At the end of each month, I look back at my three favorite title tracks by K-pop artists. I take my own ratings into account, but there’s a bit of wiggle room as certain songs tend to grow or fade.
September 2025 Overall Thoughts
We’ve hit the rare (?) double-header in K-pop with two back-to-back underwhelming months. August didn’t provide much in the way of excitement and — though it was packed with more releases — September barely registered either.
Right now, there are a handful of groups/artists that I know I can count on and I’ve become very invested in them and their music. Most of these are actually newer fifth-gen acts. In this way, I’m more heavily “into” K-pop right now than ever before. However, when these acts are all on hiatus for awhile (or worse yet, return with underwhelming material), I’m like a tumbleweed rolling through the desert. As I mentioned in last month’s recap, it’s feast or famine.
In past years, I’ve enjoyed the overarching musical trends enough to find songs I like from almost any artist. But just like global pop music at the moment, sweeping sonic trends aren’t really happening in 2025. Everyone’s just doing their own thing (or emulating a couple of the industry’s most popular acts). This naturally funnels listeners into silos of their own taste and I inevitably feel myself getting funneled into certain fandoms.
Must. Resist. The. Funneling.
I can’t say there were any SOTY contenders this month, which is a bummer. There were some total stinkers, though — most of which seemed targeted at the western market.
My top three is a bit strange. There are two songs by the same artist, sandwiching another song that would usually push all the wrong buttons for me. However, I can actually see this second place choice leapfrogging to the top before too long, at which point I fully expect readers to surround me with pitchforks, hissing “Biaaaasssss! You’re biaaaaasssssseedddd!”. I probably am (hence the name of the blog) but I really expected to hate this song and I’m as surprised as anyone that I actually love it (and could argue many points in its favor).
Honorable mentions go to IDID, who had a pretty strong debut (though I weirdly like Step It Up better — I guess I’m in my hip-hop era?) and BADVILLAIN (another hip-hop track!). Hip-hop also infiltrates my top three J-pop songs. with XG and One Or Eight both snatching spots. However, my top choice is a very Bias List-approved EDM banger. Actually, J-pop was pretty strong this month. Tracks by ATEEZ and DXTEEN could have easily snuck into the top three and there were a few songs without music videos that I really loved.
I don’t want to put too many expectations on October because that’s usually the kiss of death, but after the Chuseok holidays I foresee a deluge of big-name acts and (even more importantly) comebacks from artists who have a great track record on this blog. We really need a knockout October/November to make up for these past eight weeks.
Month Cumulative Rating: 7.6
(compiled by averaging the scores of every K-pop review from this month)
J-Pop Highlights
New & Noteworthy J-pop: Week One
New & Noteworthy J-pop: Week Two
New & Noteworthy J-pop: Week Three
New & Noteworthy J-pop: Week Four
TOP J-POP SONGS OF THE MONTH
3. XG – GALA (review)
2. One Or Eight – Bet Your Life
1. STARGLOW – Moonchaser (review)
Honorable Mentions
AxMxP – I Did It (review)
BADVILLAIN – Thriller (review)
Chaeyoung – Shoot (Firecracker) (review)
from20 – Social (review)
Haechan – CRZY (review)
Hearts2Hearts – Pretty Please (review)
IDID – CHAN-RAN (review)
Momoland – Rodeo (review)
Treasure – Paradise / Everything (review / review)
WOODZ – I’ll Never Love Again (review)
Youngbin – Freak Show (review)
ZEROBASEONE – Iconik (review)
This Month’s Risers and Fallers
This Week In K-pop: Week 1 / Week 2 / Week 3 / Week 4
This Month’s Global Pop Round-Up
TOP THREE SONGS
3. KickFlip – Band-Aid (review)
2. TWS – Head Shoulders Knees Toes (review)
1. KickFlip – My First Love Song (review)
Top Three K-Pop Songs Of August 2025
Top Three K-Pop Songs Of July 2025
Top Three K-Pop Songs Of June 2025
Top Three K-Pop Songs Of May 2025
Top Three K-Pop Songs Of April 2025
Top Three K-Pop Songs Of March 2025
