Annual best-of lists have long been a staple of music, movies, books, and more as each year comes to a close. There’s no denying that, in this age of YouTube, music, movie, and TV streaming, with tastes diverging wildly, a critic or magazine’s best-of list doesn’t hold the same weight it once did. Still, such year-end lists give them a chance to lay bare exactly where their tastes lie and what kind of insight they have. And when you take a look at several of the lists side by side, you can see where they overlap—and one of those aspects in overseas media this year is K-pop. 

Most notable on the lists is NewJeans. Pitchfork put “Super Shy” at number seven on their list of top 100 songs, while The Guardian has it at number three of 20, Rolling Stone’s top 100 honors the song at number six, and NME ranked it number two in their top 50. Get Up, meanwhile, is number 33 on Rolling Stone’s top 100 albums, 15 on Gorilla vs. Bear’s top 50, and 61 on PopMatters’ top 80. Three New York Times critics all highlighted the album, with Jon Caramanica placing it fourth out of 14 albums. Stereogum and Still Listening, who list EPs separately from full studio albums, put Get Up at number one on their list of 25 and number three on a list of 20, respectively.

Most are quick to point to the group’s break away from typical K-pop tropes as the reason for their explosive success, as well as relying on notable songwriters with no previous experience in K-pop, such as Erika de Casier. The growing influence of K-pop on year-end lists from Rolling Stone and NME, each among the most popular outlets in the United States and United Kingdom, respectively, has become a running theme over the past few years. In 2021, NME both featured BTS and aespa on its list of the best 50 songs of the year and published a list of their top 25 favorite K-pop songs. Rolling Stone, meanwhile, ended up including a lot of K-pop when it expanded its songs of the year list from 50 to 100 entries last year. Not surprisingly, NewJeans made both their lists.

What’s particularly notable is that both Pitchfork and Gorilla vs. Bear—veritable indie lovers—put NewJeans in high standing on their year-end lists. Now consider that the group’s being talked about by PopMatters, Stereogum, and Still Listening, too, and there’s a very good chance that a lot of music lovers, with a variety of different tastes and who take their music seriously, will be exposed to NewJeans’ music—but most of them probably have been. Ever since NewJeans put out Get Up, they’ve been one of those have-you-heard-them-yet artists. These year-end lists are a testament to, result of, and message about the group’s growing popularity. So beyond the fact that NewJeans is number seven on Pitchfork’s list, consider who makes up the top six: Lana Del Rey, PinkPantheress, Sufjan Stevens, Noname, Olivia Rodrigo, and SZA—artists with the unquestionable super-hits of 2023.

Also on Rolling Stone’s list of the year’s top 100 songs are “Seven” by Jung Kook (number 99), “Spicy” by aespa (95), “Cupid” by FIFTY FIFTY (75), “FLOWER” by JISOO (67), “Rainy Days” by V (58), “Moonlight Sunrise” by TWICE (55), and “Super” by SEVENTEEN (47). With NewJeans’ number-six song, that’s a total of eight K-pop tracks. The magazine listed 13 K-pop songs last year, from “That That” by PSY at number 93 and “Hype Boy” by NewJeans as high as number 24—but the fact that there were fewer K-pop songs on the list this year isn’t significant when considering how much higher they placed. Rather, with K-pop now a key genre in the US pop market, this would seem to simply be a reflection of the natural trends and evolving tastes of US listeners. Whereas many song selections in previous years were done to highlight artists or their place in the K-pop world, this year’s choices can be explained by the songs’ value within the world of pop music as a whole.

NME lists K-pop songs as well, although they clearly have a specific taste within the wider genre. Their list of the 50 best songs of the year includes “Perfume” by NCT DOJAEJUNG (number 45), “Queencard” by (G)I-DLE (35), an “Eve, Psyche & The Bluebeard’s wife” by LE SSERAFIM (32). They also listed a good number of K-pop albums in their top 50 for the year compared to other outlets: I’ve IVE by IVE (number 47), D-DAY by SUGA (38), and UNFORGIVEN by LE SSERAFIM (30). D-DAY also made Rolling Stone’s list of the 100 best albums for the year, coming in at number 69.

While not traditionally grouped together with K-pop, let’s not neglect to point out the performance of After the Magic by Korean artist Parannoul, and Korean American Yaeji’s debut album, With a Hammer. Both received warmly welcoming reviews, with Parannoul’s album reaching number 47 on Pitchfork’s albums of the year, and Yaeji’s number 15; Stereogum placed them at numbers 15 and 22, respectively. With a Hammer in particular seems to have wide appeal, having also made it to number 77 on PopMatters’ list and number 24 of NME’s.

Things have changed so much now that K-pop, and indeed Korean music as a whole, can no longer be seen as just a subculture or mere visual performance. This year, K-pop gave us “one of the purest pop thrills of the year” (“Super Shy” by NewJeans, Rolling Stone), proved “there’s strength in the collective” (“Super” by SEVENTEEN, Rolling Stone), and marked the “one song this year that should have been on the Barbie soundtrack” (“Queencard” by (G)I-DLE, NME). Clearly, 2023 will be a year to remember.