The results of the Kpopalypse 2023 end of year survey!

It’s time to check in on the results of the 2023 Kpopalypse end of year survey!

 

Not that many people did the survey this year, about 50% of the previous year’s turnout. I’m not sure why this is. It’s certainly not because of a lack of interest in my opinion, or other people not wanting to throw down their opinion, with some reposts of my lists netting a quarter of a million views and over 600 comments about how wrong my subjective opinion is. Could it be because I linked the survey in the final roundup of 2023, instead of giving it its own separate post like in previous years? Or could it be that the songs were so shit in 2023 that nobody really even had an opinion on most of the questions? I’m not sure, but of course less votes just means that each individual vote matters a lot more! Let’s take a look at the results!

Question 1: What is your favourite k-pop song for 2023?

Green highlights show a pick that was also on my top 30, pink is for my #1 pick and blue is for honourable mentions. Probably for the first time in the history of forever, my readers actually agreed with me on the #1 pick! Also for the first time ever, your favourites weren’t anything on my shitlists! Note the list here doesn’t go to 30 and in fact none of these do, because not enough of you did the survey this year to make voting results meaningful past a certain point.

Question 2: What is your least favourite k-pop song for 2023?

In addition to the colours above, orange is a dishonourable mention, red is a song on the worst 30 songs list, and purple is my pick for worst song of the year. Once again reader taste aligned with Kpopalypse to a surprising amount. It’s unusual to see my own #1 worst in the results at all!

Question 3: What song will be #1 on Kpopalypse’s favourites list for 2023?

Yes, you guessed it! Quite a lot of readers guessed the Kpopalypse #1 correctly, more so than I think have ever done so!

Question 4: What song will be #1 on Kpopalypse’s worst of 2023 list?

Kpopalypse readers have never successfully guessed the #1 worst as a collective, but they got close this year, with quite a few individual readers figuring it out! There were less votes in this category than any other, not because people didn’t vote, but because a lot of you skipped the question, or gave an ambiguous vote like “whatever those cunts from [insert group you hate here] did this year” etc, which is funny for me personally but sadly makes the results for you in this post kind of shit because I can’t really work with that, next time just google a song of theirs or something, cheers.

Question 5: What completely amazing k-pop track that kicked ass this year will Kpopalypse take a big fat dump on for no clear reason?

The “where is Kpopalypse going to shit today” question – as it happened, I didn’t take a dump on most of the songs that you were fearing I might, and even didn’t mind at least one of them! Amazing!

Question 6: What total waste of time trash k-pop song will be riding high on Kpopalypse’s favourites list just to annoy you?

It seems that Kpopalypse successfully annoyed readers this year, as a ton of you voted for songs that I did in fact annoy you with, and an even bigger proportion of you were so annoyed that you couldn’t focus enough to answer the goddamn question properly. Hopefully your seething rage has settled down by this point and you’ll be able to vote properly in 2024 by nominating an actual song instead of just ranting “I hate those [insert group here] cunts, but you’ll probably like them because you’re such a piece of shit” over and over.

Question 7: Clearing house picks!

I had a fair few suggestions and you can see them all (or at least most of the valid ones) at the clearing house post! A lot of people actually voted for songs that had in fact already received reviews, it always surprises me how many people do that each year, but then it was a fairly traumatic year for music quality so I can’t blame you if your memory of what I covered was a bit frazzled.

Question 8: If you have anything else to say, you could put it here if you wanted. Or if not, then don’t. Have a great Christmas and New Year, caonima!

Some selected responses, and my replies!

I love your thoughts and want to hear more of them! I’d love something like a kpopalypse state of the union, where you would tell us what you think of the current kpop trends and how the music currently differs from previous generations, and if you think kpop overall has gone downhill or improved. Also would love more of your opinions on industry news. What do you think about BBC claiming they’re still going to go after the Loona members’ contracts? Which of the Loona subunits/soloists have the most promise? Who are your favorite kpop music producers right now?

I think people can probably get a feel for my thoughts on any given moment about song quality and trends just by following the roundups, as I’m pretty vocal about current music fashion there.

I don’t tend to comment much on in-progress legal matters because I don’t find that stuff interesting (having actually dealt with some of it in real life and experienced the sheer boredom, frustration and annoyance of the music-related legal world). But basically BBC are dreaming, they’re not [insert certain other much bigger label here who are big enough to have the Korean courts partially in their pocket] so they should just sit this one out quietly.

There’s really very little such thing as “promise” in the k-pop world with regards to song quality, group quality or even producer quality, there’s several reasons for that. I’m kind of sick of talking about it so I might do a post soon that addresses this specifically. I’ll add it to the list and try to motivate myself to write it.

fifty fifty on shaving my hair off or trying research chemicals to save it, as finasteride shut me down lol. We’ll see next year.
Also you could probably cut down on Roundup further this year, why bother writing lines for shitty songs.

Just shave it. Chemicals have side effects, also total baldness is super convenient, you save a lot of money on styling over the years.

Yes I agree with shorter roundups. My goal in 2024 – slightly shorter roundups, more non-roundup posts.

Just wanted to thank you for listening to so much for the roundups, even though so much of it is mediocre or worse. Over the years I’ve discovered personal favorites like Uza and PRSNT from your blog, and this year I found out APOKI is good? Like I would never have checked out Apoki on my own, and Space is too good of a song to miss. So thanks for being so thorough and consistent, it makes the Korean music scene a lot easier to keep up with.

Thanks! I try my hardest!

Eat a dick

I will kind sir thank you for your suggestion

You rock, stay golden, hope you’re taking care of yourself into the new year, blah blah. Oh! And I tried to pitch an essay about your blog to such and such publication but freelance journalism is a bitch. One day editors will gain some sense.

Now that’s a bold move. Good luck, anyone who tries that. I’m open to interviews from MSM outlets on what a cunt I am, if they could be bothered, but they’ve disregarded me so far and that’s probably the wisest choice – for them.

thanks for providing peak entertainment while my husband and i also judge the songs and your opinions on roundup! can’t wait to continue the way of the cao ni ma next year too.

Happy to entertain, thank you for reading!

happy byulsday in advance! as a lesbian i am legally obligated to wish you a happy byulsday bc she is honestly an icon… like she was my lesbian awakening obviously but i’ve seen videos about queer people in korea and about random mamamoo stans and it’s crazy how she’s been so many people’s sapphic awakening? it makes sense given the energy she has but also like. she just is a wlw icon i love her so dearly. anyway i hope you have a great christmas and new year too! this is my fourth year doing the end of year survey love reading your blog (even when you shit on my faves lmao) because i can always count on you for honest opinions rather than on like twitter where it really just feels like an echo chamber

Yes Moonbyul definitely did ping my gaydar long before she straight up admitted on stage that she has a girlfriend a few months back. Maybe it’s working better than I think these days. Kpopalypse will continue to be honest! It’s some of the only honesty in the k-pop world most people are ever going to even read. Thanks to people being too afraid to speak their minds and have opinions lest they get cyberbullied off the planet, honest folks are in short supply these days…

I was filling out this survey while walking to my final exam and I think some dude saw my screen and looked at me weird ! Thank you kpopalypse

If that person’s looking at your screen again right now I’d just like to say hi and stan Liz because she’s the sidebar girl this year cheers.

I’m really hoping that the shit BTS did to kpop will disappear for a while since they are enlisted. Hoping for more and exciting new caonima action next year!

I bet they’ve recorded a backlog of songs for while they’re away. Hell, they’ll probably even be allowed to visit the studio and record more stuff during their service. It won’t be like hero AKMU Chanhyuk who pretty much caught North Korean bullets in his teeth and spat them out the whole time he was in the army.

im quite depressed and absolutely everything is in complete disarray right now, but the consistency in your posts has kept me following this page closely since high school. i look forward to them every week.
it might be a blog you keep running for your own amusement but its nice to have this add a semblance of structure to my life.
thanks for continuing to write year after year.

Yay for structure! I hope you become self-sufficient to the point you don’t need this website though just because it’s not healthy to be co-dependent and if something happens to me like I get recognised in the street and bukkaked to death by a bunch of NCT stans, I’d want you to keep going. I’m not stopping soon though so don’t worry! Good luck with your mental state – see a doctor if you haven’t!

eating instant noodles that smell suspiciously like parmesan, probably going to die of food poisoning before i see the results of this survey

If they smell like fresh parmesan that’s okay and glad you made it but if it’s that weird supermarket parmesan that they don’t even refrigerate or the other weird parmesan that they have on the table in cheap Italian restaurants and that smells like old socks, well it doesn’t matter what I write because you’re probably dead by now, RIP.

the 4th generation started when aussies started popping up in Kpop groups like a virus… Stray Kids, NewJeans, Nmixx all have them. when it will stop!?

We Australians aren’t that important, the 4th generation starts when Wonho has realistic competition in the objectification survey once again and doesn’t lord it in every category.

I like your blog a lot. I always end up coming back and check once in a while, despite your dislike for BTS and for Yoongi particularly (crazy bc he’s my bias too. wild). We might not like the same music, but I appreciate your raw, brutal opinions & the way you don’t sugarcoat anything. You don’t give a fuck and I find it refreshing. And whenever you DO like things, it makes me happy. I think your blog used to make me insecure about my music taste, but thinking about it deeper, you and music is like me and drawing ; it’s easier to see the flaws when you’ve studied the art. And yet, even if it’s subpar from a professional’s standards, it still resonates with people. Anyway, just some blabber. I hope you have fun destroying every song on your shitlist this year !

Cheers! I think it’s fine to like whatever music you like. If people love the songs that I hate – more power to them, I wish I had their tolerance levels!

One of the best kpop sites. Thanks for all the work you put in on it. Keep it going!

Thank you for reading! Wait… ONE of the best? Damn I’d better lift my game…

You look like the bald victim in S2:E7 of Stranger Things.

Just putting this here so I remember to check the resemblance later. I hope this is true because I wouldn’t mind a TV career, could use the cash right now tbh.

Felt like a fallow/rebuilding year for k-pop. Not thrilled about some the trends emerging but I’m always grateful for all your hard work. Happy Holidays and good health + music in 2024!

Thank you!

Congratulations on your marriage to Chuu!

Thank you! Please enjoy this domestic abuse GIF.

rizzness

This person just put “rizzness” as a response to every question. I salute your dedication to the rizz.

Thanks for another year oppar! Oppar still meets required standards after all the years. Also, really wanted to read your books but haven’t really figured out how to get a copy (I’m from the Philippines, by the way). Hopefully next year I can figure it out. Happy holidays!

You can order an eBook through the Kobo Philippines site. Go here for links to all books in all stores and nationalities. Thanks for reading!

The honesty you bring to your reviews is refreshing, especially in a community so set on dick riding like kpop

Thanks! I agree the dicks get ridden hard in kpop fandom spaces.

Sorry for dropping off reading your blog in the middle of the year, but thank you for your service. I promise to get to your book eventually!!

No rush, they aren’t going anywhere! Thanks for reading, even if you stopped! Hopefully I can blow less goats in 2024 and then maybe you’ll start reading again but I probably won’t hahaha

I just wanted to say that you saved me from depression because I was using kpop as a crutch in a bad way and your posts reality-slapped and I hated you for some time (this a long story). Have a great Christmas too・・､・ｸ・・・､・ｸ・

And here’s part of the reason why I do what I do. Happy to be of service!

that Chuu’s gif in a wedding dress is creepy. Let’s drink to a better year.

You mean this one?

Introduced my (non-delulu) friends to your blog, we now make checking your monday roundups our weekly quality time.

Say hi to your friends for me. I’ll continue to do my best in 2024!

I’ve noticed a decrease in the amount of image macros of K-pop idols with red text overlaid on them. It feels like we only get to see those image macros in the year-end lists, and even then it’s some JAV actress instead. Please reflect and return with more K-pop idol image macros in 2024.

People have been begging me repeatedly on their hands and knees to reduce the macros for like seven years now, and now that the soft-phase out is about 50% complete, you decide you all want them back? Damn, being a k-pop writer who just wants to please absolutely everybody at all times and never upset anyone ever is confusing.

I love discovering new music and you’re the main way I find new kpop songs to listen to. I appreciate you!

Thank you!

Hey Kpopalypse! I don’t usually put down much in these surveys, but I wanted to say that I’ve been following you since Anti Kpop Fangirl days and look forward to your best and worst lists every single year. I usually find some gems in the best of list and the worst of list is entertaining in general. Thanks for making them!

Thanks for sticking with me, I appreciate your high tolerance levels!

Hi oppar!
Your writing, both your blog and your books, has really helped me get through this year. Hope you and your loved ones have a great end of the year!

Thank you!

I still read your roundups but I don’t think I even like kpop that much anymore. It’s been like eleven or twelve years now I suppose.

This is normal, most of it’s poop. It just means you’re not in the cult and have become objective enough to realise that only a small percentage of this stuff is any good. Congratulations, and enjoy your freedom to find better music! I will help you by inserting non k-pop music in roundup when I can!

THANK YOU FOR BEING AWESOME i’ve been reading this site for like 8 years now and even though i think i’m going to die alone and unloved it’s nice knowing that at least you give a small amount of shits thanks caonima

Thank you for reading!

In a world where everyone seems to lack determination, I will always be thankful for Kpopalypse!

Thanks to all readers for supporting what I do! Kpopalypse will return soon!