2022 Playlist - are there any unexpected Kpop songs on yours?

I saved in total over 1.000 songs of different genre in this year, not sure if they are all even from 2022

KPop

I found this song of Grizzly cause I listen to Youha. I was quit surprised and it quickly became one of my most favourite songs where Youha sings in. Before that I didn't even knew that a KPop-artist called Grizzly even exists.

I wondered where Soobin was gone since the last release I remembered of him was the song he did for the Kdrama "Crash landing on you" so I recently searched him up and saw on Instagram that he was playing a lot live-shows so I wondered if he even had some new music and noticed he was still releasing music. It's such a shame how underrated he is.

The only thing I remember about TO1 is that they apeared on RTK when they were called TOO and I know that 2 of the new member were participants on Produce 101 Japan season 2. Never really got into their music and only knew the one song "Infinite City" they had that was covered by the JPop-group JO1 last year. It was quit surprising for me to see TO1 releasing a song together with some members of the JPop group INI, especially since INI is the little brother group of JO1 wich means that both groups have some kind of realations with TO1 cause of a song cover and a song collab, but another realation all 3 groups have is that members of all groups had apeared on Produce 101 Japan before lol. I also only listend to this song cause Spotify recomended it to me since I listen to INI. I was quit surprised that this song is in Korean since the song is made for Japan and most people who participated in the song are Japanese.

JPop

Actually this shouldn't surprise me that much, since I know JO1 since they debuted and follow them even since way before cause I watchrd Produce 101 Japan, where the group was formed with, but it quit surprised me as I found out that this song was produced by Han, Changbin and Bang Chan of Stray Kids. Bang Chan later on reacted to the song and said that he gave a demo-version of the song to JO1 and said he was quit unsure how they had handled the lyrics he wrote for the demo, but JO1 entirely trashed the lyrics Bang Chan wrote and wrote their own lyrics. Bang Chan said he was surprised about the lyrics and said they wrote better lyrics than he ever would've come up with and seems to have been very proud of this colab where he produced a song for a Japanese artist.

One of the curently 4 solo-songs June has, not cause they surprised me by how they sound like, but it's more of the way he had to even get there. I remember how harshly crtizised he used to get when he apeared on Produce 101 in Korea and even Knetz and international KPop-fans made a lot fun of him and everyone pretended that he can't even sing and that he would just sound horrible. But since than he apeared on Produce 101 Japan, was even ranked very far in the front and debuted with a boygroup. He is also working as producer in his company and wrote and produced a lot. He also worked on all of his solo-songs and even produced and wrote most of it all alone. I'm quit happy that he is doing his own thing now and that he has fans who apreciate his work. He first ever started to release solo music in 2022 because his group is curently on hiatus (2 of the Korean member are in the army, 1 Japanese member was suspended cause of a scandal,... the remaining member and some other people of the company are now promoting as a different group together right now)

I randomly discovered a JPop-artist called Chameleon this year cause another artist called Aile The Shota was featured on one of his songs that I listen to. I really liked this so I got into all of his songs and he seems to have potentional with the type of music hes been doing

I found Linus's songs earlier this year and his voice really got me. He is one of the people where the voice dosn't matches the face. I really like all the songs hes been doing so I'm constantly listening to them.

This guy, IDK the name right now since I can't read Japanese and don't want to research, was also quit a surprise since I know him since he apeard on 2 different survival shows, one in 2019 (Produce 101 Japan) and one in 2021 (THE FIRST) and failed in both. I never thought to hear of him again, but oneday Youtube recomended me his debut-song and I randomly watched it not real knowing who it was till I realised I knew him from different Japanese survival shows before and his solo-debut was better than expected since I thought he would probably fail cause of how bad he was on all of those shows he had been in.

C-Pop

I almost thought JYP had given up on their own group, so it surprised me as oneday the boys released a new MV wich was even under JYP's YT-channel. However I hate how little JYP even cares about them, so I constantly see people who never even knew that BOY STORY exists and many people even think they just debuted this year, altho they exist for quit some time now ... IDK whats even going on that JYP can promote all his artists but dosn't does shit for his Chinese group ...

Aespa illusion being on mine is suprising. I don’t really like their music but illusion is a bopppp

I prefer the rock version so this is a surprise.

Yes it's flawed but I like it somehow not like "best songs ever" level but it's enjoyable.

similar thing goes for this one.

I didn't know who or what Makamaka really was until yt reced me this but it got instan playlist placement.

I started the year with much fewer songs on my yearly list than the prior year, and it's still about 30 songs less than last year but I was surprised by how many songs I have (173) and the wide diversity of tracks. I think the biggest surprises for me are the amount of gg. Last year 17% of the year's songs were gg. This year, it's 35% - and especially gg I don't usually care for at all! (If you count in soloists, it's more like half of my songs..)

These songs slap and they're from groups I'm normally not interested in..

(thanks for the rec @zuzuhhaa )

I must also make a playlist for next year; so many songs I like this year that it's hard for me to track.

I'm a multi stan, so people that know my music taste probably expect every type of song in my playlist lol

but here are some songs that people may not expect

Here's a song nobody's talking about even though it slaps harder than a British au pair