News just in, TIME Magazine has announced the top 5 Best K-pop songs and albums of 2022 till now! 2022 has been quite a thrilling year for K-pop fans. The year has seen great K-pop debuts, most of them being girl groups. Kep1er, NMIXX, and LE SSERAFIM are some of the few rookie monsters who have entered the battlefield this year! Not to mention that the groups that have been on long hiatuses have finally made a comeback or will be making a compact, such as Bigbang and Girls’ Generation. They are even rumors that Blackpink’s comeback is in the making!
In 2022, many groups are even going on World Tours! (G)I-dle, Blackpink (rumored), TXT, Super Junior, and many, many more! The only bad part of K-pop 2022 has been the disbandment of NU’EST. Moving on, the year has given us great songs and albums that have been dominating the Billboards Charts as well as the Gaon Music Charts. TIME Magazine has posted their top 5 K-pop songs and albums of 2022 up till now! We have got to say that TIME Magazine has great taste. Note: The songs and albums were not ranked in any order.
Top 5 2022 K-pop Songs of TIME Magazine:
Love Dive by IVE
TIME Magazine did a great job in choosing this song as they are undoubtedly some of the best releases of this year! Love Dive is the title track of IVE’s second single album of the same name. Fans had been in awe of the song, especially the lines, “Narcissistic, My God I love it….”. No wonder why IVE won seven music show wins for the song LOVE Dive. While we are talking about that, can we talk about the gorgeous outfits the girls wore in this era!
Devil by Changmin
Devil is the title track of TVXQ’s Changmin’s second extended play of the same name. The extended play even included the songs Maniac and Fever. The song Devil was a remake of Alex Runo’s (a Swedish Artist) song of the same name. Changmin had the listeners enchanted by his beautiful vocals with the song and delicate vocal techniques. Changmin had re-written the lyrics that indicate a person’s feeling to go on with life without giving in to the devil’s whispers.
GingaMingaYo by Billie
GingaMingaYo is a bright and energetic song released by the rookie girl group Billie. The animated and fun song, as well as its music video, caught the attention of many listeners. Everyone can agree that they have been humming to the song’s beats ever since its release. The lyrics reference the confusion that people have while growing up. One of the members, Tsuki, had even gone viral for her awesome stage presence while performing the song. Additionally, GingaMingaYo is the lead single of Billie’s second extended play, The Collective Soul And Unconscious: Chapter One.
Maniac By Stray Kids
To be honest, many K-pop fans were intrigued by the mysterious trailer of Maniac and were not disappointed by the whole song itself. Maniac is the title track of Stray Kids’ sixth Extended Play Oddinary. The members of 2racha, aka Bang Chan, Changbin, and Han, had themselves contributed to writing the lyrics of the song. Stray Kids served another energizing banger with this comeback that talks about releasing our true selves that society deems to be improper or improper without any shame. We are not even surprised that Time Magazine chose it as one of the best 2022 K-pop songs released by now!
Fearless by LE SSERAFIM
Fearless is the debut single of HYBE Label’s newest girl group LE SSERAFIM. Since LE SSERAFIM is labelmates with BTS, TXT, and Enhypen and has two former IZ*ONE members, the group had been very popular even before debuting. The lines ”what you lookin at…” have been revolving all around the internet ever since the girls debuted. Well, if the song is written by Hitman Bang himself, why would it not be addictive! It is the lead single of LE SSERAFIM’s extended play that goes by the same name. Their debut extended play even has more bops like Blue Flame, Sour Grape, The World Is My Oyster, and The Great Mermaid.
Top 5 2022 K-pop Albums of TIME Magazine:
Apocalypse: Save Us by Dreamcatcher
Apocalypse: Save Us is the second studio album gifted to fans by the girl group Dreamcatcher. Dreamcatcher took the spooky concept to the next level with this comeback! In less than a day, Apocalypse: Save Us hit No.1 on iTunes charts in about 20 different regions of the world. Additionally, the album had sold 85,123 copies in its first-week sales, thus breaking Dreamcatchher’s own record. The album was made ten times better with the splendid solo song of each member.
Not to forget, with this album Dreamcatcher became the first K-pop girl group this year that topped the iTunes charts in the US and the fifth K-pop girl group ever to do so!
Glitch Mode by NCT Dream
Glitch Mode is the second studio album by SM Entertainment’s boy group NCT Dream. This is the group’s second feature with seven members, aka with Mark, as the age-based graduation system has been removed now. The album Glitch Mode contains eleven tracks in total that are made to comfort the listeners. Evidently, it was very successful commercially in South Korea, selling over 1,646,949 copies and their album debuted at number one on the monthly Gaon Chart.
The album had hip-hop-based tracks like Glitch Mode and Arcade that would make you dance in seconds and had slow melodious ballads like Teddy Bear and Never Goodbye that will mesmerize you. This just goes to show how talented the rappers, as well as the vocalists of NCT Dream, are!
PSY 9th by PSY
PSY 9th unarguably becomes one of the best K-pop albums of 2022, according to TIME Magazine! PSY made his long-awaited comeback this year, and what a comeback it was! The album featured countless collaborations between PSY and other K-pop idols like BTS’s Suga, Sung Si Kyung, Heize, Jessi, Hwasa, Crush, and Tablo.
Everyone had particularly been excited for Suga’s collab because he did not just feature in the music video but also helped with the production and writing process of the song. Through behind-the-scenes videos, fans fell in love with Suga and PSY’s sweet friendship.
You can read more about their friendship here: PSY Praises BTS’s Suga And Talks About How The Artist Inspired His Music!
Face The Sun by Seventeen
Face the Sun, with the title track Hot, is the fourth studio album of the mega-popular boy group Seventeen. One of the tracks of the album was pre-released on April 15. Seventeen experimented with more rock music with this album that acts as an energy booster for fans. According to Hoshi, with this album, they wanted to leave behind their past image and become try more mature concepts. He was quite right to say that since the album is nothing like Seventeen’s other cheery and bright concepts.
Seventeen’s album Face The Sun passed 1.74 million copies in pre-order sales, breaking Seventeen’s previous pre-order sales records of 1.41 million that they had received for Attacca. As always, the Seventeen members actively participated in the making of the album!
INVU by Taeyeon
Here comes the soloist queen and the leader of the Girls’ Generation, Taeyeon. Taeyeon, as expected, did not disappoint us with her out-of-the-world vocals. Are we even surprised that Taeyeon’s third solo studio album INVU topped the Gaon Digital Chart? Taeyeon had decided to pre-release a single, Can’t Control Myself. The album consisted of INVU ( the title track), Some Nights, Can’t Control Myself, Set Myself On Fire, Toddler, Siren, Cold As Hell, Timeless, Heart, No Love Again, You Better Not, Weekend, and Ending Credits.
The whole album is very calming and soothing. Taeyeon’s voice can take all the credit for it! Talking about a breakup, Taeyeon overcomes the sadness by saying that ” I’ll leave now, to find my story again.” Talking about Girls’ Generation, the group is finally having a comeback after five years somewhere in August, according to SM Entertainment. Let us hope for more Taeyeon as well as Girls’ Generation content soon!
Also Read: K-pop Comebacks And Debuts That Prove June Is Going To Be an Exciting Month!
