K-Pop in the 2023 Billboard Charts
Simon Barnes-Sadler
2024-01-24
Not Just K-Dramas
Last month’s deep dive into Korean screen media on Netflix got me thinking about where else we could find data on the current state of the Korean Wave. South Korean pop music (K-Pop) is probably its most widely consumed and visible manifestation so my mind immediately went to music charts.
The Billboard Charts
The obvious place to go for information about Anglosphere pop listening habits is the US Billboard charts. There are a vast number of these, including one entirely devoted to K-Pop. Rather than this chart, though, it would be more instructive to look at the Billboard Hot 100, for individual songs, and the Billboard 200, for albums and EPs. Both charts combine a variety of metrics (details here) to determine the most popular music in the US on a week-by-week basis.
Here, we’re restricting ourselves to just the 52 weekly Billboard Hot 100 charts and 52 weekly Billboard 200s that were produced over 2023. For historic chart data, to which we may one day return, a great, easily accessible source can be found here, but if you prefer a more bespoke solution to your data gathering, a Python API for the Billboard charts can be found here.
Number of K-Pop Releases in the Billboard Charts
From the chart data for 2023, then, we can see that over the whole year 16 songs featuring K-Pop artists made it into the Billboard Hot 100 and 32 K-Pop albums or EPs made it into the Billboard 200. Between them, these releases spent a reasonable amount of time in the charts, too. When we look at how this breaks down month-on-month, we can see that most months at least one K-Pop song was likely to feature in the Billboard Hot 100 and every month several K-Pop albums or EPs appeared in the Billboard 200.
| Month | Billboard Hot 100 | Billboard 200 |
|---|---|---|
| January | 2 | 4 |
| February | 2 | 2 |
| March | 2 | 5 |
| April | 1 | 4 |
| May | 2 | 6 |
| June | 2 | 7 |
| July | 2 | 8 |
| August | 2 | 5 |
| September | 2 | 6 |
| October | 0 | 6 |
| November | 1 | 7 |
| December | 0 | 8 |
K-Pop Chart Performance in the 2023 Billboard Charts
Summary information about each work can be found in a table at the end of this piece, but before we get to that, let’s look in more detail at the performance of K-Pop albums and EPs in the Billboard 200. The visualisation below shows the performance of the twenty one K-Pop artists to chart in the Billboard 200 over 2023.
K-Pop seems to generally reach higher peaks in the Billboard 200 chart,
perhaps suggesting it is albums rather than individual songs which
receive the greater part of fan attention. The sole K-Pop number 1 on
the Billboard Hot 100 over the course of 2023 was Jimin with Like
Crazy. Conversely, groups with longstanding popularity outside of
South Korea, like BTS and BlackPink, as well as releases from newer
acts, like NewJeans, Stray Kids, and TOMORROW X TOGETHER, reached
comparable positions on the Billboard 200. What’s more, K-Pop entries in
the Billboard 200 stayed in the chart longer than in the Billboard Hot
100, an average of more than eight and a half weeks in the charts in
comparison to an average of just under two and a half weeks, albeit with
the help of some striking outliers like BTS’ Love Yourself:
Her, which was spent 45 weeks in the Billboard 200 in total, only
one of which was actually in 2023.
On the that topic, it’s also notable that seven of the releases to make the Billboard 200 were by BTS or solo projects by members of that group (not to mention their combined seven songs on the Billboard Hot 100). Multiple artists did manage to post more than one longer format recording to the Billboard 200, but at most this amounted to three releases (for TOMORROW X TOGETHER and ATEEZ) or just two (for (G)I-DLE, aespa, ENHYPEN, NCT127, SEVENTEEN, and Stray Kids). While NewJeans managed to get five songs into the Billboard 100 over the year, this success didn’t translate into longer formats. Only their EP Get Up appeared on the Billboard 200. While this may seem to raise the uncomfortable question of whether K-Pop’s chart success is attributable to the K-Wave as a phenomenon or the singular popularity of BTS, there is an alternative interpretation. Namely, BTS’ chart performance, as well as their committed fan following and high public profile outside of Korea, are simultaneously representative (or indexical) and constitutive of the K-Wave. Without the K-Wave, it is likely that BTS would not enjoy the same level of chart success, but without BTS it is possible that the K-Wave would not be recognised as such a large-scale phenomenon.
With that, little more needs be said, other than it appears that K-Pop continues to command a following of fans in the Anglosphere and there was little indication of their interest waning over 2023. If you feel like following-up on some of the music that proved so popular last year, details can be found in the table below.
| Work | Artist | Chart | Peak Position | Total Weeks on Chart |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ditto | NewJeans | Billboard Hot 100 | 82 | 5 |
| Vibe | TAEYANG feat. Jimin | Billboard Hot 100 | 76 | 1 |
| Moonlight | TWICE | Billboard Hot 100 | 84 | 1 |
| OMG | NewJeans | Billboard Hot 100 | 74 | 6 |
| On The Street | j-hope with J. Cole | Billboard Hot 100 | 60 | 1 |
| Set Me Free, Pt. 2 | Jimin | Billboard Hot 100 | 30 | 1 |
| Like Crazy | Jimin | Billboard Hot 100 | 1 | 5 |
| Angel, Pt. 1 | Kodak Black, NLE Choppa, Jimin, JVKE & Muni Long | Billboard Hot 100 | 65 | 2 |
| Take Two | BTS | Billboard Hot 100 | 48 | 1 |
| Cool With You | NewJeans | Billboard Hot 100 | 93 | 1 |
| Super Shy | NewJeans | Billboard Hot 100 | 48 | 8 |
| ETA | NewJeans | Billboard Hot 100 | 81 | 1 |
| LALALALA | Stray Kids | Billboard Hot 100 | 90 | 1 |
| Agust D | Haegeum | Billboard Hot 100 | 58 | 1 |
| V | Slow Dancing | Billboard Hot 100 | 51 | 1 |
| V | Love Me Again | Billboard Hot 100 | 96 | 1 |
| Heat (EP) | (G)I-DLE | Billboard 200 | 25 | 1 |
| I Feel (EP) | (G)I-DLE | Billboard 200 | 41 | 2 |
| Drama: The 4th Mini Album (EP) | aespa | Billboard 200 | 33 | 2 |
| My World: The 3rd Mini Album (EP) | aespa | Billboard 200 | 9 | 3 |
| D-Day | Agust D | Billboard 200 | 2 | 5 |
| Spin Off : From The Witness (EP) | ATEEZ | Billboard 200 | 7 | 3 |
| The World EP.2 : Outlaw | ATEEZ | Billboard 200 | 2 | 5 |
| The World EP.Fin : Will | ATEEZ | Billboard 200 | 1 | 3 |
| Born Pink | BLACKPINK | Billboard 200 | 1 | 13 |
| Love Yourself: Her | BTS | Billboard 200 | 7 | 45 |
| Proof | BTS | Billboard 200 | 1 | 41 |
| Dark Blood (EP) | ENHYPEN | Billboard 200 | 4 | 10 |
| Orange Blood | ENHYPEN | Billboard 200 | 4 | 5 |
| Kill My Doubt (EP) | iTZY | Billboard 200 | 23 | 1 |
| Jack In The Box | j-hope | Billboard 200 | 6 | 3 |
| FACE (EP) | Jimin | Billboard 200 | 2 | 6 |
| Unforgiven | LE SSERAFIM | Billboard 200 | 6 | 8 |
| Golden Age: The 4th Album | NCT | Billboard 200 | 66 | 1 |
| Ay-Yo: The 4th Album Repackage | NCT 127 | Billboard 200 | 13 | 2 |
| Fact Check: The Fifth Album | NCT 127 | Billboard 200 | 16 | 3 |
| ISTJ: The 3rd Album | NCT DREAM | Billboard 200 | 28 | 3 |
| 2nd EP ‘Get Up’ | NewJeans | Billboard 200 | 1 | 22 |
| Indigo | RM | Billboard 200 | 3 | 7 |
| SEVENTEEN 10th Mini Album: FML (EP) | SEVENTEEN | Billboard 200 | 2 | 9 |
| SEVENTEENTH Heaven: 11th Mini Album (EP) | SEVENTEEN | Billboard 200 | 2 | 5 |
| 5-Star: The 3rd Album | Stray Kids | Billboard 200 | 1 | 16 |
| ROCK-STAR | Stray Kids | Billboard 200 | 1 | 6 |
| Sweet | TOMORROW X TOGETHER | Billboard 200 | 54 | 1 |
| The Name Chapter: Freefall | TOMORROW X TOGETHER | Billboard 200 | 3 | 7 |
| The Name Chapter: Temptation (EP) | TOMORROW X TOGETHER | Billboard 200 | 1 | 19 |
| Ready To Be: 12th Mini Album (EP) | TWICE | Billboard 200 | 2 | 11 |
| Layover (EP) | V | Billboard 200 | 2 | 8 |
Acknowledgement
This work was supported by the Core University Program for Korean
Studies of the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Korea and Korean
Studies Promotion Service at the Academy of Korean Studies
(AKS-2021-OLU-2250004)