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

BTS at the 2022 Billboard Music Awards.  Is K-Pop a massive burn, or just a lot of smoke?

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

Step into the right echo bedroom, and whatever you think is cool is instantly a million times cooler, with none of that pesky "perspective" getting in the way of that moisture blanket we phone call "reality".

In 2017, Grammy.com posted an article titled Why is Kpop's popularity exploding in the Us?. On May 29th, 2018, NPR published an article titled Kpop, Korean Popular Music, Hits No. 1 in the U.Southward., in response to BTS'due south new album hitting #i on the Billboard 200 chart. A few days after, The Guardian proclaimed English is no longer the default language of American pop. If you go on Twitter, barely a day goes by without a bunch of Kpop fans getting something trending.

Man, Kpop must be the biggest f—king thing in the United States right now, huh?

Well, hither's that pesky "perspective" to get in the mode. BTS'southward big striking "Faux Love" hit #10 on Billboard four weeks agone. Impressive, correct? A week later it dropped beneath #xl. Two weeks after that?  It's #71 and dropping like thugs in a hammer fight in the Due south Korean thriller "Oldboy".

BTS' anthology, Love Yourself: Tear hit #ane four weeks ago. This week information technology's #20, being beaten past Ed Sheeran's Divide, an album that's been on the charts for 67 weeks. Oh, and what'due south #10 on the Hot 100 this week? The 34 calendar week sometime Bebe Rexha/Florida Georgia Line Pop/Country crossover "Meant to Be".

For something considered "popular", these are pretty weak numbers. Consider how well (or actually how poorly) something has to perform to make the superlative 10 on the Billboard Elevation 200 in this day and age, when album sales are in the toilet and streaming is supreme.  We don't accept all the information for the unabridged nautical chart, but we practise have what Billboard's willing to share, which is the peak ten.

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

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

Again, Ed Sheeran's year-and-three-month-old album managed to bring in more equivalent albums than a brand new BTS anthology.  I think this tells you lot all you need to know nigh how truly pop K-Pop is in the US.  Maybe if their fans spent more fourth dimension actually streaming the albums and less time "stanning" their favorite boys on Twitter, that number would exist college.

Oh, and by the way, if yous have a look at both the Hot 100 and Acme 200?  Yous might notice a significant lack of Kpop.  Over on the anthology nautical chart I come across:

  • The Moana soundtrack at #72 (didn't that movie come out in 2016?)
  • Zac Dark-brown Band's Greatest Hits So Far… at #77 (that must be an EP, right?)
  • Taylor Swift's 1989 at #114 (her 2022 release)

As I made it to #139 I found another Kpop album: BTS's Dearest Yourself: Her. Two spots up at #137 past the manner? AC/DC's Back in Black. The other BTS album in this nautical chart is beingness beaten by a classic stone anthology that came out most forty years ago, and in a week when none of their members even died.

You know what I didn't see though?

Girl'southward Generation, EXO, BTOB, Blackpink, or Twice.  So where's this "Explosion"?  Seems more like a pocket-size bottle rocket going off during a massive fireworks display of North American popular and hip-hop.

"Kpop" isn't #ane, a few hardcore, very mouthy fans accept made it seem like it is even though Kpop basically sucks.  They're the ones who are buying information technology and listening to it week i, merely regular music listeners aren't picking up the slack the next week or the week after that like they do with all the aforementioned popular and hip-hop songs that stick around the charts for months.

Drake'southward "God's Plan" is STILL in the top 10, and "Nice For What" is back at #ane. THAT is popularity, when people are still listening to your music weeks, months subsequently it came out, and it continues to proceeds a new audition from more casual listeners.

And don't remember for a 2nd Billboard is "bias". Information technology'due south all just numbers. If Kanye tin can put out an album with very footling hype (compared to his final album) and have every song chart on the Hot 100 (likely almost entirely based on streams), it stands to reason that if Thousand-Popular is so popular in the United states of america, more than songs would be charting. But they aren't, and the reason is uncomplicated: because more people are listening to the other 100 songs on the chart.

Then, despite the Guardian'south claims, I don't think Americans are going to accept to accept an Introduction to Korean course to be able to listen to the radio whatsoever fourth dimension soon.

In that location's 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 but 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 way.

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