’90s hits sweep online charts

Hit songs from the 1990s swept online music charts Sunday, after a popular TV show reignited nostalgia for a time before idol groups dominated the K-pop scene.

Singer Kim Gun-mo’s 1995 hit “Mis-Encounter” topped the real-time music chart of Naver, the country’s No. 1 portal, at 1 p.m. Sunday, followed by Uhm Jung-hwa’s “Poison” (1998) and Jinusean’s “Tell Me” (1997).

Of the chart’s top 10, nine were from the 90s, all featured in a special episode of MBC’s long-running reality show “Infinite Challenge” aired on Saturday afternoon.

Other major online charts looked similar, with songs as old as 20 years dominating the lists of most played and downloaded.

The TV show, in its 2-part episode, re-enacted a TV music show in the 90s, bringing together pop icons of the time such as Kim, Uhm, Jinusean, SES, Turbo and Cool.

The second and final part aired on Saturday garnered an average rating of 22.2 percent, the program’s highest in seven years. At the peak moment, it reached a whopping 35.9 percent rating.

By Lee Sun-young (milaya@heraldcorp.com)