K-POP 2022 has been one for the books with some of the best music of the decade, but also so many scandals that make it impossible to stay up-to-date. So here are the best and worst moments of 2022 for the K-POP industry. Disclaimer: this recap is mainly about girl groups because I mostly listen to girl groups, so if you are a boy group stan I am quite sorry. 

First of all, let’s talk about the debuts of this year which have changed K-POP as we know it. With music changing so fast these new groups sound young (literally some have 15-year-olds in them) and fresh compared to groups that just debuted a few years ago. I think the best and most popular debuts of 2022 were: LE SSERAFIM, NewJeans, and IVE. LE SSERAFIM debuted with their album FEARLESS but I think the way they really left their mark is with their second single “ANTIFRAGILE,” which I will discuss later. Their five-member roster is stacked with an opera singer, a trained ballerina, and one member that has even debuted with 3 other groups before LE SSERAFIM. Overall they are monster rookies and I can’t wait to see how they continue to dominate. NewJeans was everywhere in the second half of this year with their debut EP containing 3 songs that seemed to go viral in 3 separate months. With their cute Y2K concept and fun choreography, I think NewJeans really gave K-POP fans exactly what they were looking for and their popularity will continue to grow. And finally the absolute queens of 2022: IVE. IVE ruled this year with 3 comebacks that all had unique sounds but were all equally good. “Eleven” is on the list of best debuts ever, “LOVE DIVE” quite literally won song of the year at the 2022 MAMAS and “After LIKE” is an absolute bop that wouldn’t get off my TikTok feed for months. All of the members shine, but Jang Wonyoung with her amazing visuals and charm has solidified herself as the new “it-girl” of K-POP. Debuts this year were fantastic but let’s not forget about the many scandals of 2022 that also took place. 

K-POP would not be K-POP without a fair share of scandals. From dating rumors to expulsion from groups, fans are always rushing to defend or attack their idols. 2022 has truly been the year of bashing companies and supporting performers shown by one of the most successful boycotts I’ve ever seen: The LOONA boycott. LOONA is a group under the company Block Berry Creative, and when their most popular member Chuu sued the company and then was promptly kicked out of the company, fans were outraged. This led to leaks about the company not paying the girls for all their work and overworking them to the point where they have been passing out on tour. The internet completely supported the girls as most of them terminated their contracts with the company, and started an extreme boycott even bringing pre-order sales down by 98%. Lots of fans, myself included, just pray that LOONA can continue as a group under a different company, but with this scandal being so new, anything could happen. More news that shook up the K-Pop world was when a popular member of the group (G)I-DLE was kicked out of the group due to rumors. The rumors came from one girl who claimed that the idol, Soojin, had bullied her in elementary school. Her entire career was ruined because of one girl who turned out to be ultimately lying. Fans’ response to this was an entire army of people on TikTok and Instagram changing their profile picture to an edited photo of the company CUBE Entertainment, which manages (G)I-DLE, on fire. Personally, I loved it and thought it was really funny, but the amount of people that I saw with this profile picture shows how much support Soojin had. She hasn’t pursued a solo career, but if she ever decides to, I think she would have immense success. The last controversy of the year was the BLACKPINK concert drama. One of the most successful girl groups ever, BLACKPINK, decided to go on tour earlier this year and attendees of this concert had very mixed reviews. Many videos came out of the members forgetting choreography and overall being lazy with vocals and such. This isn’t new ground for BLACKPINK, with one of the members Jennie getting heavily criticized for her stage presence back in 2017, but many K-Pop fans were upset because BLACKPINK is the most popular group along with BTS, and often their performances don’t live up to that hype. Fans rushed to BLACKPINK’s defense claiming that the concert wasn’t as bad as the videos made it seem, but for now, the situation is still 50/50. 

Along with scandals, lots of amazing music was dropped this year, so here is my list of the top 5 comebacks of the year. Keeping my promise from before, let’s discuss LE SSERAFIM’s second comeback, “ANTIFRAGILE’.’ This song had fun outfits and iconic choreography that everyone was trying to learn after they dropped it. The stages have really shown off LE SSERAFIM’s amazing stage presence and has secured the group’s title as monster rookies. “ANTIFRAGILE” has a bouncy, Spanish-inspired beat that hits you with great verses and a phenomenal chorus that stays in your head forever. It was a hard choice narrowing down comebacks to talk about this year but ultimately “LOVE DIVE” by IVE had too much of an impact for me to not talk about it. This song proved that IVE has the potential to be a great group in the long run and didn’t just have a good debut. It sounds royal and feels like it’s dripping with jewels every time you listen to it. The verses lead up to a perfect anti-drop for the chorus and then you get smacked in the face with the post-chorus. No wonder this song won song of the year at the 2022 MAMAs, which are essentially the K-POP Grammy’s, it’s just that good. Now I finally get to talk about the masterpiece of this year, and I might be biased since they are my favorite group, but “Feel My Rhythm” by Red Velvet takes the cake (haha get it). This comeback was perfect, with a unique and artsy concept in a stunning music video that allowed Red Velvet to flex their vocals. Everything about it screams elegant from the ballerina outfits to the classical music sampled throughout the whole thing to the dainty, but still good, choreography. Complete with great b-sides the whole comeback is one of my favorite albums ever and I’m so glad I can finally talk about it. Give all songs a listen because, in my opinion, they truly defined K-POP this year. 

If you’ve made it this far thank you for reading my ramblings, even if you don’t care at all about K-POP. 2022 was a great year for the industry and though it had its ups and downs, I think it is one of the most consistent years for K-POP in a while.