The 15 Best K-Pop Songs of 2024

8. NewJeans “How Sweet” (ADOR)

NewJeans have crammed the arc of a decades-long music career into three years. Debuting in 2022 with songs that didn’t even try to replicate the trends of contemporary K-pop, they became an overnight sensation with a bold new vision, a daring new release model (why not release videos for every song?), and even topped the US album charts with a six-song EP in 2023. After their label founder and mentor Min Hee Jin got roped up in a very public battle with parent company Hybe, all NewJeans were able to give us in 2024 was a smattering of throwback singles, Japanese releases, and tracks tied into promotions, which sound like the behaviors of a group on the decline.

It’s true that while the group have fallen victim to commercial tie-in blandness before (the less said about their League of Legends contribution, the better), “How Sweet”, their Miami bass-indebted dance track backed by the Coca-Cola corporation, ended up being another stunning highlight in a discography full of them. Turning simple terms of endearment on their head (the chorus is “Don’t you know how sweet it tastes / Now that I’m without you?”), NewJeans lean into the bubbly beat with effortless charm, proving that no matter how many acts try to cop their sound, no one does it better. “How Sweet” is yet another high-water mark for a group that do nothing but push the envelope, but sadly, given the way their label in-fighting is turning out, it looks like it might be their last for a while.  

7. Lee Young-ji “Small Girl [ft. D.O.]” (Mainstream)

As the winner of multiple rap competition shows, few would’ve guessed that Lee Young-ji would eventually score a Korean chart-topper with an adult-contemporary empowerment anthem, but that’s what “Small Girl” did. Sung almost entirely in English (save for the guest verse from EXO’s D.O.), Young-ji’s casual tale about not feeling like you can fit into a relationship or even be an object of desire is so earnestly rendered it can’t help but feel relatable.

Her sweet and effortless singing voice perfectly matches the Sunday morning slink of the backing pianos and kick drums. It’s so outside the realm of what is expected of modern K-pop that it makes sense people would gravitate towards, in Young-ji’s own words, her “big laugh, big voice, and big personality.” After spending years dropping solo singles and guesting on hits from the likes of Hyolyn and a Seventeen subunit, it’s empowering to see such a young new artist become a pop star on her own terms. No matter what she has planned next, we’ll be listening, and that’s something we would guarantee.

#6: fromis_9 “Supersonic” (Pledis)

At first, it seemed like fromis_9’s success was random. Having been signed to and swallowed up by numerous labels during their career, it occasionally felt like when they stumbled across a synthpop confection like “Love Bomb”, it was by accident. Their title tracks wildly oscillated in quality, and this inconsistency was evident in their similarly sporadic chart placements. Yet the one constant throughout these years was how the girls of fromis_9 only became more skillful over time, and 2022’s delightful “DM” started turning some heads and reversing their also-ran narrative.

While 2023’s “#menow” signaled a new era for the group, “Supersonic” capitalized on that momentum by delivering a contemporary classic. Over percolating synth plinks and charging beat, it’s that vocal line on the chorus that keeps us coming back time and time again. Whether it’s sung by Hayoung, Nagyung, Jiwon, or any of the other girls, the sustain on that rising note is the hook we’ve been looking for, proving that the group don’t need the often-designated “lead vocalist” role in a unit: they can all do it.

Add in some of the sharpest and cleanest choreography they’ve ever served in the corresponding music video, and it’s clear that all fromis_9 needed to do stand out was just to be themselves. While it’s taken them some time to figure out what a perfect fromis_9 song should sound like, they have finally cracked the code and feel nothing short of unstoppable.

5. Illit “Magnetic” (Belift Lab)

Unfortunately, rookie superstars Illit ended their breakout year fending off accusations that their handlers plagiarized the NewJeans sound to help move units because this fresh-faced quintet came out of nowhere to deliver the year’s biggest crossover smash since FiftyFifty’s “Cupid” the year prior. Yet if “Magnetic” should be compared to anything, it should be Twice’s 2016 landmark single “TT”, where the song was packed with so many pop hooks that any section of it (The 2nd verse! The pre-chorus!) could’ve been auctioned off to a lesser group who would’ve made it their lead single.

Thankfully, “Magnetic” is everything you want in a pop song: a chorus you can sing back even after hearing it for the first time, a total drop-everything-and-stop moment built right into the refrain, a viral dance that anyone can do, and so many quirky synth squiggles jumping around the production you want to capture them each and give them cute names. It’s as sweet as a sugar rush and somehow even more addicting.

Their B-side “Lucky Girl Syndrome” proved that “Magnetic” wasn’t a fluke, but their second mini-album didn’t have that elusive “Magnetic 2” that so many were looking for so floundered in comparison. We know the girls will keep reaching for new heights, but even if they disbanded tomorrow, “Magnetic” still easily has a place in the K-Pop Hall of Fame.

4. Riize “Impossible” (SM)

In a year plagued by controversy, SM’s hot new boy group Riize seemed like the last possible act that would fall under public scrutiny. However, when Seunghan was put on hiatus after photos were found of him smoking with a woman in bed, the six remaining members carried on promotions until he was reinstated. Some fans revolted at the news of his return, sending hundreds of funeral wreaths with Seunghan’s name to SM headquarters in a move that made him retract his membership in the band. It’s a deeply unfortunate stain on Riize’s success because while the group scored several major hits in his absence, these actions color what should otherwise be an outright celebration of “Impossible”, the group’s best song to date.

Over an immediate house beat full of 1980s synth zips, the boys dance to a constantly building rhythm that’s nothing short of addictive. So many groups leaned into Western dance music tropes this year, but few pulled it off as successfully as Riize did here. The lyrics aren’t the focal point here because the vibe is immaculate, inviting everyone into a party that feels like it will never end. While SM has announced that Seunghan will be debuting solo, the fact that we’ll never see him perform “Impossible” feels like a dream deferred.

3. XG “Woke Up” (Xgalx)

To this day, some want to dismiss XG as not being truly “K-pop”. After all, they’re a Japanese seven-piece girl group whose songs are sung entirely in English, which has given some in the YouTube-driven K-pop fanspace enough reason to exclude them from any conversation. To counteract this narrative (which international girl group BLACKSWAN also grappled with in the Apple TV K-Pop Idols series this year), XG simply put out songs that were impossible to ignore.

“Woke Up” was one of the purest, most perfectly distilled rap songs to ever enter the K-pop atmosphere, where every member of this talented ensemble has time to shine over the hypnotic, pounding beat. There are too many good lines to share, but Harvey’s opening couplets (“Right away, ride the wavе, ride away / ‘cos we had thе right of way”) ranks high up. Western rap fans were shook by how powerful the track was, but XG weren’t done making their mark yet.

With the release of their second mini-album, Awe, the group included the “Woke Up” Remix, where they don’t sing a note but instead ceded the beat to a litany of well-known Japanese and Korean rappers (including the legendary Jay Park), effectively getting a cross-border co-sign that validates their status in the industry. It was a clever gambit that paid off in spades, as now many people have finally woken up to see that XG is one of the best groups doing it now.

2. Suho “Cheese [ft. Wendy]” (SM)

Outside of his main gig as the leader of SM’s long-running boy group EXO, Suho’s solo releases have been all over the place. His debut breakout, “Let’s Love”, rode Coldplay’s MOR-rock vibes to the upper echelon of the pop charts. Still, his 2022 singles “Grey Suit” and “Hurdle” showed him mixing more pop flavors with his evident rock inclinations to somewhat diminishing returns. While his time with EXO always pays the bills, nothing could’ve prepared fans for a Suho solo event like “Cheese”.

The most upbeat, vibrant, and colorful track he’s ever released, “Cheese” glides along a Britpop piano bounce, rolls around in 1960s synth chords, stacks his vocals like he’s in a 1970s harmony outfit, and ends with a dual-layer rock guitar solo, all within the space of barely three minutes. The lyrics are goofy (the chorus talks about how a romantic couple’s hearts are gooey and that they can be “forever stringy”), but Red Velvet’s vocal powerhouse, Wendy, is more than game to play along.

Some thought it was nothing more than a fun trifle when it came out, but “Cheese” is so melodically grounded in so many confident ideas it feels like a pop group’s greatest hits album condensed into a tight package. K-pop acts always manage to give us light and bubbly songs year after year, but few reach the luminous level of escapism that Suho is serving here. Criminally slept on, we think this slice of “Cheese” will age incredibly well.

1. Yves “Loop [ft. Lil Cherry]” (Paix Per Mil)

We certainly couldn’t have predicted that the best K-pop song of 2024 would have the line “I got that stank up on me, mmm,” but few artists can pull off some feats quite like Yves. Taking her sweet time to drop a solo debut after the dissolution of LOONA, Yves going solo (like her bandmate Chuu) was unsurprising given her abilities. Still, while Chuu leaned into an expectedly cutesy concept, Yves went straight to the club.

Over a minimalist dance beat that feels close to early New York ballroom, Yves finds herself caught in the push and pull of uncertain romance, unaware of her standing but admitting that “I’m lost, and I like it.” The high-pitched Lil Cherry guest ad-libs, the seamless flow between verse and pre-chorus, the addictive ooh-ooh-oohs after the refrain, that rolling bass synth lick: there isn’t a second that feels out of place. Instantly hummable but endlessly replayable, Yves called it “Loop” because she knew that’s how people would play it, over and over again. K-pop doesn’t get better than this.