TWICE’s latest comeback was greatly invested, but the group’s digital music achievement was not as expected.
Recently, TWICE has returned with the 3rd full Korean album called Formula of Love: O+T=<3. This comeback is well-invested, showing the enthusiasm of JYP and TWICE as the whole, which increases everyone’s hopes that the title song “SCIENTIST” will become a big hit, helping TWICE regain their top girl group position. But unfortunately, this song is not reaching the high rankings as expected on Korean charts.
The song SCIENTIST was released on November 12, but its achievement after 2 days is extremely alarming. On Genie’s daily chart, the song is only at number 144, dropping 56 places from its original position. At Melon, SCIENTIST also “fall” to #95 on the daily chart.
As of 10:30 am November 15 (KST), the ranking of TWICE’s new song only increased on FLO and Bugs. SCIENTIST is still falling in Melon 24Hits chart and Genie’s real-time chart.
The fact that the song “SCIENTIST” dropped on the charts in a few short days is very surprising. The JYP girl group was once called a “digital monster” as every time they released new music, they reached the top of the charts. On the Korean forum theqoo, netizens have given many opinions about TWICE‘s new song achievements.
Some netizens claim that SCIENTIST sounds boring. The melody is so bland that they don’t understand why JYP picked it as the title track of TWICE‘s new album, while many b-side tracks sound more appealing and catchy. This is one of the reasons why the song has not been well received.
Besides, the release time is also an issue. Normally, TWICE releases new songs at 6 pm KST Monday of the week to match the grading system of Korean digital charts. But this time they switched to 2 pm KST on Friday (November 12), which means midnight EST. This is the time frame when BTS and BLACKPINK usually release new music because it is beneficial for their rankings on American charts. By timing TWICE’s release on international time, JYP partly reveals the ambition for TWICE to target this market.
However, 2pm on Friday is still office time in Korea, so it’s difficult for TWICE‘s new song to attract many domestic listeners. That’s why netizens think that only BTS and BLACKPINK can still do well on Korean digital charts even when changing the release time, while it’s not the same case with TWICE and other groups.
Although SCIENTIST currently does not have good digital rankings, there are many cases where the songs climb back on the charts during and after promotions because the Korean public is impressed with the artists’ performances. TWICE is an experienced group with good performance skills, so let’s hope that SCIENTIST will do better on the charts after the girls bring this song on stage.
