesn’t hold up across months of listening as well, which did result in it slowly sliding down, was in the high teens at one point.

25. Purple Kiss- Sweet Juice

Well, I haven’t talked about Purple Kiss in 21 entries so it’s good to be back to them. They’re so talented, and have such a good musical direction, it’s not a direction I always love personally, but I always love that it exists. Sweet Juice is a great title track on a very generally good album. I love the great vocal control in the slide notes during the chorus across multiple members, and this is a great Yuki rap as well, which is one of the biggest signs of a good Purple Kiss title track.

24. Yena- Wicked Love

Yena is cute and fun, so of course, she took on a pretty sexy b-side, and it’s really really good. She’s such a good performer that she kills this one just like everything else she does. If you have been missing the sexy concept (as I have been, the music was great back when it was big), then this song is for you. 

23. Yeeun- Strange Way To Love

I’m not a big CLC fan, they only had a few songs that I liked, and I’m not really into ballads either, I like my music to lift my mood up and energize me. All this to say, somehow this ballad from this very talented ex-CLC rapper, is all the way up at 23. This song is really beautiful, you can feel the emotion in her voice, and I think her tone and vocal colour is fantastic for a track like this.

22. Girl’s Re:Verse- Like a Star

So, compared to the other song from this competition, I much prefer the version from the show, which was made by 4 members that didn’t make the final 5 in Feverse. Swan is such an absolutely incredible vocalist that she elevates every piece of music that she’s involved in, and losing her in the other version just isn’t worth it. The “ooh oo-oo-oooh” section of the chorus is just absolute gold, and I think nobody can deny it, it’s too powerful.

21. IVE- I Am

IVE title tracks, am I right? This group is basically the peak of modern group build, all 6 members are fantastic, and Starship trained them well on top of picking fantastic songs for them with incredible consistency. Best group of 4th gen for me currently. I Am is great, it’s a little overwhelming musically, a lot of noise from the instrumental at points, but very good overall.

20. IVE- Baddie

Starship was so confident in their good song selection for IVE that they have 3 on this album, and to give a small spoiler, the other two will be showing up later. This is the last song on the list that isn’t really my style, but it has a little bit of that low-key 90s/2000s rap energy in the verse like Eyedea and Abilities’ song Smile has for example, and I like that. Then the section where they start singing over the spoken section is chef’s kiss.

19. TripleS- Invincible

Yeah, I wasn't kidding about how I thought TripleS quietly had a really good year. I love everything that this song is doing, the floaty ethereal vocals, the driving beat in the chorus, the bounciness of the verses. This is the best TripleS unit song sing AAA, and I think they’re starting to generally get better music, so I’m excited to see what’s to come from the next Gravity… after the ballad one, I’ve established I’m not a ballad guy, although I am a Dahyun guy, so maybe?

18. Viviz- Maniac

While I respect what Untie was doing, and love the performance, the song that’s for me from Viviz this year was absolutely Maniac. The funky autotune, the deconstructed beat before it soars, the way all their vocals continue to mesh across all their tracks, this is their best song so far. I honestly think the soft sexiness Viviz has shown suits these members better than anything else right now and really hope to see more of it in the future. I also really like SinB’s lightning section and everything Eunha in this track.

17. Weeekly- Backwards

With this comeback, Weeekly really went all over the place, and I think it works really well, although I also liked their attempt at girl crush, a genre that I usually avoid, I think this is the second strongest 4th gen group behind IVE, and have the talent and flexibility that reminds me of a new GWSN. This song is another group reaching into the sexy hat and executing really well while delivering one of the more fun and engaging songs to listen to, please let this trend keep up. Also, the light thing at the end of the performance video is rad.

16. TripleS- New Look

Yup, one last TripleS, look at them go! I love this song so much, it’s got such a great energy, I almost can’t break down exactly what is working for me here. I think it’s the composition and production taking a really interesting direction and all the vocals supporting the vision so well. I like the rising high part near the end of the chorus’s body too.

15. Weeekly- Vroom Vroom

I think this is the first song where I think the chorus lets the verses down a little bit, and it’s not even that the chorus is bad, it’s a great chorus, but the verses are just that good, Zoa’s opening is so magical too, that subtle whispered section is such a good hook. I really hope we keep getting output from Weeekly consistently though, they’re such a strong group, and Queendom Puzzle really helped me find some more connection to the members, especially Soojin and Zoa, who are now my favorite members along with Jaehee.

14. Purple Kiss- Autopilot

I’m sad that I can’t put this song higher, Purple Kiss’s album is so generally good, and this is such a great energetic track that I am always happy to listen to. I love the decision to end on a lone vocalist and acoustic guitar too, it is such a cute and clever way to tie up the song. That said, they didn’t perform this at their concert and I’m sad about that, I really hope they bring it next time around.

13. Mijoo- Movie Star

What a pleasant surprise out of Mijoo, she really went to the Eunbi school of music and pumped out a track with some great character to it. What I love most is how much her natural voice gets to shine through in the chorus, she’s got such a unique tone and I love that it doesn’t get hidden away here at all. If Mijoo puts out more like this I would be ecstatic.

12. Itzy- None of My Business

The last of the groups that had lost me for years and is suddenly back with a song that clicks for me, here’s Itzy way up at 12. None of My Business is so stupidly catchy, I find myself just randomly singing it to myself throughout the day. And it’s also another one where I love Yeji’s voice. I love her singing vocals, but every member really kills it here, it has that signature Itzy sound while being a little less aggressively niche.

11. Apink- D N D

I always love the random once a year drop of an absurdly good song from Apink, it’s really their MO these days. This song has everything to love with a great retro sound. It even makes me think about Dungeons and Dragons, and how I really ought to actually play it some day. But seriously, I’ve had this song in or near the top 10 all year, just S tier work from the most consistent girl group in kpop history. Seriously, with the release of music this year they officially have more years with music output than Girl’s Generation at 13 years of music releases, and have still never missed once since debut.

10. Weeekly- Good Day (Special Daileee)

For their last appearance on my ranking, Weeekly once again cracks the top 10 after missing it last year, which was their first time missing my top 10 for a year since their debut in 2020. This song has really great positive energy with a very strong driving beat to it, it’s like the stomping of feet musically almost, and I love the overall instrumental. And you know what, it is a good day.

9. Stayc- Bubble

Well, I haven’t talked about Stayc in 21 entries… wait I already said that exact thing about Purple Kiss. Anyways, this song is amazing! The instrumental is straight fire, the mood is top tier, the vocals slap like two cats having a brawl. I really think Isa shines here in particular, it’s just a very Isa song, the bridge also is pretty iconic.

8. Kim Doah- Dream Walking

As a supporter of Fanatics, but not their company being literally awful, I’m happy to see one of them get a chance to put out more music. Honestly, I didn’t expect much from this when I went to listen, and it didn’t really stand out to me, but something brought me back, and then back again. This song did not start at this point in my rankings when I put it in, instead it slowly climbed, it just gets better, like a fine wine with age. I honestly have repeatedly spent time thinking about putting it even higher, it’s just that good.

7. Yena- Hate Rodrigo (feat. Yuqi)

I love Yena, her tracks are so much fun, ignoring the controversy around it dropping right when Olivia Rodrigo was putting out new music, which was definitely a bit of a mistake. I think Yena and Yuqi’s voices go really well together, it’s a very natural feeling mix, and the chorus is just such a slam dunk, it makes me happy every time I listen to it.

6. Aespa- Welcome To MY World

This is the most different song Aespa has ever done, and it was such a good decision to approach this kinda hippie style trippiness that this song has. And once the guitar kicks in, it’s just so good. The song actually is constantly adding in new ideas and concepts before taking them away and bringing them back in a slightly different way, it’s brilliant. I actually would go so far to say the production on this song is the best of the year, and maybe the best I’ve ever heard in my whole life.

5. IVE- Off The Record

This song took a bit to grow on me, but once I understood it, it shot up in my evaluation. This chill vibes that will not be killed, the really solid instrumental, the great vocal execution, every part of this song just fits together like it was always meant to be.

4. Stayc- Not Like You

Stayc was very cute this year, so it was very refreshing to get this extremely sassy b-side from them, because they absolutely nailed it. The real magic here is the “talking to myself pre-chorus” and the fantastic chorus instrumental.

3. Yeeun- Cherry Coke

This song is so aggressively not me based on everything I’ve ever typed and thought, but simultaneously, it fits me like a glove. The “overload” that interrupt the verses are a great weird moment that brings so much added texture and depth, the build up is fantastic leading to the chorus, and the anti-drop is so well executed compared to almost every attempt at an anti-drop I’ve ever heard. The team behind this song took a lot of structural things I don’t normally like and managed to handle it well and with the weird touches that I do normally like, seriously great job from Yeeun and all the folks who worked on this.

2. IVE- Either Way

I’ve flipped this song and Off The Record a few times, they somehow both flop between exactly second and fifth over time, it’s very weird. But what isn’t weird is how insanely good this song is. The whole song has the simultaneous juxtaposition of simplicity and complexity, there’s both so much and so little going on at the same time, and it’s beautiful. Either Way has all the pleasantness of an easy to listen to slow jam while all the complexity holds my attention when the only thing I’m doing is listening to music.

1. Bibi- MotoSpeed 24

Not only do we get her sister all over my rankings as a member of TripleS, but Bibi herself makes her first appearance on my rankings outside of being a feature on somebody else’s song. This is such a cool song, it’s got a very groovy beat that I am super into, and her vocals are beautiful. Then there’s just this completely bizarre audio strobe effect that is so absolutely brilliant and weird and good, and I can’t get enough of it. This is also the right way to do a short song, I normally don’t like super short songs (sub-3 is short, sub-2:45 is too short), but when it’s this dense with interesting choices and talent, it works.