It feels weird writing the words “Jeon Somi’s debut” in the year 2019, because as far as I’m concerned, she debuted all the way back in 2016 with Produce 101 and I.O.I. But I suppose Birthday is offically considered to be Somi’s first release, which is wild, because, well, what has she been doing all these years??

I just wrapped up three days’ worth of E3 conferences, so all I want to do is lean back, close my eyes, and put on some chill tunes.

Summer is very nearly upon us. Here in New York, where Kotaku’s mothership is based, that means the advent of sticky, humid weather that has you aching for—you got it—a swimming pool.

A decade after it was released, Super Junior’s 2009 hit Sorry Sorry remains one of K-Pop’s untouchable anthems.

The opening chords to Exist’s Whatever kind of remind me of an atmospheric soundtrack to a Metroidvania or a roguelike, right before everything goes to hell.

Last week, Pledis Entertainment announced Pristin’s official disbandment after a year of radio silence. Fans expected this to happen, but the finality by which the company hit the last nail in the coffin surprised many—especially given its waffling on another, similarly-fated girl group.

Offing is one of those Korean artists that I randomly stumbled upon during my late-night YouTube listening sessions. You know the ones: where you pick a song for the mood and you let the website’s auto-next-song function dictate your night. No one else does that? Just me?

I’ve become quite fond of the newbie group Cherry Bullet, despite their somewhat underbaked debut. Maybe it has something to do with their insistence on video-game-themed music videos. (That’s probably it.)

This isn’t a song by Girls’ Generation, the iconic girl group. This is a song about Girls’ Generation.

Congratulations are due for Shampoo, which never fails to bring a double-take to anyone who hears the name for the first time. “This song is called what?”

English lyrics? In K-Pop? This might be the furthest we’ve stretched the definition of the genre so far, but Wonder is worth it.

Out of the dozens upon dozens of boy groups that debuted near the beginning of K-Pop’s recognition on the world stage in the early 2010s, few have had more impact or have lasted as long as INFINITE.

A common side effect of obsessively following a single music genre is burnout. My love for K-Pop has waxed and waned over the years, and in the interim, I find substitute genres to keep my ears busy. When I do come back to K-Pop (and I always do), I end up searching for music that lies at the intersection of these two…

When I first introduced Pristin last year, I couldn’t hide my enthusiasm for their surely long and productive future careers. After all, their first couple of releases did great, right? It wasn’t like Pledis Entertainment would repeat the same mistakes they made with After School, right? What could possibly go wrong?

It’s springtime in Korea, and that means one thing: a resurgence in the nation’s collective obsession with cherry blossoms.

Bolbbalgan Puberty’s 2016 release, Galaxy, is a vertical slice of everything that I like in Korean indie: soothing vocals, acoustic instrumentals, and a general happy-go-lucky vibe, all wrapped up in colorful, springtime-esque visuals.

Something that I appreciate about the Korean language is its tendency to assign playful words to nuanced definitions of common thoughts and objects, and Son Ah Reum’s Lazy is a great example of that.

When I brought up Mnet’s Produce and IZ*ONE last week, it led me down a rabbit hole to taking another look at IZ*ONE’s predecessors, I.O.I.

IZ*ONE is an absolutely massive Korean/Japanese girl group (12 members!) formed with the finalists from the latest season of Mnet’s Produce series of survival audition television shows.