I haven’t felt more optimistic about the future of kpop than I have this year in a very long time. And I’ve always been an optimist, so that says a lot. The beauty of kpop as a genre is that it’s always changing, old groups disband, new groups rise up to take their places, sometimes groups reunite, sometimes for a short time, sometimes for longer than you’d expect. The constant shift is what makes it stay so fresh and interesting, even if you’re sad losing the group you loved most, there’s always a new group around the corner for you to cheer for. We are in an unprecedented era in my opinion, we have a veteran group like Twice still pumping out hits like it’s their only purpose in life. Meanwhile our mid career groups are some of the most popular we’ve ever had: Itzy, Aespa, IVE, and Le Sserafim have all been on great runs. But it’s the rookies that have me the most hyped, so let’s talk about them. These are all groups that debuted in 2024 or later, and this is why the future is so bright. Please note, this is also mostly just thoughts flowing from my brain, so while I try to stay roughly in debut order, it is ultimately whatever pops into my head as I go.
Fifty Fifty (re-debuted 2024)
After some pretty frustrating controversy, Fifty Fifty had to start over, built around Keena, their rapper and one remaining member. I genuinely think the group is actually better than ever, as the addition of Athena, Chanelle Moon, Hana, and Yewon has made the group feel more natural, cohesive, and approachable than they did before in variety content. On top of that, they’re still crazy talented and releasing amazing music. Gravity was just shy of being my top song in 2024.
Illit (debuted 2024)
Illit, also affected by controversy and hate, despite deserving none of it pretty clearly, is such a cool group musically. They have this weird cute, and now sometimes elegant, approach to what is basically hyper pop. It’s a very unique addition to the genre, and while some people won’t vibe with it, the majority of listeners seem to be on board. I genuinely think Illit doesn’t miss with their music, and watching them slowly come out of their shells in variety, they’re really likably. They all have pretty good senses of humor that balances out a general shyness to their energy.
TripleS (debuted 2024?)
Their official debut was 2024, but the project of putting the group together started in 2022, and I genuinely have no clue what that will mean for contract lengths. Anyways, when I heard a group was building up to 24 members I thought it wouldn’t work for kpop, but it has been handled so incredibly well that I feel pretty bad for ever doubting it, they’ve become one of my favorite groups in the modern era. By using subunits liberally TripleS can have members rest, put out variety content, work on new music, go on variety shows, and be on tour in multiple places all at the same time. It’s actually a brilliant system, and with the use of Objekt sales the group makes money at a pretty decent pace too, and the process of buying and trading Objekts is actually really fun as somebody who likes trading card games.
Madein (debut 2024, included all 3 members of Limelight on debut with 4 new members)
Another redebut, although more of a rebrand and expansion. The 3 members of Limelight, a group with some great music, were mashed together with two new members from Japan as well as Mashiro and Yeseo from Kep1er to make this new group. We have lost one of the Limelight girls because the CEO is a terrible man, who luckily finally got ousted from the company (and frankly I still don’t trust the company with these girls at all). But if they continue to put out more music I’m excited to see what they do next, their debut Uno was fantastic, and I really like Saturn from their second album as well, although I did think the title track was a little weaker.
Babymonster (debut 2024)
I honestly thought YG would just never make a girl group I clicked with as I was never a big 2ne1 guy, and only clicked with 30-40% of Blackpink’s music, but Babymonster has proven me wrong. Outside of Sheesh and Drip, which aren’t really my vibe, this group has basically only put out music I like, and they’ve got some very real talent too, I especially like Asa’s rapping. I am curious to see the musical direction they develop over time, they’ve shown a lot of flexibility in a very short time.
QWER (debut 2024)
Girl group bands are back! QWER are just an absolute delight, and it’s nice to see a group that debuts “old” by kpop standards (mid 20s). Their music is really fun and has a unique anime OST kinda sound that we don’t usually get with girl groups in kpop these days. I’ve actually had multiple people who don’t know any music outside of western culture who have asked if I’m listening to music from an anime while playing QWER out loud. I really like the personalities in QWER across the board, they’re really charming and that extra maturity is a refreshing change of pace. I think the people in the band complement the music in a really nice way.
Rescene (debut 2024)
I first heard their music and said to myself “while I don’t like this, I know this group is going to release music that I like eventually.” I was right on that front, they’ve since released a number of songs that have been on my playlists for 2024 and 2025. I don’t really know this group beyond their music, but that alone has been a pretty interesting journey, and it’s another group where I’m curious to see what comes next, because I couldn’t possibly predict it.
Candy Shop (debut 2024)
A new Brave Bros group. While Brave Bros music production hasn’t been my favorite since the AOA era outside of a few early Brave Girls songs (Rollin’ and everything before it, but nothing after). We do know they are capable of writing bangers, and Candy Shop’s music has been okay up to this point. I think that they could easily have a hit out of nowhere if they keep getting more music, and I really think at least one of the members, not sure who, has a really cool and unique vocal color for kpop.
izna (debut 2025)
Izna are my top group for the 2025 period so far. I adore this group, they have great variety personalities and top tier music. Izna, Sign, and Beep are one of the strongest trios of singles I’ve ever heard. And they even have pretty solid b-sides on top of that. This group also has really good talent, they can sing, they dance well, and they are doing well in other on-camera roles as well. If they keep at their current pace this group is currently on the path of being one of my favorite groups of all time.
KiiiKiii (debut 2025)
It’s really weird watching groups that are fairly new to me, since I’ve been into kpop for 13 years, become older sister groups, but here we are, with IVE’s little sister group. KiiiKiii are not quite what you’d expect from a Starship group, they feel fairly different from any of Sistar, WJSN, or IVE, but I think that’s a good thing. Starship are good concept builders for their girl groups, and are pretty smart about adjusting course over time, and even if it doesn’t always work out, it does more often than not. I like what I’ve heard from KiiiKiii so far, so I’m pretty favorable right now.
Hearts2Hearts (debut 2025)
Aespa’s little sister group, and an almost polar opposite concept, very cutesy. They’ve had fantastic music so far in terms of their first two title tracks, so they’re off to a great start. We also got to see them at SMTown, and despite being a young group in front of a massive audience that probably didn’t know them too well, they put on a great performance. I think this is probably a group worth following if you like cuter concepts, and knowing SM’s history, we can inspect them to improve a lot over time, although this is the first girl group to debut without LSM in charge of the company, so we’ll see if that holds up.
Meovv (debut 2024)
I almost didn’t include Meovv because, so far, their music hasn’t been for me. But, I know a lot of people love what they’re putting out, and that’s awesome. I definitely think that if you’re looking for newer girl groups to invest in, Meovv is a solid option, so give them a listen too.
