10 Incredible K-Pop Songs (That Aren’t Gangnam Style)

Red Velvet were formed in 2007 but they didn’t actually launch until 2014. This is not uncommon in K-pop, where bands are given unusually long gestation periods to allow them to perfect every single aspect of their craft.

A band squarely aimed at the teenage girl market, Red Velvet have still caused quite a splash in the short period they’ve been in the public eye. Their first video, for the song Happiness, got over two million Youtube views in just 24 hours, and was co-written by Chad Hugo, more famous as Pharrell Williams' mate from The Neptunes and N.E.R.D. It even managed to cause a mini storm of controversy, when some viewers pointed out they could see images referencing the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The band’s label apologised, said it was a mistake and quickly re-edited the video.

It didn’t affect the band’s popularity though. In the first half of this year they were Korea’s biggest selling girl group, and the video above was the most watched K-pop video in the world in the month after it was released.

On first listen Ice Cream Cake may seem a tad disjointed, with three sections that bear little relation to each other, but once those hooks get in your head, they’re damn hard to displace.