K-Pop in the US: a massive fire, or just a lot of smoke?

BTS at the 2018 Billboard Music Awards.  Is M-Pop a massive fire, or simply a lot of smoke?

The internet is a behemothic amplifier, making things seem like a bigger deal than they actually are. Even something like Kpop, which basically sucks.

Pace into the correct echo chamber, and whatsoever you think is cool is instantly a million times cooler, with none of that pesky "perspective" getting in the manner of that moisture blanket we phone call "reality".

In 2017, Grammy.com posted an commodity titled Why is Kpop'south popularity exploding in the United states?. On May 29th, 2018, NPR published an article titled Kpop, Korean Pop Music, Hits No. 1 in the U.S., in response to BTS'southward new album hitting #1 on the Billboard 200 nautical chart. A few days later, The Guardian proclaimed English is no longer the default language of American popular. If you lot proceed Twitter, barely a day goes by without a bunch of Kpop fans getting something trending.

Human being, Kpop must be the biggest f—king thing in the United States correct now, huh?

Well, here'south that pesky "perspective" to get in the way. BTS'south big hit "Faux Dear" striking #10 on Billboard four weeks ago. Impressive, right? A calendar week later it dropped below #xl. Ii weeks after that?  It's #71 and dropping similar thugs in a hammer fight in the South Korean thriller "Oldboy".

BTS' album, Love Yourself: Tear hit #1 four weeks ago. This week it's #20, beingness browbeaten by Ed Sheeran'southward Carve up, an album that's been on the charts for 67 weeks. Oh, and what's #ten on the Hot 100 this week? The 34 calendar week former Bebe Rexha/Florida Georgia Line Popular/State crossover "Meant to Exist".

For something considered "pop", these are pretty weak numbers. Consider how well (or really how poorly) something has to perform to brand the top 10 on the Billboard Top 200 in this mean solar day and age, when anthology sales are in the toilet and streaming is supreme.  We don't have all the data for the unabridged nautical chart, but nosotros do have what Billboard's willing to share, which is the tiptop 10.

This week, nosotros returned to the year 1996 with Dave Matthews Band (Yep, Dave Matthews Band) taking the #1 album with just under 300,000 "equivalent albums" moved (this includes streams, they accept an algorithm for how many streams equal an anthology "sale"). #10 was Shawn Mendes' near recent album, notching 31,000 units. That'south not a typo, just 31,000 measly units.

So, we tin only estimate that the number of units needed to reach #20 is probably quite a bit lower than 31,000.

Again, Ed Sheeran's yr-and-three-month-sometime album managed to bring in more equivalent albums than a brand new BTS album.  I think this tells you all you demand to know near how truly popular Yard-Pop is in the Usa.  Perchance if their fans spent more time actually streaming the albums and less fourth dimension "stanning" their favorite boys on Twitter, that number would be higher.

Oh, and by the way, if y'all have a look at both the Hot 100 and Elevation 200?  Yous might notice a significant lack of Kpop.  Over on the album chart I see:

  • The Moana soundtrack at #72 (didn't that movie come out in 2016?)
  • Zac Brown Band's Greatest Hits So Far… at #77 (that must be an EP, right?)
  • Taylor Swift'south 1989 at #114 (her 2014 release)

Equally I made it to #139 I plant another Kpop album: BTS's Love Yourself: Her. Two spots up at #137 by the way? AC/DC's Dorsum in Black. The other BTS album in this chart is being beaten by a archetype rock album that came out nearly 40 years ago, and in a week when none of their members even died.

You know what I didn't run across though?

Daughter's Generation, EXO, BTOB, Blackpink, or Twice.  And then where's this "Explosion"?  Seems more like a small canteen rocket going off during a massive fireworks display of Due north American pop and hip-hop.

"Kpop" isn't #1, a few hardcore, very mouthy fans have made it seem like information technology is even though Kpop basically sucks.  They're the ones who are buying information technology and listening to it calendar week 1, but regular music listeners aren't picking upward the slack the next week or the calendar week afterward that similar they practise with all the aforementioned popular and hip-hop songs that stick around the charts for months.

Drake's "God's Program" is Withal in the top x, and "Dainty For What" is back at #i. THAT is popularity, when people are still listening to your music weeks, months afterward it came out, and it continues to gain a new audience from more casual listeners.

And don't think for a 2nd Billboard is "bias". It'southward all but numbers. If Kanye can put out an anthology with very trivial hype (compared to his last anthology) and have every song nautical chart on the Hot 100 (likely virtually entirely based on streams), it stands to reason that if 1000-Pop is so pop in the US, more songs would exist charting. Merely they aren't, and the reason is unproblematic: because more people are listening to the other 100 songs on the chart.

And so, despite the Guardian's claims, I don't recall Americans are going to have to take an Introduction to Korean course to exist able to heed to the radio whatsoever time presently.

There'south no takeover, the Korean invasion is like the British Invasion if the Beatles showed up, the few hundred girls screaming at the airport were the only people who bought their music, everyone considered those girls weird nerds, and no other British bands ever reached the same level of popularity as American groups.  In other words, it'due south basically the exact opposite of the British Invasion in every single mode.

NOTE: Buckley at least understands that all the things he likes aren't really popular, and never volition be.