It has been an exciting week for K-pop fans!
MUSE by Jimin of BTS and ATE by Stray Kids were both released on July 19, 2024. While fans have been busy listening to all of the new music, they have been even busier strategizing so the albums will appear on the Billboard charts.
Billboard’s weekly chart rankings are based on sales, online streaming, and radio airplay. They are tracked between the Friday of release and the following Thursday (July 19-July 25, 2024 are the dates to look at for this week’s chart). The Billboard 200 Top 10 album chart is announced the following Sunday, and the Hot 100 Top 10 song chart is announced the following Monday. Charts are refreshed every Tuesday, so this week’s chart rankings will be for the week of August 3, 2024.
The fans’ effort has been rewarded, as both MUSE and ATE have landed on numerous Billboard charts and have even broken records!
This week was the first time in history that the top two positions on the Billboard 200 chart were K-pop albums and the second time since the artist 100 chart began in 2014 that the top two spots on that chart were held by K-pop acts.
Jimin charted at No. 2 on the Billboard Artist 100 chart and now has 12 career solo entries on the Billboard 200 Global Chart. This chart entrance also made him the Korean soloist with the most No. 1 hits on the digital song sales chart in history!
MUSE ranked at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 and World Albums charts and was the No. 2 top selling album of the week.
“Who” by Jimin ranked at No. 14 on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart and was the highest debut on the chart this week. It is also his 6th career solo entry. “Who” ranked at No. 1 on the Billboard Global 200, Global (Excluding U.S.), and Digital Song Sales charts. It is also the first solo song by a K-pop soloist to spend over a week at No. 1 on the Global Spotify chart.
The remaining six songs off MUSE ranked on the Billboard Global 200 and Global (Excluding U.S.) charts this week as well.
Stray Kids fans had a difficult task ahead of them for ATE. If this album debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart, it would give Stray Kids their 5th consecutive No. 1 album and end the 10-year record held by One Direction. They worked extremely hard buying and streaming the entire album all week and were able to clinch the No. 1 spot!
Stray Kids now join DMX as the only artists in history to debut their first five entries on the Billboard 200 chart at No. 1 and are the first K-pop group to hold this record. They also took the No. 1 spot on the Artist 100 chart this week and have now earned 15 total top 10 albums on the World Albums Chart.
ATE ranked at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and World Albums charts and was the No. 1 top-selling album of the week. It is also the No. 7 best-selling album of 2024 thus far and among the top 10 best-selling albums of the year in the United States based on pure sales. Midweek predictions expect it to spend a 2nd week on the Billboard 200.
“Chk Chk Boom ”, the main single off ATE, ranked at No. 49 on the Billboard 200, giving Stray Kids the highest ranking song of their career. It also debuted at No. 10 on the Billboard Global 200 chart and No. 4 on the Global (Excluding U.S.) chart.
Three additional songs off ATE charted on the Billboard World Digital Song Sales Chart as well.
I was able to see the work and dedication of both fanbases firsthand and it is not an easy feat. There are large fan-run X (Twitter) accounts organizing data and creating websites with links to make it as easy as possible for other fans to contribute. They just have to click a link to a pre-made playlist, open it in Spotify or Apple Music, and let it play!
If a fan does not have extra money to contribute to purchasing songs or albums, they can get involved in other ways that will help get the album to chart, whether it’s streaming the album on online websites or even something as simple as requesting the single on their local radio stations.
I’m always amazed by how fans band together to achieve such results for their favorite artists. This past week has been incredibly eye-opening, and I’m excited to see what will happen when these artists release their next projects!
