SHINee, EXO, Girls' Generation, and f(x) were hailed as "Best Boy Groups" and "Best Girl Groups" of the decade! In particular, Sheldon Pearce, a former music critic, writer, and reviewer for the popular international critic, Pitchfork, (now a writer for The New Yorker) named the K-pop artists and groups that shined the most from the year 2010 to 2019.
In Pearce's list, prominent K-pop groups from the Korean agency giant SM Entertainment, such as SHINee, EXO, Girls' Generation, and f(x) reigned as the best groups!
SHINee and EXO as "Best Boy Groups"; SNSD and f(x) as " Best Girl Groups" [2010-2019]
On the personal Tumblr of Sheldon Pearce, SHINee and Girls' Generation were chosen as the decade's best groups, followed by EXO and f(x) as runner-ups.
SHINee, also known as "Princes of K-pop," truly played a significant part in the music industry for the past years.
Since their debut in 2008, they immediately wrote a dazzling record with their iconic debut track, "Replay," and the first group who was hailed as "Monster Rookie."
In 2010, SHINee entered as No.6 for best-selling albums in Korea with their "Lucifer" release. Since then, they have produced megahit tracks, "Ring Ding Dong," "Sherlock," and many more.
They are also considered as "idol of idols," with numerous younger K-pop stars revealing they became idols because of SHINee, including SEVENTEEN Hoshi, TXT Taehyun, NCT Haechan, SF9 Chani, etc.
Meanwhile, EXO is known to be the "Nation's Pick," the only group to have a national title that was officially given by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism's Korea Tourism Organization.
When they debuted in 2012, it wasn't long enough for them to gain hot response as they bagged the "New Artist" Awards from prestigious award ceremonies such as MAMA and GDA.
In the following year, their popularity continued to rise as they released their first studio album, "XOXO," which sold one million copies. EXO then became the first Korean artist to achieve this record in 12 years.
In their career, EXO has already 23 daesangs and recorded various achievements as well, such as becoming the first Korean artist in the 21st century to sell 10 million cumulative albums.
Meanwhile, Girls' Generation, who is deemed as "Nation's Girl Group," debuted in 2007 with their iconic debut track, "Into the New World."
With their skills and talents, they rose to fame and recorded a record-breaking nine consecutive number 1 on Music Bank until 2012.
From 2009-2011, SNSD also becomes the highest-earning artist from SM Entertainment and is also considered as the "blueprint" of newer girl groups such as Apink, G-Friend, and Melody Day.
Don't forget to watch the comeback stage of #fx #RedLight on M Countdown! pic.twitter.com/7zPwiV3gmg
— SMTOWN (@SMTOWNGLOBAL) July 3, 2014
Lastly, f(x) who is known as the "best girl group alive" until Red Velvet debuted in 2009. Before their hiatus, they are not only recognized as the "best girl group" of Sheldon but the group was also selected by Billboard as "Top K-pop girl group in the Past Decade."
