Artyom’s Kpop Preferences and Worries

The Warning: Yeah, I Know, They’re Not Kpop! #

Best song

The Warning — MONEY

Best solo song

Sharks by Pau, was intended to be sung by her alone, but the vocal toll that’d incur made them change the song for Dani to take over the chorus. Also check out Pau’s cover of Radiohead’s Creep to comprehend the sheer power of this voice.

Listening since

Autumn 2021 (not long after CHOKE and EVOLVE releases)

Best band member

Pau (Paulina Villareal,) because she’s the craziest and most creative one. And the most characteristic vocalist too, with her slightly raspy timbre and strong vocal push.

Main problem

I’m worried for Pau’s voice when she screams. Oh and they are also grinding too hard, burnout is to be expected.

So The Warning is this rock band that you’re invariably going to hear about if you yet didn’t. Daniela (lead vocals, guitar,) Paulina (drums, back/lead vocals,) and Alejandra (bass, back vocals) Villareal from Mexico. Women of the Year according to a dozen of magazines and sites. Close-knit actual sisters. Addictively good at making rock bangers. And the ones having the most devoted fanbase.

That’s why I’m listing them on this page: they have a social media dynamics and image of a proper Kpop girl band. (They aren’t one! They are almost self-produced and were label-less for a long time, as a principle! And they are an actual sister rock band!) A lot of posts. A lot of picking favorites (pick Pau!) among really characteristic sisters. A lot of fan remixes (playlists / live show vids) of their stuff. Listening to The Warning prepared me for the social brain overload that Kpop is.

BLACKPINK #

Best song

BLACKPINK — Tally, because it’s the most uncensored of their stuff. No actual message, but just a nice angry / self-centered vibe.

Best solo song

Rosé — 3am, but all of the rosie album is worth a listen!

Listening since

Probably winter 2022, after Shut Down / Born Pink release?

Best band member

Rosé, because she has this image of a soft lyrical character, compared to posh (Jisoo) / girlboss (Jennie, Lisa) vibes of other members

Honorable mention

Lisa, because she’s a rad rapper and has a style

Main problem

They’re too mainstream

So I needed something for my mind to chew on when I worked on complex software. In emigration. Fleeing war. Alone. In a freezing cold flat (there was a huge hole in the wall I was unaware of all that time.)

So yeah, BLACKPINK were an extremely cozy and neutral-yet-hyped background for my life back then. Their songs were the most pop-y pop I’ve heard (after Dua Lipa maybe?) So yeah, perfect background noise. (I set a BLACKPINK playlist up while writing this post. I forgot there’s music after half an hour.)

This background-ness is why I mostly stopped listening to BLACKPINK once I explored other Kpop bands. Other than that, they’re good and are the easiest transition from Western pop into Kpop.

aespa #

Best song

aespa — Whiplash, because it’s outright addictive. It’s also what kicked off my obsession with aespa and Kpop in general. And aespa — Girls with Winter’s high notes and an unexpected dubstep interjection!

Best solo song

Karina — Good Stuff. It’s a shame they give the grooviest songs to Karina, and Winter gets boring airy pop lyrical ballads 🫤

Listening since

Winter 2024

Best band member

Winter, because she’s the best vocalist of the four and is the most Western-ish in her looks. She also does minor weird stuff in interviews, which is cute to watch.

Honorable mention

Giselle, because she’s most eloquent in English and is really fun to listen to on the interviews she happens to be invited to

Main problem

Losing their mythology and going plain pop (and too little Giselle interviews!)

So æspa (or simply aespa) started when there was Metaverse and other digital-everything hype. (Which is like, five years ago? Time flies 😰) With a story and a whole series of their (and their Æ avatars’) adventures in virtual world of KWANGYA. This, while sometimes cheesy, was an actual story to watch! And a tech-adjacent one at that! (Discord recently did a profile styling collab with this version of aespa from five years ago, it was that good.)

I started listening to aespa after they abandoned this æ-sthetics (🥁) They are hyper stylish and produce high quality dopamine honeypots still! But yeah, the loss of their creative director (I learned from a random ”Problems with aespa” YouTube video) hit the band somewhat.

If I’d have to recommend only one Kpop band, it will be aespa!

NewJeans / NJZ #

Best song

NewJeans — Super Shy. With NJZ — Pit Stop being the only self-produced song that’s also worth listening to!

Best solo song

None, because they had no opportunity for solo songs 😢

Listening since

Spring 2024

Best band member

Danielle, because she’s the most Western-looking. And because her voice is the sweetest caramel. And because, allegedly, she was the one stirring up the rebellion against Ador (their exploitative label) and had her contract terminated because of that.

Honorable mention

Hanni, as objectively the best vocalist and the least conventionally beautiful (boyish haircuts!) of the five (#NewJeansIsFive)

Main problem

They no longer exist (#NewJeansNeverDie) and had a long story with trying the label in court

So this band is probably the starkest exemplar of Kpop contradictory nature. NewJeans had the sweetest bubble pop songs all their short career. Like, figuratively, you’re getting chronic diabetes the moment you start listening to them. With the savoriest voices being inseparable from soft instrumentals.

And yet, they didn’t release much, because they tried to sue their label, Ador (sub-company of HYBE.) The label was changing their creative direction and kept mistreating them. Including gross sexualization of band members (then minors!)

They lost several cases (or whatever, I’m bad at this terminology.) With one of the court decisions ruling that “K-pop group members are not classified as workers and are not entitled to labor rights” (citing Wikipedia.) Nasty stuff.

They went rogue, launching an Instagram account (jeanzforfree,) doing streams, and releasing a self-produced song, Pit Stop, under the name NJZ. And then went silent, because the label tightened the screws. To the point of forcing band members back. And terminating Danielle’s contract. Making her family pay millions of won as a label damage compensation. Allegedly because she was the one to start the insurrection.

I want to support and empathize with the girls. Especially Danielle, this rebel soul. But I also am on the fence. I don’t have any anchor to refer to independent NJZ except the Instagram account and the only song they managed to release independently. The rest of them was a carefully moderated label puppeteering. Which is all too characteristic of Kpop.

So I dunno. Listen to them if you feel like bubble pop. And remember the injustice Kpop is built on.

HUNTR/X (Kpop Demon Hunters) #

Best song

Takedown, with all this diss energy and extremely groovy beat

Listening since

Autumn 2025

Best band member

Mira, because we need more angry energy in Kpop!

Main problem

The movie sucks

So my Fediverse feed and other communication channels were flooded with Kpop Demon Hunters (KDH) at some point. My YouTube recommendations were always ending with KDH song playlist loops. It was that viral and addictive to people that they were ruining my “shuffle” (with good songs though!) I had to watch the movie.

Didn’t like it one bit. Most characters are barely jotted down. Those characters that are actually written, are not developing. The motivations thus are quite superficial. The graphics are good, but that’s a given for a Netflix movie?

So the only thing worth having from HUNTR/X is “their” songs (Twice the usual Kpop amount scare quotes—they’re animation characters in addition to being an engineered collective of unrealistic beauty standards!) And the songs are goooooooood. So go and give a listen to one of their… four songs?

Cherry Bullet #

Best song

Cherry Bullet — Hands Up

Best solo song

None, they had no solo songs?

Listening since

Summer 2025

Best band member

I didn’t dig too deep, sorry

Main problem

They were disbanded, and lost some members before that too

So I found Cherry Bullet thanks to some curated playlist on YouTube. There were a couple of good songs there, so I was hooked. Not listening to them much now, because there’s almost nothing to listen to. They didn’t release many songs, despite existing for five years.

But the things they released was quite good! On the one hand, I’m happy that there was a band not following crazy comeback-every-quarter tempo. On the other hand, I wish they made more stuff. And didn’t disappear.

But yeah, bands get disbanded in one way or another. In case of Cherry Bullet, the decision was members’ one, not label’s. Which is a rarity in Kpop, because usually it’s labels that decide who to terminate contract with? (See NewJeans’ case.)

BABYMONSTER #

Best song

BABYMONSTER — DRIP, had it on repeat for two months!

Best solo song

Asa & Ruka — Woke Up In Tokyo. Yeah, I know, more like a duo song. But most BAEMON members don’t have solo songs yet, with the band going public in 2024!

Listening since

Winter 2025

Best band member

Asa, because she’s raps like eSpeak at speech rate 400 and does it beautifully. While also being gorgeous with these short haircuts and superhuman makeup abilities. The YouTube comment calling her an anime character is not exaggerating any bit.

Honorable mention

Rami, the band member that went on a prolonged hiatus. She has a deep voice with unusual raspy notes!

Main problem

Rami’s departure?

BABYMONSTER is the third? band produced by YG Entertainment, home of BLACKPINK. Which is a high bar to clear. And a certain quality guarantee. BAEMON (shortened form of BABYMONSTER) didn’t disappoint even once so far. Their songs are well-produced, the vocal parts flow organically, and rap interjections by Asa and Ruka are something for Western rappers to learn from.

They used to be a seven-person band though. Which is too much if you ask me. Oh they no longer are, right. So the official story is that Rami went on a hiatus for health reasons somewhere in spring 2025. But health concerns are a frequent excuse for Kpop labels to dismiss a band member. So yeah, even YG is not infallible, I guess? Something something corpos.

I don’t listen to BAEMON much lately, because of these rap parts in every song. I’m not really into hip-hop and adjacent phenomena. But I can still recommend BABYMONSTER in case you’re fine with quality rap inclusions!

(G)I-DLE / i-dle #

Best song

i-dle — Good Thing as the most aesthetic music video and punkish song.

Best solo song

Yuqi — Radio, but actually all of her solo stuff (there’s a lot!)

Listening since

December 2025

Best band member

Yuqi, because of her less polished aesthetics, deep voice, and less conventional beauty. And red hair look for a solo album!

Honorable mention

Minnie, because she’s the best? vocalist of the five and her haircut is astonishingly persistent

Main problem

They are stretching the limits of what Kpop can do, and that causes some backlash in Korea?

Just started listening to them, first with “Good Thing” appearing in recommendations. And then seeing (G)I-DLE — Tomboy and (G)I-DLE — Queencard and hyping about these. It’s only after closely watching and listening to both i-dle (“Good Thing”) and (G)I-DLE (the rest.) That I realized these are the same people. The band changed the name just now. And released a banger under a new name.

Then there was this video with (then (G)I-DLE) members singing fragments of most of their singles. And Yuqi (second from the right) is just plain adorable there, almost jumping to rap-like parts and singing passionately. The other members are beautiful, but this girl, she’s got some fire. And freakiness 😉