It’s time for Kpopalypse roundup! Let’s take a look at some new releases!
Nothing all that interesting, a fairly safe comeback for Katseye. It’ll probably please the three people who wish the girls would sing a bit more, but it’s also a good demonstration of why the group largely haven’t bothered until now.
SM aren’t even attempting that Kwangya/virtual idol/AI bullshit for the Japanese market and it’s probably just as well because South Korea is the laughing stock of the rest of the world right now due to their creepy obsession with all things AI. But then what they’re doing here instead isn’t exactly much better, the song here is quite characterless and doesn’t really capitalise on any of the good parts of aespa. Apparently it’s Giselle’s favourite song of their entire catalogue, which speaks volumes about how her depression is probably going. Stay strong Giselle, Kpopalypse supports you!
Not bad but not amazing, like a limp version of all those Seo Eve bangers. By the way if you’re this many comebacks in and your agency is still putting in scenes where each member has their name printed under their face to jog everyone’s memories, you know you’re struggling with the whole “star quality” thing.
De-glam Jennie is best Jennie. She looks great here, the sort of girl you could comfortably fall asleep next to, and you probably will before this song ends given how boring it is.
Wonho is light on the fanservice here but heavy on the hard dance beats and it’s absolutely the sort of thing he should have been doing years ago. I guess Blackpink paved the way, as usual.
This song comes in two video flavours, a BADING letterboxed version and the ugly full-screen one I’ve used here. Either way the song is yelpy bragalicious poop which contains none of what made any of the better Loona-related songs good, and a lot of what made the worst Loona-related songs bad.
An acceptable but fairly bland reimagining of Twice’s “Alcohol Free“. If you don’t like that song, you won’t like this either, and if you do like that song, you probably will like this too but you’ll like “Alcohol Free” more so you might as well go and listen to that instead.
Speaking of which, here’s Fifty Fifty doing IVE’s “I Am” or “Rebel Heart“. It’s actually decent enough but the fact that the IVE songs also exist and are far better in melody writing, lyric writing and production makes this completely redundant. Hell, it’s not even as good as that other IVE-clone song, “Golden“.
I’m not overly hungry for lame melody-less chant choruses and fake badassery from debuting girl groups. Or anyone, really.
JYP flashes his Waterbomb credentials like Paul Allen at a boardroom meeting, and I have to say, from one old man to another he’s looking good. Look at the subtle off-white colouring of his abs, the tasteful thickness of it… oh my god, it even has a watermark, I mean a stage marked with water. Body goals, definitely. You can vote for JYP, or whoever else you like in the 2026 Kpopalypse Objectification Survey which is out now! Click HERE to vote – voting will be open until the end of August!
Speaking of voting, if you don’t know who to vote for in the 2026 Kpopalypse Objectification Survey’s female categories then why not vote for The Deep? She looks stunning here and definitely deserves an award of some kind just for killing it visually, her being in the results will piss the more immature segment of her fans off who already hate me and it’s always funny to piss them off a little more, plus it’ll be good promo for her and introduce her banging music to a few more actually sensible people. You could vote for her if you wanted, or whoever else you feel like voting for, such is democracy. Click HERE to vote – voting will be open until the end of August!
The best thing Yves has been involved with since Loona went tits-up, this type of song is definitely her bag and while it’s similar to her other stuff (Lexie Liu is the right fit) she gets it more right here than elsewhere.
I don’t normally get any stagefright at all but I probably would if I had to perform this poop just because I think I’d get bottled.
I remember back in high school I’d hear stories about people getting robbed for their sneakers. Never happened to me because I was poor and we poor wasians from immigrant families couldn’t afford shoes that anyone would actually want to steal. Anyway a few years later I stopped hearing about this happening at all, it seems everyone grew up and stopped giving a fuck about such stupid shit. Everyone except this group, it seems.
Oh my god what the fuck are they doing. No. Just no.
I’m no expert but I’ve been around the block enough times to know that correct grammar would impress the ladies more. If you start cutting out words and syllables, she’ll take that as a red flag that you might also be sloppy in other areas, like showing up to dates on time or putting the toilet seat down.
If someone sends you a strange .exe file I suggest that you don’t run it. It might be a virus, or even worse, it might be this song. Just looking out for your online health, this has been a Kpopalypse.com PSA.
So who is this group now? HYBE and their constant parade of new boy groups I can’t keep up with. Someone paved the way for all this, it was probably Blackpink.
Well, this sucks. I do like the video though, correctly implying that it’s entirely disposable crap that you’d see on your phone and then scroll right past.
Can I just drive down the road without encountering some k-pop group doing a video for some mediocre song? At least with k-pop song lengths getting shorter they move out of the way of the cars quicker. Maybe that’s the reason.
Definitely one of the worst Shin Euijin songs out there, thanks to a pedestrian tempo and not much exciting happening, but a bad Shin Euijin song is still pretty good.
They couldn’t even afford grass and have to dance on the weeds. Hard times in this economy.
I like how the blonde guy with the light top completely stands out. I wonder if he “forgot” his dark uniform and dyed his hair the day before the video shoot on purpose and then played dumb just so we’d remember him more. It’s not giving “purple haired guy from N-tic” vibes just yet but it’s a start.
They’re just taking the piss with the Seventeen solo songs now but I don’t mind, honestly it’s more memorable than the stuff they usually do. I would prefer to see Raina, Nana and Lizzy doing this though, wouldn’t we all.
No shirt off for Huta this time but hey he’s been putting in good work lately so we’ll let this one slide. Hey maybe he should start his own restaurant chain, he could call it “Huta’s”.
This sounds exactly the same as some boring-ass western pop song and I can’t remember which one because I probably tried to erase it from my brain completely when I first heard it and I was doing pretty well with that until this showed up. Don’t tell me what the song is I’d rather not remember thanks in advance everyone.
Lim Kim seems to be over the screechy “I’m an Asian Queen, you know it’s true because I say it a lot” phase of her career and is investigating actual songs again. This one’s not bad, all she needs now is a little help with the lyrics.
Actually really great and recalls Easybeats’ “Friday On My Mind” (!) with the guitar work. The image doesn’t hurt either but the real winner here is the commitment to high-production rock sonics.
Yechan is from Pink Fantasy and I had some hope this was going to be okay but it’s as generic as it gets.
It’s been a while for 015B but they’re back and this is one of their better songs. They’re generally great when they’re picking up the pace like this.
Not a bad shoegazey song but the main takeaway I got from this is holy fuck Love x Stereo have a lot of equipment.
Sunwoojunga had that one decent upbeat song a decade ago and she just steadfastly refuses to do anything like that ever again. I have to admire her determination I guess.
Could have been cool, completely ruined by Autotune. If they’d stuck with their natural voices we’d have an indie rap banger here but everyone has to do the robot voice for some stupid reason as if it sounds any good (it doesn’t).
Some Autotuned warble song is the only gig SM soloist (!!!) Min Jiwoon seems to be able to get now. The hype machine has completely failed her, poor girl. She must have demanded an extra museli bar in the dorm fridge or something to get this kind of idol industry shunning. Let’s leave it here before I start crying on her behalf.
Someone suggested that I put flowerovlove in the roundup as the non-Korean feature and honestly thanks for suggesting that because she’s absolutely great. I might even listen to her a bit more this week if I have the time, now that’s pretty fucking unprecedented. This song isn’t even her best one I just put it here because the title is short so it’s easy to type and I’ve typed enough nonsense today.
Yoojung is from IOI and Weki Meki and don’t feel bad if you didn’t know or remember that because I forgot too. Anyway this girl goes “undercover” and then reveals her face and then everything swiftly becomes nauseatingly all about her in this “we didn’t stage this cross my heart and hope to duet with Jay Park” video. Enjoy the dancing if you can stomach the cringe.
Will Kpopalypse.com reader favourite Wonho clean-sweep the male results in the Kpopalypse Objectification survey in 2026? Who knows, voting has just begun, but from the look of early polling it could be closer than ever! Maybe this video will help you make up your mind whether he’s still worthy of your vote. You can vote for Wonho, or whoever else you like in the 2026 Kpopalypse Objectification Survey which is out now! Click HERE to vote – voting will be open until the end of August!
About a decade ago there were dozens and dozens of these bland Korean clones of Eminem and Rihanna’s “Love The Way You Lie“, basic structure being four rotating chords that never change, delivered in a mid-paced soft rock style with male rapped verses and a female sung chorus. One good thing about the “change-up” trend that’s more pervasive now is that the LTWYL-clone parade with its relatively static musical arrangements is well and truly over in 2026. It’ll come back eventually but until the nostalgia movement kicks in I’d just like to say thank you NMIXX.
That’s all for this week! Kpopalypse roundup returns next week! In the meantime don’t forget that the latest Kpopalypse Objectification survey is now live and accepting votes! Don’t forget to vote – do it for [insert your bias here]! Stay safe, caonimas!
