2025 in K-Pop, Part III

Yeah, I’m late again. It turns out that teaching three courses at two institutions (and private violin students, and playing in two part-time regional orchestras…) is uh, too much.

These three months — July, August, and September — were extremely busy in the k-pop world. I heavily considered having three selections per month for this roundup, but my sense of balance was too disturbed by the concept. So, with the understanding that there was a lot of music and quite a bit of it very good, here are my favorites from the third quarter of 2025. I want to emphasize my use of the word favorite; I’m not claiming these songs are the “best.” In fact I’d never claim that, because I fundamentally don’t believe in “best” in art.

July

NouerA - “Finale”

This one dropped right at the very beginning of the month (if you’re in the US or Canada it technically came out June 30th, but I’m going by the KST release date) and it really set the bar high. NouerA is one of a substantial crop of survival show boy groups that have popped up in the past couple years after the huge success of Mnet’s Boys Planet in 2023. Arguably that show exploded for an unreplicable reason — the unexpectedly lovely relationship that emerged between two young men who were initially portrayed as rivals and ended up taking first and second place in the finale — but several similar shows rode the post-Boys Planet wave with varying degrees of success, and often with a number of Boys Planet alumni participating. Recently-debuted groups from these shows include AHOF (Universe League) and Close Your Eyes (Project 7); both groups feature two or more Boys Planet participants. Surprisingly, NouerA only has one member who came from the Boys Planet: 21-year-old vocalist Han Yuseop. With the exception of maknae Hoshizawa Miraku, who competed on the Japanese survival show Nizi Project 2 in 2023, the rest of NouerA are unknown trainees. Their label has wisely leaned into the boys’ inherent scrappiness by giving them music that is youthfully energetic and a little rough around the edges. “Finale” is probably their gentlest cut, actually  — especially compared to something like their hypnotically chromatic debut song “New Is Now” — but it shows off their exuberant, puppyish chemistry. I’m excited to see what’s next for these kids.

One Pact - “Blind”

Speaking of Boys Planet contestants: all but one member of One Pact competed on Boys Planet. Leader Yoon Jongwoo and main vocalist Jay Chang even made it to the finale, ultimately ranking 18th and 10th respectively. Filipino-American Chang was especially popular with international fans during the run of Boys Planet, with many expecting to see him in the final lineup due to his inherent global appeal — not to mention his sweet classic R&B voice and square-jawed boyish good looks. But the rest of the group have a lot to bring to the table too, including their rapper-composer-producer TAG, who did not appear on Boys Planet. His musical style sits comfortably between bubblegum pop and electronica; this aesthetic is perfectly captured on “Blind” from the recent EP ONE FACT.  The track opens with a stuttering clean synth punctuated by a looped and filtered vocable. Chang’s honeyed voice floats in to start the lyric, a cute narrative of a boy stumbling over his words around a pretty girl. Eventually, lead vocalist Seongmin kicks off the gently yearning chorus in a cloud of layered harmonies. The opening synth stutters away in the background throughout, the embarrassing faux-pas of being rendered speechless haunting the entire song. It’s effective, catchy, and just progressive enough to stand out.

August

Key and Seulgi - “Perfect Error”

Everybody needs to stop being mean to Key right now. (Apparently getting scammed means that he should be shunned?)

Okay, now that I have that out of the way. What can I say about Key (Kim Kibum) that hasn’t already been said? He is Mother. He is arguably the male K-Pop idol with the most transparent glass closet (well, until Zerobaseone debuted, anyway). He’s best friends with Girls Generation icon Taeyeon (they take half-baths together and gossip!). And boy does he make Queer music with a capital Q. Every oversaturated second of Hunter is drenched in queer pain and queer joy and club synths. If you want the pain, I recommend “Strange” (“Strange that you're supposed to want/What everybody else wants for you,” Key intones in the bridge)…but for those of us who don’t want to think too hard about Feelings, there’s “Perfect Error.” A true duet — not a one-verse feature! — with labelmate Seulgi from Red Velvet, in “Perfect Error” these two veteran idols declare “I’m gonna make a better day.” Let’s hope 2026 looks up for Kim Kibum.

Kep1er - “Ice Tea”

In the last couple years girl group music has been getting weirder, and I am a big fan. If NMIXX is the darker, more explicitly experimental side of this coin, groups like Katseye and Kep1er have recently embraced the more poptimist, bombastic version of “K-Pop weird” that made boy groups like Stray Kids and Ateez famous. Unsurprisingly I am much more drawn to this kind of sound when it’s women doing it; that’s just how my brain is wired. To my ear “Ice Tea” — and the rest of Kep1er’s  aptly-named Bubble Gum EP — is the natural evolution of delightful nonsense like Nicki Minaj’s “Stupid Hoe.”* Is it deep? No. Is it musically complex? Not really. Is it bizarrely entrancing? Hell yes.

*I’m not linking her video and you all know why.

September

ZEROBASEONE - “Iconik”

Since the beginning of this year I have fallen far, far down the ZEROBASEONE rabbit hole. This is unfortunate for me since their temporary contract is due to expire in early 2026 (last we heard “discussions are continuing,” though the full group did extend until March); but at least we got a full album from them before that. And they may yet further extend their group contract (fingers crossed!). Other “temporary” survival show groups have done it recently, most notably their Girls Planet (2021) counterparts Kep1er in 2024. If it is in fact ZB1’s last title track though, “Iconik” takes them out with a bang. All nine members get a chance to shine vocally on this disco-infused banger, and the choreography highlights their killer combination of high-level dancing and charismatic stage presence. While I’m sure every one of them will succeed wherever they go…man, I’m gonna miss all nine maximizing their joint slay like this. Well, we’ll always have Zhang Hao fighting the backtrack like his life depends on it (this video is my magnum opus).

Aimers - “Summer Rain”

I don’t think I’d heard a single song by Aimers before I queued up this EP in early October as I was catching up on September releases. There are a lot of boy bands right now, and so many of them make music that is decidedly not my jam, so I had pretty much zero expectations going into it. But the old-school hip-hop vibe of the title track (“Called Game”) drew me in, so I kept listening – and I’m really glad I did, because “Summer Rain,” the EP’s closing cut, is a gem. It’s by no means innovative or strikingly “new”-sounding; it’s basically a midtempo soft-rock ballad. But that doesn’t bother me one bit when the simple descending chord cycle is so pleasantly voiced, the instrumental so sensitively produced, and the vocal arrangements so effective. On relisten I found that final point especially key to how much I enjoy this song.

Honorable Mentions

Yuju - In Bloom EP

I knew I liked Yuju — soloist and member of the mostly-inactive 3rd generation girl group GFriend — but I hadn’t been following her super closely. After hearing this EP I will be staying very up-to-date, because this has eclipsed even Chungha’s extremely solid Alivio from February as my favorite female k-pop soloist release this year. In some ways Yuju and Onew (who has become one of my favorite artists of all time over the past 18 months) sit at the same table stylistically. Both have a funk-tinged sensibility that recalls 80s Europop, and both are extremely agile vocalists capable of subtlety and fireworks. While Onew is primarily a lyricist who works with one or two trusted composer/producers, Yuju is herself a skilled composer, and for this EP she served as lead producer for every track. It pays off in a surprisingly unified and coherent sound despite the diversity of songs, which range from the pop-rock ballad title track (“Reply”) to the grimy, haunted duet with rapper Gemini (“No Matter”). But the standout for me, perhaps predictably, is the EP’s third track, “Sequence.” Featuring sweet-voiced (and sweet-faced) singer-songwriter Jeong Sewoon, “Sequence” is a bossa nova-inflected pop confection with unexpectedly bittersweet lyrics. “The story has ended before I realized,” Yuju sings in the chorus. “The postponed ending is approaching / It's a dream I can't hold onto / The you who called me is no longer here.”

Chaeyoung - Lil Fantasy Vol. 1

With lots of “legacy” K-Pop acts releasing solo work this year, TWICE rapper Chaeyoung’s lo-fi pop debut got a little lost in the flood. It really shouldn’t have, but given how far afield it is from both her own group’s sound/aesthetic and K-Pop in general, it’s not surprising. The closest comparison I can conjure is last year’s Right Place ,Wrong Person from BTS’s leader RM, which combined indie folk with experimental hip-hop and received gushing reviews from major pop outlets like NME and Rolling Stone (and me, to anyone who would listen!). Chaeyoung’s first outing as a soloist and by far her biggest creative undertaking (she wrote and produced every song on the album, which is extremely unusual in K-Pop, especially for women) is not as accomplished or artistically successful as RM’s masterpiece, but for a debut album it is extremely promising. Lead single “SHOOT (Firecracker)” is definitely the most radioplay-friendly track, though its deliberately faded retro sound hints at the playful minimalism of the rest of the record. Chaeyoung is going to have her Right Place, Wrong Person before we know it.