DAZED Magazine Releases Their 40 Best K-Pop Songs Of 2022 — These Are The Top 15

With the end of 2022 fast approaching, it seems that every popular entertainment publication has been releasing lists of their top K-Pop releases of the year. And DAZED magazine is among those who are! Unlike most other year-end best lists, however, DAZED not only has a lengthy 40 best K-Pop songs on their chart, but they are ranked from 40th to a definitive 1st rather than having the songs in no particular order. Here are their 15 best K-Pop songs from 2022, according to this list!

15. “MORE” by J-Hope

“MORE” was released on J-Hope’s Jack in the Box album on July 15. The album sold 482k copies, and the music video for the song has 61.1 million views!

The J-Hope we meet here is taut and sneering, droll and self-aware, purposefully open but rendering himself invulnerable through sheer will. Having created a new lens through which to view him, J-Hope strips the propulsive hook of choreography despite his renown as a dancer, purposefully opting instead for the wild motions of a man whose creativity refuses to be tamed.

— DAZED magazine

14. “TOMBOY” by (G)I-DLE

“TOMBOY” was released on (G)I-DLE’s I Never Die album on March 14. The album sold 255k copies, and the music video for the song has 190.9 million views!

Everything on this track, right down to the video’s direction, is led by a woman and it swings its punches unapologetically hard. Underpinned by crunching electric guitar, (G)I-DLE swagger through its run-time with panache and bravura so compelling that it was only the band themselves who remained surprised by “TOMBOY”’s runaway success.

— DAZED magazine

13. “28 Reasons” by Seulgi

“28 Reasons” was released on Seulgi’s 28 Reasons album on October 4. The album sold 241k copies, and the music video for the song has 20.0 million views!

There’s a vibrato here, a vocal growl there but it’s all about the slow build, the fine yet unstoppable fraying of a relationship. When that finally snaps off the back of a spoken bridge, Seulgi’s voice soars into full-throated runs and ad-libs yet the instrumental stays steadfastly subdued.

— DAZED magazine

12. “Forever 1” by Girls’ Generation

“Forever 1” was released on Girls’ Generation’s Forever 1 album on August 5. The album sold 292k copies, and the music video for the song has 51.7 million views!

“Forever 1” rightly celebrates their fandom’s unwavering loyalty but also their own staying power as a group. It does so by dazzling the ear: Its instrumental heart is built upon a thumping bass that carries the exuberant chorus to new levels, and bookends a bridge sparkling with piano and chimes.

— DAZED magazine

11. “O.O” by NMIXX

“O.O” was released on NMIXX’s AD MARE album on February 22. The album sold 490k copies, and the music video for the song has 92.4 million views!

What makes no sense on the first listen becomes addictive on the third. K-Pop songs don’t often kick down the door brandishing a flamethrower, but “O.O” came in blazing.

— DAZED magazine

10. “Gasoline” by Key

“Gasoline” was released on Key’s Gasoline album on August 30. The album sold 132k copies, and the music video for the song has 12.4 million views!

“Gasoline” opens as a brassy, self-congratulatory affair but narcissism it is not. It’s born from defiance, of beating the odds and the pernickety judgement of the masses. ‘It’s not about the trophy, I’m just driving on my own,’ he sings, later adding, ‘These threats fuel my evolution’.

— DAZED magazine

9. “Talk That Talk” by TWICE

“Talk That Talk” was released on TWICE’s Between 1&2 album on August 26. The album sold 1.12 million copies, and the music video for the song has 116.0 million views!

The members’ voices bounce over repeated words with a flexing bassline reverberating below, and chanted lines lend copious extra zing. Seven years is a long time to spend at the top but TWICE shows no sign of relinquishing their crowns.

— DAZED magazine

8. “POP!” by Nayeon

“POP!” was released on Nayeon’s IM NAYEON album on June 24. The album sold 541k copies, and the music video for the song has 158.1 million views!

Her solo debut is gorgeous and energetic, setting a cracking pace with an understated guitar that adds a new dimension to the melody, big band brass and looped vocal effects, including the titular refrain, ramped up into an unshakeable earworm.

— DAZED magazine

7. “Attention” by NewJeans

“Attention” was released on NewJeans’ New Jeans album on August 1. The album sold 680k copies, and the music video for the song has 35.5 million views!

A waterfall of chimes trailing over the hook evokes Charlie perfume, cocoa butter, pagers, and Lisa Frank stickers, yet overall pays homage rather than ape, understanding the best reason to go back is in order to push forward. K-Pop has always hybridised genres, each of its generations amplifying a unique sonic vine ever taller until it collapses, exhausted.

— DAZED magazine

6. “Good Boy Gone Bad” by TXT

“Good Boy Gone Bad” was released on TXT’s Minisode 2: Thursday’s Child album on May 9. The album sold 1.79 million copies, and the music video for the song has 61.3 million views!

No one less than fully committed to these OTT elements could pull it off, and in TXT’s hands the high drama becomes plausibly emotive and visually arresting. An explosive and unyielding chorus barrels the song along but it’s the calm before the storm – Soobin and Beomgyu’s softly melodious pre-chorus – that creates a wonderful tension, the last moment of sanity before giving into the madness.

— DAZED magazine

5. “BTBT” by B.I & Soulja Boy (ft. DeVita)

“BTBT” was first released as a pre-release single on May 13, then on B.I’s Love or Loved Part.1 album on November 18. The album sold 29.5k copies, and the music video for the song has 15.4 million views!

On paper, “BTBT” edges towards prosaic but there’s an otherworldly vastness to this song, an atmosphere of cultivated emptiness mirrored by the video’s sprawling futuristic city. In his internal circle of heartache to hope, “BTBT” is B.I’s prayer, the vocals dreamlike and echoing, a trap snare ticking like a jittery metronome and the bass compressed to shiver under the skin.

— DAZED magazine

4. “Antifragile” by LE SSERAFIM

“Antifragile” was released on LE SSERAFIM’s Antifragile album on October 17. The album sold 785k copies, and the music video for the song has 78.6 million views!

There’s all manner of bells and whistles built-in, like the ultra-processed ‘anti-ti-ti-ti fragile, fragile’ hook, but LE SSERAFIM’s distinctive vocals build with it a strange, addictive camaraderie that intensifies the knowing insouciance on lines like ‘So much talk behind my back, Rivals I never knew I had They all pray for the day I’m fallin”.

— DAZED magazine

3. “Guerrilla” by ATEEZ

“Guerrilla” was released on ATEEZ’s The World EP.1: Movement album on July 29. The album sold 1.00 million copies, and the music video for the song has 29.4 million views!

A feat of ambitious sonic engineering, charisma, and precision performance, this is the intersection at which ATEEZ stand tall, able to exert control over a dozen moving parts – from the power notes to choreography – yet effortlessly embody the cinematically unhinged quality demanded by the sheer scale and immensity of songs like “Guerrilla”. In a word: Mesmerising.

— DAZED magazine

2. “Love Dive” by IVE

“Love Dive” was released on IVE’s Love Dive album on April 5. The album sold 817.9k copies, and the music video for the song has 177.3 million views!

For every uplifting appearance of its ‘ooh-ooh’ hook, there is the sly thrill of its ‘Narcissistic, my god I love it’ chorus, a fascinating stance in which love is desired more for its risk than the reward. It stands exquisitely barefoot upon a knife-edge between cooly euphoric and quietly scheming, blithely open to being pulled by listeners in one direction or the other, yet – and perhaps the reason for its success – just as potent either way.

— DAZED magazine

1. “RING ma Bell” by Billlie

“RING ma Bell” was released on Billlie’s The Billage of Perception: Chapter Two album on August 31. The album sold 91k copies, and the music video for the song has 26.9 million views!

Sustained punches of vocal power by Moon Sua, Suhyeon, Tsuki, Sheon, Siyoon, Haruna, and Haram makes it instantly anthemic but it’s their delivery – an intoxicating brew of genuine grit, confidence, and goddamn good fun – that elevates it on record and onscreen to hands-in-the-air-and-scream-with-your-full-chest greatness that’ll raise every single hair on the back of your neck.

— DAZED magazine