Guardian Wokes (2025)

22/09/2025

It’s time for Kpopalypse roundup! Let’s take a look at some new releases!

Wow, our loveable friend Seungri just got snapped and he looks so dreamy! It’s true what they say, life must really be a simulation.

XG – Gala

Finally XG have a song where they get the rapping and the singing parts right. It sure took them enough tries, and I’m sure they’ll release some R&B dogs**t that sucks soon enough, but for now, we’re good.

Taemin – Veil

Some absolutely great sounds on the track, but the vocal writing is really unimaginative, just the same boy-pop stuff as every other boy-pop song ever.

TripleS ∞! – Password

Triple S have the same problem as Taemin this week – a cool, interesting backing track completely let down because whoever was writing the vocals just couldn’t match the quality of what was happening in the instrumental. It might look like prime Lovelyz but it’s an empty promise, that kind of quality isn’t here.

ATEEZ – Ash

Now Ateez flip it the other way – their songwriters get the vocal writing right, but the instrumental is some generic gym music p**p that’s instantly forgettable. If we can get the Ateez songwriter working with the poeple doing the tracks for Taemin and Triple S we might just have some more good music this year… we sure could use it…

Yuqi – M.O.

An old school rap type of song, with everything in it that you could want… except the actual old school rap. Big oops.

Chaeyoung – Girl

Truly awful. Chaeyoung, you are not a ballad singer, just stop this nonsense. She should put the Sid Vicious shirt back on and join a punk group, that kind of thing would actually work for her because she could just let it all out and not worry about trying to sound “nice” for the k-pop morons, something that’s clearly beyond her anyway.

Haseul – Love Poison

Haseul isn’t a ballad singer either. The weirdly dry mix with drums that sound like they’re covered in carpet just emphasises the vocal, and that’s dangerous because there’s not a lot to emphasise.

Youha – Break Free

I was definitely not going to buy Borderlands 4 because apparently it’s glitchy and also it’s way, way, WAY overpriced for what is basically an identical game to the previous three plus I’m sure it’ll be DLC’ed and Season Passed up the ass and f**k that anti-consumer s**t, but now that I know Youha does a song for it that’s actually rather good I might wait a few months and pick it up at a Steam sale just to support her (and nobody else). “Break Free” works where aespa’s PUBG collab didn’t quite because Youha’s song is a lot less polite-sounding, going all-in on several abrasive styles that mesh well together without sounding like a messy “change-up” trend. Also she’s an S-tier visual, definitely someone who is being seriously slept on, hopefully this song does something to change that.

GENBLUE – Badass

Hey, guy at the start of the video dozing off, no need to interrupt your sleep. You’re not missing anything here, just take that power nap if you need one.

PRIMROSE – Love Your Flower

One of those songs where the bass guitar player is doing all the work and everybody else is phoning it in. Not much to listen to here unless you want some bass guitar practice material.

KickFlip – My First Love Song

What I don’t get about these songs is they always have these lyrics like “these words can’t express my feelings”… so if that’s the case, why not f**king shut up, then? Anyway I don’t have that issue, my words can express my feelings just fine and I feel like this song is pretty mid.

CORTIS – JoyRide

Superb production here that recalls 4AD label artists from the 1980s, it’s really wasted on such a bunch of mid shoegazing… much like those same artists. All that’s missing is the he**in.

TREASURE – Everything

Actually a really good song, that could have been absolutely great if they just let that fantastic chorus carry it more and removed some of the pointless dicking around.

AxMxP – Shocking Drama

Not bad, one of the better “boy pop masquerading as a rock band” things I’ve heard lately. QWER for people who aren’t feminists.

LUN8 – Lost

Hey this is good! It’s the week of good boy songs. Don’t worry it’ll go back to normal soon.

TWS – Heads Shoudlers Knees Toes

I’m sorry to report that k-pop labels are rehashing all the nursery rhymes that you were forced to sing and dance to in pre-school and making them “cool” and “street”. My coloured block playtime supervisor would like a word.

TIOT – Every 10 Minutes

Every 10 minutes another s**t k-pop song is written, but only the top 1% make it to roundup to be shat on, so even if I don’t like your fave’s bulls**t music just be grateful that I even noticed they exist.

Xdinary Heroes – More than i like

There is more of this song than I would like.

Galaxy Kids – Stay Close

Not much happening here, I just listened to it and can’t even remember what it sounds like. I do remember the mesh shirt though.

Mingi – Roar

Total garbage song of course, but I can’t help but feel that Mingi would have done even better in the Objectification Survey if this was released back when voting was still active. Thanks to all of you who voted, the results are now all in so check them out and see how your contribution made a difference to the world!

Gen Hoshino feat. Lee Youngji – 2

Oh, Youngji can rap in Japanese now, let’s see who’s shocked, absolutely nobody. Good job.

Suho – Who Are You

Who am I, someone who isn’t going to listen to Suho this week, so instead let’s have our weekly non-Korean LGBT feature here instead, yay! This week it’s Dazey and the Scouts, a “queercore” group who only did one album before they broke up but damn it was a good album and you can listen to all of it here and a live concert here too if you like. That’s the sum total of what I know about them, now you know as much as me. Enjoy!

Doh Kyung Soo (D.O.) feat. Penomeco – Dumb

Back to k-pop’s attempts at rock and it’s not great, folks.

Mimi – Sweetdreams, My dear

Mimi from Gugudan’s song is pretty dreary but at least the production is surprisingly good, the sound of it scratches that itch even if the song itself doesn’t.

Tova Oh – Salty Rain

I feel about this song about the same as I do about her song last week, it’s kind of okay in a mantra-like way but I miss the old harder UZA electronic style. Mainly though I just want to know why there are racing cars in the video, that seems ultra-random and weird.

Im Young Woong – Ulssigu

Basically just disco bo****ks. Oh wait no it’s “city pop” hahaha. Anyway, he really sings the words “perfect like this AI” in this song so you know it’s s**t.

Son Yuji – Like A Wave

This girl is from 3ye and her song is… I don’t know, it’s okay but it really needed some production help. Something other than the drab machine-backings would have got this over the line.

Moon Sujin – Blowing My Mind

A decent song but the Autotuned voice is really on the nose. I mean I’m 100% certain she couldn’t sing this song without the computer helping out because what other reason could there possibly be for trashing the song this hard with the computer voice, but it’s just a shame that it was obviously needed because the sonic combination just isn’t it.

Ilya – New!

Just putting this here for that one person in my asks who asked me if I could name any PinkPantheress clone songs in k-pop. At least one of these comes out every single week but I usually just leave them out of roundup completely for your sanity.

Beomhan – D.U.M (Dancing Under Moonlight)

He’s back! And once again his song has odd audio issues, this time it’s with the sound weirdly bouncing up and down in volume all over the place. He says he’s aware of the issues and it’s not like that on other platforms so that’s your cue to go and stream on Spotify. You’ll support him, won’t you?

Guckkasten – Roller

I’ll leave you with this song, which is actually Guckkasten’s best song in at least a decade. This band used to rock but they do a lot of sleepytime crap as well sadly. Here’s hoping for more songs like this out of them in future.

RANDOM BONUS VIDEOS OF THE WEEK

Cheyenne Lin – Sexualization and Girl Groups: Having Our Cake and Eating It Too

A great video, absolutely something you should watch if the topic interests you, and if you’re into k-pop and representation issues, then it should. I actually disagree with a lot of the details and asides here (and I won’t go into detail about which ones deliberately because I want you to make up your own minds about what she’s saying and discuss it without my evil patriarchal male-gaze wasian-privilege hanging over it), but the central point she’s making – that it’s fine to enjoy Katseye as “cool music to listen to” but treating it as “new wave of lifechanging intersectional feminist queens omg” is a serious overreach because it’s still the same old corporate dicksucking at the end of the day – is absolutely spot on. It’s exactly the same point that I was making years ago when I was criticising stuff like 2NE1 and CLC’s “No” for being “feminism-lite” because the place where it’s coming from obviously undermines the message. Why do you think I-dle’s Soyeon hangs out with QWER’s Chodan these days, Soyeon has been taking notes on what a true feminist is.

Swell Entertainment – I was scared to review KCON

Look at her, pleading with the k-pop fans in the opening about not sending her death threats. She’s scared but she shouldn’t be, k-pop fans talk s**t but they don’t actually do anything offline, they’re not like teenagers attending high school in the USA. If k-pop fans had any teeth at all I would have been sent an exploding blow-up Hyomin doll through the post years ago, or at least some toilet paper (would have been appreciated during COVID tbh). Anyway, she’s talking about stuff like event organisation here which is definitely relevant to kpop fans so if you ever intend to brave one of these KCON things like I did, this video is worth half an hour of your time (although I’d recommend playing videos like this at 1.5x speed if you’re busy like me).

CatChuuuu – Catch U

A song that truly belongs on Nugu Alert, but it won’t get there because it has nearly half a million views, “Catch U” is pretty awful musically but probably goes viral periodically more for visual reasons. Terrible songs like this aren’t anything new in k-pop but the bizarre use of filters, horrible backgrounds, tragic costumes and generally misguided video direction here is unusually bad, and not bad on purpose. Everyone involved here is earnestly trying their hardest to be as awesome as possible. It’s the difference between The Shaggs and Steel Panther. The joke wears off quickly with the latter, but “My Pal Foot Foot” never gets old.

That’s all for this week! Kpopalypse roundup returns next week!

It’s time for Kpopalypse roundup! Let’s take a look at some new releases! Wow, our loveable friend Seungri just got snapped and he looks ...

20/09/2025

Kpopalypse is back to review more books! This time we’re reading “K-pop Confidential” by Stephan Lee!

A kind caonima who knows that I’ve been on the hunt for k-pop themed books to check out recently sent me a copy of “Kpop Confidential” to review. Let’s take a look at it – does it meet required standards?

K-POP CONFIDENTIAL

Author: Stephan Lee

Chicken House, 359 pages, softcover, 198mm x 128mm

ISBN – ‎ 978-1913322298

Amazon link so the author doesn’t hate me for this snarky review and can still make a buck

When I wrote the Shin Hana series of books , the objective was to do something like Jessica Jung’s “Shine” and “Bright“, but with a Kpopalypse flavour, something that would talk about the inside of a hypothetical Korean pop business but in a caonimaish way that would entertain my more mature website readers specifically, rather than the average younger/less mature k-pop fan who might be looking for something light. Whether I succeeded or failed, you can be the judge of that, but I never gave much thought to how someone else would tackle the same task. However there have been quite a few authors who have taken their own stab at an “inside k-pop” type of book and Stephan Lee is one of them. I was interested in checking this book out just to find out how this type of subject matter would be approached by someone a little bit more hooked into the mainstream than I am, so I was pretty happy when a caonima sent me a paperback copy of this book. Stephan Lee is definitely more big-time than Kpopalypse, he wrote for Entertainment Weekly, now works at Netflix doing something or other (no he is not in the credits for Kpop Demon Hunters), flew to Korea to interview k-pop idols, and his book even has its own… teaser video?

No, K-pop Confidential wasn’t made into a movie or TV series, although apparently he tried to make it happen but it didn’t pan out. So what’s the book about, exactly? Well, it follows a young fifteen year old k-pop hopeful called Candace Park and her journey into k-pop stardom. The entire story is told first-person from her point of view. Here’s the back cover of the book which will give you a pretty good outline of what to expect:

It’s a pretty typical k-pop stardom-chasing book outline, Korean-American girl tries out for an agency’s training program to be an idol, girl gets in despite not expecting to, girl enters the trainee program after convincing her reluctant parents, girl finds out gosh it’s really tough doing this k-pop thing but YOU GO GIRL YASSSS QUEEN (no, literally, that’s pretty much what people tell her, more on that later) and so she gives it her best shot and of course she does well but there’s a few setbacks because groupmates are bitchy and there’s a love triangle because why wouldn’t there be, and gosh how is she going to reconcile that with being a k-pop, and… you don’t really need me to do any more plot synopsis here. Other than maybe the book’s last ten pages, you can probably guess exactly what kind of story you’re going to be told here, and you’d be at least 95% right. This means that the book is very predictable in terms of story structure, but hey at least you know what you’re getting – paying for thing X and getting thing X isn’t a bad thing, so I’m not going to mark it down just for that. No, there’s plenty of other, much better reasons to dislike this book, and you might have already sensed a couple of them from this paragraph alone. Let’s start by talking about the positives because Kpopalypse is so nice like that.

This is a picture of Wonyoung from k-pop girl group IVE.

Okay, so that’s all the positives done and talked about, let’s now move on to the… okay, just kidding, this book actually does get one thing pretty much right, which I was impressed and even a little surprised by. And that one thing is…. drum roll… it doesn’t sugar-coat the idol business. The depiction of the harshness of the k-pop industry here is… well it’s not perfect, but it’s about as accurate as I’d expect a book like this aimed at younger audiences to get and touches on a lot of key points. Idol starvation diets, long training schedules, the total control over the trainee’s lives, the constant scrutiny, the public weigh-ins and resultant beauty standard/weight loss coaching, the unnecessarily extreme belittling that goes on, it’s all covered fairly realistically. It’s clear that the author has done their research, spoken to real people who have been through the system, and has based this book off real s**t that actually happens behind the scenes. This is a very good thing. Given that the audience for this book is obviously teenagers who might be into the k-pop business and maybe might be considering that path themselves, and that this is an important message for those people to receive, one more voice speaking out about how incredibly harsh the Korean idol business is behind the scenes especially in a format like this one, is a voice worthy of support. The book and the author do deserve praise for this aspect alone so if the author of the book is reading this, sincere thank you for this despite all the horrible things I’m going to say about your book very shortly.

This is a picture of Wonyoung from k-pop girl group IVE.

Some other quick positives: the chapters are short, so this book is ADHD-friendly which is nice, and… oh, in one scene someone sends the character a s**t Koreaboo clickbait article and her reaction is “ugh who caresssssss”. So that’s a definite plus. If I can think of any other positives I’ll put them here later. I’ll now start s**tting on this book, and this will contain significant spoilers, so if you just want to know if you should read this, my answer is “probably not, unless you’re very young and/or undemanding of what you read, plus you like k-pop”. Great, now let’s get into all the ways in which I found that this book sucks.

This is a picture of Wonyoung from k-pop girl group IVE. She is rather popular right now. Did you know this? I hope so.

While wanting to educate the k-pop hopefuls is commendable, I’d say that the author is actually a little too conscious of who their audience might be, in a way that actually weakens the writing. Our main character Candace Park has internal dialogues and sometimes actual conversations with other characters in cringe Gen-Z online-speak, everyone’s “yass-queen”ing and “slaying” each other and the top word in just about every character’s vocabulary seems to be “waaah”, I can only assume that this is the author trying to appeal to a young audience and it just feels like weak pandering, because people in the real world don’t actually talk like that except sometimes “ironically” as a joke. The author’s attempt at trying to get the kids on board doesn’t cross over into actually explaining themselves though. There’s a k-pop glossary at the rear of the book (written in-character by one of Candace’s friends, a clever touch) where you can find out the definition of a few Korean words (some slightly technically wrong but it’s in character so whatever) plus what terms like “fanchant” and “killing part” mean if you weren’t able to guess, but anyone reading this book probably already knows a bit about k-pop and doesn’t need it, because why would you even pick a book like this up if you didn’t already have a strong interest in k-pop. The author would have been better off with a glossary of cringe Gen Z-speak and a primer on western pop as this book is packed full of constant, tiresome references to western pop stars and western pop culture, many of which I didn’t even understand. How the hell would I know how Missy Elliot rapped at some three-initial event that probably happened half a decade ago that I didn’t watch and what a reference to that is supposed to mean? What the f**k is a “smize” and “broken doll”? What’s “dutty wining”, is that a typo? The author should have put s**t like that in the damn glossary, not stuff like “comeback” and “finger hearts”.

I promise that this repeating picture of Wonyoung gets relevant. You DO like Wonyoung, right? Just checking.

The references to pop culture both east and west are everywhere in this book, often multiple references per page of writing. The author does something that I recommend authors do NOT do in their fiction writing, which is reference real groups, brands, media entities and events. Not because it’s bad writing or anything (that depends), but because the chances of you getting your ass sued or your book taken offsale by book vendors for infringement are very high (I can only assume that being a fairly big media entity himself, the author here got the appropriate clearances). However in this case, it is bad writing. Most of these references appear as either metaphors (“Jinjoo’s pigtails are now Netflix-red”… jesus f**king christ get the corporate c**k out of your mouth please) or comparison points (“the ubiquitous Korean style of make-up is soft and ‘natural’, but Mr Oh uses western techniques seen on the Kardashians and drag queens”… right, okay then) or just cheap ways to keep k-pop readers who like existing k-pop groups engaged. More than one chapter is actually titled after “Into The New World” and aspects of the song are dwelled on to the extent that they border on becoming a plot point, also I hope you like Blackpink being referenced a lot and I mean a lot. All of this just screams laziness and “let’s bait k-pop fans into giving a s**t about this book by validating them through mentioning their faves over and over”. If you’re writing fiction, why not use your imagination when you get the chance, rather than leaning on existing popular culture? You’re already constrained enough as it is just by writing about k-pop at all, why box yourself in even further by refusing to fictionalise things like big k-pop groups. They do have a fictional k-pop group called Queengirl in there, plus SLK, the male group that love interest One.J is from, so the author can do it, he just chose not to do it consistently, either because it was easier, or because he wants to bait k-pop fans into sticking around, or maybe a little of both.

If I show Wonyoung from IVE a lot, I hope it makes you like this website.

This type of laziness also permeates the story in general, in all sorts of other ways. To give just one of the more egregious examples: in “K-pop Confidential” the agency’s building is split in half with the boys on the north side and the girls on the south side, with the two halves separated by a glass wall so the boy and girl trainees can still see each other in places like the cafeteria and gym. The plot excuse for what the main character Candace calls the “gender glass” is that management thinks the girls will be more motivated to lose weight if they know that the boys are looking at them (what benefit to management the mirror has by also functioning in the other direction is not mentioned). This “gender glass” is supposedly an essential enough component for the agency to have for this specific reason, that it justifies a whole bunch of extra engineering and infrastructure; the two halves of the three floors and rooftop of the 100-storey(!) building where the agency reside have separate stairwells, elevators and security. Clearly this silliness is all a device inserted purely for plot reasons; it’s hard to establish a love triangle with a boy trainee you’re not allowed to ever see or interact with, so the author had to work out some way for the girls and the boys to regularily get a look at each other, and this is the half-assed solution he came up with. I feel like a better writer would have been able to come up with a more realistic way to handle that kind of obstacle.

Please like me, please like this website.

Speaking of obstacles, Candace Park herself doesn’t seem to have too many. This fifteen year old character is Mary Sue to the core, cruising through audition processes with her incredible singing talent and outperforming other trainees who had been there for years, while getting not much more than a bit of tantrum-throwing from her idol-in-training peers and management for f**king up dances in ways that would have had other trainees either out on their ear immediately or the victim of intense hazing because Candace is just so charming I guess. She’s a complete natural in the recording studio too, kicking ass easily and getting everything right despite never having worked in a recording studio before. No meaningful levels of stage-fright or nervousness either, she’s a natural on stage as well despite no experience; one of the later plot-twists (if you can call special snowflake Candace succeeding at yet another thing she’s never done before a “twist”) involves her spontaneously comedy-improvising her way out of having to do a too-difficult dance move. Not to mention she gets the whole love triangle going with trainee Youngbae (who is both “young” and “bae” and yes Candace actually narrates that joke and no it’s not any funnier when she does it than when I do it) and also One.J who is like the biggest k-pop idol star in Korea who was ever big, and here we have our answer as to why even though the author name-drops big groups like crazy BTS isn’t mentioned in the book at all – because they’d be direct competition for One.J and then the corners of Candace’s special one of a kind snowflake lattice would melt because she wouldn’t be kissing the biggest kpop star ever ever ever. Oh and she’s a songwriter too of course and you already know that her songs are great and everyone loves them, they have “profound” lines like “maybe your double eyelids make you see two / you can’t tell what’s real and what’s just illusions”. Did I mention that Candace is fifteen years old and has all this incredible talent and charm? Just in case you missed that. Truly a character without a struggle, any small hiccups along the road to her fame and fortune are resolved within a few quick page-turns. This makes her very boring, and also kind of annoying and self-centred – don’t be surprised if you find yourself wishing for her downfall and rooting for her bitchy dorm-mates instead, the only people on this entire planet besides management who don’t seem to like her that much, but of course even they secretly do like her because who could possibly be immune to Candace’s charms, she’s just so adorable and talented…

I hope this constant repeating picture of Wonyoung is maintaining your interest in this review. Isn’t she your favourite? Doesn’t her presence here make you want to consume more Kpopalypse content and read this review to the end? I f**king hope so, or I’ve really f**ked up here, haven’t I.

Oh, and I know what you’re thinking, all you pearl-clutching k-pop fans; “isn’t Candace a little too young for all this spicy love triangle stuff”? While Candace is fifteen, One.J is only sixteen, and the other boy Youngbae… well, I actually missed where his age is specifically mentioned, but “he’s young and he’s bae” and he’s also the maknae of his group so it’s at least implied that he’s of a similar age to Candace. Plus they’re not exactly sucking each other off or having threesomes or getting ga******ed or anything, this isn’t a Kpopalypse novel. Mind you Candace does debut on television at fifteen in the book, which in the eyes of k-pop fans is on the same moral level as holding a Burzum concert at the Holocaust museum… so make of it what you will. But if you’re going to boycott the book because of young people in immoral power-unbalanced relationships or whatever, then you do you, but I’d politely suggest that boycotting the book simply because it sucks is a far better reason.

But what if you hate Wonyoung? I’d better have a backup plan. This picture is Karina of aespa, she’s quite popular at the time of writing, hopefully if you don’t like Wonyoung, you at least like Karina.

The last thing I want to mention about the book, is the ending, and from skim-reading the reception that this book has had elsewhere, this is something that pi**ed off almost everyone who read it, including quite a lot of people who otherwise liked it. Everything just sort of gets wrapped up – or rather doesn’t – in the last ten pages or so, with Candace making a decision that doesn’t feel realistic or in-character at all but just seems to be there so she gets to have her “I have learned that the k-pop industry is not very nice” moment, and we the readers get to have a little condescending lecture from her which we really didn’t need because the book actually did quite a good job of showing how s**t the industry was up until that point (even if it didn’t do such a good job of… well, anything else at all, really). It’s frustrating and clearly there to leave room open for a sequel (it exists and is called “K-pop Revolution” so consider yourselves warned) but it leaves too much other stuff unresolved and it will make you question why you bothered. At least I know why I bothered – so I could write this review, or course.

What have you got against Karina and Wonyoung, huh? Are you a bad person? Do people have to cancel you? You don’t want to get cancelled, do you? Better start liking them, or else.

Having said that, if you can switch your brain off, and I mean right off, as in all the way off, as in “I just want some k-pop related words on some pages to read while my phone does updates before I get back to doomscrolling TikTok” off, then it’s a light, breezy read which won’t demand very much of you. Very young and/or very undemanding/uncritical readers might actually love it, and if those readers can absorb the central message of “the k-pop industry is actually kind of broken” without getting bothered too much by how the book lacks pretty much everything else that a good book requires, then that’s a win for them and for society at large. And since we know dumb c***s are a majority in the k-pop space, this book definitely has its audience. Just know that since you’re here on Kpopalypse.com reading this review, that probably already puts you in the top five percentile of k-pop fans intellectually, which means that this book will probably just p**s you off. I’m giving it one “shooketh” out of five (yes that’s a word in this book, “Shakespeare levels of shook” apparently), but add an extra two “shookeths” if you had to look up both “Burzum” and “Holocaust museum”.

If you don’t like Wonyoung or Karina, well just go f**k yourself I guess.

Are you a brave writer of k-pop books who would like to see me review your work? If so, get in touch!

Kpopalypse is back to review more books! This time we’re reading “K-pop Confidential” by Stephan Lee! A kind caonima who knows that I’ve ...

16/09/2025

It’s the final part of the 2025 Kpopalypse Objectification Survey results! Who are the most attractive k-pop idols for 2025, according to Kpopalypse readers? Let’s take a look!

The last part of the Kpopalypse 2025 Objectification Survey is essentially the “face” category, where we take a look at the most attractive men and women in k-pop according to Kpopalypse readers! This section of the results is therefore completely politically correct and not objectifying or sexualising anybody whatsoever, because we all know that saying a b**b is pretty is a very sexual statement, but saying a face is pretty is not sexual at all! Many Kpopalypse readers enjoyed being TC Candler for a day, let’s take a look at how they voted!

As per last year, voters were asked to choose up to three nominees in each category, best first, and points were allocated as per the following system:

Your first choice was weighted 100% higher than your second choice

Your second choice was weighted 66% higher than your third choice

If you doubled or tripled on choices, only the first choice was counted

Scores were then tallied to give the final results across all categories.

The four results posts are as follows:

Part 1: FEMALE B***S and MALE ABS/TORSO – click HERE for the results!

Part 2: FEMALE and MALE ASSES – click HERE for the results!

Part 3: FEMALE and MALE LEGS – click HERE for the results!

Part 4: OVERALL MOST ATTRACTIVE FEMALES and MALES – this post!

Remember folks – that if you object to any of the choices here, you only have yourselves to blame as these were 100% your votes, not mine. Kpopalypse does not even cast a vote – this isn’t like a rigged Korean TV show where the “judges” get a say and can overturn fan opinion. If you want to see a certain result, then it’s your responsibility to spread the surveys to the people who are going to vote for your faves!

MOST ATTRACTIVE WOMEN IN K-POP

#1 – KARINA – AESPA

391 points

(2024 position – #1)

Karina didn’t have any issues keeping the competition at bay this year, easily picking up her fourth consecutive win!

#2 – WONYOUNG – IVE

179 points

(2024 position – #4)

Karina had better watch out in the coming years, because IVE’s Wonyoung is gaining fast, shooting up into second place this year! Does she have what it takes to be a future number one? Time will tell!

#3 – WINTER – AESPA

167 points

(2024 position – #20)

The last twelve months have been good to aespa, and they’ve definitely helped Kpopalypse readers notice Winter, who shot up hugely in the rankings to land at third place!

#4 – JIHYO – TWICE

151 points

(2024 position – #9)

Jihyo proves that she’s still got what it takes to be a major contender in k-pop attractiveness, beating out all other Twice members to score fourth most attactive female in k-pop!

#5 – DANIELLE – NEWJEANS/NJZ

146 points

(2024 position – #41)

With “NewJeans/NJZ/whatever they’re calling themselves by the time you read this” stuck in legal limbo, Kpopalypse readers appear to be missing Danielle. The first of her group to ascend to picture status in the most attractive polls, here’s hoping that her and her groupmates get to return to the stage.

#6 – EUNHA – VIVIZ

127 points

(2024 position – #2)

Eunha took a tumble in the polls this year due to lots of heat from the competition, and something something I forgot what I was going to write here. Nobody’s reading this anyway, are they, let’s be real.

#7 – SANA – TWICE

122 points

(2024 position – #7)

Lots of movement all around in this category, but Twice’s Sana managed to maintain her place this year. Hey for those of you who keep voting for Twice members in the polls with their full names i.e “Minatozaki Sana”, that’s totally unnecessary, I know who Sana is, save your fingers that extra typing, you’ll thank yourself when you’re older and you develop arthritis 3 seconds later in life.

#8 – ROSE – BLACKPINK

111 points

(2024 position – did not chart)

It’s definitely the year of Australians in the most attractive charts, with Danielle and now Rose shooting up out of f**king nowhere, straight into the top ten! Rose’s huge success worldwide no doubt contributed her to getting so popular in these polls that she was actually able to help push plenty of big names including her own groupmates out of picture status!

#9 – TZUYU – TWICE

101 points

(2024 position – #10)

In the female attractiveness polls there were many shock results, with several heavy-hitters not making picture status for the first time. However Twice members were remarkably consistent and Tzuyu is no exception, hitting the top ten once again!

#10 – YUJIN – IVE

99 points

(2024 position – #14)

Just missing out on picture status last year, IVE’s Yujin found her way into the top ten for the first time!

#11 – KWON EUNBI

98 points

(2024 position – #21)

Eunbi’s popularity has been exploding lately, I’m not sure why or how this has happened, but she seems to be making the most of it and has entered picture status in the most attractive women category as a result!

#12 – CHAEWON – LE SSERAFIM

97 points

(2024 position – #8)

Chaewon is sliding down the polls a bit but she’s still in it for now, and ahead of her Le Sserafin groupmates too.

#13 – NINGNING – AESPA

95 points

(2024 position – #19)

Ningning is our last female entrant for 2025, and it’s her first time in picture status, so make her feel welcome! We’ll return to the female polls again in 2026!

HONOURABLE MENTIONS

#14 – Momo – Twice

#15 – Seulgi – Red Velvet

#16 – Jennie – Blackpink

#17 – Jeongyeon – Twice

#18 – Irene – Red Velvet

#19 – IU

#20 – Kazuha – Le Sserafim

#21 – Sullyoon – NMIXX

#22 – Nana – After School/Orange Caramel

#23 – Mina – Twice

#24 – Yves

#25 – Chaeryeong – Itzy

#26 – Yeji – Itzy

#27 – Manon – Katseye

#28 – Yel – H1-key

#29 – Yunjin – Le Sserafim

#30 – Heejin – ARTMS

#31 – Moonbyul – Mamamoo

#32 – Jisoo – Blackpink

#33 – Chuu

#34 – Yooyeon – Triple S

#35 – Jiu – Dreamcatcher

#36 – Yuna – Itzy

#37 – Liz – IVE

#38 – Moka – Illit

#39 – Sunmi

#40 – Miyeon – I-dle

#41 – Natty – Kiss Of Life

#42 – Taeyeon – Girls’ Generation

#43 – Dami – Dreamcatcher

#44 – Sakura – Le Sserafim

Now it’s time to take a look at the male category! Who are the hottest k-pop guys in 2024?

*

MOST ATTRACTIVE MEN IN K-POP

#1 – WONHO

166 points

(2024 position – #2)

Now that his military service is over, Wonho has been able to perform his duties for k-pop fans once again, and they’ve rewarded him be giving him back the top spot! This means that Wonho clean-sweeps all male categories of the Kpopalypse Objectification Survey for 2025 – congratualtions Wonho!

#2 – MINGYU – SEVENTEEN

143 points

(2024 position – #1)

Mingyu did the unprecedented and actually beat Wonho in 2024, and while he wasn’t able to repeat that performance this year, he still managed a close second place, so anything could happen in the future!

#3 – SHINDONG – SUPER JUNIOR

126 points

(2024 position – #3)

Should Shindong buy a Cybertruck? He could take lovestruck Kpopalypse readers for a romantic cruise around Seoul while they celebrate his third place with him… that is, if Telsa ever decides to make the hulking great impractical thing compliant with any other country’s road regulations. Just as well this isn’t a survey about the most attractive cars, hey Elon.

#4 – SEONGHWA – ATEEZ

124 points

(2024 position – did not chart)

Sure, the first few entrants are fairly predictable this year, but there were a lot of movements further down the polls in this category. ATEEZ had a good year in 2025 and Seonghwa shoots up to fourth place out of literally nowhere!

#5 – KAI – EXO

114 points

(2024 position – #5)

Kai is a reliable performer in these surveys, and he hangs onto his fifth place from the previous year. He could probably also tell Shindong a thing or two about which cars to buy.

#6 – SAN – ATEEZ

112 points

(2024 position – #9)

ATEEZ were no joke in the Kpopalypse Objectification Survey results this year, and San moves up into sixth place, hot on the heels of his groupmate!

#7 – MINHO – SHINEE

106 points

(2024 position – #7)

Kpopalypse surveydoers certainly felt secure about Minho, and were diligent enough about voting to secure him his spot on the polls from the previous year!

#8 – FELIX – STRAY KIDS

99 points

(2024 position – #10)

Representing for all the long-haired male Australians out there (which I was back in my t***k days), Felix from Stray Kids gains a couple places this year. We must be getting trendier in the k-pop space! It feels good to be represented.

#9 – EUNWOO – ASTRO

98 points

(2024 position – did not chart)

I’m not sure where Eunwoo went last year, because he completely dipped out of the polls in 2024, but this year he’s made it back and into the top ten!

#10 – SOOBIN – TXT

94 points

(2024 position – #18)

TXT have been getting more active and popular lately, and Soobin probably as a result did well this year, ascending into picture status for the first time!

#11 – HUENING KAI – TXT

88 points

(2024 position – #25)

Huening Kai is an emerging performer in more than one category this year, and he’s moved past many old favourites to grab picture status!

#12 – MINGI – ATEEZ

85 points

(2024 position – did not chart)

With an incredible three performers in picture status this year, ATEEZ are really dominating the male attractiveness survey results this time around. This time it’s Mingi’s turn to move up!

#13 – TEN – NCT

84 points

(2024 position – #4)

It was a very poor year for NCT in 2025, as I predicted Taeil was absent but what I didn’t predict was almost every other member of NCT also taking a tumble in the attractiveness section of the survey. Ten did well to hang onto picture status in the face of his group’s decline in voting popularity!

HONOURABLE MENTIONS

#14 – Sunghoon – Enhypen

#15 – Wonbin – RIIZE

#16 – Bang Chan – Stray Kids

#17 – Beomgyu – TXT

#18 – Ricky – ZeroBase1

#19 – Yunho – ATEEZ

#20 – Taeyong – NCT

#21 – Wonwoo – Seventeen

#22 – Jiwoong – ZeroBase1

#23 – Taecyeon – 2PM

#24 – Baekhyun – EXO

#25 – Changbin – Stray Kids

#26 – Baekho – Nu’est

#27 – Minhyuk – BTOB

#28 – Jaejoong – JYJ

#29 – Jaehyun – NCT

#30 – Jeno – NCT

#31 – S.Coups Seventeen

#32 – DPR Ian

#33 – PSY

#34 – Taemin – SHINee

#35 – T.O.P – ex-BigBang

#36 – Xiumin – EXO

#37 – Hanbin – ZB1

#38 – Anton – RIIZE

#39 – L/Myungsoo – Infinite

#40 – Jungkook – BTS

#41 – Juyeon – The Boyz

#42 – Taeyang – BigBang

#43 – Keeho – P1Harmony

#44 – Taehyun – TXT

That wraps up the Objectification Surveys for another year! Thank you to all readers who voted and had your say in the results! And those who didn’t vote and are mad about the placings… better pull your finger out and have your say when the voting commences again straight after Waterbomb next year! Kpopalypse will return!

It’s the final part of the 2025 Kpopalypse Objectification Survey results! Who are the most attractive k-pop idols for 2025, according to Kp...

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