K-POP IN REVIEW 2025: PART ONE – Kinda Big Deal
Several groups from the last ten years that have been proving themselves as an increasingly big deal this year.
BLACKPINK: initially a YG Entertainment girl group as a sort of a follow-up to the legendary 2NE1, BLACKPINK have changed not only the K-pop landscape, but that of international pop music in general, but they’ve been away for the last year or so with solo material, most notably Rosé who with Bruno Mars had huge crossover success with APT at the end of last year, but Lisa has also been very active, collaborating with Rosalía and then Doja Cat and Raye notably with Born Again. Jennie has been no less promiscuous with collabs with Dominic Fike, Doechii and Dua Lipa, but her solo single Zen was the pick of the crop for us.
Anyway, BLACKPINK have been on a comeback world tour on top of their return single Jump, which is nothing short of an excellent banger. The video has received some criticism, since it was perceived to have utilised generative AI in its production, but to our eyes that just looked a lot like regular CGI which K-pop videos have been using since the year dot.
aespa: yeah, we love SM Entertainment’s hard-hitters aespa. like BLACKPINK, they follow on from previous SM acts such as f(x) and Red Velvet but have brought their own distinctive energy to K-pop. This year has been no exception, and it’s hard to choose between the gnarliness of Dirty Work and the sheer badassery of Rich Man, but we’ve gone with Rich Man as their top tune tin 2025, simply because it quotes Cher, which is something we should all do as often as possible.
I-DLE: Before we even consider their music this year, it should be noted that I-DLE rebranded from (G)I-dle because they didn’t feel that the G, which stood for “girls” was even relevant anymore. They did this with a series of hilarious shorts in which they removed the G in several violent gestures. On top of this they ended last year trying to decide whether to renew their contract with Cube Entertainment, but instead ended up pretty much owning the company through Soyeon’s excellent maneouvering.
But has their output been any good since the rebrand? Of course it has! Once again it’s a toss up between Girlfriend and Good Thing, and we’re going with Good Thing just for the sheer quantity of autotune and the refrain of “holy moly shit” which is a very very good thing.
IVE: Quite apart from anything else, in the wake of the Kpop Demon Hunters movie (more on this in later episodes), IVE was doing that sound before the blockbuster movie existed. They have always been ridiculously, technically good as well as just huge. So what did they bring this year that keeps them in the top league? Two EPs and three singles to be exact. Rebel Heart was hugely popular, but felt a little by the numbers to our minds, however this was followed up by Attitude and XOXZ. Now the video for XOXZ is the sort of absolute nutzo bullshit that we love, but Attitude borrows from Suzanne Vega’s Tom’s Motel, which is the sort of audacious insanity we stan them for.
And yes, it does have that attitude, since you ask.