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BLACKPINK, TREASURE, BIGBANG: When b-side songs are more popular than title tracks

It would be a pity if YG didn’t invest in these b-side songs!

Every Kpop fan knows that YG Entertainment is well-known thanks to its quality projects and products for its artists. However, despite investing billions in the title tracks, there have been many times when the B-side songs have surpassed them to become the most popular songs in albums of YG’s artists. There are many of YG’s B-side songs that are not widely promoted but are still well-known by many fans. This has happened many times during the comebacks of BLACKPINK, BIGBANG, or most recently, TREASURE.

BLACKPINK and great achievement b-side songs

BLACKPINK is without a doubt the group with the most popular b-side tracks. Very few comebacks with less than 20 songs in 6 years of operation, Blink must have listened to BLACKPINK’s songs over and over again many times. But the following b-side songs are so familiar not only to BLACKPINK fans but also to their nonfans. 

Blackpink

BLACKPINK’s first famous B-side must be ‘Forever Young‘. This song was released in 2018 in their mini-album ‘Square Up‘. Along with the globally famous track title ‘DDU-DU DDU-DU‘, ‘Forever Young’ with a youthful spirit, showing the “pink” side of BLACKPINK has attracted many fans and become one of the most viral songs in the summer of 2018.

BLACKPINK
Forever Young’s “Summer vibe” was very popular at the time of its release

Forever Young’’s digital music achievement is no less than the global super hit ‘DDU-DU DDU-DU’. ‘Forever Young’ once set a record for a b-side song reaching more than 2 million views on Gaon, topping many other Korean digital music charts, an achievement that many title songs are unlikely to achieve.

Forever Young’s Dance Practice MV hits over 200 million YouTube views

Although the music video was not released, Forever Young‘s dance practice also received more than 207 million views on YouTube. The performance stages of this song also have tens of millions of views. The stage performances of the two songs “DDU-DU DDU-DU” and “Forever Young” at SBS Gayodaejun 2018 reached more than 316 million views, surpassing the achievement of the group’s MV ‘Stay‘.

But BLACKPINK not only has ‘Forever Young‘ b-side with great achievements but also has a few other equally famous b-sides. For example, ‘Don’t Know What To Do‘ released in 2019 was promoted in parallel with the title tracks ‘Kill This Love‘. The 2 promotional stages of this song have an extremely formidable viewership (59 and 25 million views for each stage).

BLACKPINK
BLACKPINK’s ‘Don’t Know What To Do’

Different from the strong, girl-boss vibe of ‘Kill This Love’, ‘Don’t Know What To Do’ is a light, playful song like an interesting note in BLACKPINK’s strong girl-crush concept. The song quickly caught the attention of many fans and nonfans. The Dance Practice MV of this song alone has reached 255 million YouTube views. The international and domestic digital music achievements of this song are enough for many other groups to wish for.

In particular, the b-side “revolt” took place most intensely when the MV of the 2020 title song ‘Lovesick Girls’ could not break the record previously created by BLACKPINK because Blink was busy streaming the b-side ‘Pretty Savage’. ‘Pretty Savage‘s promotional stages has brought hundreds of millions of views for the 4 BLACKPINK girls.

Crazy with BLACKPINK's new version of Pretty Savage before THE SHOW
Pretty Savage is the b-side chosen for BLACKPINK to promote on ‘The Late Late Show With James Corden.’

‘Pretty Savage’ is indeed a strange case where the strong girlcrush-style b-side is preferred over the soft, feminine title ‘Lovesick Girls’. That’s the reason why YG chose this song instead of ‘Lovesick Girls‘ for BLACKPINK to promote in the US on the hit TV show ‘The Late Late Show With James Corden’.

TREASURE and the b-side Darari took TikTok by storm

The next b-side track that is more popular than the title track on a YG artist’s album is TREASURE‘s hit ‘Darari‘. Although the MV for the title track ‘JIKJIN’ was invested more than 500 million won, the song did not achieve the same global effect as Darari, a b-side song.

TREASURE
TREASURE was invested 500 million won for ‘JIKJIN’ but this song wasn’t as popular as a b-side song of the same album

Darari‘ has taken TikTok globally by storm with more than 700 million views for videos with the hashtag of this song. Not only that, the ‘Darari‘ dance challenge also fascinates many celebrities and hot TikTokers around the world. If you use TikTok regularly, you will surely have heard the “da-ra-ra-ra-ra-ra-ra” melody of this song.

treasure
Darari’s viral dance

In addition to taking social media by storm, Darari’s digital performance on international charts is also impressive. Surpassing JIKJIN, Darari entered Billboard Global 200 and Spotify Global Top 200. Thanks to Darari’s global effect, YG decided to produce an MV for this well-received b-side track. 

Lisa and her 1st solo b-side Money that hit 500 million views on YouTube with just a Dance Performance video 

In the second half of 2021, Lisa had a successful solo debut with the 1st single album LALISA. The b-side song Money even reaped more achievements and gained more coverage than the promoted title track LALISA. According to many fans, MONEY should have been chosen as the title track. 

Money surpassed 300 million streams on Spotify after only 112 days of release, setting the record for a song by a Kpop solo act that reached 300 million streams the fastest on Spotify

Although YG only released a Dance Performance video for Money, this powerful b-side quickly “dethroned” LALISA, breaking even BLACKPINK’s record with How You Like That to become the fastest dance performance video to hit 300 million views within 67 days. Currently, the dance performance video for Money has earned more than half a billion views on YouTube.

Lisa Blackpink-Money-500m views
Money broke the record of BLACKPINK’s own MV

Not only bringing Lisa impressive records, but Money also went incredibly viral thanks to its catchy sound and “flexing” lyrics. The dance challenge for Money attracted massive attention on video-sharing platforms, especially TikTok. With such a huge impact, Money deserves to have its own MV.

BIGBANG and the iconic all-hit album that every track deserves to be the title 

BIGBANG‘s legendary album MADE is one of the rare albums where all the tracks have their own MVs. The entire album was promoted for 2 years and helped BIGBANG bag unprecedented achievements. Because MADE was so well-invested and all songs are equally good and popular, fans don’t even know which song is the title track. 

BIGBANG

With 11 songs, MADE created a buzz from 2015 until the end of 2016. The MVs for hits like Bang Bang Bang, Bae Bae, Sober, Loser or Let’s Not Fall In Love… all grabbed a large amount of attention and recorded high views. Bang Bang Bang went especially viral for a long time with more than 400 million views.

BIGBANG
Bang Bang Bang is an iconic smash hit that every K-pop fan can sing and dance along to 

All the songs from MADE topped domestic digital charts during the two years of promotion. Internationally, Bang Bang Bang, Bae Bae, Loser are the biggest hits with an impact that still lasts to this day. 

Source
K14
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