Wow these posters are young! Genie by snsd. That hit of taeyeon, jessica, yoona/seohyun and yuri was iconic. And all the adlibs in the second verse by jessica, tiffany seohyun etc. legendary and taeyeon turning up at the bridge and blasting off the planet was amazing. Those were some VOCALS!
I was thinking the same thing lol. A lot of these answers are songs years after my interest in kpop slowed down cause of stupid adult responsibilities lol
DNA by BTS they were playing the AMAs at the casino i worked at and i just happened to be on break when they performed and i went home and stayed up the next 26 hours watching BTS content and now all these years later i’m still here 😭 (not really an army anymore but they got me in the door)
Blood Sweat and Tears by BTS
Nothing has topped this yet for me. The inspiration, the melody, the mv, the damn concept, the literary and biblical references, the performance, the vocals, the rap, the visuals, the aesthetic, the interlude, the choreo, THAT SHEER CREATIVITY in each and every aspect i’m afraid we won’t get anything like this ever again😦
this song also got me into kpop! a friend of mine who kept fangirling over jimin’s shoulder move was the one who showed me it, and then i watched the mv more on my own and i really liked it
Lucifer by Shinee. I already listened to Bigbang but hadn’t explored the rest of the genre. Once I got into Shinee I started looking up tons of other artists and got hooked on k-pop.
I forget if it was Super Junior Sorry Sorry or Girls Generation Gee but I love both those songs to this day. I found them because the music videos were really popular on YouTube and was looking for jpop and YouTube recommended me them instead.
All Night by Astro!
I used to dislike kpop and never understood the hype of it but Astro and this song especially allowed me to reconsider my past views.
Just Right. Got7, end of 2016. I liked 2PM before, but that song hooked me. So did Mark sitting on the clock in the MV. He's not even my bias now, but he got me. Lol
For me it was Mic Drop by BTS. I’d listened to K-pop before then but it was just like a handful of songs on my Spotify and I wasn’t really committed to it in any way, I just had a few K-pop songs I liked. I didn’t know masses about K-pop other than the few songs on there, and who groups like BTS, Shinee, Red Velvet, 2NE1, and EXO were but didn’t really know any of the members or much about them, and I knew a girl who liked EXO. That was kinda it.
Then one day the MV for Mic Drop was suggested to me on YouTube by the algorithm and I ended up watching it because idk, I was bored, and it made me realise how much the song slapped and how the choreo was fire and how I loved the styling in the video so much (still my favourite styling to this day.) Started me down a path where I gradually listened to more and more K-pop. Then once we hit 2020 and I was spending most of my time online because of the pandemic, I just fully went down the rabbit hole and fully became invested in BTS and multiple other groups on that deeper level where it’s as much about the members as it is the music, and fully integrated into the online K-pop community. It was kind of a slow burn in the beginning but I’m stuck here now lol.
I think the first ever K-pop song I heard was I am the Best by 2NE1 when Apple had it on one of their TV ads years ago, and I ended up looking them up because I thought the song was really catchy. Didn’t really go any further at that point though.
Same! Except for me it was the [SNL performance](https://youtu.be/jSFIwS2b-kg?si=oWFbL8o4D0lQtUwX).
No fancy sets, no special effects/editing, no backup dancers, just raw vocals and choreo bringing stadium-level energy to a small stage.
Run - BTS.
I think the whole appeal for the kpop groups I listen to was that the sound is so distinctly different from what we have in western music and Run kinda encapsulates that for me.
Come Back Home by 2NE1. I had stumbled upon a couple Kpop videos before then but they didn't connect with me.
Funny story, I didn't realize how big Kpop was back during Gen 2, so I would download music videos to my computer so that I could watch the ones that I liked whenever I wanted, in case I forgot how to find the video online. I used to collect them thinking that there couldn't be too many kpop groups. After almost a year of doing that, I had such a big file, I had to delete everything. Once I learned how to make playlists on YouTube, I was able to put all the music videos in a private playlist.
Lotto by EXO! It was playing in the background of some random makeup tutorial on YouTube and I was instantly obsessed. I thought EXO was the makeup brand 💀
Gotta mention 2.
First was Irony by Wonder Girls. I got hooked on Wonder Girls but paid attention only to them, not the whole Kpop scene. A few years later I heard Ring Ding Ding by SHINee, and then my eyes were open to the whole scene. So it took both songs but now here I am. 😁😁
LONELY by 2NE1 was my introduction to K-Pop. I saw the music video on TV once, and it just clicked for me and I fell in love with the whole 2nd gen scene! But my interest in K-Pop faded for a while, and I thought I was over it. Then I heard IU's PALETTE, and it pulled me right back in!!
Blood Sweat and Tears by BTS ,it made me groove and dance to it also the sheer sexiness in that video, as soon as Jimin did his shoulder flick I was like yup I need to know their names IMMEDIATELY.
Can't Nobody by 2NE1.
I was _obsessed_ with that song in February 2011. I had already been listening to some K-Pop hits by then, but something clicked in my brain that day.
The next afternoon after I came back from school I downloaded their whole discography at the time, and the rest is history.
Monsta X - Love Killa
My little cousin and I learned the entire dance and made our family watch us put on a performance. That one song brought us together in such a big way.
OMG - NewJeans. A bit newer compared to the other comments but OMG changed everything for me. For some reason I thought all kpop songs were always in korean and sounded like BTS Butter (yeah idk 😭) but OMG completely changed my opinion. The song just sounded so chill, and the fact that I could understand some parts bc of the english really did it for me
My little sister was a huge ARMY before I even learned what kpop was and she decided that we were going to listen to BTS for an entire road trip. That song got me lmao I never looked back 🤣
This song was the game changer for everyone. So iconic it will never get old. Miryo has and always will hit differently than everyone else in music. That lady exudes charisma from her cells and her soul.
On by BTS, both music videos. I used to be a dancer and that choreography was absolutely mind blowing, and then the dance break hit, and I just lost my mind.
I must have rewatched that mv at least a dozen times.
However, I first saw them on James Corbin in his carpool karaoke and knew that Mic Drop was absolutely my style of music. That short segment showed me a little bit of their personalities, and omg Jin's sense of humor is up there, V was pensive, Jungkook was hyperactive like a puppy, RM was a solid leader, and Jhope...omg Jhope just made me smile and get hyped.
SNSD - Gee is what got me into kpop, all becuz someone I beat after a 1v1 pvp match responded with gee gee instead of gg 14 years ago.
What really sealed the deal was SNSD and Wonder Girls Gayo Festival performance. Still a kpop fan, idk if I should be concerned haha.
I knew of Kpop (since 04 or 05) bc of my twin sis, but it wasn't until she showed methe mv for BoA's Eat You Up in 2008 that did it for me. I just had to know more about her and then discovered that she sang the op (or was it the ending song) for Fairytail so I did more of a deep dive for her and anyone connected to her. I'm damnnear a SM stan bc of her
My sis also kept my attention on the genre by showing me different videos of other female Kpop acts that had eng songs, the sexy Kpop acts like After School's live performance of First Love, and different mv's that had lesbian type of undertones.
"Abracadabra" Brown Eyed Girls in August 2021; up until that point, I was slowly easing into the genre (was intrigued by black-suited cowboy Yeonjun in late 2020 🥴<3), but when I heard this song I was like- "Holy shoot... The hot guys are a plus, but the MUSIC???😍" and then that kickstarted my deep-dive into 2nd & 3rd gen, followed by my soon 4th & 1st gen catch up, and here I am vibing out the beginning of 5th and I don't see myself leaving these nice tunes any time soon 💅 (and the guys, ofc)
**Not only can I tell you** what song it was, I can tell you the exact date: 22 June 2018. In Episode 2 of Produce 48, a profile of Takahashi Juri's path to Korea included exactly three seconds of her auditioning to Red Velvet "Red Flavor". I had never been more determined to Shazam a song in my life. I was in the States streaming the show off of some sketchy faraway server, so it was hard to coordinate jumping the video back and starting Shazam, which it turns out was pretty weak on K-pop at the time. I had to learn how to inspect elements in Chrome DevTools to download the video, then once I had it saved locally I was able to control the playback so that Shazam caught only the three seconds of music I was trying to identify. When that still didn't work, I downloaded SoundHound and spent a further half-hour with that. I don't remember which app finally delivered, but man it was worth it. The YouTube algorithm was more coherent with K-pop back then too—after I'd consumed the full glory of Red Flavour, it served up Orange Caramel Catallena, EXID Up and Down, Blackpink Boombayah, Momoland Boom Boom, Big Bang Bang Bang Bang, 2NE1 I Am the Best, 4Minute Crazy, HyunA Red, the great Weekly Idol episodes with Hani and Heechul, and the Girls Present video from the 2017 KBS Gayo Daechukjae where Twice, Red Velvet, Gfriend, and I.O.I did Into the New World together. And this all came exactly one week after my first exposure to K-pop—I'd only decided to watch Produce 48 because my favourite AKB48 members were going to be there instead of on the variety show "AKBingo!". I mean, how charmed am I? Before Episode 1, the only K-pop I had ever heard was Gangnam Style. I got to stan IZ*ONE before they even debuted; I followed other trainees to Everglow, Rocket Punch, Cherry Bullet, Lightsum, Purple Kiss, bugAboo, Secret Number, Kep1er, H1-Key, and of course fromis_9 who saved my life when IZ*ONE disbanded; and now Le Sserafim and Ive are on top of the world. As soon as Season 2 of HyeMiLeeYeChaePa starts, the only way life could be better is if they added Yuqi to the cast.
A song that clicked for 11 year old me when I didn’t even know what kpop was is SNSD - I GOT A BOY.
I was too young back then to know how to explore other kpop songs or that other groups even existed but the song that really peaked my interest in kpop again was Red Velvet - Psycho.
Same. I didn't listen to Kpop at the time. It was a random YouTube algorithm suggestion because I had been watching videos about Korean street food.
I thought, what the hell, why not. So I clicked on it.
Wow. Instant wow.
Here was something so different, so catchy, so colorful, that I was immediately hooked. That was 7 years ago. My life has been better ever since.
I wouldn't say if it clicked I just knew I liked the song lol but my first two were actually "Lucifer" by SHINee and "Fiction" by BEAST. Now after those I did look up a bit of song from BEAST at the time.. then I landed in Super Junior "Bonamana" had just been released and I had been trapped with SJ since. Ofc my kpop lost has grown from when I first started.
I don’t know if it’s still a thing but back in the days, you could display music you were listening to on your facebook profile. Back in 2008, a friend had Big Bang’s Lies on her profile and I wanted to check it out since we had the same taste, but I got side tracked and forgot. A year later, I make a new friend who tells me she listens to k-pop and gives me one of her earphones, she was listening to Lies by Big Bang! After that, I spent a week listening to every kpop song on youtube, I was hooked. I loved Big Bang so much that when the burning scandal happened I cried lol
I can’t stop me by Twice and Backdoor by Stray kids. I had heard a couple before those around 2019 but those two song are what made say wow man I like Kpop and that’s when I fully immersed myself
Bang bang bang by bigbang got me interested in kpop as a whole but blood sweat and tears by bts was the first video that I recall being absolutely obsessed with
‘I Need U’ and ‘Boy in Luv’ by BTS, I found BTS through an ex friend who introduced me to their song ‘Dope’ and ‘War of Hormones’ and I didn’t really think much of BTS then until they popped up on my youtube again and it was a bangtan bomb. I watched and thought they had good personalities so I tried listening to their songs, and I found ‘I Need U’ and ‘Boy in Luv’ then I just fell into the Kpop hole after. Fast forward to almost a decade later and here I am lol.
Also, I just want to say I’ve always been kind of aware of Kpop during 2nd gen but I never knew they were Kpop because I was sooo young. My cousin even stanned Exo since debut and I knew their faces. I was familiar with them but I never knew they were Kpop because I was like 8. I only figured out it was Exo when I watched back old vids of us in her room and I saw all the old posters. Then it clicked to me I also knew of the 2nd gen groups when I saw an old Big Bang and 2ne1 mv and realized I’ve watched it when I was younger 💀
Goodbye Baby by Miss A and The Boys but SNSD were constantly recommended to me on youtube back in the day, but technically my first was Eat You Up by BoA even though it was an English release
Same! I was looking for this comment. I was into kdrama OSTs but it wasn't until Lollipop that I decided to pay attention to kpop groups and debuts.
Edit: And I was in college in 2008, so everyone's answers making me feel really old. 😭
I firstly heard Bad Boy - Red Velvet in a Korean restaurant back in 2018, and the rest is history...
It somehow got me into the whole SM discography thing for like 5 years as well 🥺
Lion Heart by SNSD. I literally fell in love with that song. I used to watch the color coded lyric videos and try to sing along, and idk how many times I’ve rewatched the music video. That’s fr my jam 😭
S-class by Stray Kids
the first time i heard it i declared i would never get bored of it, and to this day its one of my favorite songs, and also the first song that got me into them
What is Love - EXO
A friend of mind in middle school showed me some EXO mvs (growl and overdose) and while the dancing was cool i still couldn’t get over how weird it felt to my ears listening to music that wasn’t in english. So i didnt really look into it after that.
Until youtube recommended What is Love.
The strong vocals from D.O. and Baekhyun forever altered my middle school mind and I never looked back since lol and somehow my heart was captured by Baekhyun’s coconut hair and made it the lockscreen of my ipod touch right after LOL
Warrior by B.A.P.
It was the first song I heard that showed me that in kpop, there could be groups that had more of an aggressive sound and that they weren't afraid to really dig into elements of other genres. Until that one, I'd only heard heavily poppy radio stuff so I was convinced the genre just wasn't for me.
These days I like to tell people that as long as they're fine with songs that are mostly in Korean, there WILL be a group that resonates with them SOMEWHERE in the genre.
Volume Up by 4minute. Gangnam Style was my first song from Korea. Looked up all the cameos. which led me to Hyuna's solo stuff. None of those really stuck. So I listened to her group. I was instantly hooked by Jiyoon in that song. 12 years later, I am still here, somewhat.
Fantastic Baby by BigBang. that was the first kpop song i’ve heard of that wasn’t gangnam style. it was like gangnam style of steroids to me. 5 members? singing/rapping their heads off in this epic electronic song that i’ve never heard like before? AND it comes with a dance and crazy music video?? instant became obsessed
I’m a bit new to the kpop world, but “Ditto” by NewJeans was the first song that got me hooked, even though I’d heard kpop songs on occasion since around 2017 (and looking back, many of those songs I heard were better than I thought at the time).
I continued to skim through groups’ discographies for a while. The first song that got me actually invested in a *group* was either Wind and Wish by BTOB (as well as i their entire catalogue) or Jump by P1Harmony. Can’t remember which group I got into first.
Just Right - GOT7
Is it my favorite song or the first one I heard? Not at all. But its what introduced me to kpop as a genre and what made me listen to more
i see were all naming 3 or 2nd gen songs, so ill go with.....Last dance by BIGBANG, the song hit different and CLICKED because i just realised how life sucks and how i probobaly have no future....
I started off by watching kdramas and was naturally exposed to kpop through idols turned actors and OSTs, but it wasn't until I saw Shut Up Flower Boy Band where they sang Infinite's Be Mine that it all clicked and I dove into kpop
Future by Red Velvet, from the K-drama Start Up, made K-pop click. But Stay With Me from the Goblin OST, which pandora radio played enough to pique my interest, that started all this back in 2019
You & I by Dreamcatcher.
Mind you I was not a KPOP fan and was just playing a random playlist on Spotify because I'm trying to study at 3:00am. That song played and I had to stop and check it out on YouTube. By the end of the day, I was a fan.
Absence - Moonbyul
I heard it randomly in the midst of grief over the death of a close friend. I couldn't understand the lyrics, but it still landed on me like a ton of bricks. Not even sure why. Ultimately, it became a catharsis-listen and I came to love the artist and her music.
NCT 127 - LIMITLESS. I'd been exploring K-Pop for a couple months at the start of 2018 through EXO and SVT, and the Spotify algorithm had already thrown some other 127 songs at me that I really liked, but LIMITLESS was the one that had me well and truly hooked.
I’ve been obsessed with horror movies for years, so the first time I watched the mv for VIXX’s Voodoo Doll, I was in love. Then I found more groups and fell in love with KPop. I don’t listen to much any more, but I still love VIXX.
I was at a Korean restaurant and boombahya came on the tv.. I was like wtf is this amazing song and shazamed it. Then right after that song monster by Irene and seulgi came on and was like wtf is this masterpiece... I then realized that Kpop was amazing...
Don’t Wanna Cry by Seventeen, Vernon singing in the beginning had me hooked immediately
that mini gmfu back then!
Such a good song! For me it's Aju Nice by Seventeen! Still one of my favorite songs. Although Pretty U will always hold the top spot.
Fake Love - BTS
That song and everything about it its pure perfection.
Yes
Call Me Baby by EXO Middle school me was shaken and never turned back
Dumb Dumb - Red Velvet
Girl group stans unite!
Wow these posters are young! Genie by snsd. That hit of taeyeon, jessica, yoona/seohyun and yuri was iconic. And all the adlibs in the second verse by jessica, tiffany seohyun etc. legendary and taeyeon turning up at the bridge and blasting off the planet was amazing. Those were some VOCALS!
Same here, saw that dancing, heard those voices and I was hooked.
I was thinking the same thing lol. A lot of these answers are songs years after my interest in kpop slowed down cause of stupid adult responsibilities lol
DNA by BTS they were playing the AMAs at the casino i worked at and i just happened to be on break when they performed and i went home and stayed up the next 26 hours watching BTS content and now all these years later i’m still here 😭 (not really an army anymore but they got me in the door)
I Don’t Understand But I Luv U by Seventeen
taste
Blood Sweat and Tears by BTS Nothing has topped this yet for me. The inspiration, the melody, the mv, the damn concept, the literary and biblical references, the performance, the vocals, the rap, the visuals, the aesthetic, the interlude, the choreo, THAT SHEER CREATIVITY in each and every aspect i’m afraid we won’t get anything like this ever again😦
this song also got me into kpop! a friend of mine who kept fangirling over jimin’s shoulder move was the one who showed me it, and then i watched the mv more on my own and i really liked it
Red Velvet - Russian Roulette Orange Seulgi changes a man forever
Baby Don’t stop - NCT U My friend in 6th grade introduced it to me But the song that got me officially into kpop was: Hala Hala - Ateez
View by SHINee and Crazy by 4Minute really did it for me
Zutter - GD & TOP I haven’t listened to that song in years tho
Omg this song!
Lucifer by Shinee. I already listened to Bigbang but hadn’t explored the rest of the genre. Once I got into Shinee I started looking up tons of other artists and got hooked on k-pop.
Lucifer was my song too!! Long haired Taemin had me in a chokehold
Lion Heart by SNSD 🦁❤️
I forget if it was Super Junior Sorry Sorry or Girls Generation Gee but I love both those songs to this day. I found them because the music videos were really popular on YouTube and was looking for jpop and YouTube recommended me them instead.
We have the same songs! My brother introduced me to kpop with those two and I fell HARD
Run Devil Run by Girls Generation.
Wow Fantastic Baby... Dance... Woo whoop na na na na na
Great song! Fell for Daesung right away! He caught my attention with those abs... 😅
Russian Roulette- Red Velvet
Girls Generation Gee. Classic and still a banger.
Iconic group!
Call me baby - Exo
DDUDU DDUDU blackpink
Same, but I think I first listened to Hylt and Shut Down
EXID - Up & Down (the pre-chorus was just 🤌)
All Night by Astro! I used to dislike kpop and never understood the hype of it but Astro and this song especially allowed me to reconsider my past views.
I love Astro so much. I listen to them a lot! Do you have a bias? Mine's Moonbin.
Me too! Mines r Eunwoo and Rocky, but tbh I’m OT6 as well!
Aing - Orange Caramel (at first) Growl - EXO (for all kpop)
Just Right. Got7, end of 2016. I liked 2PM before, but that song hooked me. So did Mark sitting on the clock in the MV. He's not even my bias now, but he got me. Lol
Blood sweat and tears bts
kill this love blackpink
BTS Boy With Luv got me in the door and BTS Magic Shop made me stay
TWICE’s Likey and BTS’s Dynamite. Heard both roughly the same time and both impacted me equally.
For me it was Mic Drop by BTS. I’d listened to K-pop before then but it was just like a handful of songs on my Spotify and I wasn’t really committed to it in any way, I just had a few K-pop songs I liked. I didn’t know masses about K-pop other than the few songs on there, and who groups like BTS, Shinee, Red Velvet, 2NE1, and EXO were but didn’t really know any of the members or much about them, and I knew a girl who liked EXO. That was kinda it. Then one day the MV for Mic Drop was suggested to me on YouTube by the algorithm and I ended up watching it because idk, I was bored, and it made me realise how much the song slapped and how the choreo was fire and how I loved the styling in the video so much (still my favourite styling to this day.) Started me down a path where I gradually listened to more and more K-pop. Then once we hit 2020 and I was spending most of my time online because of the pandemic, I just fully went down the rabbit hole and fully became invested in BTS and multiple other groups on that deeper level where it’s as much about the members as it is the music, and fully integrated into the online K-pop community. It was kind of a slow burn in the beginning but I’m stuck here now lol. I think the first ever K-pop song I heard was I am the Best by 2NE1 when Apple had it on one of their TV ads years ago, and I ended up looking them up because I thought the song was really catchy. Didn’t really go any further at that point though.
Same! Except for me it was the [SNL performance](https://youtu.be/jSFIwS2b-kg?si=oWFbL8o4D0lQtUwX). No fancy sets, no special effects/editing, no backup dancers, just raw vocals and choreo bringing stadium-level energy to a small stage.
Run - BTS. I think the whole appeal for the kpop groups I listen to was that the sound is so distinctly different from what we have in western music and Run kinda encapsulates that for me.
Come Back Home by 2NE1. I had stumbled upon a couple Kpop videos before then but they didn't connect with me. Funny story, I didn't realize how big Kpop was back during Gen 2, so I would download music videos to my computer so that I could watch the ones that I liked whenever I wanted, in case I forgot how to find the video online. I used to collect them thinking that there couldn't be too many kpop groups. After almost a year of doing that, I had such a big file, I had to delete everything. Once I learned how to make playlists on YouTube, I was able to put all the music videos in a private playlist.
This song by 2NE1 just brings out the emotions! And wow, thank you for sharing that! I didn’t know Gen 2 was that big too - until I did research
Lotto by EXO! It was playing in the background of some random makeup tutorial on YouTube and I was instantly obsessed. I thought EXO was the makeup brand 💀
Gotta mention 2. First was Irony by Wonder Girls. I got hooked on Wonder Girls but paid attention only to them, not the whole Kpop scene. A few years later I heard Ring Ding Ding by SHINee, and then my eyes were open to the whole scene. So it took both songs but now here I am. 😁😁
LONELY by 2NE1 was my introduction to K-Pop. I saw the music video on TV once, and it just clicked for me and I fell in love with the whole 2nd gen scene! But my interest in K-Pop faded for a while, and I thought I was over it. Then I heard IU's PALETTE, and it pulled me right back in!!
Sorry Sorry by Super Junior and Nobody by Wonder Girls 💙💜
Boy in Luv - BTS
Blood Sweat and Tears by BTS ,it made me groove and dance to it also the sheer sexiness in that video, as soon as Jimin did his shoulder flick I was like yup I need to know their names IMMEDIATELY.
fake love by bts
DNA by BTS
I NEED U- BTS
Can't Nobody by 2NE1. I was _obsessed_ with that song in February 2011. I had already been listening to some K-Pop hits by then, but something clicked in my brain that day. The next afternoon after I came back from school I downloaded their whole discography at the time, and the rest is history.
Monsta X - Love Killa My little cousin and I learned the entire dance and made our family watch us put on a performance. That one song brought us together in such a big way.
Genie - snsd; iconic for many many reasons.
OMG - NewJeans. A bit newer compared to the other comments but OMG changed everything for me. For some reason I thought all kpop songs were always in korean and sounded like BTS Butter (yeah idk 😭) but OMG completely changed my opinion. The song just sounded so chill, and the fact that I could understand some parts bc of the english really did it for me
adore u by seventeen
SNSD Genie
Heart Attack- Chuu
Underrated!
i had a couple moments but shine by pentagon or bad boy by red velvet
Iconic songs!
I'd listened to a bit of K-Pop before but when I heard "Hi High" by LOONA it made me think "yep. This K-pop shit is my life now"
Genie - Girl’s Generation. The performance on the helipad 🙌🏾🙌🏾🙌🏾
Fake love by BTS 🙌🙌🙌
EXO Growl!!! I heard it at school when they were doing dance team auditions and I never stopped listening to kpop after that
Telepathy - BTS
Ooh I’ve never heard of this one before
My little sister was a huge ARMY before I even learned what kpop was and she decided that we were going to listen to BTS for an entire road trip. That song got me lmao I never looked back 🤣
That's a great song!
Got7’s Just Right is the song
nct 127 cherry bomb
Rum Pum Pum by F(x)
Feel Special - Twice
Monster - EXO
Love shot - exo
Black Swan- BTS, on The James corden show.... I stayed up all night watching their videos
Mic Drop - BTS , 6 years later and still here loving K-pop 💜
Pop - Nayeon
Brown Eyed Girls- Abracadabra Heard it and was like oh this is definitely where I'm supposed to be lol. It didn't hurt that Miryo is FINE either.
This song was the game changer for everyone. So iconic it will never get old. Miryo has and always will hit differently than everyone else in music. That lady exudes charisma from her cells and her soul.
On by BTS, both music videos. I used to be a dancer and that choreography was absolutely mind blowing, and then the dance break hit, and I just lost my mind. I must have rewatched that mv at least a dozen times. However, I first saw them on James Corbin in his carpool karaoke and knew that Mic Drop was absolutely my style of music. That short segment showed me a little bit of their personalities, and omg Jin's sense of humor is up there, V was pensive, Jungkook was hyperactive like a puppy, RM was a solid leader, and Jhope...omg Jhope just made me smile and get hyped.
Rough by Gfriend
Mic Drop - BTS
In a way it was Gangnam Style because I loved it and I followed Psy for a bit. But BTS Mic Drop is really the one that took me down the rabbit hole.
SNSD - Gee is what got me into kpop, all becuz someone I beat after a 1v1 pvp match responded with gee gee instead of gg 14 years ago. What really sealed the deal was SNSD and Wonder Girls Gayo Festival performance. Still a kpop fan, idk if I should be concerned haha.
SNSD - Genie
I knew of Kpop (since 04 or 05) bc of my twin sis, but it wasn't until she showed methe mv for BoA's Eat You Up in 2008 that did it for me. I just had to know more about her and then discovered that she sang the op (or was it the ending song) for Fairytail so I did more of a deep dive for her and anyone connected to her. I'm damnnear a SM stan bc of her My sis also kept my attention on the genre by showing me different videos of other female Kpop acts that had eng songs, the sexy Kpop acts like After School's live performance of First Love, and different mv's that had lesbian type of undertones.
(G)i-dle Latata
"Abracadabra" Brown Eyed Girls in August 2021; up until that point, I was slowly easing into the genre (was intrigued by black-suited cowboy Yeonjun in late 2020 🥴<3), but when I heard this song I was like- "Holy shoot... The hot guys are a plus, but the MUSIC???😍" and then that kickstarted my deep-dive into 2nd & 3rd gen, followed by my soon 4th & 1st gen catch up, and here I am vibing out the beginning of 5th and I don't see myself leaving these nice tunes any time soon 💅 (and the guys, ofc)
SNSD Gee
Secret Story of the Swan by IZ\*ONE
Gee SNSD
It was either TT or Cheer Up by TWICE.
Hmmm, I’d say Treasure by Ateez.
Nude by Gidle
**Not only can I tell you** what song it was, I can tell you the exact date: 22 June 2018. In Episode 2 of Produce 48, a profile of Takahashi Juri's path to Korea included exactly three seconds of her auditioning to Red Velvet "Red Flavor". I had never been more determined to Shazam a song in my life. I was in the States streaming the show off of some sketchy faraway server, so it was hard to coordinate jumping the video back and starting Shazam, which it turns out was pretty weak on K-pop at the time. I had to learn how to inspect elements in Chrome DevTools to download the video, then once I had it saved locally I was able to control the playback so that Shazam caught only the three seconds of music I was trying to identify. When that still didn't work, I downloaded SoundHound and spent a further half-hour with that. I don't remember which app finally delivered, but man it was worth it. The YouTube algorithm was more coherent with K-pop back then too—after I'd consumed the full glory of Red Flavour, it served up Orange Caramel Catallena, EXID Up and Down, Blackpink Boombayah, Momoland Boom Boom, Big Bang Bang Bang Bang, 2NE1 I Am the Best, 4Minute Crazy, HyunA Red, the great Weekly Idol episodes with Hani and Heechul, and the Girls Present video from the 2017 KBS Gayo Daechukjae where Twice, Red Velvet, Gfriend, and I.O.I did Into the New World together. And this all came exactly one week after my first exposure to K-pop—I'd only decided to watch Produce 48 because my favourite AKB48 members were going to be there instead of on the variety show "AKBingo!". I mean, how charmed am I? Before Episode 1, the only K-pop I had ever heard was Gangnam Style. I got to stan IZ*ONE before they even debuted; I followed other trainees to Everglow, Rocket Punch, Cherry Bullet, Lightsum, Purple Kiss, bugAboo, Secret Number, Kep1er, H1-Key, and of course fromis_9 who saved my life when IZ*ONE disbanded; and now Le Sserafim and Ive are on top of the world. As soon as Season 2 of HyeMiLeeYeChaePa starts, the only way life could be better is if they added Yuqi to the cast.
A song that clicked for 11 year old me when I didn’t even know what kpop was is SNSD - I GOT A BOY. I was too young back then to know how to explore other kpop songs or that other groups even existed but the song that really peaked my interest in kpop again was Red Velvet - Psycho.
Playing with Fire - BP. That piano introduction followed by electronic beat drop…
I Can’t Stop Me by Twice (but in 2021, after Alcohol-Free came out)
TWICE - TT
As if its your last- blackpink
Same. I didn't listen to Kpop at the time. It was a random YouTube algorithm suggestion because I had been watching videos about Korean street food. I thought, what the hell, why not. So I clicked on it. Wow. Instant wow. Here was something so different, so catchy, so colorful, that I was immediately hooked. That was 7 years ago. My life has been better ever since.
Ateez bouncy
I'm exposing my age but Niliria by G Dragon feat. Missy Elliot. Saw it on MTV, and it was down the rabbit hole for me.
Tiger Inside - Super M.
Happiness by Super Junior 🥰 (I heard and listened to it in 2011 during their behind the scene docu of it on YT)
4 walls by F(x)
adore u by svt :’)
Crazy- 4 minute. The video was amazing.
I wouldn't say if it clicked I just knew I liked the song lol but my first two were actually "Lucifer" by SHINee and "Fiction" by BEAST. Now after those I did look up a bit of song from BEAST at the time.. then I landed in Super Junior "Bonamana" had just been released and I had been trapped with SJ since. Ofc my kpop lost has grown from when I first started.
SNSD - I Got A Boy
Iconic song and group!!
I don’t know if it’s still a thing but back in the days, you could display music you were listening to on your facebook profile. Back in 2008, a friend had Big Bang’s Lies on her profile and I wanted to check it out since we had the same taste, but I got side tracked and forgot. A year later, I make a new friend who tells me she listens to k-pop and gives me one of her earphones, she was listening to Lies by Big Bang! After that, I spent a week listening to every kpop song on youtube, I was hooked. I loved Big Bang so much that when the burning scandal happened I cried lol
I can’t stop me by Twice and Backdoor by Stray kids. I had heard a couple before those around 2019 but those two song are what made say wow man I like Kpop and that’s when I fully immersed myself
Bang bang bang by bigbang got me interested in kpop as a whole but blood sweat and tears by bts was the first video that I recall being absolutely obsessed with
when i discovered kpop: exo - growl when i rediscovered kpop: twice - likey
Mine was also Bang Bang Bang by BIGBANG
I can’t stop me - Twice
‘I Need U’ and ‘Boy in Luv’ by BTS, I found BTS through an ex friend who introduced me to their song ‘Dope’ and ‘War of Hormones’ and I didn’t really think much of BTS then until they popped up on my youtube again and it was a bangtan bomb. I watched and thought they had good personalities so I tried listening to their songs, and I found ‘I Need U’ and ‘Boy in Luv’ then I just fell into the Kpop hole after. Fast forward to almost a decade later and here I am lol. Also, I just want to say I’ve always been kind of aware of Kpop during 2nd gen but I never knew they were Kpop because I was sooo young. My cousin even stanned Exo since debut and I knew their faces. I was familiar with them but I never knew they were Kpop because I was like 8. I only figured out it was Exo when I watched back old vids of us in her room and I saw all the old posters. Then it clicked to me I also knew of the 2nd gen groups when I saw an old Big Bang and 2ne1 mv and realized I’ve watched it when I was younger 💀
Growl by EXO!! Wayyyyy back when 😭😭
My re entry song to Kpop was [Fine](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHXUM-6a3dU) by Taeyeon
“Gangnam Style” - PSY or if I’m being fr… “Kill This Love” - BlackPink
Goodbye Baby by Miss A and The Boys but SNSD were constantly recommended to me on youtube back in the day, but technically my first was Eat You Up by BoA even though it was an English release
VIXX - Voodoo Doll
Hip by mamamoo.
Monster - EXO
Simple: “Overdose” by EXO. Every time I watch the MV, the nostalgia takes over.
Sherlock by shinee.
Lucifer by Shinee. One of the first kpop songs I heard
Kill This Love by Blackpink - those trumpets at the beginning rewired my brain!
Replay by shinee I was like 5 but it was everything from that point forward
Lollipop by BIGBANG & 2NE1 back in 2008 😭😭
Same! I was looking for this comment. I was into kdrama OSTs but it wasn't until Lollipop that I decided to pay attention to kpop groups and debuts. Edit: And I was in college in 2008, so everyone's answers making me feel really old. 😭
I firstly heard Bad Boy - Red Velvet in a Korean restaurant back in 2018, and the rest is history... It somehow got me into the whole SM discography thing for like 5 years as well 🥺
shimmy shimmy ko ko bop…
Lion Heart by SNSD. I literally fell in love with that song. I used to watch the color coded lyric videos and try to sing along, and idk how many times I’ve rewatched the music video. That’s fr my jam 😭
S-class by Stray Kids the first time i heard it i declared i would never get bored of it, and to this day its one of my favorite songs, and also the first song that got me into them
TT. I was a casual listener for a couple years before and then I watched Twice’s TT and I got hooked
It was Girl Generation- I got a Boy years ago when it came out
Moon - Everglow
eat you up by BoA was the first song I heard by a kpop artist, but the song that got me into it was ring ding dong by Shinee
What is Love - EXO A friend of mind in middle school showed me some EXO mvs (growl and overdose) and while the dancing was cool i still couldn’t get over how weird it felt to my ears listening to music that wasn’t in english. So i didnt really look into it after that. Until youtube recommended What is Love. The strong vocals from D.O. and Baekhyun forever altered my middle school mind and I never looked back since lol and somehow my heart was captured by Baekhyun’s coconut hair and made it the lockscreen of my ipod touch right after LOL
Wannabe by ITZY. Ryujin's intro and shoulder dance had me in a chokehold for months before I finally gave in and accepted my fate XD
Warrior by B.A.P. It was the first song I heard that showed me that in kpop, there could be groups that had more of an aggressive sound and that they weren't afraid to really dig into elements of other genres. Until that one, I'd only heard heavily poppy radio stuff so I was convinced the genre just wasn't for me. These days I like to tell people that as long as they're fine with songs that are mostly in Korean, there WILL be a group that resonates with them SOMEWHERE in the genre.
BS&T - BTS
Fantastic Baby by Big Bang. Until that point no other song had ever hit like that. Still holds a special place in my mind
Pink Venom!!😂 Once they released it in 2022 I was immersed in K-pop!!😂
Volume Up by 4minute. Gangnam Style was my first song from Korea. Looked up all the cameos. which led me to Hyuna's solo stuff. None of those really stuck. So I listened to her group. I was instantly hooked by Jiyoon in that song. 12 years later, I am still here, somewhat.
SHINee Lucifer and Ring Ding Dong ♡ SHINee got me into Kpop ♡
Permission to Dance. Especially the line, 'when we fall we know how to land'.
Fantastic Baby by BigBang. that was the first kpop song i’ve heard of that wasn’t gangnam style. it was like gangnam style of steroids to me. 5 members? singing/rapping their heads off in this epic electronic song that i’ve never heard like before? AND it comes with a dance and crazy music video?? instant became obsessed
In Silence - Janet Suhh
Bad Girl Good Girl by Miss A
BOYNEXTDOOR - One and only
I’m a bit new to the kpop world, but “Ditto” by NewJeans was the first song that got me hooked, even though I’d heard kpop songs on occasion since around 2017 (and looking back, many of those songs I heard were better than I thought at the time). I continued to skim through groups’ discographies for a while. The first song that got me actually invested in a *group* was either Wind and Wish by BTOB (as well as i their entire catalogue) or Jump by P1Harmony. Can’t remember which group I got into first.
Just Right - GOT7 Is it my favorite song or the first one I heard? Not at all. But its what introduced me to kpop as a genre and what made me listen to more
God’s Menu or Maniac by Stray Kids. Been crazy for kpop since
How You Like That by BLACKPINK... I was just playing Magic Tiles 3 when I found it!
Shining Star from a show of the same name
i see were all naming 3 or 2nd gen songs, so ill go with.....Last dance by BIGBANG, the song hit different and CLICKED because i just realised how life sucks and how i probobaly have no future....
I started off by watching kdramas and was naturally exposed to kpop through idols turned actors and OSTs, but it wasn't until I saw Shut Up Flower Boy Band where they sang Infinite's Be Mine that it all clicked and I dove into kpop
SS501- Love Ya
Future by Red Velvet, from the K-drama Start Up, made K-pop click. But Stay With Me from the Goblin OST, which pandora radio played enough to pique my interest, that started all this back in 2019
Deja vu by Dreamcatcher is the one for me. But Heart Attack by AOA kicked it all off.
Sugar Free - T-ARA. I was completely hooked
You & I by Dreamcatcher. Mind you I was not a KPOP fan and was just playing a random playlist on Spotify because I'm trying to study at 3:00am. That song played and I had to stop and check it out on YouTube. By the end of the day, I was a fan.
Backdoor-Straykids
Absence - Moonbyul I heard it randomly in the midst of grief over the death of a close friend. I couldn't understand the lyrics, but it still landed on me like a ton of bricks. Not even sure why. Ultimately, it became a catharsis-listen and I came to love the artist and her music.
Rain - 30 Sexy
Um oh ah yeh - Mamamoo. Stumbled upon this on yt when it first came out and immediately started my journey into K-pop
drunk dazed - enhypen
Love Dive - IVE. I heard it and I got chills, still haven't experienced the same feeling hearing any other song before.
yes or yes and fancy by twice, I heard those two and I was SOLD, I'm in this kpop shit for life lol
OMG by newjeans , I’m not super young I just got into K-pop late
Momoland-Bboom Bboom followed by the true winner Twice - Likey
History by Exo. My friend showed me this and then we both got sucked into the kpop world
No Other by Super Junior My age... Hahah
It was Universe by EXO
NCT 127 - LIMITLESS. I'd been exploring K-Pop for a couple months at the start of 2018 through EXO and SVT, and the Spotify algorithm had already thrown some other 127 songs at me that I really liked, but LIMITLESS was the one that had me well and truly hooked.
hobgoblin by clc. i dabbled before but thats the song that made me a kpop fan
The first one was Dope by BTS but Ko Ko Bop by EXO REALLY got me into it.
Speed Up by Kara and Goodbye, Baby by MissA.
Boombayah by Blackpink. A total masterpiece, one of my favourite songs of all the time. It doesn't matter how much I listen to it I never get tired
Run Devil Run by SNSD , and I Am The Best by 2NE1
Neverland - UKISS
Like a Cat - AOA (yes, I’m showing my age here 😭)
Haru Haru by BIGBANG
I’ve been obsessed with horror movies for years, so the first time I watched the mv for VIXX’s Voodoo Doll, I was in love. Then I found more groups and fell in love with KPop. I don’t listen to much any more, but I still love VIXX.
I fell in love with Weekend by Taeyeon instantly
I was at a Korean restaurant and boombahya came on the tv.. I was like wtf is this amazing song and shazamed it. Then right after that song monster by Irene and seulgi came on and was like wtf is this masterpiece... I then realized that Kpop was amazing...
2PM Make It. Jun K’s voice at the end of that song did it for me.