Boy groups were excluded from digital charts. Their album sales set new records every day, but somehow it is hard to find people listening to their songs.
Girl groups dominate online music charts
If you look at digital charts, you can feel the heyday of girl groups. As of 9 AM on Oct 6th, only BIGBANG and BTS were listed on Melon’s “Top 100”. Girl groups of all generations, such as Girls’ Generation, BLACKPINK, IVE and NewJeans, are competing in upper ranks, while boy groups are not even in the top 50.
BIGBANG is the only one who kept their pride
BIGBANG is the only boy group that has secured stability on the 2022 Melon annual chart to be released next year. The cumulative Circle index from January to August of their single “Still Life” was 461,035,416. Although it is not the ripple effect of their heyday, BIGBANG is still overwhelming in terms of boy groups’ popular appeal.
BTS is on a long run with their previously released songs “Dynamite”, “Butter”, “Permission To Dance” and “Spring Day”. However, this year’s comeback song “Yet To Come” did not make it into the top 100 of the annual chart.
Boy groups depend on fandoms
It is pointed out that the fandom-oriented boy group promotion strategy deepens the gap with the public. NCT 127, which made a comeback last month, went through fan signing events nationwide and sold 1,547,595 copies (based on Hanteo Chart). Their album broke SM’s first week sales record by beating Super Junior with “Sorry Sorry” and EXO with “Growl”, but it was not enough to create a hit song.
Source: joongang
