As you probably may have noticed, K-Pop has finally (big brain word incoming) penetrated the West, most especially the U.S.. K-Pop as a genre has had a steadily growing presence in the music scene for some time now, especially with the many groups and artists that have left their mark in the United States during the early 2010s, such as Girls’ Generation, BIGBANG, and SHINee, and BTS and BLACKPINK later on in the late 2010s.
In recently released data about the top-selling albums in the United States, 6 K-pop albums make up 6 spots in the top 10 for 2023.
Best selling albums in 2023 so far (US pure):
#1 Midnights
#2 The Name Chapter: TEMPTATION
#3 READY TO BE
#4 ★★★★★ (5-STAR)
#5 One Thing At A Time
#6 FML
#7 72 Seasons
#8 D-DAY
#9 FACE
#10 PORTALS
— chart data (@chartdata) June 12, 2023
In second place (and the highest-selling K-Pop album) is TXT’s ‘The Name Chapter: TEMPTATION’, followed by TWICE’s ‘READY TO BE’ at 3rd place, then Stray Kids’ ‘★★★★★ (5-STAR) at 4th place, SEVENTEEN’s ‘FML’ at 6th place, BTS’ Suga (Agust D)’s ‘D-DAY’ at 8th place, BTS’ Jimin’s ‘FACE’ at 9th place.
Just because other K-Pop albums and artists haven’t been mentioned in the charts, doesn’t mean that other artists also haven’t had their growing popularity in the West. Take FIFTY FIFTY, for example.
Their sudden shot to fame happened almost overnight thanks to their song “Cupid” going viral on the short-form video-sharing platform, TikTok, last March. Since then, the group has been breaking personal records left and right in Western music charts. Just recently, the 4-member girl group had tied with BLACKPINK for the longest-charting K-Pop girl group track on the UK Official charts (U.K.’s equivalent for Billboard’s U.S. charts) for the week of June 16 to 22.
Their track “Cupid” is currently ranked #16 on the chart and is FIFTY FIFTY’s 8th straight week in the Top 20 and their 12th straight week since appearing on it.
While this is just an example of how far K-Pop has gone after becoming part of mainstream song genres, it just goes to show how Asian artists are also able to dominate the charts in the West!
From the Philippines, we’ve had SB19, BINI, and BGYO slowly but surely leaving their marks in the West and promoting Filipino music. Maybe, and hopefully, we’ll also have more P-Pop artists over there, no?
Other POP! stories that you might like:
Over 6 million people watched BTS’ Jungkook have his ‘sleepytime’ during livestream
YG Entertainment refutes reports saying BLACKPINK’s Jennie is joining a Marvel project
B.I, Jeon Somi, and Baekhyun meet their fans up close during ‘K-pop Overpass’ concert
TWICE’s Jihyo set to make her solo debut in August
EXO to make their comeback in July