best of Red Light's Top 100 Female K-pop Songs of the Decade!

[The Destiny Hope]

OH WOW OMG. I was NOT expecting #10. But #9...

 

[Red Light]

#8.

 

Spoiler

 

There are some songs that are just objectively, inarguably brilliant--where, regardless of how you personally feel about the song, you have to respect the production, the lyrics, or the vocals. IU’s career rightfully skyrocketed at the end of 2010 when she released such a track.

 

IU’s enchanting piece of upbeat orchestral pop is a whirlwind of everything that makes truly timeless pop music--expert sound engineering, infectious and emotive melodies straight out of a classic Disney movie, and genuine talent and artistry right at the forefront. You would think from the soft smokiness of IU’s voice that she wouldn’t have a terribly impressive vocal range, but boy does she ever dispel that notion. And that’s what makes it even more hilariously impressive--IU doesn’t feel the need to oversing or excessively show off how much talent she has, it all just comes naturally to her. When the time came to really put those vocal cords to use, she was just like, “Okay, sure, whatever. Here.”

 

Production-wise, Good Day is one of the standouts in the countdown. The vast array of different strings, woodwinds, and brasses the composer had in their arsenal is nothing short of amazing, and not a single one of them sounds synthetic or artificial in the slightest. Nothing included in the soundscape sounds too familiar either--I’m still not sure what that twinkly descending sound effect in the background at the 0:08 mark is; and the snare sample in the choruses has a weird “Split in half” sound to it that I’ve never heard anywhere else in K-pop (especially since it’s oriented more on the left half of the soundscape than the right, where 99% of offbeat percussion in pop music goes). Overall, if nothing else, you can at the very least hear how much care went into the construction of the song, which is a trait it has in common with the rest of the top 20.

 

But, as everyone who’s listened to the song knows, everything firmly entrenching Good Day in the top 10 of the decade is what happens in the last quarter. The song veers into a short dance break of sorts for the bridge, with the only hint of obvious electronic-ness to be found in the instrumental, making itself known through the obviously programmed drum fills. To complement this, the break also employs a funkier guitar sample and a very simple, repetitive hook to go along with it. Then the real bridge takes effect, taking an even more cinematic tone as it prepares to build for the grand finale. Much like GFriend’s Sunrise at #50, the beat starts to break up, undergoing lots of different stutters, pauses, and breaks to heighten the drama factor--and, just like Sunrise, this unsteady feeling continues for the remainder of the song.

 

And now for the real reason Good Day is so spectacular: It has one of the best final choruses--and bar none, the best closing seconds--of any song in the history of K-pop. While the first two choruses underwent a smooth modulation from A to Db (this is a total guess, remember I can’t figure out keys for ****), the bridge doesn’t revert back to A, but maintains its Db change for the sole purpose of undergoing an even more impressive climb to D in the final chorus.

 

And then, of course, it all climaxes in that now infamous high note for the grand finale. Not only is it incredibly high-pitched, but it’s also incredibly long, running for a whopping 12 seconds straight. Because it isn’t just one note, it’s three--three notes that take the most precise vocal control possible, because (and this is why I really love it so much) they’re totally chromatic. E-F-F#. There is absolutely no room to screw up with progressions like that, which makes it all the more awe-inspiring. Beyond the obvious talent that it requires, what’s more important is what it evokes: the V-I-V/V-V/iii progression is pretty much as cheerfully bittersweet as music can possibly get. By emphasizing the most dramatic part of the progression in the semitonic climb, IU practically makes a weapon out of it, stabbing the listener with joy and romance and nostalgia.

 

10 years later, Good Day is a modern K-pop classic, and still one of the best-selling K-pop singles of all time. Most recently, Billboard crowned it the #1 spot on their own "Top 100 of the Decade" list! Despite debuting in a scene dominated by boy groups and girl groups, the 2010’s pretty much belonged to IU. She has all but taken a literal torch from BoA as the Queen of K-pop, and I’m very glad that such a title could be crowned to a true artist with true talent. Good Day, in my opinion, is the quintessential IU song, and I’m thrilled that in spite of its age, it's secured a spot in my top 10.
 

 

[The Destiny Hope]

(I have a response to notable entries to me that I'll post after the finale) 

[The Destiny Hope]

"And then, of course, it all climaxes in that now infamous high note for the grand finale. Not only is it incredibly high-pitched, but it’s also incredibly long, running for a whopping 12 seconds straight. Because it isn’t just one note, it’s three--three notes that take the most precise vocal control possible" OH WOW  It's been a real pleasure reading all this technical stuff about songs I've loved for years - even if I don't get any of it dkclamsdklcads

 

No wonder she settles for such soft songs now nnnn her vocals were DEAD after it. But yeah, that high note has to be one of the most iconic high notes of all-time in K-pop

[Hug]

Omg Sugar Free...the BEST T-ARA song I'm surprised Big Room wasn't done more in K-Pop because it was kinda big there for a bit, but at least we got the excellent Sugar Free from it!

[Red Light]

#7.

Spoiler

 

Well, it seems I’ve run into a bit of a problem. 

 

There is a lot that I feel needs to be said about Closer. It is, obviously, one of the greatest K-pop songs ever created, in my book, and I love it more than any sane human being should ever love a song. Just in the course of this countdown alone, it feels like this song has been brought up and openly praised by me more than any other track in the top 100.

 

Quoth the crackhead:

 

Quote

I try to maintain a firm belief that music taste is completely subjective and nobody should be judged for their cup of tea—but anybody who doesn’t think Closer is at the very least decent, I hate you. 

 

It stands to reason, then, that at a minimum, the length of this review should be the length of the past few reviews—it’s what Closer deserves, after all.

 

Unfortunately, now that it’s finally come time to pay my respects, I’m just sort of at a loss for words. I feel like no word, specific combination of words, or amount of words, could ever truly convey the haunting beauty of Closer’s chord progressions. 

 

But I’m still going to try and get as, well, close as I possibly can. 

 

In addition to ranking in as my seventh-favorite song of the decade, Closer also pulls off the impressive feat of beating out 80’s queens Wonder Girls for the title of Greatest Synthpop Song of the Decade (not that there aren’t synth-y songs in the rest of the top 10, but I’m talking about that distinct, dreamy, ambient, chillwave-y kind of synthpop). While Rewind at #12 has better production, Closer is miles ahead of the runner-up synth anthem in terms of melody, structure, and feeling.

 

Closer pretty much punches you in the gut from the moment it starts, immediately bearing its frigid, tragic, VIᵃᵈᵈ⁹-III-V⁷/i-i-VII hook in a desolate intro of muffled piano, pulsating bass, rippling synth waves, and Yooa’s soft, fragile falsetto. Ironically, and likely intentionally, the production of the song sounds slightly “Far away,” as though it’s fighting through a shroud of fog. The only hard solidity that Closer contains is in the icy, treble-heavy bass kick that singlehandedly drives the momentum of the song--every other sound stem has a murky quality to it that turns its sonic landscape into a cascade of hypnotic melancholy. Instrumentally, Closer’s dreaminess has a more serene quality to it that’s unlike the other synthpop tracks on the list, with the choruses in particular sounding like they’re peacefully soaring through a celestial dreamland. Oh My Girl always excels at songs like this, in part because their innocent, angelic vocals add a texture of whimsy that simply wouldn’t be present from other girl groups. Like Love O’Clock at #74, Closer has a cosmic, “Sleepy” quality that is practically exclusive to the Oh My Girl catalog. 

 

This helps balance the tone, as beyond the lush, ambient production, Closer is actually one of the most grim, forlorn sounding songs in all of K-pop. The lyrics are bittersweet and yearning, but the chord choices just sound plain woeful and hopeless, with the i-iv-III-V⁷/i verses standing out as particularly bleak. It basically sounds like a dreamy funeral dirge. And it’s ****ing magnificent. Most songs on the list, even in the top 10, have only specific parts that really connect with me melodically, but Closer has the distinction of being one of the only songs that hits me perfectly from start to finish--every note, phrase, hook and cadence is exactly what I would have wanted, and exactly what I so fortunately received.

 

And then comes that bridge. That breathtakingly gorgeous, haunting, heart-stopping bridge that has to be heard to be believed. The mist of darkness underlying the rest of the track maxes out as it loses its percussion and strips down to nothing but its own morose ambience. Seunghee desperately pierces through the fog with a chilling, “Can you hear my cry?” and effectively seals Closer as my absolute favorite bridge of the decade. It’s everything a bridge should be. Scratch that--it’s everything a song should be.
 

 

[The Destiny Hope]

#7's GRAPHIC  Fits PERFECTLY and what the song deserves. OMG really did that and SOOOO young into their career too. It's definitely making it high into my ranking. I'm really sad they reverted to standard cute/quirky girl group after that

[Red Light]

#6.

 

Spoiler

 

In my Pandora review at #24, I mentioned three songs released in the summer of 2012 that completely and irrevocably converted me into a K-pop listener forever. Here’s the missing third piece of the puzzle. One thing I want to get straight, right off the bat: Out of all 100 stellar songs being honored on this list, Paparazzi’s instrumental is one of the absolute greatest, with a truly massive soundstage and staggering level of production detail. And, in fact, before discovering the remaining four songs, I could have never even imagined a song more perfect than Paparazzi. 

 

I remember first listening to it like it was yesterday: My best friend was a huge SNSD stan at the time, and while I was still a pretty casual fan, he knew how favorably I’d responded to songs like Trick, The Boys, and Oscar. We were having a Windows Live conversation on July 4th, 2012 (yes, I love this song so much that I remember the exact date), when he sent me the link. I wish I still had the conversation saved. As the song progressed, messages to him were pouring in faster and faster; by the bridge, I was sending him nothing but keyboard smashes. It was the perfect song. 

 

Paparazzi is ear candy at its hardest--the bass kick is sharp as a knife, the scratchy snare is tough as nails, the basslines are robotic, the synth leads are colorful and vibrant, and it’s all stirred together to create a pounding three minute and forty-seven second powerhouse of super-charged emotion from all different directions. The whole song is like an adventure all the way through, oozing pure drama right from the start as it whooshes in with its reverberated sonic booms and its teasingly suspenseful, “Ooh lala la,” intro. From there begins the ravenously confident and predatory chromatic synth hook, which the vocals mimic without deviation until the tension finally gets broken up by the sunny and rabidly catchy pre-chorus. The pre-chorus contains what I think, to this day, is my favorite background vocal harmony in all of K-pop, when Hyoyeon backs up Seoyeon’s “matataku sutaa no satellite” over a steady V/iv chord.

 

Of course, all of this pales in comparison to the grand, momentous, bittersweet choruses, which--as I’ve mentioned in reviews for the other songs that have contained it (e.g Hobgoblin at #64)--boasts my all time favorite melody: A descending tetrachord which I’ve come to call the "25 or 6 to 4" progression, named after the guitar riff in the Chicago song of the same name. Of course, the melodies aren’t always exactly like the one in the Chicago song, being in different keys or containing different harmonies, but they all share the same type of melody, descending from the root note by one whole tone and then at least two semitones. Paparazzi stays the truest to the progression I named it after, and crams in one last extra flat (descending semitone) in the final bar. It’s one of the most emotionally versatile melodies you can find in pop music, but in every case, there’s always at least a hint of tension involved.

Out of all the carriers of the 25 or 6 to 4 gene, Paparazzi’s sounds the most emotional overall. The adventurous tone that I mentioned earlier is taken to extreme levels in the chorus, not least because of the nostalgic i-IIIc-Vb/VII-VI⁷ chord progression but because of the sounds associated with it: The reverberated sonic booms make their return multiple times in the choruses and work beautifully in making them sound “Big,” and to add the perfect finishing touch, Paparazzi’s choruses are accented with a tasteful but chillingly dramatic electric guitar backing. The song as a whole evokes this very intense feeling of hopeful anticipation. Every time I listen to it, I feel like I should be stepping out of a taxi with a light load of luggage, taking my first steps into a big, competitive city where I’m going to try making my wildest dreams come true, like I’m in a really, really bad Disney Channel Original Movie. The producers seemed to agree with this feeling, as they accent the start of the bridge with the sounds of metropolitan traffic--engines revving, horns honking, and sirens blaring. 

 

The rest of the bridge possesses what I think is by far the most tastefully executed dubstep break in all of K-pop--or, really, all of pop in general. It’s so subtle, and blends so well with the rest of the instrumental, that it practically gives the listener a choice over whether or not it’s really dubstep--it’s present enough that fans of dubstep like myself will be satisfied, and understated enough that those who aren’t fans of the genre (like the friend who sent the song to me in the first place) should be able to easily ignore it. To the many who understandably loathe the genre, Paparazzi is just a hard-ass electronic pop song, and the dance break in the bridge is just that--a dance break. 

 

Finally, since apparently Paparazzi wasn’t flawless enough, things get eerily quiet in the aftermath of the break, treating the listeners to one final dose of delicious tension before the final chorus. With the fiery chromatic hook from the verses making one last comeback, Tiffany gives a nod to English listeners by commanding, “Come on, friends,” in the last pre-chorus bar, as if verbally pushing the listener into the final act of the song. If you think that sounds cheesy as hell, it totally is, and it fits the vibe of Paparazzi perfectly. As a matter of fact, my love for Paparazzi comes from a similar place as my love for HynuA’s Do It at #57--the choruses have that nondescript, happy-but-sad quality that I find irresistable, for some reason. There’s an underlying current of schmaltz throughout the track; the raging, adventurous fire has a very poignant, wistful quality behind it. In fact, the last chorus has a gem of a lyric (pun unintended) that I think really sums up the essence of the track: “The single tear that falls, changes into a shining diamond.” Adventures, after all, are about overcoming challenges, and Paparazzi expresses that in the glitziest way possible. I guess what I mean when I use the term “Emotionally versatile” is that it sounds like, well… life.

 

One of my reasons for listening to K-pop is that I can forget the lyrics, focus on the feelings the chords evoke, and make of those feelings whatever the hell I want. What Paparazzi pulls off is the feeling of having a, “well… life” coach in sonic form. It has every strain of energy and drive in the book, and yet the vaguely nostalgic choruses sound like they still acknowledge pain. When all is said and done, you’re left feeling as though, no matter what you want and no matter what happens, life really can still be a party after all.
 

 

[Red Light]

#5.

 

Spoiler

 

Throughout the course of the rate, I’ve made many mentions of songs that I consider “Quintessential K-pop”--STEP by KARA (#34), Abracadabra by Brown Eyed Girls (#20), etc. These are songs that, without sounding too generic, are simplistic, straightforward, and irresistibly catchy no matter whose ears they fall on. It’s not that everyone loves these songs--it’s that it’s exponentially harder than other songs to find anybody who actually hates them. In 2013, Girl’s Day released the most underrated--as well as one of my all time favorite--examples of that phenomenon. 

 

Expectation is pure, energetic, hard-hitting electropop of the highest order. Every sound stem is a prime product of the early 2010’s EDM craze, and yet even as the decade draws to a close, none of it sounds cringeworthy or overdone. It is, among other things, not only one of the indisputably catchiest songs on the entire top 100; it’s also one of the most cleanly produced. Not a single stem sounds muddled or unpolished in the slightest. Every kick, clap, synth, and bassline is sharp as a tack. The vocals aren’t showy or distracting, because the producers know exactly where the strengths lie: The immaculate instrumental, the pile-driving energy, and the pounding, club-ready beat.

 

The verses are much more house-y and understated than the raw mania of the choruses, with faint disco guitar riffs at the right of the soundstage and a bevy of old-school synth stabs. The verses are really quite boring in comparison, which seems just as intentional as it was in the case of Sugar Free at #10: We all know from the intro that the choruses will be the main event, so the verses serve as nothing more than tension-builders to make the wallop of the choruses pack an even harder punch. If that wasn’t enough, we get a classic soft K-pop pre-chorus to make the wait even more palpable, with all the classic EDM synth pads and house percs building the hype to a painful crescendo; finally getting cut off by a truly epic phaser-treated vocal effect that teases the electronic storm of the incoming chorus.
    
One particularly great thing about Expectation’s choruses are the utterly devastating electronic cymbal crashes on the right half of the soundscape. Cymbal crashes can singlehandedly carry any chorus on their back if they need to sound climactic, and the trebley monsters that Expectation packs in its artillery push the song above and beyond the point of satisfaction. Expectation’s icy, invigorating choruses also come assembled with rabid, squealing synth stabs; wicked blasts of deep, gritty electric guitars; and glitchy, fizzling electronic basslines. Of course, the real action is happening in the vocals, with one of the absolute greatest and most infectious hooks in K-pop history over a simple vi-I-ii-IV-V chord progression. It may well be impossible to get the falsetto “Ooh ooh-ooh ooh”s out of your head even after just one listen, which is exactly what most pop music attempts, but often fails, to achieve.

 

What pushes Expectation into the top 10, however, is the last quarter of the track, where it reaches new heights. The tail-end of the second chorus sees the high-pitched synth stabs go totally haywire, like the song is starting to lose a solid grip on its own uncontainable energy, before simmering down for one final buildup. 

 

This last buildup starts off like the others, but the charade doesn’t last long before Girl’s Day treats you to the kind of delirious, euphoric buildup that’s typically only achievable in trance music. The vocal line starts modulating upward like a choir of angels dropping acid--as do the synth stabs, which by the end of the bridge are up so high that they sound like they’re floating around in heaven as well. Just to add a few more seconds of agonizing anticipation, we get one last roboticized vocal cutoff, and then all hell breaks loose.

 

Girl’s Day is no stranger to songs that “Level up” in the last act: Twinkle, Twinkle has a similarly immaculate key change; Nothing Lasts Forever transmogrificates into some kind of bizarre, uptempo funeral dirge during its last quarter; and I’ll Be Yours (#21) houses one of my favorite bridges of the decade. Still, Expectation is in a completely different league from those three--a league that K-pop artists rarely ever achieve. 

 

Expectation only changes key by one half step, but that half step makes all the difference. Like IU’s Good Day at #8, Expectation has the uncanny ability to make you feel as though, up until the final chorus, you’d been listening to the song in the “Wrong” key. By some strange magic, everything in Expectation’s final chorus sounds totally new and upgraded. The synths sound crisper, the guitar sounds heavier, and the beat sounds harder. But there is absolutely no change in the production to cause such a substantial difference. Years ago, I tried analyzing the audio with somebody on Reddit, as we were both fascinated by the phenomenon. Neither of us could detect any difference. The key change is just that good. Melodies are a weird, tricky thing, and our brains respond to them in baffling ways. The difference in emotional response that we can have to the tiniest change in key is a perfect example of this. And Expectation is the perfect song to demonstrate this.

 

Expectation has, bar none, the greatest, most finely executed, most effective key change in K-pop history. By extension, Expectation has one of the greatest climaxes in K-pop history as well. From the polished instrumental, to the universally likable earworm of the main hook, to the astounding final curtain call, everything about Expectation just sounds… classic. Like it was a timeless K-pop standard before it was even released. If the list were completely and solely objective, it would be the runner-up at the very least, and very possibly the champion of the entire decade.
 

 

[The Destiny Hope]

OMG MY WIG 

 

I'M NOT EXAGGERATING MY OLD SONE SOUL ROSE UP AND TEARED UP AT THIS INCLUSION.  I usually find one really good line or two I want to quote but this entire write-up is quote-worthy UGH!!! The appraise!!

 

"The rest of the bridge possesses what I think is by far the most tastefully executed dubstep break in all of K-pop--or, really, all of pop in general."

 

And I think your recollection of your friend sending it to you is SO adorable  I can relate. The early days of getting into K-pop and hearing such amazing songs are such fond memories. I love that for us 

[The Destiny Hope]

 The way I'm not even SURPRISED at it making top 5 omg. I swear it has to be one of the most used K-pop songs ever in Youtube remixes and mashups. Which makes sense because it's such an amazing song but WHEW. I swear earlier this year I was STILL finding out new mashups with this song that sounded great

 

That being said I love this placement for it. You're right, I always had a playlist of electronic K-pop songs with this, Step, Abracadabra, etc. but I never noticed the similarities between them until now

[The Destiny Hope]

Also ALL of these top 10 graphics have been like... top-notch. None of that Piano Man stuff (no shade sis )

[Red Light]

#4.

 

Spoiler

 

Heart Attack was technically released at the very end of 2017, but like Jazz Club, it was so late in the year that I’m counting it towards the 2018 tally instead.

 

Loona has never achieved the level of consistent brilliance they wowed everyone with back in 2017, but I couldn’t be happier they released one final slam dunk before their more mediocre output. The verses are Girl’s Day’s I’ll Be Yours all over again--in fact, I still have the urge to sing “Baby I’ll be yours!” during the “You attack my heart” hook. Other similarities it bears to the #21 placeholder are the deep-voiced, English-speaking background interjections, and the anachronistic 808’s running in contrast to the jazzy, high-pitched piano chords and faux-swingish rhythm.

 

The song’s most notable, glimmering quality is, of course, the nostalgic gourmet of semitonic scale progressions. The first half of each chorus kicks off with a melancholic III-V⁷/i progression that drove me crazy for the first few days of listening (and I had it on repeat 24/7 for days) because I knew it reminded me of a Western pop song that I used to love for the same reason. One day it finally hit me that the song I was thinking of was If We Ever Meet Again by ****ing Timbaland and Katy Perry and I felt blasphemous for ever making the comparison, but that just goes to show how powerless I am to a few secondary chords.

 

The brief sharp taking place during the III-V⁷/i portion of the chorus is just an appetizer for the main course of, well, the chorus: Layered heavily into the instrumental, as well as emerging in the form of a truly stunning set of Barbershop Quartet-ish backup harmonies, the track becomes drenched in a torrent of exuberant nostalgia with a bittersweet i-Vb/i-VII-vii°/VII-VI-V⁷/i progression that descends step by step to the resolution of each chorus. The resolution of each chorus is accented with a dramatic split bass kick, and each of these final punches is more devastating than the last. For somebody as picky as me when it comes to what I like and dislike in music, there have been very few first-listen experiences that have been legitimately perfect--where all the right ingredients just happened to come together in one track and deliver everything that I needed and more. Many of my all-time favorites, in fact, were not ones that delivered that rush of rousing immaculateness. There are, however, a subset of favorites (most of which are in the top 10) that made me feel as if they were one step ahead of me during that first listen--like the songs were produced specifically for me.

 

Heart Attack, with its soft, percussion-barren, lullaby-ish bridge just before the one final explosion, joins that exclusive group.

 

Stripping down eventually to Chuu’s voice alone, as she starts a vocal run in a long, drawn-out “Heeeeeeyyyyy,” Heart Attack acclimates you to the grand finale in a similar manner to Expectation by Girl’s Day (one spot up at #5), using ad-libbed vocals to harmonize with an absolutely hair-raising key change. It’s natural, then, that Heart Attack possesses what I consider to be more or less tied with Expectation as holding the most effective key change of the decade. Every element that already made the track so brilliant is amplified in such a way that you feel as though, until that moment, you had been listening to the song in the “Wrong” key. And, ridiculously enough, it still isn’t done hurdling yet another curveball your way, packing a double chorus for the end in the manner of Red Velvet’s Ice Cream Cake (#13).

 

Every transcendent ad-lib, every punchy bass kick, every triumphant cymbal crash; every grain of production right down to the last second of the song is chillingly beautiful. I am not exaggerating in the slightest when I say that, even as we draw to the end of the decade, I cannot listen to Heart Attack without getting goosebumps during the final chorus. It’s as though the chord progression is like some kind of neurological passcode that unlocks a treasure chest of happy chemicals and sets them free. It sounds like joy and warmth and love and excitement and peace and nostalgia and it’s just so… beautiful. It’s perfect.

 

With this textbook tour de force masterpiece, Chuu doesn’t attack your heart so much as she warms it, and if you don’t feel at least a twinge sentimental and starry-eyed listening to it, I can only assume that you need to get your ears checked… Or your heart.

 

 

[The Destiny Hope]

The Christmas gift graphic omg this is all so cute! #4 is cute  Never was super big into Loona though ngl 

[Red Light]

#3.

 

Spoiler

 

Oh, boy. Where do I start? The Brown Eyed Girls have always been somewhat of a dark horse K-pop group--they had their career-defining hit, their dedicated fanbase, their consistent chart success, and critical acclaim, but in spite of all of that, their name tends to get lost in the fog of the Golden Age Girl Groups. The title of “Most Experimental Girl Group” almost always gets crowned to f(x), and understandably so--I myself am guilty of this. I can only figure that this is at least partially because Brown Eyed Girls spent so much time out of the spotlight; only making one big comeback every two years (and, most recently, having a gap of 2015-2019), while other groups often had multiple comebacks in one year.

 

The other possible reason the Brown Eyed Girls so often go unrecognized is that, well, they actually ARE The Most Experimental Girl Group--experimental to such a degree that they’re also less accessible. The Brown Eyed Girls were at f(x)’s level while f(x) was still releasing shlock like Hot Summer. Instead of actually getting trends off the ground, they precursed and blueprinted them. They were overtly and unapologetically sexual in a time when Girls’ Generation were dancing around with lollipops. They released their “Multi-Genre Cluster****” track over a year before I Got a Boy got the ball rolling. And in the year when those “Multi-Genre Cluster****s” were all the rage, they instead decided to go back to basics with the straightforwardly catchy dance-pop of Kill Bill (#54). And as far as their 2015 comeback (which placed at #88), well, I still have yet to hear anything that sounds even remotely similar to it. The Brown Eyed Girls weren’t just experimental--they were experimental when it wasn’t cool.

 

And no song better exemplifies that than the magnificent Sixth Sense. It isn’t a coincidence that so many of my favorite songs are multi-genre rhapsodies… This is simply the kind of song that I like best. The reason I listen to pop music in the first place is because of my short attention span--so basically, the more disjointed and action-packed a song can sound, the better it is for me. Of all the musical tornadoes featured on this list, however, Sixth Sense stands out as being by far the most tasteful. It takes some getting used to, but it doesn’t sound like three totally separate songs forcibly stitched together (at least, not to the degree of the other examples). Instead, Sixth Sense is a relatively uniform track that seamlessly blends a cornucopia of different genres--including, of course, dance-pop; disco; soul; and, most endearingly, classical. Set your eyes in position to roll, because it’s about to get really weird and pretentious.

 

Sixth Sense takes inspiration from Dmitri Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 7; a song released at the height of World War II, and which essentially became a soundtrack for resistance against Nazi Totalitarianism. I say this sampling was intentional, because… well… watch the music video. (No, seriously, watch it, and then read this. It’s amazing.)

The reason for that sort of concept seems to stem from a desire to push the boundaries of K-pop music. Their representatives at NegaNetwork confirmed that, “The members hope to convey their thoughts to the public through music. Their title track is an expression of the limitations of experiencing music with only five senses, and it asks people to feel it instead through their sixth sense. The song itself is very free in style.”

 

While something like I Got a Boy uses its genre and tempo jumps to adequately tell a story, and Red Light’s chorus attempts to catch the listener off-guard in an effort to give them a wakeup call, Sixth Sense’s sonic turbulence and ambitiousness is a rather straightforward musical personification of resistance against potentially harmful status quos; fighting “The system,” whatever that may be; thinking outside the box; and standing out from the crowd. The actual “Sixth sense” that the song addresses is an attempt to immerse the audience in a song beyond an experience of just passive listening. Sixth Sense, at its thematic core, is an aggressive stride towards revolutionizing K-pop beyond the standard, by-the-books, catchy pop tune. 

 

Thus, in addition to being multi-genre, it’s packed full of weird moments that you wouldn’t normally find in any other K-pop track--ESPECIALLY not in 2011. Sixth Sense contains, among other things: audio samples from the film Moulin Rouge, melodic influence from Dmiti Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 7 as previously mentioned, random meowing, unusual chord progressions, apocalyptic drum rolls, and lots and lots of evil laughter. Oh, and the icing on the cake is GA-IN’s whistle register right at the climax of the song--by far the highest note you’ll find on the countdown and executed beautifully enough to make Mariah herself jealous. 

 

The buildup, the tension, the payoff, and the final chorus is one of the most deliriously satisfying music moments in K-pop history. I’ve used these words a lot at this point, and unfortunately this won’t even be the last time I use them: Sixth Sense, as a whole, is one of the most emotional, dramatic, and gloriously momentous songs in all of K-pop, and that’s not all thanks to the VI-VII-Vb/i sequence in the choruses. From the second it starts, it somehow sounds larger than itself--it’s HUGE in every sense of the word, and beautifully succeeds in its mission to transcend the traditional barriers of music listening. 

 

In the end, Sixth Sense is essentially a tribute to the power of music. Whether it’s something as profound as a starving orchestra premiering their symphony over loudspeaker to silence the German forces, to something as simple and small as blasting your favorite music to help you work out, music can supply us with almost supernatural powers--our sixth sense. And, indeed, like all the songs in and around the top 10, Sixth Sense connects with me on an almost spiritual level. It ties in well with what I said in my Paparazzi review, about loving K-pop because it allows me to focus almost solely on the feelings that the chords and sounds evoke--no understanding of words is necessary to enjoy that, because music is a universal language. Or what I said in the Heart Attack review, and how I can’t listen to it without getting goosebumps at the end. Or, what I said in the Sugar Free review, with how these songs go beyond simply being songs that I love, to being a part of who I am. All of that ties into the Sixth Sense concept, and it’s a thing of beauty.

 

Like all the greatest songs, Sixth Sense is an experience. It’s music at war. It’s art. It leaves an imprint in your mind, no matter how off-putting, confusing, or exhausting you may find it. At one point, Miryo even challenges the listener directly: “Can you follow?” Luckily for me, I could easily follow, and I haven’t stopped since. With all of the impeccable music that they’ve released since their debut in 2006 (!), Sixth Sense is not only one of the greatest triumphs for the Brown Eyed Girls, but one of the greatest triumphs in K-pop.
 

 

[Red Light]

And, before revealing the winner, I'll reply to everyone and also post some miscellaneous stats. 

[The Destiny Hope]

"The reason I listen to pop music in the first place is because of my short attention span" AKDCKLSADMCS the self-awareness omg I love this, King/Queen!!! Same though nnnn. The "pop"s in the chorus are literally ICONIC ugh  I feel so nostalgic now omg  2011 was the year I really got into K-pop so even though this isn't one of my favorites, it still really is iconic and timestamps a notable place in my  heart.

 

BEG were really underrated, I agree. I think the amount of input they had (that shows in their experimental music) is a testament to who they are as artists. Like... they LITERALLY are one of the only girl groups who still get together, love each other, and make music like? BEG stans are lucky 

[Red Light]

1 hour ago, The Destiny Hope said:

OH WOW OMG. I was NOT expecting #10. But #9...

 

 

Shh is such an enigma. There's still nothing else like it and I don't think there ever will be. When deep house started becoming a trend I got excited cuz I thought all of it would be like Shh but it turned out Shh was just special.

 

1 hour ago, The Destiny Hope said:

"And then, of course, it all climaxes in that now infamous high note for the grand finale. Not only is it incredibly high-pitched, but it’s also incredibly long, running for a whopping 12 seconds straight. Because it isn’t just one note, it’s three--three notes that take the most precise vocal control possible" OH WOW  It's been a real pleasure reading all this technical stuff about songs I've loved for years - even if I don't get any of it dkclamsdklcads

 

No wonder she settles for such soft songs now nnnn her vocals were DEAD after it. But yeah, that high note has to be one of the most iconic high notes of all-time in K-pop

 

Yeah, because the notes are semitonic, there's no room to screw up or improvise. You either get it precisely right or you don't!  I know she said she feels pressure when she performs it now. I wonder if she just lipsyncs that part now or something.

 

1 hour ago, Hug said:

Omg Sugar Free...the BEST T-ARA song I'm surprised Big Room wasn't done more in K-Pop because it was kinda big there for a bit, but at least we got the excellent Sugar Free from it!

 

Big Room was PANNED even way before Sugar Free came out and I remember people were worried Sugar Free would suck because of it. A lot of pretentious EDM producers like deadmau5 trashed the genre for being "Soulless" or whatever, as thought the **** they make is such high art... 

 

1 hour ago, The Destiny Hope said:

#7's GRAPHIC  Fits PERFECTLY and what the song deserves. OMG really did that and SOOOO young into their career too. It's definitely making it high into my ranking. I'm really sad they reverted to standard cute/quirky girl group after that

 

Yeah I remembered the choreography had some kind of weird zodiac theme but I couldn't fit any of that into the graphic so I tried to just kinda make it look cosmic. Thank you! 

 

43 minutes ago, The Destiny Hope said:

OMG MY WIG 

 

I'M NOT EXAGGERATING MY OLD SONE SOUL ROSE UP AND TEARED UP AT THIS INCLUSION.  I usually find one really good line or two I want to quote but this entire write-up is quote-worthy UGH!!! The appraise!!

 

"The rest of the bridge possesses what I think is by far the most tastefully executed dubstep break in all of K-pop--or, really, all of pop in general."

 

And I think your recollection of your friend sending it to you is SO adorable  I can relate. The early days of getting into K-pop and hearing such amazing songs are such fond memories. I love that for us 

 

I was hoping you'd have a good response to Paparazzi!!  Because you got so excited about the inclusion of I'm in Love with the Hero. My friend is going to be pissed that it's not in the top 5 btw. 

 

38 minutes ago, The Destiny Hope said:

Also ALL of these top 10 graphics have been like... top-notch. None of that Piano Man stuff (no shade sis )

 

Gurl the Piano Man graphic was such a disaster.  I wish I had made some kind of backup. The Elvis graphic sucked too! 

 

23 minutes ago, The Destiny Hope said:

The Christmas gift graphic omg this is all so cute! #4 is cute  Never was super big into Loona though ngl 

 

Yeah this is a case of a song getting a suuuuuper high placement because of the chord progression. If Expectation had similar chords it would probably be #1 instead of #5 tbh. 

 

Sorry this is taking so long fjkhdkjfah

 

 

[Red Light]

MISCELLANEOUS STATS

 

Number of bingos: 28

Artist with the most bingos: Tie between f(x), BoA, the Brown Eyed Girls, and GAIN; all with 3 each

Longest an artist went without an elimination: Dreamcatcher, with 83 places

Longest an artist with more than one song went without an elimination: Girl's Day, with 81 places

Longest an artist went between eliminations: Girls' Generation, 89 places between I'm in Love with the Hero at #95 and Paparazzi at #6

 

 

[Red Light]

#2.

 

Spoiler

 

The legendary I Got a Boy--or, what has since been colloquially referred to as ‘The Korean Bohemian Rhapsody’--is essentially an operetta in electronic dance form. While Sixth Sense blended multiple genres in one tasteful, cohesive track, I Got a Boy is more akin to a 21st century take on Baroque era dance suites. It’s debatable as to just how many different movements are crammed into the phenomenal track’s four minutes--it could be argued to have as many as seven, while I personally say it only has two sections with multiple different subsections. What makes I Got a Boy song such a dynamic whiplash is how distinct the two sections are from each other, and the fact that the song teeter-totters back and forth between the two instead of just making up its mind.

 

Part of the genius is that I Got a Boy is disjointed for a reason--it’s written as a conversation between a group of girls with different perspectives and opinions on love and relationships. The first perspective comes from the presumably single girls, gossiping over a hip-hop beat about a friend who has completely changed ever since she fell in love. “From head to toe, her style has changed. Why did she do that?” Then comes the grand introductory refrain; its big, booming, guitar-drenched production and powerful, anthemic hook all sounding straight out of 1980’s arena rock. This part seems to be from the perspective of the girl who’s being gossiped about, although it’s hard to get a clear understanding because of differences in translation. Whatever the case, it sonically gels well with the hip-hop sequences and it’s an epic way to start off the song. Shockingly, I Got a Boy is one of the simplest harmonic songs in the countdown, basically repeating some variation of the same two V/iv and VI chords over and over and over again. Judging by how dynamic the melodies are, however, you would never know it.

 

The first verse sees the return of the hip-hop overture, back to the bitter gossiping of the single ladies. Evidently, the girl in question had a huge glow-up upon meeting this boy, and there’s an undercurrent of jealousy. “Who does she think she is?” “She became pretty and sexy all for him?” While this part is mellower than the chorus, it’s surprisingly exciting, with lots of transient sound stems thrown in to keep it interesting--a buzzing bassline, a brief piano sample found nowhere else in the song, and vocal melodies that manage to be complex and unpredictable while still being infectious earworms. Cleverly, the first verse cyclically reprises the guitar-driven VI bars of the refrain, which keeps it relatively cohesive.

 

After the real first chorus (which is just a lengthened version of the introductory chorus with different lyrics), part two of the track starts: “Ayo, stop! Let me put it down another way.”

Now, instead of being bitchy and arrogant to her girlfriends, the girl who’s got a boy attempts to explain the change in her personality. To convey the serotonin-fueled giddiness that comes with being in love, the tempo jumps from below 100 BPM all the way to a whopping 140. The synth accents also undergo a total metamorphosis--the production hops from edgy, power pop rawness to totally synthetic electropop, with a squiggly, pitch-bent synth lead and a pulsating bassline that’s near monotonous, besides climbing up one octave on every fourth bar. Taeyeon’s long, gleeful high notes in this part are particularly brilliant.

 

While the ecstatic, high-energy dance sequence is still going in full force, the song lyrically starts to shift. The girl in question starts to panic as the novelty of the relationship is starting to wear off and reality is setting in. Elements from the chorus (the guitar and a cleverly inverted version of the “Oh eh oh” hook) now begin to creep back in, only now of course playing at the manic 140 BPM. 

 

What I consider the second “Verse” is still a bit puzzling. Either the girl is vacillating back and forth between gushing and panicking about her boyfriend, or we briefly hear from a different, second girl who has also fallen in love. In any case, this part is total ear candy--bright, cheery, deliciously catchy bubblegum pop with softer vocals, twinkly synths, sub-bass that gives it a sonic connection to the first verse, and also standing out as the only sequence of the song where the beat is a steady four-on-the-floor pulse instead of heavy syncopation.

 

Then comes the best part. The song undergoes a ritardando to simulate our lovestruck protagonist’s relationship finally hitting the skids. Tiffany gets a lot of flack for her oversinging, but she’s absolutely flawless in this part, with that deep, husky growl in her voice, matching the angry tone perfectly. This is the most disjointed piece of the song, and I think it would have helped had it been longer, as the instant jump “Back to 140” just makes it come off as unnecessary. That said, it’s by far my favorite segment of the whole song, in spite of its flaws.

 

Finally, we have a short, enjoyable bridge, where the female protagonist decides she can be happy without him as long as she has her friends; essentially thanking them for being patient while she had been completely consumed in romance. The song ends on an epic note, and in my opinion one of the absolute best music sequences in all of K-pop, as the contrasting elements of the song combine for one giant super-chorus. Miraculously, there are no mixing or harmonic issues at all, which goes to show how much care the producers put into it. 

 

I Got a Boy is the textbook example of a beautiful mess. I was listening to this song a few times a day back in 2013 and I still got chills every time. It’s one of the most divisive songs in all of K-pop, with those who hate the disjointment insisting it’s one of the worst K-pop songs ever released, and those who love the disjointment insisting it’s one of the best. The only thing that pretty much everyone can agree on is the fact that it has become one of the most infamous and influential K-pop songs of all time, and in my opinion, it’s unquestionably earned that status.
 

 

[The Destiny Hope]

13 minutes ago, Red Light said:

I was hoping you'd have a good response to Paparazzi!!  Because you got so excited about the inclusion of I'm in Love with the Hero. My friend is going to be pissed that it's not in the top 5 btw. 

 

 BTW, do you like any of SNSD's Korean music? Besides I guess Trick, Oscar, IGAB, and The Boys (since you mentioned them)

 

4 minutes ago, Red Light said:

MISCELLANEOUS STATS

 

Number of bingos: 28

Artist with the most bingos: Tie between f(x), BoA, the Brown Eyed Girls, and GAIN; all with 3 each

Longest an artist went without an elimination: Dreamcatcher, with 83 places

Longest an artist with more than one song went without an elimination: Girl's Day, with 81 places

Longest an artist went between eliminations: Girls' Generation, 89 places between I'm in Love with the Hero at #95 and Paparazzi at #6

 

You know yesterday I streamed Dreamcatcher's entire discography and their music is actually really good! It's actually so unfair to them that I haven't listened to them much

 

 

[The Destiny Hope]

"Part of the genius is that I Got a Boy is disjointed for a reason--it’s written as a conversation between a group of girls with different perspectives and opinions on love and relationships."

 

I NEVER SAW IT LIKE THIS OMG. Your MIND  (or I'm just stupid nnnn) OMG. 

 

"I Got a Boy is the textbook example of a beautiful mess. I was listening to this song a few times a day back in 2013 and I still got chills every time. It’s one of the most divisive songs in all of K-pop, with those who hate the disjointment insisting it’s one of the worst K-pop songs ever released, and those who love the disjointment insisting it’s one of the best. The only thing that pretty much everyone can agree on is the fact that it has become one of the most infamous and influential K-pop songs of all time, and in my opinion, it’s unquestionably earned that status."

 

BUT YESSSS  I can't believe they got #2 omg it's SOOOOO SO SO deserved! I played this daily pretty much since release until Mr.Mr. came out. This is so iconic and it really was game-changing. Nowadays we have disjointment on the regular from popular groups but back then people ABHORRED this song.

 

Everything from the roll-out, the wait (no SNSD comeback in 2012), to the MV, to the song, to the album, to the performances, to the wins... iconic

[The Destiny Hope]

Omg wait Stellar has to be #1 then right?

[Red Light]

AND THE WINNER IS...

 

Spoiler

 

Well, here it is. Before we get started, I’d like to thank (and apologize to) any of the victims who may have actually read any of my rambling, self-absorbed reviews, taken the time to leave comments, or pretty much even clicked on the thread at all. I promise I am being committed tomorrow.

 

In response to the criticism surrounding their 2014 single Marionette (#36), STELLAR toned the sex appeal down and released two non-sex-traffick-implicated singles--Mask in August of the same year, and Fool at the start of the next. Neither song managed to chart. So, in July of 2015, STELLAR essentially sighed and stripped their clothes back off, and along came Vibrato. Accompanying the track was a music video that completely blew Marionette out of the water in terms of raunch, filled to the brim with unsubtle vaginal imagery.

 

In spite of doubling down on their tragic sex kitten personas, the song didn’t come close to matching its predecessor in success; achieving a measly #97 on the Gaon chart. Their journey as K-pop idols followed this brutal, lousy trajectory until finally being put out of its misery on February 26th, 2018. At the beginning of this year, member Minhee revealed in a Q&A that during their seven year career, they earned less than $9,000 USD. 

 

What makes STELLAR’s headstone in the K-pop graveyard so particularly tragic is that their last ditch effort at success in the summer of 2015, Vibrato, happens to be my favorite song of the decade. Produced by MonoTree, who’ve made several appearances on the list, and whom I pretty much worship at this point, Vibrato is pop perfection: There isn’t a single dull moment involved, in spite of the fact that it doesn’t go through any truly jarring structural changes ala Red Light or I Got a Boy. 

 

Vibrato kicks off with a bang, instantly flooding your ears with a hurricane of polished sonic detail, including punchy piano chords; lush, glitzy, harmonic disco strings; distant, clamoring handclaps; deep, admirably mixed sub-bass; and, most notably, a wobbly, volatile, 80’s analog synth bassline… quite literally a paragraph’s worth of production detail just in the first four bars.

 

From here on out, the song turns polyrhythmic, with a traditional four-on-the-floor kick-and-snare beat on top of the more complex line of 808’s. The song continues its assault of all the stems featured in the intro and geniusly peppers them with just two additional, distinct details that make all the difference: Jazzy trumpet interjections, as well as my overall favorite stem in the entire instrumental, a shimmering 80’s synth riff that glides across the soundscape like a shooting star. These transient features--as well as the mainstays of the instrumental, most notably a subtle twangy guitar pluck--are all spread very far apart from each other so as not to get lost in the clutter. The persistent guitar sample, for instance, does all its dutiful strumming in the left ear, while the trumpet stays put in the right. Every bit of the instrumental is thus not only mixed with excellent care, but also an immersive, binaural experience for the listener. 

 

The only thing that Vibrato is possibly, arguably missing, is a distinct pre-chorus. Songs like Red Light, Crazy (#11), Hobgoblin (#64), and countless other K-pop bangers are substantially bolstered by their tense, soft pre-choruses, which make the choruses sound even larger and more climactic. But one of the things I find so remarkable about Vibrato is that it really doesn’t need that extra help at all. No buildup is included, and no buildup is really all that necessary.

 

The choruses are among the most finely crafted in all of K-pop, adding on an awesome, cinematic set of colorful synth stabs that pummel the listener in the fashion of orchestral hits; manic, high-pitched synth arpeggiators; and most importantly, a deep, dense electric guitar that works in tandem with the synth stabs. I’ve talked about certain “Emotionally versatile” chord progressions in pop music, and while Vibrato doesn’t employ my favorite “25 or 6 to 4” progression, it’s just as emotional as the best of them. The i-VI-V/VII-V/i progression is equal parts ecstatic, triumphant, urgent, and nostalgic. The first chorus alone is enough to get it on the top 100, but as everyone who’s heard the song before knows, it’s just getting warmed up.

 

Following the first chorus comes a brief but exhilarating dance break, consisting of an altered, more classically disco bassline, along with everything else that made the chorus so thrilling; all given the chance to shine without any vocals to distract the listener. By contrast, the second verse is a lot calmer than the rest of the song, not as instrumentally layered as the first verse, and with a refreshing new hook that functions much like the pre-chorus that the first verse had been missing. Small details and changes like this give every section of the track its own merits, and allow it to keep its insane momentum going. To say the least--if every song was given this much careful sculpture, pop music would be a much better place. 

 

Thanks to the newly added quasi-pre-chorus, the second chorus hits even harder than the first, to the point that it seems impossible for the song to continue topping itself. And it doesn’t top itself. Topping itself is too much of an understatement. Vibrato eclipses itself in the last act. And it starts by taking out the riveting post-chorus that you expect to make a return, and instead, reverses the momentum, collapsing in on itself. The beat slows down to a trudge and makes way for a dramatic building sound effect, appropriately sounding like an uphill roller coaster climb. The song edges near ballad territory for the bridge, boasting a beautiful, nostalgic piano arrangement; slicing the light, exuberant tones of yore and replacing it with mysterious, painful anticipation. The climax is almost threatening the listener at this point, until the increasingly distressed vocals finally tip the entire thing over the edge. The roller coaster finally shoots downhill. And thus begins one of the most beautiful, intense, and inordinately satisfying climaxes ever crafted in K-pop.

 

The best final choruses in K-pop all sound like “Upgrades” from the rest of the track--Red Light, I Got a Boy (the runner-up), Sixth Sense (#3), Expect (#5), Heart Attack (#4), and Good Day (#8) all immediately come to mind. The last three examples in that selection all entail key changes that transform the sound. But oddly enough, I can’t pinpoint any fundamental difference in the instrumental of Vibrato’s last chorus from its first two. I don’t hear any additional synths, percussion, or changes in key or chord structure. Yet it manages to outshine every other example of the “Upgrade” phenomenon in K-pop. The last chorus of the song somehow sounds remarkably sped up, despite not actually undergoing any substantial increase in tempo. To this day I cannot figure out how it achieves this quality, and that just makes it all the more magical. The only thing I can analyze is the “Double feature” chorus it boasts: Instead of immediately recycling the typical chorus, it recycles the instrumental of the chorus, while changing everything about the vocals. Hyoeun slams the listener into this segment with psychotic wailing adlibs before the group desperately cries, “I got trapped!” 

 

Following this is my favorite part of the whole song: A reverse pedal point harmonic vocal line that belts out, “Tell me, tell me, tell me now,” overtop a bittersweet layer of chromatic backing vocals. It’s powerful, wistful, electrifying, and quite literally breathtaking. To top it all off, Vibrato ends by finally returning to the regular chorus that you expected right after the bridge, with the addition of multiple new, shrill adlibs. The three minutes and three seconds of Vibrato finally wraps up with Gayoung breathlessly saying, “Oh my God.” I’m not lying when I say that, during my first listen to the song, me and Gayoung made that exclamation at exactly the same time. 

 

So, with all that said, why choose Vibrato over Sixth Sense and I Got a Boy? Sixth Sense, after all, is the darkest of the three, and scratches my pretentious wannabe-artistic itch, while I Got a Boy has more variety and a climax that’s just as good, if not arguably better. So what makes Vibrato my #1 song of the decade?

 

Throughout the course of the year, all three have been my #1 pick at some point. The truth is, any preference that I have for one over the other is so slight that it’s pretty much undetectable. So, to make the final decision, instead of making an impossible choice that I would undoubtedly change my mind about as soon as the countdown ended, I chose the option that I thought the largest number of hypothetical people could be happy with. Not that I’m saying this was an objective list by any means, I’m just saying that objectivity helped fuel the decision when I was no longer capable of judgement. Vibrato is a very beloved song (the MV and promotion for it, of course, was NOT beloved, as you'll see in the YouTube comments). Not everyone loves it (that’s literally impossible), but I can’t say I’ve ever seen a single comment of anybody saying they hated it--and that’s as close as you can get to objectivity in pop music. When it came to choosing the #1 song, a consensus like that meant a lot. I know that it’s MY personal countdown, but it still would have felt wrong placing I Got a Boy, a song that half of the K-poppers loathe with a passion, as my #1. Pop music is music for the masses, after all. Like KARA’s Step (#34) or Brown Eyed Girls’ Abracadabra (#20), Vibrato possesses that magical quality that makes it almost universally likable. It’s hopelessly catchy, expertly produced, utterly timeless, and in the hands of practically any other K-pop group around town, I wager that it would have become an instant classic. Congratulations, STELLAR, and R.I.P. 

 

So what do you think? Agree or disagree? Are you one of the hidden Vibrato haters I’ve never come across before in the wild? Of the 100 songs, what would you have preferred win? Leave your thoughts!  PLEASE. 
 

 

[The Destiny Hope]

Quote

"Hyoeun slams the listener into this segment with psychotic wailing adlibs before the group desperately cries, “I got trapped!” Following this is my favorite part of the whole song: A reverse pedal point harmonic vocal line that belts out, “Tell me, tell me, tell me now,”"

 

THESE ARE MY FAVORITE PARTS TOO  

 

This song dominated my summer of 2015.  I really like your mention that so many songs in your top 10 have like an "upgrade" in the song - and to a non-music expert that's the first that thought has ever come into my head  That idea 

 

Quote

"When it came to choosing the #1 song, a consensus like that meant a lot. I know that it’s MY personal countdown, but it still would have felt wrong placing I Got a Boy, a song that half of the K-poppers loathe with a passion, as my #1. Pop music is music for the masses, after all. Like KARA’s Step (#34) or Brown Eyed Girls’ Abracadabra (#20), Vibrato possesses that magical quality that makes it almost universally likable. It’s hopelessly catchy, expertly produced, utterly timeless, and in the hands of practically any other K-pop group around town, I wager that it would have become an instant classic."

 

Wait this whole bit is soooooooooooooooooo beautiful and actually really cute. Like so cute  This was a smart idea and honestly, yeah, I'm left feeling happy and so I get it. 

 

I'm very happy with this #1 and this whole countdown in general. You should be proud  And I can really see the love and fun you put into this and that passion is great