15 Worst K-Pop Songs of 2019 (+December Favorites)

Hello everyone, it’s Glory, and I hope you are having a wonderful day!

Before we get into the main topic of this post, I want to share my favorite releases from December.

There are only two, seeing as I haven’t been keeping up with the smaller comebacks this month due to wrapping up school projects and spending time with my family.

I liked Stray Kids’ Levanter, but I will say I prefer pre-release track Astronaut, which is also on their new album.

By far my favorite release from December is Red Velvet’s new album, The ReVe Festival Finale. My favorite songs from the album are title track Psycho and side track In & Out.

Now that we’ve talked about my favorites from the month, it’s time for the flops of the year.

So without further ado, here are my 15 worst K-pop songs of 2019!

•••

Really Really

Cherry Bullet

This song is just so boring, and it makes me want to cry because this group had so much potential. The vocals are pretty but that’s pretty much the only thing I like about this song. Q&A was such a strong debut song and then they went and ruined the good thing they had going. A dull follow-up combined with three leaving will really hurt their chances at getting big anytime soon, but I still wish them the best.

•••

Home

Seventeen

This hurts me because Seventeen is so much better than this. The verses make me want to fall asleep and the chorus makes me want to rip my ears off. They sound so strained and out of breath while singing the home part. I do like the pre-chorus, and the choreography is as amazing as all their others, but the song as a whole is just so disappointing.

•••

Bomb Bomb

KARD

Everything about this comeback was beautiful except for the song. I love the music video and styling but that’s it. The chorus is noisy and makes me want to vomit and the rap verses don’t fit at all. The pre-chorus and bridge vocals are good but it’s not enough.

•••

Side Effects

Stray Kids

I wanted this song to be good after Miroh, but it ended up being a mess. It doesn’t even sound like a song. If you seperate some parts of the song from the whole, they actually sound good. The first part of each verse (the only parts where they actually sing) are promising. The rap verses, as usual, are fire. The problem arrives when they’re all put together, because here’s the thing, they DON’T fit together. The side effects discussed in the song (headaches, nausea, etc.) are caused by the song.

•••

Fever

GFriend

This comeback was lacking in every aspect. It’s just so boring. The song is generic, the choreography is lackluster, and their stage presence was really suffering. I listened to all these songs again to get the ranking right, and I just wanted to turn this one off because there’s not much to say. It’s so mediocre that it makes me mad.

•••

DALLA DALLA

ITZY

I have a strong love-hate relationship with this song. At first I really wasn’t feeling it, but then it ended up on my February(?) Favorites list. Then after a while I started hating it with a ion, and now I’ve listened to it a few times to determine its final spot on this list and I actually don’t think it’s that bad anymore. There are a few parts that I still don’t like (end of chorus, second verse, chanting bridge), but overall, I wouldn’t turn it off if it came on. However, I don’t buy them in this concept at all, and Icy fit them much better. And even if I’m not as mad at this song anymore, it was definitely overhyped. It’s mildly annoying at best and infuriating at worst.

•••

Boogie Up

WJSN

Another dumb, generic summer song. The whisper-shouting is really annoying and cheesy, and the chorus is boring and repetitive. The “say nothing, say nothing” gets on my nerves every time. We’ve seen what this group is capable of, and this ain’t it.

•••

Cat & Dog

TXT

Aside from this song, I have liked everything that TXT has dropped. They’ve really impressed me this year overall, but this song doesn’t work. It’s so cringey, especially the English version. The beat actually isn’t bad, and I might ironically listen to it from time to time, but it is objectively a bad song.

•••

Numb

CIX

Choruses can make or break a song, and this one completely killed it for me. I couldn’t even finish watching this music video after the chorus hit because I was so disappointed. CIX’s debut was really promising, but like Cherry Bullet, they lost the momentum with their second release.

•••

Shut Up and Dance

Jason Derulo, Lay, & NCT 127

First of all, I don’t like Jason Derulo. His voice is good but he makes me really uncomfortable, as does this song. It hurts me that the talents of Lay and NCT 127 (or just Mark because though they were in the video, the other were pretty much absent from the actual song) were wasted on this gross abomination.

•••

Butterfly

Loona

This song could’ve been gorgeous, but the chorus ruined it. The high-pitched whine makes me want to stab me eardrums out. The music video and choreography are pure art, but I can’t stand the song on its own. I really want to like this group (I want to ‘stan Loona’, if you will), as they are all really talented, but so far their group releases have been average at best and really irritating at worst. I’ll keep an eye out for them in the future, as I still enjoy all of their pre-debut solo songs and listen to most of them often, but they have yet to catch my attention as a full group.

•••

Zimzalabim

Red Velvet

When I saw the title I suspected this song would be off, and right from the opening notes, my fears were realized. It’s obnoxious and unnecessarily noisy for most of the song. The cultist chanting that’s meant to be the chorus is incredibly grating. There are a few parts that are actually pretty, which are the parts where they actually sing and aren’t just screaming at us. I actually love the haunting yet beautiful bridge sung by Joy, Seulgi, and Wendy. However, I’m not willing to suffer through this mess of a song for those 20 seconds, but I will forgive RV for this atrocity as they really stuck the landing on their other two comebacks this year (see praise of latest album above).

•••

Miroh

Stray Kids

Why, Stray Kids, why. I know a lot of people adore this song, but I just don’t get it. Much like Side Effects, it doesn’t even sound like a song, just a bunch of song fragments and noises spliced together into a messy cacophony. The rap verses are good, because it’s Stray Kids, but everything else is a tragic failure.

•••

Dionysus

BTS

It’s not a title track, but I hate it so much I needed to include it. You’ve probably picked up on the fact that I don’t particularly like being screamed at by songs from the rest of this list, and this entire song is screaming. The only part I kind of like is Jungkook’s short “where the party at” part. The chorus makes my head hurt, and the choreography is ugly and stiff. The entire Dionysus experience is unpleasant and now that I’m done with this list, I am more than ready to leave this horror show in 2019.

•••

Before we get to the #1 worst song of 2019, here are some honorable mentions...

Vampire

IZ*ONE

It’s technically J-Pop but it’s still awful.

Violeta

IZ*ONE

Yes, another IZ*ONE song. I promise I don’t hate them. This one was so forgettable and generic, especially after La Vie en Rose.

Hip

Mamamoo

How is this the same group that releases songs like Decalcomonie and Wind Flower?

•••

Chicken Noodle Soup

J-Hope & Becky G

This song invokes so much rage in me. It irritates me to know end. It tops this list because there are literally no redeeming qualities. None. The chorus is dumb, and the fact that its recycled from an older song is even worse. The choreography, even aside from the old dance trend that the song is about, is underwhelming compared to what J-Hope can do. His rap verses are some of his most mediocre too. I have nothing against Becky G, in fact I like her voice a lot, but it doesn’t even come close to saving this song. I want this song to die in a fire.

•••

What did you think of my list? Do you agree or disagree? Are there any songs you would add or take off? Let me know in the comments!

Have a wonderful day!