The Top 25 Rookies Artists of 2021: Honorable Mentions

It has been about a year since I did the rookies countdown, so I guess it is a good time to do the rules refresher, and thank all my new viewers. Thanks for joining this site's community! Thanks to all old viewers too, you have all stuck around for a long time!

I love rookie artists. They are the musical future, and thus their feature is one of the biggest for this site and starts several weeks before the rest of my end-of-year lists. Before we get to the list, let us go over some rules.

• Rookies don't really get time to show their skills within a month, so I go from December 1, 2020, to November 30, 2021, for all the artists available in this countdown. That means Rolling Quartz is eligible, but IVE is not.
• This is based on debut, not breakout. As a result, Arooj Aftab and Brave Girls are excluded.
• This counts an artist's single or album debut. Whichever came first. As a result, Morgan Wade and aespa are excluded.
• Your first debut internationally is what counts. Twice don't count as they made their Korean debut years before their international one.
• I also eliminated artists who released great material but lack the funding to become influential.
• No disbanded artists count.

Now let the list begin with some honorable mentions!

32. INI

INI's best material came from their pre-debut reality TV show for the Produce franchise, with Shadow still remaining one of the year's best surprises. Hopefully their post-debut material will soon improve.

31. Lightsum

Lightsum have some real talent among their members, even if it has yet to manifest in strong material for the group, which has mostly sounded like IZ*ONE songs so far. This at least leaves a major route for success.

30. BGYO

This Filipino boy band gained pretty decent fame in their native land, even if their material has largely been K-Pop songs in Tagalog and English. They seem talented though.

29. Taeho (IMFACT)

Debuting from a largely unknown (though strong) K-Pop group, Taeho's solo releases have failed to make a commercial spalsh. Nonetheless, GGOMA remains a fun old-school jam.

28. MJ (Astro)

MJ gets a bit of a boost as his decently popular group gives him a minor boost. His trot style also gurantees a strong back-up career for him.

27. Lilli Lilli

While it made no sense conceptually, Barcode was a fun debut. It is also good to see a member of disbanded girl group P.O.P re-debut.

26. Kwon Eunbi

Eunbi, as a former member of IZ*ONE, is basically guranteed a few successful releases before she can figure out her next career path.