"K-pop King" BIGBANG once again proved their status in the industry! A Korean media outlet emphasized the quartet's power that led them to secure THIS among boy groups.
BIGBANG Is the Only Boy Group To Survive Girl Group Competition for MelOn Annual Chart
On October 6, the Korean media outlet TheJoongAng featured the pride and influence of "Kings of K-pop" BIGBANG in the music scene amid hiatus.
In particular, 2022 is said to be the era or "heyday" of girl groups, wherein domestic music charts are dominated by female artists, pushing down the male acts despite high album sales.
Music chart is a huge determinant of popularity, as it means that a fan continuously supports an artist by listening to their songs.
But as of the 6th, IVE, NewJeans, Girls' Generation and BLACKPINK are the only groups competing for the top spot of MelOn's "Top 100," while boy groups disappeared from the top 50.
Although BTS, SEVENTEEN and NCT 127 are appearing from time to time, this was only due to the fandom's mass streaming - and this doesn't necessarily reflect the general public's streams.
While male artists are strangely out of the music charts, only BIGBANG survived.
The quartet particularly made their comeback in about four years in April through their single, "Still Life" (also known as "Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter"), and topped the original chart upon its release.
Six months later, the track continues to reign in the Top 100 of the MelOn chart and even became the highest-ranking among boy groups as of now.
Due to this, JoongAng claimed:
"BIGBANG is the only one who kept his 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 for the January-August period of their first single 'Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter' in four years was 461,035,416."
They are 100 million away from the circle index of (G)I-DLE's "TOMBOY" predicted to top the annual chart with 580,168,056 points, yet the media outlet praised the group, saying:
"Although it is not the ripple effect of the heyday, BIGBANG is still overwhelming in terms of the popularity of boy groups."
Reason Boy Groups Disappear from MelOn Chart: BTS, NCT 127, More
BTS is running for a long time in the MelOn chart as the top-ranking artist with their previous releases, "Dynamite," "Butter," "Permission To Dance," and "Spring Day."
However, this year's comeback song "Yet To Come" did not make it to the Top 100 of the annual chart.
NCT 127, who made a comeback last month with "2 Baddies," made 1,547,595 albums sold at fan signing events nationwide (based on the Hanteo Chart).
This is the number one sales volume of SM Entertainment, which beat EXO's "Growl" and Super Junior, who owns the mega-hit song "Sorry Sorry." Still, it is not enough to release the hit song business card.
It is then pointed out that the boy group promotion strategy centered on fandom deepens the gap with the public.
A K-pop official said:
"Recently, boy groups are focusing all their efforts on albums and overseas markets. There are so many overseas performances that boy groups with insignificant domestic awareness also announce tours. The event or album sales are enough to make up for the sluggish music performance."
Kim Jin Woo, a senior researcher at Circle Chart, also analyzed:
"As K-pop expands globally, there are positive results, such as focusing on global production and the physical album market booming, but the number of popular songs that can cover various ages in the domestic market has decreased somewhat compared to the past."
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Written by Eunice Dawson.
