Why 2013 was the best year in Kpop - a full blown article.
I have been low-key telling everyone that 2013 was THE BEST year for Kpop and I want a chance to prove my point here. (We all have opinions and you can disagree with me on this but I highly think 2013 WAS THE YEAR!)
I’ve been questioning myself for a long time, asking “Was 2013 the best year because it was your first full year as a Kpop stan?” or is it simply because the music that was released was bop after bop, jam after jam, nonstop? Don’t get me wrong, jams/bops and great music are still being released today by amazing Kpop groups (old and new), but personally 2013 blew me away.
So let’s get started on what was released in order from January - December of 2013!
January 1st - Girls’ Generation released their 4th album ‘I Got a Boy’. I Got a Boy was a mix of different drops, and a great breakdown in the chorus mixed with their great vocals. This album contains 10 songs total including: Dancing Queen, Look At Me, & Talk Talk.
January 7th - Super Junior-M released their C-pop album ‘Break Down’. Their main songs ‘Break Down’ and ‘Go’ have great techno to it, and upbeat tempos. This album contains 10 songs total including: A-Oh!, Tunnel, & Stand Up.
January 10th - Boyfriend released their album ‘I Yah’. Iconic song ‘Janus’ was included on this album along with ‘I Yah’. Their voices are a heavenly match, and make my ears beyond happy. This album contains 12 songs in total including: Standing with U, Go Back, & Listen.
January 11th - Infinite H released their EP album ‘Fly High’. This duo includes Dongwoo and Hoya (former member of Infinite), the rappers of Infinite. Their rapping mixed with their vocals are shown wonderfully on this album. This mini album includes 5 songs: Victorious Way, Special Girl (ft. Bumkey), Without U (ft. Zion T), I Can’t (ft. Gaeko), & Fly High (ft. Baby Soul).
January 14th - CNBlue released their EP album ‘Re:BLUE’. A great mixture of rock and a different style of Kpop with their music is what everyone needs! This mini album includes 6 songs: I’m Sorry, Coffee Shop, Where You Are & more!
February 12th - B.A.P released their ‘One Shot’ mini album. Now this mini album is one of my favorites! It’s powerful, it’s aggressive, it gets you hyped and slows it down all in 5 songs! Punch, One Shot, Rain Sound, Come & Zero are some of my all time favorite B.A.P songs, but Zero will ALWAYS hold a place in my heart!
February 13th - Nu’est hurt my heart with their second mini album ‘Hello’. Their promoted song ‘Hello’ has a beautiful guitar sound, their voices literally tear you apart and when that phone rings - ugh I’m hurt. This mini album includes 5 songs along with ‘The girl next door’.
February 19th - ‘Chapter 1. Dream Girl - The Misconceptions of You’ was released by SHINee. If you read up on this blog or my other blog, you already know I talk so HIGHLY of this release along with the other 2 albums that go along with this album! ‘Chapter 1′ includes the upbeat and happy songs. This album includes 9 songs: Dream Girl, Spoiler, Hitchhiking, & Runaway are just some examples. But you already know I could go on FOREVER about this album, so I’ll stop here!
February 25th - Teen Top released their ‘No. 1′ album AND THIS IS ONE OF MY FAVORITES. TEEN TOP DID NOT COME TO PLAY! Their fast beat songs they hit right on the head, but their slow songs on this album is what I LIVE FOR. Missing you & Hello are my two favorites from this album. But, Miss Right, So Sweet & Mr. Bang are also some favorites! This album includes 12 amazing, beautiful songs.
March 7th - WE CAN’T FORGET ABOUT U-KISS! ‘Collage’ was released by U-Kiss with ‘Standing Still’ as their main song on this album. I adore U-Kiss so when they released this album it was downloaded immediately! This album has 12 songs including: Missing You, Party All the Time, & Sweety Girl.
March 21st - ‘New Challenge’ was released by Infinite. Infinite was one of the first bands I got super into when I got into Kpop and for this release, I had a countdown on my phone and was beyond ready! I remember sitting in my English classroom at high school with my laptop watching ‘Man In Love’ right as it dropped! This album includes 7 songs: As Good As It Gets, Beautiful & 60Sec (Infinite covered one of my favorite Sunggyu songs)!
April 18th - C-Clown released their mini album ‘Shaking Heart’, I’m sad that they disbanded because C-Clown was one of my favorite Kpop bands. But this mini album includes 5 songs: Hell Yeah (Intro), Shaking Heart, Go Away, Do You Remember, & So Pretty.
April 26th - WE GOT 2 NEW ALBUMS.
SHINee released their ‘Why So Serious? - The Misconceptions of Me’ including 9 songs and traveling to their darker side. This album has: Nightmare, Why So Serious?, & Evil.
4Minute released their ‘Name is 4Minute’ mini album. Iconic ‘What’s Your First Name?’ was released on this date and welcome to the 4Minute world everyone!
May 6th - ANOTHER 2 ALBUM DROP
‘What’s Happening’ by B1A4 was released with their funky and crazy music video for ‘What’s Happening’, super goofy and such a good upbeat song to make you smile! This mini album has 5 songs!
‘Grown’ by 2PM was also released on this date! Let’s just all take a second and breathe before I say this…….. A.D.T.O.Y. You already know guys, this was THE SONG, SEXY, HOT, AND EVERYTHING I WANTED. Comeback When You Hear This Song, Game Over, & Dangerous are also included on this STEAMY album.
May 20th - VIXX released their ‘Hyde’ mini album including 6 songs and a darker version of VIXX (we will def see more darker versions of VIXX coming up in the year…) but this album includes: Hyde, You’re Mine (ft. Minah), & Chaos.
Let me just breathe, because June was where it got fucking epic.
June 3rd - The 1st Album ‘XOXO’ was released by EXO (The OG 12). Again, if you follow this blog or my other blog you already know I talk HIGHLY of this album and do have a physical copy. I could go on forever about this album and each song but I will say that this was the comeback everyone was anticipating for and to know I was a part of that was fantastic, I love everything about this album, all 10 songs are held closely to my heart AND STOP SAYING WOLF IS CRINGEY - IT’S ICONIC AF.
June 4th - MBLAQ released their mini album ‘Sexy Beat’. ‘Smoky Girl’ is one of my favorite bops, the music video is EVERYTHING, their outfits are FINEEEEE. Yeah this comeback I was not expecting THIS but I GOT THIS AND LOVED IT. 6 songs are included on this mini album: R U Ok?, & Celebrate + more!
June 7th - Henry’s ‘Trap’ mini album was released! HUNNYYYYYY. One of my favorite solo artists album to this day! This EP includes 6 songs: Trap, 1-4-3 (I Love You), My Everything, Ready 2 Love, Holiday & I Would.
June 12th - BTS had their debut album released ‘2 Cool 4 Skool’. (Hard to believe it’s been 5 years OMG). I remember I always checked AllKpop to see the new teaser photos or member photos for BTS and was beyond pumped for this album release and it didn’t disappoint! This mini album includes 7 songs: We Are Bulletproof, Pt. 2, No More Dream & Like + more!
July 10th - Jay Park’s ‘I Like 2 Party’ EP was released. It’s Jay Park, what more do you really need? Anything he puts out I’m gonna enjoy and more. This mini album has 4 songs: I Like 2 Party, Hot, Secret, & Let’s Make Up.
July 12th - MY FAVORITE FEMALE VOCALIST - AILEE with her EP album ‘A’s Doll House’. HER VOICE gives me chills all the damn time. This album has 6 songs including: U & I, No No No, & Rainy Day + more!
July 16th - Infinite released their 4 song mini album ‘Destiny’. Destiny era was a fucking look tbh and all of these songs are some of my fav: Destiny, Inception, Going To You, & Mother.
July 18th - Beast released their ‘Hard to Love, How to Love’ album. ‘Shadow’ was their title song and it was such a different song for Beast but they did it so well! This 8 song album includes: How to Love, Will You Be Alright, & Encore + more!
July 29th - f(x) released their ‘Pink Tape’ album! Rum Pum Pum Pum is so damn catchy and you still catch me singing it to this day. A 12 song album that was given to us, songs were: Signal, Goodbye Summer (ft. D.O.), Toy, & Snapshot + more!
July 31st - ‘Jekyll’ by VIXX was released! An addition to their ‘Hyde’ album they added songs like: G.R.8.U, Light Me Up & Say Love. G.R.8.U is super cute, fun, and really happy-go-lucky song! This was a turn around (concept wise) for VIXX after their super dark Hyde music video!
August 5th - EXO dropped their repackage album of the ‘The 1st Album ‘XOXO’’. This album included the ICONIC song ‘Growl’ that won 14 times on music TV shows, it is described as “the crown jewel in EXO’s fantastic 2013″, was picked as the best Kpop song of 2013, named song of the year at the Melon Music Awards & KBS song festival, it is EXO’s best-selling single having over 2 million downloads! But the repackage album also came with XOXO (Kisses and Hugs) and Lucky!
August 6th - ‘Badman’ was released by B.A.P. This album includes 6 songs, completely different from one another, you can go to an aggressive, heavy beat song like - Badman, but then slow it down to - Coffee Shop or have a party jam on like - Hurricane! Your pick!
August 8th - 2 ALBUM RELEASES!
SHINee released their ‘The Misconceptions of Us’ album. Combining their first 2 albums (Misconceptions of You + Misconceptions of Me) together, they have one big album with new songs like: Selene 6.23 & Better Off! I have this album in psychical copy and the way they packaged this was down-right perfect and jaw dropping and how it should be done!
Tasty released their ‘Spectacular’ mini album! This mini album includes 4 songs:
Spectacular, MAMAMA, Addiction, & 2NITE (ft. HanHae of Phantom). Tasty left Woollim in 2015 and are now with an agency in China.
August 12th - MBLAQ released ‘Love Beat’. They added 3 new songs to their recent album “Sexy Beat” which include: No Love, I Don’t Know & Prayer. I Don’t Know is honestly my second favorite song by MBLAQ that was released in 2013, a very different turn from Smoky Girl for sure, but it worked.
August 19th - Seungri released his EP album ‘Let’s Talk About Love’. This album includes 6 songs and Blackpink member - Jennie Kim was featured on song ‘GG Be’. It was highly anticipated from me and I couldn’t wait to hear Seungri’s voice as a soloist since the last time we heard it was V.V.I.P in 2011. This album was played for the longest time in my car! Songs are: Let’s Talk About Love, Gotta Talk To U, Come to My, You Hoooo!!!!, & Love Box
August 22nd - Nu’est released their 3rd mini album ‘Sleep Talking’. Their title song ‘Sleep Talking’ was very different than ‘Hello’. A lot of fun in the beat and the music video was very colorful and not sad. This album has 6 songs!
August 26th - ‘Teen Top Class’ was released by Teen Top! TEEN TOP REALLY SNATCHED MY WIG IN 2013! Rocking was one of the best choreography’s I’ve ever seen, THAT FOOT WORK. The beat is something you hear in the club and just go absolutely crazy! This mini album has 6 songs, another favorite of mine is Rock Star (ft. Maboos).
September 2nd - GD RELEASED HIS ‘Coup D’etat’ ALBUM. HONESTLY NO WORDS. JUST KNOW THAT IT’S AMAZING. GD is a fucking musical genius and just kills the game whenever he enters! This album has 12 songs: R.O.D (ft. Lydia Paek), Black (ft. Sky Ferreira), WHO YOU?, GO, Crooked, AND MOREEEEEE.
September 9th - ‘Thriller’ was released by BTOB. Like okay BTOB, I see you over here doing a creepy concept and I LOVE IT. Thriller was a huge hit for me, their stages were great, the music video was just enough creepy for me, and their voices - come on - fantastic. Album has 6 songs!
September 11th - BTS released ‘O!RUL8,2?’ album. This album includes: N.O, We On, If I Ruled the World, Coffee, CYPHER PT 1, Attack on Bangtan & Paldogangsan + 3 more! ALSO GIVE PALDOGANGSAN MORE LOVE. Anyways, this was a great followup album from ‘2 cool 4 skool’! Different beats, and they weren’t really pissed off like they were in the first album they were out having fun man - you know?
October 2nd - Block B released ‘Very Good’. From their goofy ‘Very Good’ video they did a complete 180 and then proceeded to give us ‘Be the Light’. I live for slower songs from groups, god this song was outstanding. This album includes 5 songs!
October 14th - SHINee released ‘Everybody’. SHINee really fucking came after me this year. Everything they put out was just astounding, hands down. This mini album included 7 songs: Everybody, Symptoms, Colorful + more. AlSO THE OUTFITS FOR THIS ALBUM. THEY ARE EVERYTHING.
October 28th - Trouble Maker came back with their SEXY AF comeback ‘
Chemistry’. Hyuna & Hyunseung are amazing together and I could never ask for a better boy/girl duo. A 5 song album which includes: Volume Up, Now (iconic amirite?), Player (ft. Hyuna), Attention, & I Like (Hyuna solo, ft. Flowsik)
October 29th - JaeJoong released ‘WWW’. I fucking love Jaejoong, he was someone that I didn’t think I would get into at all because when I clicked on the ‘Mine’ music video it was dark, eery, and I couldn’t picture myself enjoying this but his voice is absolutely stunning and that’s what roped me in. WWW also includes my all time favorite song by him - Just Another Girl. But this 13 song album is just beautiful - I Said I’m Sorry, Paradise, Butterfly & more - come on guys he’s just wow.
October 31st - U-Kiss released ‘Moments’. She’s Mine, Mysterious Lady & Wait + 4 more were on this album! Another great U-Kiss mini album, they never disappoint honestly.
November 25th - VIXX released their first full length album - ‘Voodoo’, creepy? Yeah it is! A 15 song album that includes different varieties from Voodoo Doll to Only U to Super Hero to Rock Ur Body to ON and ON. Really, there’s something for everyone on this album. It’s a bop and a half.
December 9th - ‘Miracles in December’ by EXO was released. Grab your fucking tissues and get fucking ready to cry. Ugh Miracles in December can make me cry like no other with the vocals - just stunning and beautiful and gives me goosebumps but The Star is like lol jk have fun Merry Christmas.
December 17th - Topp Dogg released their ‘Dogg’s Out (Repackage) album. I wish Topp Dogg was still a band because I loved them. This repackage album has 7 songs that include Follow Me, Cigarette, & Playground.
That’s it everyone! Just remember this is my opinion on why 2013 was the best year, and these are the releases that I enjoyed the most!
