My Top 20 Kpop Songs of 2023

It feels weird having such a condensed list this year. But these songs that had me the most hooked and listening to them nonstop on repeat.

I have these numbered, but really 19 – 11 could aren’t super locked to those slots. You could swap these songs around, and I think I could argue their spot still fit.

Really, the only ones I feel 100% confident in their placement are songs 3 – 1. But it’d be weird to have a listicle and not have the majority of it numbered, lol.

So let’s get into it!

20.) Love It – YOUNITE

I had to pick between this and “Kick It 4 Now” being 20, and it feels wrong having it this low..high? Whatever, lol.

I, pun intended, love it so much. But I still cringe a bit at the rap. But it’s fine. It doesn’t stop me from singing along and blasting it in the car.

19.) Would You Run – TRI.BE

I love when I can add new music to multiple playlists. I immediately added this to my house/chill playlist. It’s such a great song to jam to. I need more people to listen and check it out. I want more like this from TRI.BE!!!

18.) Wait – DINO

I can’t stop thinking about this song and music video. The more I listen to it, the more I get hooked on it. I really want more solo music from DINO now.

Actually, the more that I think about it, this just confirms the whole “Seventeen’s best songs are unit songs” thing Carats have been saying for a while now. We can through solos into that sentiment too now.

17.) Kick It 4 Now – The New Six

“Kick It 4 Now” is still just as good on my 100th listen as it did on my first. I still listen to the English version more.

And I’m still obsessed with it. I need to re-listen to this entire album. I’ve exclusively been only listening to the title, but I remember I loved this album as well.

16.) Overdrive – I.M

Another song that I loved on my first listen, and then just grew into more and more of a favorite song of mine. I listened to it at least once a day during my regular listens the first like two months after my initial listen of it.

Another music video that has so much going on but not at the same time. There’s a plot going on, idk what exactly, but my takeaway is I.M looking amazing driving some construction site equipment.

I’m so excited to see more solo I.M. I missed his pen so much.

15.) Bite Me – ENHYPEN

I feel like my opinion on “Bite Me” and Dark Moon is kinda the same. Spoiler alert, Dark Moon is on my fave albums of 2023, so I’ll talk more about it there.

But I do enjoy it, both “Bite Me” and Dark Moon. I still feel like they’re both middle of the road, but I do get hyped over them.

And I do come back to this song more than “Sweet Venom”. I love “Bite Me” waaaaaay more.

14.) LOLO – Yugyeom

Another super catchy song you hear once and can’t stop thinking about. I loveeee when Yugyeom makes songs like this. I’m soooo excited for his full length album to drop on February 21st.

13.) Drowning – WOODZ

A majooor grower. I feel like that’s just the recurring theme this year for me in music. The songs that my love for them grow more each listen. I didn’t really appreciate “Drowning” as much until right before I saw WOODZ live and post concert. It’s quickly become one of my favorite WOODZ songs ever.

I’ve been listening to both “Drowning” and “Amnesia” nonstop over the last couple of weeks.

12.) Firework – &TEAM

I’ve been talking about &TEAM a lot over the last couple of articles on here. I’m obsessed. I’ll definitely continue listening to them casually. And I’ll probably continue listening to “Firework” an unheathy amount in 2024.

11.) Yoyo – SOHEE feat XINSANYE

A baaaaanger. Underappreciated and underrated track. This is easily my favorite Sohee solo song to date. I need more like it. I still really enjoy Xinsayne’s rap on here, it’s short, to the point and works perfectly with the rest of the song.

I hate when songs have a rap for no reason other than to say we have so-and-so on the track for publicity or just to make the song longer.

I really wanted to put this closer to number one, but again, these songs kinda fit in any order on this list, I have so much love for all of them.

Okay, top 10 timeeeee. Man, this was tough. Ultimately, I decided to put the most impactive songs for me this year in the top 10. These were the songs that:

1.) Either changed my perspective on a group or soloist

2.) Lived rent-free in my mind for weeks

3.) Ranked high on my Spotify Wrapped/most listened to songs and

4.) Had me telling people in my life about them needing to check them out

So let’s get into this second half 🤗

10.) One Two Three – Xydo

My favorite Xydo song (so far). Let me start with this album artwork. I love looking at it and the small text with lyrics from “One Two Three”, “is it love? Think it’s love”.

And we looooove a song that starts and ends the same way. This is what happens:

this is what my brain does inside my head when im excited https://t.co/1JgjSN3zaa

— frog 🐸 BG3 spoilers (@r4t_l0rd) December 31, 2023

Yeah, need more Xydo music like this in 2024 for sure.

9.) Stamp On It – GOT the beat

I wanted to be excited about GOT the beat, but I was hesitant. SuperM is basically a NCT subunit. And respectfully, I didn’t want an Aespa subunit, lol. But that’s not what I got. Pun intended.

From the first few seconds I realized this wasn’t going to sound anything like what Aespa’s been doing title track wise. “Stamp On It” to me feels like something that is unique to this specific group. Everyone shines on the track, I love the music video and styling.

And it really had me rethinking me checking out music from everyone involved (well except for like BoA because I do check out her music every once in a while). And obviously I listen to everything Red Velvet releases. Even Wendy’s solos.

But I have enjoyed the Aespa members on other songs. And their title tracks are starting to sound more like something I’d enjoy. So maybe in 2024 I’ll finally be excited to listen to an Aespa album. This is why I love a good collab like this. It makes the listener consider music from the artist’s normally make music with. It’s marketing beyond the actual song. Corporate synergy and all that junk.

They definitely caught my attention, and I streamed the album to see if there were more songs on there I’d like. And there was, I enjoyed the whole album. I only had two songs I didn’t save from it. But I can’t wait for the girls to link up again.

8.) Chasing That Feeling – TXT

“Chasing That Feeling” and FREEFALL really revamped my love for TXT and MOA-dom. It’s like we went on a vacation to save our relationship, and now we’re back and stronger than ever.

As a song, “Chasing That Feeling” is a grower. I wouldn’t say it’s a top 5 TXT title track for me (like “Bite Me”). But I do get excited when it pop up on shuffle. And I can’t stop thinking about that Taehyun meme:

This Chasing That Feeling Trend with Taehyun's "it's all i know" part getting numbers pic.twitter.com/QWcKc3Ozf3

— ‧₊˚텬이🐱 (@passionatyun) October 19, 2023

But I do love a synth moment in music. And the b-sides are some of my favorite TXT songs they’ve made so far. I wanted to put “Dreamer”, “Deep Down” (my most listened to song from this album), and “Back For More” (Anitta version of course) on this list sooo badly, but then I’d have to put multiple b-sides from other albums I was obsessed with, and this list would balloon into a top 50 or 100 songs easily.

But CTF is kinda slept on, so imma talk about her and keep her name out there in the universe.

I will talk more about this album in depth too in my fave albums article. But I’ll leave it at this for now.

7.) Sugar Rush Ride – TXT

Now, that multiple song thing I said earlier applied to multiple songs from the same album. TXT was working harder than the devil this year, releasing TWO banger albums.

I will write an article doing a deeper dive into TNC:TEMPTATION, I’m determined to. But for now, I’ll keep it short. I love this album, especially the aesthetic, the timing of it was perfect. And it’s easily my third favorite concept TXT has done.

“Sugar Rush Ride” is my third favorite TXT title track (as of writing, as of TNC: FREEFALL being their most recent release). And was my most listened to TXT song this year according to Spotify.

This was another one where I wanted to put “Tinnitus” on here, and I had to stop myself.

“Sugar Rush Ride” is such a fun ass song. I need to see TXT live again and hear this song live again. STAT.

6.) Rover – Kai

I’ve talked about my love hate relationship with Mr. Kim Kai in the past on ATK previously. But “Rover” and the album of the same name really had me realizing I was gonna miss this man once he enlisted.

And I’m currently missing him, lmao. So I guess we’re so back, and I’m a Kai stan again 🤡. He and Yugyeom are truly the only ones consistently giving me the R&B tracks I wanna hear, so I gotta hype them up as much as possible.

“Rover” and “Bomba” are songs I need to experience live once he’s done serving (military) so he can go back to serving (c*nt).

He not only understands the assignment, he got the extra credit questions correct too. I hate this man.

5.) Let Me In – EXO

*Peter Parker voice* “Everywhere I go, I see his face”. I won’t stop talking about “Let Me In” or EXIST, because I love it so much. I haven’t written my fave albums article yet, but it’s between this and LOOSSEMBLE, for number one fave. I just know it.

I’ll be talking about this song and album again soon. So I’ll keep it short. This is exactly what I wanted from EXO. I wanted them to mostly stick to the formula that works for them. None of this NCT-lite bullshit, SHINee has been giving me.

This was the point in my song narrowing down process when I realized I needed to pick one song per album. Ya girl was gonna have like 5 EXO songs on this list, lmao.

4.) Super – Seventeen

I’m having Seventeen concert withdrawals. I’m missing them BAD. But this was such a good ass year to be a Carat. Like with TXT, I feel like I reinvigorated my love for Seventeen and being a Carat.

I was listening to “Super” multiple times a day for like three months straight. This song just holds up soooo well. Eveytime some how feels just as euphoric as my first listen. I really do love my team and my crew 😭.

3.) Collision – Stray Kids

This has quickly become one of my favorite Stray Kid songs ever. I loooooove the horns on this track. This song has everything I’ve been wanting from SKZ for like two years now. I miss this lighter, midtempo tracks from them. It’s catchy and fun. General public friendly I suppose.

Just from start to finish the way this song is structured is chef’s kiss. I love the vocals and lyrics. It’s just a smooth ass song. I need more people to listen to it.

2.) Video Game – Heejin

My favorite Heejin song so far. I knew on my first listen I was gonna be hooked on this song. Listening to it on repeat isn’t enough, I need it embeded into my dna. Heejin on the phone with Modhaus while working on ᐸKᐳ:

Crack. She put crack in this song and album. I’m so excited to hear more music from her along with…

1.) Colouring – LOOSSEMBLE

I’m genuienly surpised this song wasn’t my most listened to song of 2023. I was listening to this song A TON. Especially post concert.

As I mentioned eariler, it’s between this and EXIST and idk how that’s gonna turn out. I had such a 180 on this album since my intial listen. I can’t stop thinking about it. And when I want something to listen to, but I don’t have anything specific in mind, I’m searching for this one.

“Colouring ” is such a chill and mature vibe from the LOONA girls. I can’t help but to be excited and optimistic about what’s coming next musically from them (and everyone else tied to LOONA).

I highly, HIGHLY recommend making this your first song if you haven’t listened to LOOSSEMBLE yet.

And it’s done! I wanted to have this out sooner, but I made some additional changes last minute. I was going to do an honorable mentions segment, but decided against it.

I’m curious to what y’alls favorite songs of 2023 were. Let me know in the comments. Don’t forget to follow me on Twitter and Instagram.

Next up is my favorite ablums of 2023.

Take care!

Ash💫