The Top Three K-Pop Songs of June 2023

Nick

Jul 1

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.

June 2023 Overall Thoughts

In the coming days, I'll be sharing my top picks from the first half of 2023. So, I'll wait to elaborate on my overall thoughts about the year. As far as June is concerned, I think it was a reasonably strong month... in the context of 2023.

Interpret that how you will, but one thing no one can argue about is the sheer quantity of material released in June. It's been one of the busiest months on the blog, with forty-two song reviews alone. That doesn't count J-pop, b-sides, album reviews or other types of posts.

June was also an unbalanced month, with many more boy group releases than girl groups. The opposite seemed to be true in May, so I guess it's just the natural swing of the pendulum. Because of this, almost all of my highlights came from boy groups. I'm pretty happy with my top three picks, and I'd put B.I's Die For Love at a close number four (if we can count it as an official title track/single).

To be honest, my own expectations made June less impressive than it could have been. My most anticipated releases of the month tended to underwhelm. SHINee's album is solid, but far from their best. I've been unimpressed with the lead-up to EXO's new album so far. And, I really expected we'd finally get word about that Infinite comeback we've all been waiting for! Songs by prominent fourth gen groups (ATEEZ, Stray Kids) also stumbled to various degrees.

Within these disappointments were some highlights. My top three picks all come from veteran performers -- some having debuted over a decade ago! The year of second-gen reunions is truly upon us, and I hope this trend continues.

On the J-pop side of things, it was another strong month. I'm in love with all my top three songs and honestly don't know quite how to rank them. Sexy Zone's Chapter II was easily my most-played album of the month, and new songs from Sakurazaka46 and &TEAM also received a lot of plays.

Looking forward, it seems that July will be a very packed month. We've got many heavy-hitters scheduled to make comebacks, and I'm hopeful that -- similar to 2022 - the summer season will kick the K-pop industry into gear.

Month Cumulative Rating: 7.9

(compiled by averaging the scores of every K-pop review from this month)