If you take a step back and look at what went down in 2021, you'd realize that a decade's worth of events happened in just 365 days. 

In 2021, our readers hit up Bandwagon for all kinds of stories, reading on the award-winning and record-breaking pop group BTS (including that time all the members joined Instagram, and getting tickets to their first in-person concert since 2019), the Billboard #HotTrendingSongs chart-toppers SB19, and BLACKPINK's takeover of Animal Crossing with their very own island BLINKs can visit anytime.

Bandwagon's Best of 2021

It's been quite a ride what with the addition of Twitter Spaces on the social media platform, giving musicians the room to surprise their fans in the middle of a session; the music that fueled the Tokyo Olympics, taking fans back to the theme songs of Slam Dunk, Attack on Titan, to Final Fantasy; and of course, that exciting period when everyone craved for Cajun and Sweet Chili sauces at McDonald's after scoring the limited edition BTS Meal.

Best of 2021: Albums of the Year – Epik High, Japanese Breakfast, Taylor Swift, SHINee, Olivia Rodrigo, NCT, Adele, and more

Here are our most-read stories of 2021:

Awards Season

From unveiling nominees to performance lineup reveals, every awards show announcement sets timelines ablaze. Our biggest news articles in 2021 include the announcement of nominees and winners of the GRAMMY Awards, Mnet Asian Music Awards, the Billboard Music Awards, the MTV EMAs, the American Music Awards, the Brand of the Year Awards, the TikTok Awards Philippines, the *SCAPE Youth Music Awards, the Golden Disc Awards, the Tencent Entertainment Music Awards, and more.

Fans coming together for good

Fans of different K-pop, J-pop, and P-pop groups came together several times in 2021 to help aid the underprivileged by holding community pantries across the Philippines, and mobilising fundraisers and donation drives for typhoon victims.

Thousands of K-pop songs disappear from Spotify

Millions of music fans all over the world woke up to find that their Spotify playlists didn't have a bulk of their favourite K-pop tracks. The sudden removal of the Kakao Entertainment catalogue took fans by surprise, and it took a couple of days before the two parties sorted things out.

Best of 2021: Collaborations of the Year

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings Soundtrack

From the rumoured Jackson Wang feature on the soundtrack fueled by the now-deleted teaser clip by 88rising to the unveiling of the massive OST's final lineup, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings was a constant hot topic in 2021. Making history both onscreen and with its unprecedented roster of acts for its soundtrack, 88rising tapped the likes of NIKI, Rich Brian, Warren Hue, Jhéne Aiko, Seori, Mark Tuan, keshi, DPR Live, JJ Lin, and more to contribute to the groundbreaking OST.

Street Dance of China's Season 4

Superstars Wang Yibo, Han Geng, Henry Lau, and Lay Zhang were revealed as Street Dance of China Season 4 captains, and international fans were able to tune in to the weekly episodes via YOUKU's YouTube channel.

Loona dive into their first Japanese mini-album

"LOONA pop" took over Twitter timelines as fans discussed their signature "LOONA sound" after the release of LOONA's first Japanese mini-album.

Twitter Spaces - the NCT kick-start, BamBam setting records, screaming lyrics, and more

Twitter Spaces launched in 2021 with NCT as the first K-pop act to use the platform when it was still in BETA testing. Described by Twitter as an avenue for "open, authentic, and unfiltered discussions," more and more hopped on the Spaces bandwagon with GOT7 member BamBam setting the record in June 2021 as the most-listened-to Twitter Space by a K-pop act and TWICE hosting an 'After Party' on the platform for the release of their mini-album, Taste of Love. 

Fans soon followed suit with the likes of a BTS ARMY holding a Twitter Space exclusively screaming BTS and TXT lyrics to an impressive audience of 51,000 listeners at one point. 

Best of 2021: Songs of the Year

BLACKPINK's Animal Crossing Island

As part of their 5th-anniversary celebrations, BLACKPINK opened their very own InYourArea island on the popular video game, Animal Crossing.

NCT 127 talk 'First Love,' virtual connections, and 'Loveholic'

NCT 127 talked to Bandwagon about their second Japanese mini-album and the interview made the rounds on the internet. Just search for "Mark Lee favourite girl" on Twitter.

Best of 2021: EPs of the Year

SB19 setting and breaking records

SB19 have had another great year - from being the first Filipino band to be nominated for a Billboard Music Award (the 'MAPA' act was up for Top Social Artist at the 2021 BBMAs) to topping Billboard's Hot Trending Songs chart with their smash hit, 'Bazinga'. The feat makes them the only act to ever top the chart aside from global superstars BTS.

In the Philippines, the group continues to garner one award after another, and hold sold-out virtual concerts.

Best K-pop YouTube and SoundCloud releases of 2021

All things BTS

Bangtan Comebacks

Even without the release of a full studio album, BTS continued to rule the charts globally. Millions of fans tuned in to watch butter "melt" for over an hour, in anticipation of their now-GRAMMY-nominated hit single, 'Butter'. Named as one of Bandwagon's Best Songs of the Year, the Billboard Hot 100 hit has broken numerous Spotify and YouTube records, earned various awards, and even had Megan Thee Stallion jumping in on a remix.

Topping Japan's Oricon charts as 2021's best-selling artist and album with their compilation album BTS, THE BEST, the group has set a new record. BTS are now the first foreign act to claim the top spot since Michael Jackson's Thriller, and the first foreign group in history to top the year-end sales chart. The 23-track Japanese album includes 'Film Out,' the lone new track on the record, co-composed by Jungkook and J-pop group Back Number.

Brightening up our pandemic summers, BTS dropped the Ed Sheeran-penned track, 'Permission To Dance'. With its catchy na-na-na-na-na-na-nas and easy dance moves, the song has taken over the newly launched YouTube shorts with the Permission To Dance challenge.

BTS ON STAGE

Despite the ongoing pandemic, BTS kept delivering visually and sonically stunning live concerts from their record-breaking online fanmeet MUSTER SOWOOZOO where over 1.33 million fans tuned in to watch their 8th-anniversary celebrations to what was essentially a prelude to their in-person concerts, PERMISSION TO DANCE ON STAGE online.

BTS finally returned to the live stage last December with their PERMISSION TO DANCE ON STAGE in LA concert series - 4 nights of sold-out concerts at the SoFi Stadium. Over 50,000 fans (who responsibly kept their masks on) showed up every night to show love for the biggest band in the world. On the last day, BTS revealed that they will be holding their next in-person concerts in Seoul on March 2022.

We also spoke to KISWE, the team behind BTS' concert livestreams and VenewLive, where they talked about how they got started working with BigHit, making sure they deliver quality streams, and putting fan experience first.

Best of 2021: Music Videos of the Year

BTS' runway debut

The House Ambassadors made their runway debut with Louis Vuitton for Virgil Abloh's Men’s Fall-Winter 2021 collection at Art Bunker B39.

BTS on Instagram

Not a stranger to breaking the internet, BTS surprised everyone by joining Instagram. When all the BTS members – RM, Jin, SUGA, J-hope, Jimin, V, and Jungkook – shared their public Instagram accounts in December 2021, their first posts were what everyone could talk about. 

BTS, ARMY, and the ongoing fight against racism

Sadly, some people still have no respect for others' differences and fans such as the BTS ARMY still need to remind everyone that  "Racism is not an opinion."

BTS have also made their stand on racism, and Asian hate clear by saying that "You, I, and we all have the right to be respected. We will stand together."

Taylor's Versions

In 2021, Taylor Swift started releasing her re-recorded albums - starting with her best-selling records, Fearless and RED. She didn't stop at giving us new takes on old favourites, a master storyteller, Swift also dropped songs From The Vault, plus the now-iconic 'All Too Well (Ten-Minute Version).'

Creatives Behind-The-Scenes

At Bandwagon, we go out of our way to tell the stories of the people behind the scenes. In 2021, we spoke to visual artists such as duo hanavbara who have ended up working with LOONA and Stephanie Poetri, and graphic designer Jiyoon Lee who started her career with Lee Hyori's h-logic, has helmed the branding and identity of LOONA, conceptualised the physical of album of BTS' You Never Walk Alone, and more. We also had interesting conversations with DOCSKIM and Soowan Chung, members of BTS' live band, Ghost, who are also accomplished artists and musicians in their own right. 

Golden Maknae surprises

For his birthday last September, BTS’ Jungkook composed a song for fans on VLive using fan messages he crowdsourced on Weverse. "You wrote things for me, but I'm making this for you.” He went on to perform a mini-concert singing songs like ‘Euphoria,’ ‘Bapsae,’ ‘So What,’ as well as covers such as Silk Sonic's ‘Leave The Door Open’ and Justin Bieber's ‘Peaches’.

In October, the pop star, dubbed as the Golden Maknae, shared a surprise cover of Harry Styles’ ‘Falling’. Jungkook, along with J-hope, Jimin, and V also watched the ‘Watermelon Sugar’ act in concert while they were in the States ahead of their PERMISSION TO DANCE ON STAGE concerts.

Supernova Collabs

Collaborations dominated our most-read list from Peakboy reuniting with the Wooga Squad – BTS' V, Park Seo Joon, Park Hyung Sik, Choi Woo Shik - for his music video 'Gyopo Hairstyle' to BTS and Coldplay teaming up with the funky alien band, Supernova7, for 'My Universe'.

Brand collabs also made waves last year, such as SUGA's take on the iconic Samsung Galaxy ringtone, 'Over the Horizon' to the  McDonald's and BTS artist meal.

Undoubtedly THE biggest collaboration of 2021, The BTS Meal took over more than 50 countries with McDonald's outlets. From millions trying to get the hottest meal in town, scoring the limited edition merch ("Hello, photocards please?"), and the many creative recreations by artists and fans alike, The BTS Meal has definitely made its mark.

Songs that soundtracked the Tokyo Olympics

Twitter was abuzz with the 2020 Tokyo Olympics in 2021. While most tweets were about the actual sporting events, fans were quick to discover that the Olympics was soundtracked by popular anime theme songs and K-pop hits.

'Super Tuna' supremacy

When BTS' Jin dropped 'Super Tuna' for his birthday last December 2021, he did not expect it to be THIS big. By releasing his first trot track co-written and co-produced with his 'Abyss' collaborator BUMZU and dance moves choreographed by award-winning performance director Son Sung-deuk, Jin has unknowingly sparked the Super Tuna Dance Challenge.

Now a global craze to rival fellow Billboard Hot 100 act Baby Shark (the Pinkfong squad also has their own Super Tuna Dance Challenge entry), the song has spurred thousands of dance covers, hundreds of memes and video edits including ones from Animal Crossing and Maplestory, plus a documentary on a Korean news channel. The track has also been named as one of Bandwagon's Top K-pop YouTube and SoundCloud releases of 2021.

K-pop Book Club

One of our most-read lists for 2021 is our rundown of book recommendations by K-pop artists who are also voracious readers. From Almond by Sohn Won-pyung on BTS RM's reading list to BLACKPINK Jisoo's pick, CAROL by Patricia Highsmith, fans are bound to find a book to pique their interest.

K-drama soundtracks

Regardless of how you feel about these K-dramas, everyone will agree that their soundtracks are top-notch – from the Jirisan OST led by  BTS' Jin singing the main theme song, 'Yours,' and the likes of singer-songwriter Gaho, Girls' Generation's Taeyeon, NELL's Kim Jong Wan, Superstar K alum Kim Feel, singer and producer O3ohn, and more contributing to the soundtrack, to songs by Sam Kim, Say Sue Me, KIMMUSEUM, and more for the Nevertheless OST.

Check out our Best of 2021 lists featuring the Best Songs, EPs, Albums, Collaborations, and Music Videos of 2021.