Despite high album sales, boy group ENHYPEN doesn’t perform well on music charts.
ENHYPEN (Jungwon, Heeseung, Jake, Sunghoon, Sunoo, Niki, Jay), a representative “4th Generation Idol”, is a 7-member boy group formed through the Mnet idol survival program “Welcome to I-LAND”. While the show’s rating can be considered disastrous with viewership of less than 1%, ENHYPEN was produced by the HYBE Chairman Bang Sihyuk, who is behind the “global idol” BTS, and so raised great expectations even before their debut.
In certain areas, ENHYPEN has already met expectations. In particular, their 1st mini album “BORDER: DAY ONE”, which was released November 30, 2020, recorded a first week sales of over 280,000 copies – the 3rd highest among first week sales for debut albums of male idols. Meanwhile, ENHYPEN’s 3rd mini album “MANIFESTO: DAY 1”, which was released in July, broke the group’s personal record by selling more than 1 million copies within 2 days. This is among the fastest records in the Kpop industry.
As album sales are considered to be one major indicator for the size of the fandom, ENHYPEN’s high sales means the boy group is building a strong fanbase. In fact, in the group’s debut year, they swept up Rookie of the Year awards at various awards ceremonies, proving themselves a representative of the Kpop 4th generation.
However, ENHYPEN still has a long way to go to gain popularity. Due to changes in the ecosystem of the pop music market, the focus of music consumption has shifted to the digital music market, but the group’s performance on major music charts is quite low. In fact, it is hard to find the name of ENHYPEN in the Top 100 charts of major Korean music platforms like Melon and Genie, from daily rankings (as of October 30th), weeking rankings (as of the fourth week of October), to monthly monthly (as of September). The same situation can be reported for Melon and Genie Monthly Top 100 charts in July, when ENHYPEN’s “million-seller” album “MANIFESTO: DAY 1”, was released. In addition, the group has yet to nail a representative hit song which can be recognized by the public just from hearing the title.
This is in contrast to many other 4th generation groups such as IVE and NewJeans, both of which are dominating the top 10 on music charts. In particular, IVE has established themselves as a trending girl group by releasing successive hits this year, from “LOVE DIVE” to “After LIKE”, with “After LIKE” topping Melon’s September chart and “LOVE DIVE” reigning the Melon’s June chart. NewJeans also climbed to the top of Melon’s August chart with “Attention”, and it is their domination of music charts that led to widespread popularity.
It is pointed out that in order for ENHYPEN to grow to the next level, the group needs to expand beyond their fandom, and strike the heart of the public. Boy groups representing each generation, such as H.O.T, TVXQ, Big Bang, EXO, and BTS, of course, have grown based on a strong fandom, but they are quite different from ENHYPEN in that they have mega-hit songs that have taken the music industry and the public by storm. Meanwhile, ENHYPEN is selling well but largely ignored on music charts, especially when compared to 4th gen groups like IVE and NewJeans.
In order to avoid the stigma of being a representative that only relies on physical sales, it is crucial for ENHYPEN to overcome their limitations, break the walls of a “fandom market”, and focus more on general popularity.
Source: daum
