Jaurim is one of Korea’s longest-running bands, having officially debuted in 1997—and active in the indie community prior to that date.

Nine Muses is one of those groups that exist in that uncomfortable grey area between success and failure: never really achieving breakout status, but also never stumbling badly enough that their agency decides to cut its losses.

If your exposure to K-Pop so far has only been through title tracks and their accompanying music videos, you’re missing out on some premium quality pop. Here’s an example of what I mean.

Red Velvet is very quickly becoming one of my favorite groups, and Power Up might just be their best song yet.

I’m A Loner is an uncommonly good debut track, and it set the tone for CNBLUE’s rise as one of the premier rock bands in South Korea.

Ten years ago, before Twice and Red Velvet and Girls’ Generation and 2NE1 and Wonder Girls, there was Jewelry.

Block B’s rapper Zico has had one of the more interesting careers for a mainstream K-Pop artist. He actually got his start in Korea’s underground rap world, becoming a respected rapper alongside several crews before his debut as an idol.

The last time I featured Twice, I asked someone to wake me when they decided to show some progression in their music. No one followed my directions, it seems, because I was asleep for this one.

Korean girl group concepts exist along a spectrum of cute to sexy. There are outliers, and a group may move up or down this spectrum along the course of their lifespans, but generally speaking, most of them can be neatly categorized along this line: they’re either on the cuter side, or the sexier side, and some are in…

K-Drama soundtracks are often hidden gems for picking out great K-Pop tracks. And when said K-Drama in question is about K-Pop, well, you know you’re in for a treat.

Along with Wonder Girls and Girls’ Generation, KARA was one of the most iconic girl groups active in Korea in the late 2000s to the early 2010s. While they were the first to disband among them, their influence on K-Pop (and J-Pop) trends can’t be underestimated.

If I followed any random group of young Koreans to a karaoke room in the late 2000s, I would bet my bottom dollar that this song would find its way into the rotation before the end of the night.

If Where’s Waldo? crossed with K-Pop sounds intriguing, this is for you. My Copycat is one of the most wildly creative and inventive K-Pop music videos I’ve had the pleasure to see.

One of the more interesting quirks of K-Pop is the brand endorsements. Many of these deals between brands and artists go beyond mere commercial appearances and lip service at events, blossoming into full-fledged song releases—often touting some form of fried chicken or a cell phone.

Bangkok City is probably Orange Caramel’s least-known single, which is a crying shame; it’s one of their best, and definitely their most transformative.

This is Orange Caramel week, an entire week dedicated to discussing one of the more fascinating girl groups to ever exist in K-Pop. (And, incidentally, one of my favorites.)

We’re doing something a little different today. Please enjoy this 1984 ballad while you continue to read the rest of this column. It’s a good backdrop.

We’ve shared two songs from Girls’ Generation before, and if you’re internally complaining that I seem to have a bias, you’re god damn right I do.

Last weekend, I visited KCON, one of the biggest Korean pop culture festivals in America. This song came over the speakers, and you bet I Shazam-ed that shit ASAP.