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.

September 2022 Overall Thoughts

Well, September was certainly a contrast to August! With hindsight, August was even stronger than I’d first thought. It overflowed with 9+ rated songs! September is always more sparse because of the Chuseok holiday. The holiday occurred a bit earlier than average this year, causing a long stretch of K-pop-free time right in the middle of the month.

Of course, “quality over quantity” is always a possibility, and some past Septembers have made their mark despite a smaller number of comebacks. However, this time the month was both barren and underwhelming. Things turned around during the last two weeks, but not enough to make for a standout bunch of tracks.

When it comes to my top three, I had to go with tried-and-true producers and genres that appeal to me. Some of the victorious groups/acts may seem surprising at first, but if you listen to the music you’ll definitely hear why these three tracks complimented my personal taste.

It’s also worth noting that my number one song made it to the top on the sheer force of its melody. Melody remains the most important element of a song for me, and it’s not often that we hear a brilliantly-realized chorus like this. Let’s normalize melody as a new trend in K-pop! After all, there are few songs that couldn’t improve with at least one expertly crafted melodic hook.

When it comes to J-pop, there’s not much to report this month. September tends to be very busy for me so I don’t keep up with the industry as closely as I do during the summer. There were a couple of solid singles from Johnny’s acts (and a solid Snow Man album), but beyond that I’m mostly replaying Fantastics’ Summer Bike from last month.

We’ve got two more months of releases before the cut-off point for my year-end lists. October’s looking stuffed already. I’m eager for the industry to pick up again and maybe even deliver a few more “year-end top ten” contenders. I’m weirdly optimistic!

Month Cumulative Rating: 7.8

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

J-Pop Highlights

King & Prince – TraceTrace (review)

The Lethal Weapons – Samurai Disco (ft. Chiaki Mayumura) (video)

TOP J-POP SONG OF THE MONTH

Sexy Zone – Trust Me, Trust You (review)

Honorable Mentions

Crush – Rush Hour (ft. J-Hope) (review)

Kim Jaejoong – Nobody Like You (review)

Lee Changsub – Surrender (review)

Maka Maka – I Am (review)

Mimiirose – Rose (review)

Mirae – Drip N’ Drop (review)

ONEUS – Same Scent (review)

The Rose – Childhood (review)

Villain – Dance With Me (review)

Xiumin – Brand New (review)

This Month’s Risers and Fallers

TOP THREE SONGS

3. CRAVITY – Party Rock (review)

2. Jay B – go UP (review)

1. RoaD-B – Icarus (review)

Top Three K-Pop Songs Of August 2022

Top Three K-Pop Songs Of July 2022

Top Three K-Pop Songs Of June 2022

Top Three K-Pop Songs Of May 2022

Top Three K-Pop Songs Of April 2022

Top Three K-Pop Songs Of March 2022

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