[Grace Kao] K-pop’s pursuit on the US Billboard charts

I eagerly waited until midnight on August 20, 2020, for the debut of BTS’ “Dynamite” on YouTube. The music video was released at midnight in my time zone -- Eastern Standard Time -- on a Thursday night. Why didn’t it debut at midnight in Korea?

The reason is very simple. New singles are released at 12 midnight Thursday night (or technically Friday morning) Eastern Standard Time because the weekly Billboard Hot 100 chart begins its count of weekly sales and streams starting from Friday to Thursday. While one could argue against why Korean music companies should care about the US charts in signifying their cultural importance, fiscally, it makes sense for them to focus on their performance in the largest music market in the world. Of course, it also signals the presence of K-pop in the West.

Despite its ubiquitous presence, the Billboard Hot 100 is only 66 years old. The first number 1 single on this chart was Ricky Nelson’s “Poor Little Fool,” which appeared in the first week of August 1958. On YouTube, you can see him perform with 4 other men (The Jordanaires). Together, they look like a modern idol K-pop boy group (except that they are not dancing). Like the newest K-pop songs, the tune is about 2.5 minutes long.

The end of World War II marked the beginning of the baby boomer generation. The oldest of this generation in the US (born approximately 1945-1964) would have been about 13 years old in 1958. The birth of the Billboard singles chart coincided with the coming-of-age of the baby boomer cohort, who enjoyed relative economic prosperity after the war. They had money to spend, and with it emerged a youth culture. The format for a “Top 40” radio station, where the top songs would be played in repetition, is credited to radio station owner Todd Storz in 1951. However, the actual term “Top 40” is associated with the sales of “45s” – a 7-inch record played at 45 rpm with one song on each side. In fact, I fondly remember going to The Record Factory, a local record store chain in San Francisco in the early 1980s and buying 45s for 99 cents each. They were arranged in order from 1 to 100, according to their position on the Billboard chart.

Previously, Billboard relied primarily on radio play and record sales. It wasn’t until 2005 that Billboard added digital sales. In March 2012, they added music streaming services, and by February 2013, they included YouTube and other video streaming services in their calculations. All these developments were necessary for K-pop to have a chance at making it to this chart.

The Wonder Girls were the first K-pop group to chart (No. 76) on the Billboard Hot 100 with “Nobody,” their Motown-inspired song, in 2009, which was 4 years after digital sales were included on the Billboard Hot 100. The next K-pop song to appear on the chart was Psy’s “Gangnam Style,” which peaked at No. 2 in 2012.

As of August 2024, there have been 88 Top 100 singles by or with K-pop artists, with 55 of these by BTS or its members and 13 by Blackpink or its members. The dominance of BTS and Blackpink is clear, but there have been a few surprise hits. Courtesy of TikTok, “Cupid” by Fifty Fifty reached number 17 despite its release from a small company. Still, the song was released on Thursday, February 23, 2024 night, and they debuted their performance on Music Bank the next day. Recently, Illit became the first K-pop group to hit the US Billboard Hot 100 Chart with their debut single, “Magnetic.” I don’t think they expected it to appear on the Billboard Hot 100 since it wasn’t released on a Thursday. Still, being from Hybe is a major advantage to any group.

However, K-pop doesn’t need the US Billboard Hot 100 chart to demonstrate its importance worldwide and to its fans in the US. Billboard recently announced that starting June 2024, they will publish Billboard Korea. As Billboard CEO Mike Van stated in a press conference, "We recognize the significance of K-pop and K-music as not just musical genres, but as cultural movements.” Note that as of July 2024, the publication had yet to appear. Billboard is aware that it needs to keep up with pop music trends, of which K-pop plays a major part. I suspect that Mike Van, who is Asian American, must be more aware than many American music executives of what K-pop means for Asian Americans.

Most recently, Stray Kids’ “Chk Chk Boom,” hit No. 49 on August 3, 2024. The music video features Hugh Jackman (as Wolverine) and Ryan Reynolds (as Deadpool). The song has elements of reggaeton, hip-hop and other Latin influences. While it has some English lyrics with a sprinkling of Spanish words, it is primarily in Korean and is clearly recognizable as a K-pop song. It is songs like these that most effectively promote Hallyu.

Grace Kao

Grace Kao is an IBM professor of sociology and professor of ethnicity, race and migration at Yale University. The views expressed here are the writer’s own. -- Ed.