The Top Three K-Pop Songs of March 2024

Nick

March 31

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.

March 2024 Overall Thoughts

Okay, this year's already a little weird. We kicked off with an unusually strong January, but each successive month has seen a decline in overall song quality. February delivered a couple bangers but was otherwise quite sparse. March felt even more vacant (especially the first half) and missed out on the kind of 9+ rated smashes that tend to get me super excited on the blog.

It seems that agencies are saving their big guns for the spring, which makes me eager to see how the next three months will look. March was a quiet before the storm. Most acts who released material could be considered low-to-mid tier, which is usually my sweet spot when it comes to music. But rather than bowling me over with exciting sounds and ideas, K-pop in March reverted to tired industry trends that had me doling out way too many "7" (or below...) ratings.

The end of the month saw a burst of newly-debuting girl groups, and I wish I could say they all felt fresh and compelling. ILLIT's (very short!) mini album painted the most cohesive style, but the industry seems completely devoid of the style of girl group songs I love. Where are the high energy, vocally bombastic standouts? Where is the next GFriend, Kara, Sistar, Lovelyz, Oh My Girl, WJSN, SNSD, Nine Muses, etc etc? I know I sound like a broken record and many of you are probably beyond sick of hearing it, but the last time I really fell in love with a girl group title track was almost a year ago. K-pop just isn't making those big, bold melodic statements anymore and it kind of sucks.

Okay, rant over. I'm sorry about that.

Though I had a lot of "fallers" this month, there were a few songs that stuck out as highlights. Most are not from big-name acts, but all have been Bias List favorites for some time. Though not represented on this list, my favorite K-pop track of the month was easily Infinite V's Beautiful. I find the song so much more satisfying than Infinite's full group comeback last year and I love how it was basically surprise-dropped with just a couple days between announcement and release. There was no time to set expectations high or low. It was just... BAM! Here's a fantastic new song for you!

I'm actually really pleased with my top two songs of the month. I kept switching them back and forth and still don't quite know which one deserves the top spot. One song was an out-of-the-gate smash while the other has proven to be a big grower. Long-term appeal usually favors the grower, but it's still too early to tell how things will shake out. Regardless, these two songs are essentially tied and have both become staples on my playlist.

As anticipated, my March was ruled by a few favorite J-pop acts. Ryugujo's new EP Deep Wave owned the month for me, which was probably obvious by how often I rave about it. Listening to the creativity and expansiveness of their music has actually been detrimental to many of March's trendier, generic K-pop offerings. The comparison is not favorable, and makes me realize how much we need idiosyncratic auteurship back in K-pop. That's what made me first fall in love with the music, after all!

Right behind Ryugujo was Genic's new album (though it bore no new single so isn't represented in this month's top three). It's just such a solid album all the way through. Apart from these two big highlights, J-pop continued to trudge along at a less impressive pace than last year. Also, has anyone else kind of lost excitement for the music coming from Starto Entertainment since the rebrand? They need to kick things into gear because most of their recent stuff has been a little boring. Luckily, Kis-My-Ft2 is finally back with a new album this spring and a clip of the lead track sounds right up my alley. If one Starto group is going to hit it out of the park this year, please let it be them!

Anyways, I know most of you don't come to this blog for J-pop so I'm hoping April will reach (or surpass!) January's K-pop heights. The comeback slate is already looking packed as more reliable hitmakers throw their hats into the ring. TXT's mini album sounds like it may be a return to 2021-era form and I'm super curious what RIIZE will come back with if they do actually release new music in April. Spring and summer tend to be my favorite seasons for K-pop, so I'm looking forward to some big highlights.

Month Cumulative Rating: 7.6

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