2nd Gen K-POP Classics
BIGBANG, Girls' Generation, Wonder Girls — the golden 2nd gen era.
64 entries
Choose a round
Round of 16 takes about a minute. Bigger brackets take longer.
About this world cup
Before K-pop went global, it went national. The second generation, roughly 2007 to 2012, produced the songs every Korean can still sing at karaoke: Tell Me, Gee, Sorry Sorry, Mirotic, Haru Haru, Nobody, Ring Ding Dong, I Am The Best, Fantastic Baby. This 64-song cup is a full tour of that golden era.
The bracket covers the big five agencies' flagship acts and the groups that fought them for chart wins: BIGBANG and 2NE1 for YG, Girls' Generation, SHINee, Super Junior, TVXQ! and f(x) for SM, Wonder Girls, 2PM and miss A for JYP, plus KARA, T-ara, SISTAR, BEAST, INFINITE, 4MINUTE, Apink, AOA and Brown Eyed Girls. Hook songs, dance crazes and tearjerker ballads all get their place.
If you were there, the Round of 64 is a nostalgia trip with real stakes. If you were not, it is the fastest way to understand where the sounds and concepts of today's groups actually came from.
Matchups to watch
Gee vs Tell Me
The two hook songs that started K-pop's girl-group boom. Girls' Generation against Wonder Girls, SM against JYP.
Haru Haru vs Fantastic Baby
BIGBANG's heartbreak ballad against BIGBANG's global party anthem. One group, two completely different legacies.
Mirotic vs Ring Ding Dong
TVXQ!'s sleek, controversial classic against SHINee's gloriously weird one. SM's two boy-group peaks of the era.
All 64 contenders
- BIGBANG - Haru Haru
- BIGBANG - Fantastic Baby
- 2NE1 - Fire
- 2NE1 - I Am The Best
- Girls' Generation - Gee
- Girls' Generation - I Got A Boy
- Wonder Girls - Tell Me
- Wonder Girls - Nobody
- KARA - Mister
- KARA - Step
- T-ara - Roly-Poly
- SISTAR - Alone
- SHINee - Ring Ding Dong
- SHINee - Sherlock
- Super Junior - Sorry Sorry
- Super Junior - Mr. Simple
- 2PM - Heartbeat
- 2PM - Hands Up
- BEAST - Fiction
- INFINITE - Be Mine
- INFINITE - The Chaser
- miss A - Bad Girl Good Girl
- f(x) - Electric Shock
- 4MINUTE - HUH
- Girls' Generation - Genie
- Girls' Generation - Oh!
- Girls' Generation - Run Devil Run
- Girls' Generation - The Boys
- 2NE1 - Lonely
- 2NE1 - Ugly
- 2NE1 - Come Back Home
- BIGBANG - BLUE
- BIGBANG - BAD BOY
- BIGBANG - LOSER
- BIGBANG - TONIGHT
- TVXQ! - Mirotic
- TVXQ! - Rising Sun
- TVXQ! - Keep Your Head Down
- SHINee - Lucifer
- SHINee - Everybody
- KARA - Lupin
- KARA - Jumping
- T-ara - Bo Peep Bo Peep
- T-ara - Lovey-Dovey
- SISTAR - So Cool
- SISTAR - Touch My Body
- SISTAR - Loving U
- 4MINUTE - Volume Up
- BEAST - Shock
- BEAST - Good Luck
- INFINITE - Last Romeo
- miss A - Breathe
- miss A - Hush
- Wonder Girls - So Hot
- Wonder Girls - Be My Baby
- 2PM - Again & Again
- 2PM - My House
- f(x) - Hot Summer
- f(x) - Rum Pum Pum Pum
- f(x) - Red Light
- Apink - NoNoNo
- Apink - Mr. Chu
- AOA - Miniskirt
- Brown Eyed Girls - Abracadabra