This post summarises reader’s favourite k-pop songs for 2019 and their picks for the 2019 favourite k-pop songs list and 2019 worst songs of k-pop list! What did readers like and hate the most in 2019, and what songs did they think were going to be on the Kpopalypse lists? Read on and find out!

Question 1: What is your favourite k-pop song for 2019?

Kpopalypse readers have many and varied taste in k-pop.  This was Kpopalypse’s readers’ favourite picks of 2019!

Green indicates a song that also places on Kpopalypse’s top 30 list.  Yellow indicates a song that made it into the honourable mentions and orange is a dishonourable mention.  Unhighlighted songs did not make it into any list this year (although some got close).   Incredibly, nothing on the Kpopalypse worst list made it into these selections, proving readers’ good taste!

Question 2: What is your least favourite k-pop song for 2019?

Here were the k-pop songs that Kpopalypse readers liked the least:

In addition to the colours mentioned previously, red indicates a song that made it into Kpopalypse’s worst of 2019 list.  Not many readers seemed to like Stray Kids’ “Side Effects” which indicates to me that many readers need to reflect and listen to more industrial dance music.

Question 3: What song will be #1 on Kpopalypse’s favourites list for 2019?

Here readers had a shot at picking what they thought the Kpopalypse favourites list would contain.  Here are the results!

Pretty good guesses!  Of course following roundups made it easier for readers to make their selections, but there were still some surprising picks in the mix.  Only one person guessed the actual #1 of the year, which was Rockit Girl’s “Little Cat“, this reader is the lucky winner of feeling extremely smart.

Question 4: What song will be #1 on Kpopalypse worst of 2019 list?

How well did Kpopalypse readers do at guessing the contents of the most controversial k-pop list of the year?

Not very well, as it happens.  However to be fair, the quantity of shit music released in k-pop every year makes this list incredibly difficult to pick, so I was actually impressed that caonimas did even this well.

Question 5: What amazing k-pop track that kicked ass this year will Kpopalypse shit on for no discernable reason?

Kpopalypse’s annual worst of k-pop lists – many k-pop fans fear that their favourite songs of the year will end up here, immortalised as turds in the eyes of one irrelevant blogger.  However, how likely is this incredible tragedy to actually happen?

Actually not that likely – while five songs that you guys liked did appear on “bad” lists, three more that you thought I would hate also appeared on the positive side, and a far greater quantity appeared on no lists at all.  People seemed particularly paranoid that I’d shit on Itzy, but their fairly drab songs were no match for the competition of utter turds in 2019.

Question 6: What complete bullshit dicksucking k-pop song will be riding high on Kpopalypse’s favourites list just to annoy you?

What about the equally terrifying (to some) possibility of songs that readers thought were complete bullshit getting very positive list placements?  Let’s take a look!

Actually this fear was somewhat more founded, as it seems statistically more likely that I will like a song that readers hate, than the other way around!  So much for me being supposedly ‘edgy’, although nobody could possibly match the edginess levels of this rather enthusiastic reader:

Gosh, that’s a bit extreme there, friend!  Hopefully this person has had a good cup of tea and a lie down since writing this and has since reflected with a more mature image.

Question 7: If you have anything else to say, you could put it here if you wanted. Or if not, then don’t. Have a great Christmas and New Year, caonima!

Thanks for all your feedback!  A few people had questions, so I’ll answer them here:

what’s the meaning of caonima? 🙂

All meanings of obscure terms can be found in The Kpopalypse Lexicon.

Why has BTS’ popularity grown exponentially when they havent released a good title track since Blood, Sweat, Tears? All their titles have just been songs made to suck up to the American/International market. Their sound is so different to a few years ago – putting “meaningful” songs as b-sides means shit when your title tracks are garbage and are simply there to make revenue. While I have nothing against them/Big Hit for doing this it never ceases to amaze me to how army fall for it every time. Their songs have been garbage, meaningless filth made to make both bts and bh more money, maybe if you stop supporting trash music they’ll release good songs like they did pre-BST instead of the current American-friendly trash that they’re shitting out every few months. That’ll rile people up but can’t be mad at the truth ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

BTS don’t have much in the way of songs if you ask me, but I think they’ve been really good at marketing… or rather, their agency has been really good at directing their marketing.  Well, that’s my theory… I’m a bit mystified too actually.  It might have to remain a mystery, like the mystery of why the font suddenly changed for the first part of your response even though I copy-pasted it straight from a .csv which should contain no font data.

I do have something to say. What is the political state of your country? UK recently ended their general election, voting for none other than being conservative, rather than supporting the labor workers and the poor. Being colonized by said country before, how did you feel about it?

Australian politics is fucked and has been for ages, certainly since my writing started taking off in 2013 we’ve only ever had idiots in power.

Do you think with all the tragedies that have happened not only in the past year, but in recent years, the industry will realize that in order to survive they need to progress and will make (even if small) changes to the way they treat idols and their basic needs?

I think this is already happening to some extent, but I don’t think it’s because anybody’s had a sudden awakening – rather, given the large focus on k-pop’s negative aspects (party thanks to yours truly) agencies are gradually being dragged kicking and screaming to implement some positive changes.

I want to fuck to different guys behind my bf’s back and I know I have to break up with him but I don’t know how.

Going up to him and saying “I don’t want to go out with you anymore” probably will work.

Most above average kpop songs this year are rock songs/have rock elements, right oppar?

Many of them, yes!

Dear Santa, can I get a kpopalypse-rank-some-red-velvet-bside-tracks list? ��

Santa says go and reflect.

I was annoyed by the cookies request on this blog back when I lived in the States but now that I’ve lived in France for the past few months, I am so grateful that you only have to click that shit off once! What is it with cookies?! I already know that Bezos and Zuckerberg and the government are tracking my internet browsing for whatever purpose, they probably don’t care if I accept or not, but dear GOD some sites really don’t want me to like them, do they?

I don’t understand it either.  I think cookies are pretty benign these days, maybe we can thank the EU for that, but I still hate it when those warnings pop up which is why I felt the need to take the piss out of them.  Cookie warnings definitely aren’t as annoying as ads and paywalls however, both of which you’ll never find on Kpopalypse!

Did you know Yua Mikami has got taken some backdancers to form Ebisu Muscats and deliver ART? We could have had that in kpop if it weren’t for the morally superiors shitizens who didn’t want Yua being a kpop

Noted.

Can you invite Betsy to do another album review on your blog focusing on album(s) by B.A.P/ Ladies Code? Happy holidays and stan loona!

Whether Betsy produces more content for Kpopalypse in future is very much up to Betsy, but I would certainly welcome her writing once again plus the chance to bring more Hitomi Tanaka content onto the blog.

Would you be interested in writing a song/ produce for any k group? I’d honestly hope to hear a song by you for groups like Hinapia and VAV so they can have better songs and I want the groups to be successful (I’m emotionally invested in the girls and VAV). Now that Jaden Jeong has left the project Loona can you attempt to get an interview or I hope readers of your blog might convince Jaden to do an interview the founder of Loona has a twt and ig that you can reach out to Jaden on.. it’s up to you though and your readers ofcourse lol and happy holidays ~

Write a song for a k-pop group – knowing what I do about people being shafted in the industry?  Not a chance.  Would be more interested in interviewing Jaden, he should hit me up.

my fucking spacebar doesnt work properly and i bet it’s your fucking fault you fucking fuck PS why is all music getting progressivelymoreshit

It isn’t, that’s just the effect of nostalgia.  People tend to remember the good and forget the bad, however the new bad stuff stays fresher in the mind.  Also yeah I fucked your space bar suck shit

my life right now is kinda wild cause a lot of people in my life back home have been encouraging me to date my ra (resident assistant for those of you who don’t know, it’s an usa university thing) and while yes, he’s kinda cute, he’s also A. my ra and B. 99% probably already taken. the first point is going to be gone soon cause he’s actually quitting and he’ll be leaving my dorm housing next year. but i don’t necessarily have the confidence to really ~try~ anything cause he’s older than me and i feel like a toddler compared to him i don’t think he really seems to have a lot of “romantic interest” with me and i feel like i have to distance myself from him because i don’t really want to do anything stupid around him especially cause i don’t know if he’s seeing somebody else. i can’t exactly walk up to his 6’4 ass and be like “hey are you seeing anybody right now” cause that’s just. not really a good idea whatsoever and it would make him really uncomfortable given that people on the floor already thought we started dating (when that isn’t actually allowed and makes him look bad, especially with his job and makes me look like i’m a (excuse my vulgarity) a slutty slut who fucks her way to the top). i already have it kind of rough in life cause (i’m really gassing myself up here tbh cause i don’t like saying this about myself but it is also an objective statement) i’m really pretty compared to a lot of people that i hang around. i’m stuck in the weird middle ground between “total complete nerd” and “super pretty sorority girl” so it makes things kind of hard socially for me (i have the worst social anxiety that i cover up really well now) because both groups feel threatened by me because i have super nerdy masculine interests (cause my mom worked all the time so my dad took care of me and because i have three people in my life who act like older brothers to me) but i have the face of a sorority girl and i think a lot of other girls feel threatened by me. three girls (two of which are my roommates) have been kinda,,,,,,,, “aloof and bitchy” just because i get along with the guys they all like. it’s just hard making female friends i can talk to about this because i always think they dislike me because of the fact that people always think that i’ve had a boyfriend (i’ve never held hands romantically with someone so that’s already an incorrect judgement) and they assume that i’m dating ______ which is partially where the “_____ is dating her ra” when it’s far from the truth. i just feel like if i actually do start dating him it’d make me look really bad among the residents of my hall, and it would just be really awkward for me in general. i haven’t even mentioned the fact that he sends me the MOST MIXED SIGNALS OF ALL TIME. like idk he always discourages me and me only from going to frat parties, he doesn’t really discourage anyone else on our floor from going to them idk maybe i’m just bad with interpreting people socially and i’ll die alone with my loona albums. i’m debating whether or not i actually want to try and pursue something with this guy who i get along with well but there’s a weird power dynamic or if i should just let my feelings die like i do for other people i’ve liked in the past. anyways kpopalypse, i’ve been a reader since 2016 and i appreciate everything you’ve done for this blog!! i hope you have an amazing christmas/hanukkah/kwanzaa/non denominational holiday/new years and i can’t wait to read more of your writing in 2020!!

You seem to be getting pressure in both directions here, and you spend a lot of time talking about other people’s perceptions of you – but nowhere here do you really take a step back and think about what YOU really want.  I think that’s far more important than offending/pleasing the feelings of family, friends, enemies or whoever.  So have a think about that for a while, and then once you know where your head is at, proceed as your head and heart dictates, screw what other people think.  Your life is your own to live the way you want, no matter what others think, don’t spend it being a slave to the perceptions of others.

I was very disappointed elris sohee didn’t rank for best ass. She’s a top 5 ass at worst. Also yeonwoo’s ass is a 4/10, its so flat I don’t get how nobody notices that. Also i can’t find this one pic of eunjung’s ass you posted here in one of your articles. Its from the so crazy era i think and she’s wearing the white sailor suit

To finish off, here’s some more random responses from readers, presented without comment.  I’m glad that you all enjoyed 2019’s content, and there will be more coming your way soon in 2020!

Thanks for the content, man. It’s so nice to have all the releases of the week in one concise article each week. Makes finding kpop much easier than through any other source. I always enjoy your takes on songs, as well. Have a great new year.

Thank you for calling people out on being racist. People on the internet make me feel bad for being white just because I like KPOP and the culture. When I was growing up no one ever spoke this way, but now all the newest young people just keep going off – at some point, they’re all gonna end up having to stop liking KPOP themselves because a majority of them aren’t even Asian themselves which according to their rules and standards and terms of service is what makes it cultural appropriation.

Your content helped me get through a super shitty year (both in my personal life and in kpop) and brought me many laughs. So thank you for that. Happy holidays!

Im pretty new in this site and I do not know all these crap terms like nugu or caonima but i will try harder to understand more so I can be ashamed of myself for liking kpop. I wont stop listening kpop though.

Fuck scomo

I just wanted to thank you because you gave me advice on how to get over my first relationship that failed. I reflected and returned with a more mature image and now I’m completely fine again.

For whatever reason, your opinion on kpop is the only one I consistently find myself caring about (and not always agreeing with, luckily– wouldn’t that be boring!). Thank you for the content!

Thanks for taking the trouble to blog here week in, week out. You enrich the kpoposphere.

Thanks Kpopalypse! You’ve been keeping us all sane. I’m really looking forward to your lists because tbh this year has seemed pretty bullshit, I’ve downloaded half the songs I did last year. I’m sure I’ve missed out on a lot of good stuff, but my usual faves just weren’t delivering this year 😦 Also I thought you were nuts for liking Twice’s fancy bc the styling was crud and I didn’t like how the chorus starts (seemed underwhelming) but then a few months later it suddenly clicked in my brain and now it’s a banger. On a side note – I frigging love your games. Chuuves and Idol Dungeon are amazing. Have a happy new year cao ni ma!

I guess I just wanted to say I really appreciate your approach to writing about the high profile suicides in kpop this year. I’m pretty badly affected by news of suicide, even when rationally I shouldn’t be, and the relentless streams of articles can be too much to handle and often feel really disingenuous, especially when those sites profited off judgmental and hateful content about those same people. Your articles acknowledge what happened but help create distance and help rationalize things. I dunno, it’s a small thing, but it really helps me in the wake of things. So thank you.

thanks for being so #controversial it’s very entertaining. and also your occasional asides about the music production process are fun and educational thanks for that

You’re basically the only reviewer that talks about the other side of the industry, and I really appreciate that, even if every other site likes to ignore it as much as possible.

Happy Holidays to you aswell! I always look forward to your end of the year lists, both for the amazing songs I didn’t know about and for the pleasure of seeing you dunk on shitty music.

Thanks for all your hard work. You’re too good to us!

I love your blog and I think every single K-Pop fan should read it. Bye

Nobody does it like you do Caonima, keep on keeping on ❤️

Thanks for all your feedback, and know that even if yours isn’t featured here, I do read absolutely everything readers send!  Kpopalypse will return with more posts soon!  Stay safe, caonimas!