Honorable Mention: Wonder Girls
* New Releases: To The Beautiful You (upcoming)
Wonder Girls make a return to the Power Rankings, though this time as a Honorable Mention. They've been rather quiet since the revival as a band, and their comeback didn't get enough praise as I thought it would. Still, they're veterans with serious experience now, and their lineup boasts plenty of talent from Yubin's glorious rapping to the equally strong vocal tandem of Sunmi and Yeeun. By the by, Yeeun did join Younha and Cheetah for "Get It?" but it's not her work, even though she did participate heavily. Anyway, with a comeback happening very soon, they'll put on their best effort to fight among the rookies that are everywhere.
Wonder Girls make a return to the Power Rankings, though this time as a Honorable Mention. They've been rather quiet since the revival as a band, and their comeback didn't get enough praise as I thought it would. Still, they're veterans with serious experience now, and their lineup boasts plenty of talent from Yubin's glorious rapping to the equally strong vocal tandem of Sunmi and Yeeun. By the by, Yeeun did join Younha and Cheetah for "Get It?" but it's not her work, even though she did participate heavily. Anyway, with a comeback happening very soon, they'll put on their best effort to fight among the rookies that are everywhere.
Honorable Mention: Red Velvet
* New Releases: One Of These Nights
* New Releases: One Of These Nights
The female maknaes of S.M. have come on strong lately. They own 2016's best ballad in "One Of These Nights," and their resume is further backed by addicting dance numbers in "Dumb Dumb" and "Ice Cream Cake." Ignoring their debut, RV have shown mastery of both elements, touting both versatility and consistency in two different concepts. I consider this group one that is more than the sum of its parts. Individually, the talent on he roster isn't that noteworthy, but they always make their songs work, which is a testament to good music production. With rumors of another comeback coming later in the year, Red Velvet is only going to climb higher.
#10. 9MUSES (-2)
* New Releases: N/A
Truth be told, the only reason 9MUSES is here at this stage in their careers is for legacy reasons. If not for their 2013 and 2015 runs (which were amazing and good, respectively), I'd have given this spot to Red Velvet, who are more deserving of the spot given their recent additions. Even though this will likely be the last time we see 9MUSES here, there is still a little bit of hope for them. Some form of a comeback or promotion cycle will come later this summer, and whether it's a "full" group or a subunit, it'll help ease the pain of losing yet more members. Even a Nasty Nasty-esque collaboration would suffice. We'll just have to wait and see.
#9. GFriend (--)
* New Releases: Cherish (Yuju), Inferiority Complex (Eunha), L.O.L (upcoming)
Back in January, I severely underestimated "Rough." It's such a good song! Given the strengths of Lovelyz' "Goodnight Like Yesterday" and Apink's "Luv," GFriend's latest work is arguably better than both in the overall sense. Eunja and Yuju are the newest generation's superstar vocal pair and they have so much potential, further evidenced by their collaboration work. At first I didn't like Eunha's performance in Kyung's song but then I respected how difficult using such a high head voice is and the track has grown on me. GFriend is also coming back very soon, so Apink really does have to watch out, or their innocent throne may be overtaken.
#8. Apink (-2)
* New Releases: Hopefully Sky (Eunji), The Wave
Apink have been busy touring, and as a result haven't yet had time to add to their resume. Eunji's solo debut was in my opinion a year or two late but "Hopefully Sky" is a ballad that shows off Eunji's lovely voice along with a strong message, so I can't complain with the delightful delivery. Besides being firmly rooted in their innocent girly image, what Apink also has going for them is that each member's voice ranges from good enough (Naeun) to great (Eunji). With Naeun's growth over the last few years there's no longer a weak link in terms of the vocals. Not many groups can make that claim. Like I mentioned above, GFriend is on the rise so Apink will have to hurry their butts back for the next release.
#7. Twice (+2)
* New Releases: Cheer Up
* New Releases: Cheer Up
If you ever take a look at r/kpics, you'd find yourself drowning in a sea of Twice. Seriously, that subreddit might as well be r/twicepics. They are nothing short of the nation's girl group crush right now and "Cheer Up" got me invested. Of course, Twice will need to keep (or up) the ante for their next song to prove they have staying power music-wise. This is the youngest group on the list, so rest assured they have plenty of time to keep getting better and more popular. YG's new girl group has seriously high standards to follow, with Red Velvet and Twice doing wonderfully so far.
#6. Girl's Day (-3)
* New Releases: N/A
At first, I was really uncomfortable dropping Girl's Day all the way down here, but then I took a step back and looked at the bigger picture. Their last comeback was "Ring My Bell," a song which I vastly overrated, and they've been inactive since. Given the criteria, it's a blow to both music quality and consistency, as plenty of other groups have had comebacks (or multiple, even) during this hiatus. And these are Power Rankings after all: they will fluctuate and change with each passing edition, so fear not! With the knowledge that they'll be making a comeback in the fall I have high hopes that Girl's Day will return to prior form soon enough. But unlike Sojin's bump on my Bias Power Rankings, they'll have to earn it.
* New Releases: N/A
At first, I was really uncomfortable dropping Girl's Day all the way down here, but then I took a step back and looked at the bigger picture. Their last comeback was "Ring My Bell," a song which I vastly overrated, and they've been inactive since. Given the criteria, it's a blow to both music quality and consistency, as plenty of other groups have had comebacks (or multiple, even) during this hiatus. And these are Power Rankings after all: they will fluctuate and change with each passing edition, so fear not! With the knowledge that they'll be making a comeback in the fall I have high hopes that Girl's Day will return to prior form soon enough. But unlike Sojin's bump on my Bias Power Rankings, they'll have to earn it.
#5. EXID (+2)
* New Releases: L.I.E.
* New Releases: L.I.E.
EXID ascend to 5th on the rankings off the success of the "Street" album. They find themselves in a similar position as last year, where good album presence early helped sustain them for a while. There's plenty of good stuff on the album that continues to demonstrate the star power of LE and Solji, and using "L.I.E." as the title track does a great job previewing the rest of the songs. Well, except "Yum Yum Chomp Chomp." I don't know how to feel about that one. Anyway, regardless of whether or not EXID have a comeback later in 2016, "L.I.E." has given them a rebound since "Hot Pink" and has temporarily cemented them among the top 5 girl groups.
#4. Mamamoo (+1)
* New Releases: Woo Hoo
We already sampled "Woo Hoo" back during the January-April Trimester Recap, and it truly is impressive how good Mamamoo's promotional songs are. Nonetheless, the highlight for the group has been the "Melting" album, which had a surprisingly high amount of high quality tracks, with my favorites being "Friday Night" with Junggigo and "Words Don't Come Easy." This group has built their reputation strongly, utilizing emphatic title tracks and insane Immortal Song 2 appearances. Mamamoo have been nothing short of spectacular lately and even though Solar is busy enjoying the married life with Eric Nam on We Got Married for now, I wouldn't be surprised to hear news of something like a winter or fall comeback.
* New Releases: Woo Hoo
We already sampled "Woo Hoo" back during the January-April Trimester Recap, and it truly is impressive how good Mamamoo's promotional songs are. Nonetheless, the highlight for the group has been the "Melting" album, which had a surprisingly high amount of high quality tracks, with my favorites being "Friday Night" with Junggigo and "Words Don't Come Easy." This group has built their reputation strongly, utilizing emphatic title tracks and insane Immortal Song 2 appearances. Mamamoo have been nothing short of spectacular lately and even though Solar is busy enjoying the married life with Eric Nam on We Got Married for now, I wouldn't be surprised to hear news of something like a winter or fall comeback.
#3. AOA (-1)
* New Releases: Good Luck
AOA will casually slide out of the silver medal after underwhelming with "Good Luck." A good song without question, but like Sonamoo's "Cushion," would have ultimately been a better one without some questionable English usage all around. Other than the easiest lifeguard duty, they've had some reality show workings and Japanese releases (not relevant here, plus I could write a blog post about the whole "Korean artists promoting in Japan" ordeal). With the AOA Cream subunit having debuted in February (and solo work from Jimin and Choa, going back to last year) I doubt we'll see anymore AOA action this year. Now, if FNC would kindly let us know when AOA Black is returning, that'd be awesome. Wonder Girls vs. AOA Black needs to happen!
#2. Sistar (+2)
* New Releases: I Like That
A return to the days of "Alone" means a return to Sistar's best side. They had previously occupied the #4 spot after unimpressive attempts at recapturing the summer magic of "Loving U," but that's neither here nor there, as "I Like That" is exactly what they needed to get back to form. While the song and choreography is indeed fantastic, what's really awesome is seeing Dasom break out of her shell. Sistar in the past always seemed like Hyorin +3, but now for the first time all the members are on (roughly) equal ground as a unit. There are only a few groups that have been able to do that (miss A and 2NE1 being the first ones that come to mind) so all the more power to Sistar.
* New Releases: I Like That
A return to the days of "Alone" means a return to Sistar's best side. They had previously occupied the #4 spot after unimpressive attempts at recapturing the summer magic of "Loving U," but that's neither here nor there, as "I Like That" is exactly what they needed to get back to form. While the song and choreography is indeed fantastic, what's really awesome is seeing Dasom break out of her shell. Sistar in the past always seemed like Hyorin +3, but now for the first time all the members are on (roughly) equal ground as a unit. There are only a few groups that have been able to do that (miss A and 2NE1 being the first ones that come to mind) so all the more power to Sistar.
#1. Girls' Generation (--)
* New Releases: I Just Wanna Dance / Heartbreak Hotel (Tiffany), Starlight / Why (Taeyeon)
While the group hasn't been active since their last studio album, Taeyeon and Tiffany have been plenty busy making solo efforts. This combination of solo material and the productive 2015 helps SNSD secure the #1 spot for a repeat. On top of that, let's not forget to mention that both Taeyeon and Tiffany's solo stuff has been pretty high quality, too. "Why" in particular does a very good job encapsulating (but not directly copying) the success of "I," with dance elements mixed in. Tiffany also deserves praise for her slower jams, and both have added a solid Station track to their resumes. Could we perhaps see a new Girls' Generation subunit before the end of the year?
Final Glance
H: Wonder Girls
H: Red Velvet
10. 9MUSES (-2)
9. GFriend
8. Apink (-2)
7. Twice (+2)
6. Girl's Day (-3)
5. EXID (+2)
4. Mamamoo (+1)
3. AOA (-1)
2. Sistar (+2)
1. Girls' Generation
Previous Ranking (Spring 2016)
While the group hasn't been active since their last studio album, Taeyeon and Tiffany have been plenty busy making solo efforts. This combination of solo material and the productive 2015 helps SNSD secure the #1 spot for a repeat. On top of that, let's not forget to mention that both Taeyeon and Tiffany's solo stuff has been pretty high quality, too. "Why" in particular does a very good job encapsulating (but not directly copying) the success of "I," with dance elements mixed in. Tiffany also deserves praise for her slower jams, and both have added a solid Station track to their resumes. Could we perhaps see a new Girls' Generation subunit before the end of the year?
Final Glance
H: Wonder Girls
H: Red Velvet
10. 9MUSES (-2)
9. GFriend
8. Apink (-2)
7. Twice (+2)
6. Girl's Day (-3)
5. EXID (+2)
4. Mamamoo (+1)
3. AOA (-1)
2. Sistar (+2)
1. Girls' Generation
Previous Ranking (Spring 2016)
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