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

BTS at the 2018 Billboard Music Awards.  Is K-Pop a massive burn, or just a lot of fume?

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

Pace into the correct echo bedroom, and whatever y'all think is cool is instantly a million times cooler, with none of that pesky "perspective" getting in the way of that wet blanket nosotros phone call "reality".

In 2017, Grammy.com posted an article titled Why is Kpop'due south popularity exploding in the Usa?. On May 29th, 2018, NPR published an commodity titled Kpop, Korean Popular Music, Hits No. ane in the U.S., in response to BTS's new album hit #1 on the Billboard 200 chart. A few days later, The Guardian proclaimed English is no longer the default language of American pop. If you become on Twitter, barely a twenty-four hours goes past without a bunch of Kpop fans getting something trending.

Human, Kpop must be the biggest f—king thing in the United states right at present, huh?

Well, hither's that pesky "perspective" to get in the fashion. BTS'south big hit "Fake Love" hitting #x on Billboard four weeks ago. Impressive, right? A week later on it dropped beneath #forty. Two weeks after that?  It'south #71 and dropping like thugs in a hammer fight in the South Korean thriller "Oldboy".

BTS' album, Dearest Yourself: Tear hit #1 four weeks agone. This week it's #20, beingness beaten by Ed Sheeran'south Dissever, an album that'southward been on the charts for 67 weeks. Oh, and what'southward #10 on the Hot 100 this week? The 34 calendar week erstwhile Bebe Rexha/Florida Georgia Line Pop/Land crossover "Meant to Exist".

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

This week, we returned to the yr 1996 with Dave Matthews Ring (Yes, Dave Matthews Band) taking the #ane album with but under 300,000 "equivalent albums" moved (this includes streams, they take an algorithm for how many streams equal an album "sale"). #ten was Shawn Mendes' near recent album, notching 31,000 units. That's non a typo, just 31,000 beggarly units.

Then, we can just gauge that the number of units needed to reach #twenty is probably quite a bit lower than 31,000.

Again, Ed Sheeran's year-and-three-calendar month-old album managed to bring in more than equivalent albums than a brand new BTS album.  I think this tells yous all you need to know about how truly pop 1000-Pop is in the United states of america.  Mayhap if their fans spent more time really streaming the albums and less time "stanning" their favorite boys on Twitter, that number would exist higher.

Oh, and by the manner, if yous have a look at both the Hot 100 and Top 200?  You might notice a significant lack of Kpop.  Over on the album nautical chart I see:

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

As I made information technology to #139 I plant another Kpop album: BTS'south Love Yourself: Her. Two spots up at #137 by the way? AC/DC's Back in Black. The other BTS album in this chart is beingness beaten by a classic rock anthology that came out nearly twoscore years ago, and in a week when none of their members even died.

You know what I didn't come across though?

Girl's Generation, EXO, BTOB, Blackpink, or Twice.  So where's this "Explosion"?  Seems more similar a small canteen 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 fabricated it seem like it is even though Kpop basically sucks.  They're the ones who are buying it and listening to it week 1, but regular music listeners aren't picking up the slack the adjacent week or the week after that similar they do with all the aforementioned popular and hip-hop songs that stick around the charts for months.

Drake'south "God'south Plan" is STILL in the top 10, and "Squeamish For What" is dorsum at #i. THAT is popularity, when people are notwithstanding listening to your music weeks, months later on it came out, and information technology continues to gain a new audience from more casual listeners.

And don't think for a second Billboard is "bias". Information technology's all simply numbers. If Kanye can put out an album with very piffling hype (compared to his last album) and have every song chart on the Hot 100 (probable almost entirely based on streams), it stands to reason that if K-Popular is so popular in the US, more than songs would be charting. Only they aren't, and the reason is uncomplicated: because more people are listening to the other 100 songs on the chart.

And then, despite the Guardian'south claims, I don't recollect Americans are going to have to take an Introduction to Korean course to be able to listen to the radio any fourth dimension soon.

There's no takeover, the Korean invasion is like the British Invasion if the Beatles showed upwards, the few hundred girls screaming at the airdrome were the but people who bought their music, everyone considered those girls weird nerds, and no other British bands always reached the same level of popularity equally American groups.  In other words, it's basically the exact opposite of the British Invasion in every unmarried way.

NOTE: Buckley at to the lowest degree understands that all the things he likes aren't really pop, and never volition be.