u/betchugonlikeme

The pictures are the currently active groups and inactive groups are listed in the post.

This is by no means an exhaustive list, just ones I found while clicking around, would definitely be interested to hear others that I missed if ya'll know them.

Listed in order from most monthly listeners (as of Monday August 10 2026)

ACTIVE GROUPS:

1. Kiiikiii
2. Rescene
3. fromis_9
4. izna
5. triples
6. NCT Wish
7. Oh My Girl
8. Atheart
9. Billlie
10. ifeye
11. Saymyname
12. H1-KEY
13. CLASSy
14. Secret
15. Heart of Woman
16. ONF
17. HITSG
18. ETA: Pastel Girls (but only one of their spotify accounts where their name is written in korean) 153 ML

Most of these groups make sense to me but some of the newer groups like ifeye surprised me! Not shocked by how few boygroups are on here

INACTIVE GROUPS (I didn't have space to include these in the carousel so they're just listed here)

1. T-ARA - 1.32M ML
2. Girls Day - 698k ML
3. Brown Eyed Girls - 582k ML
4. Brave Girls - 500k ML
5. Orange Caramel - 493k ML
6. After School - 376k ML
7. Rainbow - 161k ML
8. 9Muses - 130k ML
9. Crayon Pop - 111k ML
10. DalShabet - 110k ML
11. Ladies Code - 105k ML
12. ZE:A - 90k ML
13. Spica - 38.7k ML
14. F-ve Dolls - 38.4k ML
15. Co-ed School - 37k ML

I decided to stick to idol groups only but this list would have been a lot longer I'd included kpop adjacent acts (AKMU, Bol4) soloists (Yena, Eunbi, most of the midtier gen 2 boygroup soloists) and/or bands (Day6, Nflying, QWER)

Interesting thing I discovered doing this: Kuala Lumpur Malaysia is probably the most represented #1 city among kpop groups across a huge range of groups from different eras and from the most popular groups to the most nugu. Also SS501's #1 city is Lima Peru??? probably the most confusing one i found

What do yall think? Would you be interested in a list of groups whose top city is Kuala Lumpur (it is SO many)

everyone and their mother used to be shooting MVs inside a damn laundromat, are any 5th gen/currently active groups still doing that?

like the only recent one i can think of is Kandis filming a whole live performance of their album in a laundromat but that wasn't an MV, however I don't watch nearly as many MVs as I used to so I could easily be missing out

Ayne, Main Vocal of Heart of Woman (HOW)

<3

I've been thinking about this recently, it is common for a group work with/purchase from many different producers for different songs, and kpop songwriters and producer will usually have songs with a lot of different groups. Often we talk about songs being good because they feel specific to the group that released them, tailored to their specific charms or elevated by their specific abilities, but what about songs that are good for the opposite reason "generic" in a way meaning "classic/universal/timeless" rather than "uninspired/uninteresting/pedestrian"

Recently the song that made me think about this is Heart of Woman song Told U So, which is written and produced by a few big kpop names (like one of the Blue Valentine writers, and producers who have worked with IVE, Kiiikiii, Fiftyfifty etc) it has such a classic Girl Group feel like I could easily imagine so many different groups from so many different eras releasing it. Despite (or maybe because of) that non specificity of it's an incredibly well-written pop song in every regard, amazing melody, amazing production, amazing buildup, amazing release, all of it. I've listened to it so many times and it's one of my favorite songs released this year.

I wonder if other people have examples of this, songs that are good BECAUSE they sound so universal rather than specific to the group/label that released them?

IOI Suddenly MV Link - Released May 19, 2026

CLASSy Tear Drop MV Link - Released June 23, 2026

When Suddenly was released to massive domestic success earlier this summer I remember a few posts on here wondering if it would start any kind of trends musically or in terms of the reunion format. I was really interested when, just a little over a month later CLASSy released Tear Drop, which I noticed immediately hit a lot of similar musical and emotional beats and also had some very interesting overlap in what they represent for each group. (and in case it needs to be said, i don't think anyone was copying anything, Tear Drop would have already been selected as the tt before suddenly released, the similarities i am talking about are coincidental or because of more base level musical and emotional DNA)

Some interesting convergences and contrasts between the two releases:

In terms of how the songs operate within the canon of the groups, both groups were formed on survival shows IOI on Produce 101 in 2016 and CLASSy on My Teenage Girl in 2022. Both tracks operate as "reunion" songs in a sense, IOI's being a full blown reunion for their 10 year anniversary after having only operating as a group for less than a year and all the members separating to different companies and careers, this song represented bringing many disparate parts back together for the first (and possibly only) time. CLASSy's is a little different but they very unexpectedly left their (literally evil) former company Pocketdol in 2025 and then, to most peoples' surprise including mine, announced they had reformed in their entirety under the label K-Tiger Zero with Tear Drop as the representative song for this new start.

Both groups have experienced immense hardship through the years, many of the IOI girls experienced issues with their companies or wholesale disbandment of their groups and many struggled to find the type of success I think they probably wanted, CLASSy suffered under a terrible company, regularly had long hiatuses and has struggled to find their footing as a group. Additionally both groups debuted with extremely young members, and both Suddenly and Tear Drop are the first releases where all the members are over 18 and both groups feature some of the strongest lineups of their respective eras.

Musically the overall feeling of both songs is one of melancholy and pain but with a certain unimpeachable brightness peaking through. Suddenly is much more a synthpop while Tear Drop much more rock based but they share a similar BPM and some definite overlap in arrangement. the bass at start of second verse of Suddenly in particular ties the two songs together. There's also a similar sense of catharsis in the "Du du du" postchorus in Tear Drop and the "La la la" final chorus/outro of Suddenly.

Lyrically the songs cover different ground but they both circle around this idea of a sudden strong sensation of sadness and longing that demands to be felt, while IOI sings about falling into that feeling and letting it sweep them away CLASSy sings about feeling that pain and choosing to smile through it even while the tears continue to fall.

I think there's something here that parallels the two groups positions, like you can see them feeling the same emotion but processing it in different ways, IOI is never going to be a permanent group, (though I do think given their success we might see another release from them in the future) the longing for them to be a permanent is something that hits painfully, washes over you and has to be dealt with the way grief and longing often are, not by fixing it but by simply experiencing it, moving through it, and coming out the other side with a better understanding of yourself. CLASSy on the other hand intends to be a permanent group, the song is about resilience and making a commitment to each other and their fans to keep trying in what they hope to be a new beginning.

This difference is most clearly seen in the two bridges. Suddenly's bridge ends with:

>Just when I think I'm about to forget, memories cast their shadow again
Our memories keep flickering before my eyes

While Tear Drop's bridge ends with

>Say it loud, say it all
I'm still standing, I won't fall

I don't think one is better than the other, just that different, both are experiencing pain but IOI's version is filled with a certain maturity, understanding and nostalgia whereas CLASSy is filled with more eagerness, optimism and naivety, Suddenly feels like the older sister, Tear Drop feels like the younger sister, both very beautiful and honest, and both making for really excellent songs.

can't wait to splayit with all of you 😍😍

I really love this song and you can hear another singer (I don't believe this is a member of Rescene because they don't sound like this in any other song) doing some backing vocals here (doing the response "I run a-way", and I think is also mixed in with some of the chorus vocal sections. The voice is extremely familiar from (I think) non-kpop solo work but I can't put my finger on who it is and I can't find the full track credits including backing vocals. Does anyone have any idea who this is?

More like Monsta XXX

I know I'm still listening to the whole thing at least once most days :D

Daydreaming can go in lots of places imo but I've been really married to Life is a Game looping back into ALIVE since the first time I heard it.

For me examples of this would be Fondue by DKB, and Street by Gugudan which are honestly my all-time favorite songs from those artists but both sit at the bottom in streams of their respective releases.

Alternatively groups where your favorite title track is the least popular.

What are examples of this for y'all? Obviously it might not be the same on all platforms, or unclear if a song has multiple versions or something like that, mostly just looking for times where you LOVE something that most people are meh on