Whether an album or song was successful is often measured by charts: What position did the album reach on the charts, how long did it stay at the top and which chart records might it even have set? South Korea is no different, of course!
Today we are introducing you to the biggest charts in South Korea and also explaining a few terms that are often mentioned in connection with charts and that might be confusing for new K-Pop fans.
- Circle Chart
- Hanteo Chart
- South Korea Songs
- Melon Chart
- Chart terms
The biggest chart in South Korea is the national Circle Chart!
It was founded in 2010 by the Korea Music Content Association, supported by the South Korean Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism. You may be more familiar with the name “Gaon Chart”, because the new name “Circle Chart” was only introduced in July 2022.
The following charts are among others part of the Circle Charts: Global K-Pop Chart, Digital Chart, Streaming Chart, Download Chart, BGM Chart. These charts revolve around individual songs. When it comes to albums, there are also the Album Chart and the Retail Album Chart. What the individual charts are made up of is mostly self-explanatory. For example, the Download Chart counts how often a song was downloaded and the Streaming Chart counts how often a song was streamed. The BGM (background music) Chart is about how often a song was purchased to serve as background music in, for example, TV shows or on the radio.
The Digital Chart is simply made up of all three criteria - download, streaming, BGM - and is accordingly one of the most important Circle Charts. The Global K-Pop Chart was only added in 2022, when the name was changed from “Gaon” to “Circle”, and it reflects how often a K-Pop song was streamed worldwide. Streaming services that the chart takes into account include, for example, the Korean music streaming services Melon and Genie.
The Album Chart documents how often an album was sold online and offline. This chart has a weekly as well as a monthly and an annual format. The Retail Album Chart counts how often an album was sold offline, meaning directly in stores.
You can find all Circle Charts here.
As you can see, not only Korean but also international fans can influence the Circle Charts. There are also many international shops that work together with Korean retailers, so your albums often count for the charts even if you did not buy them in Korea.
We - Nolae - work, for example, with Korean partners who are all Hanteo Family members.
Hanteo Chart
The Hanteo Chart has now existed for over 30 years and refers to sales of K-Pop albums in real time. Hanteo is synchronized with over 1,500 stores worldwide and can access the sales figures at any time, thus reflecting the data in the charts in real time. These stores are so-called certified Hanteo Family members. So if you buy your albums from a certified Hanteo Family Store, you have a direct influence on the Hanteo Charts! Since we work together with Hanteo Family members, each of your purchases at Nolae is also taken into account by Hanteo!
Besides the album charts, Hanteo also has a Digital Chart, which analyzes the data from national and international streaming services, or the Music Chart, which combines the Digital Chart and physical album sales. You can find all charts on the Hanteo website.
The Hanteo Chart was also included in Billboard's K-Pop Hot 100 Singles Chart, which was founded in 2011. Besides the Hanteo Chart, the chart also drew on streaming and download data from the Korean music streaming service Naver VIBE and on how often a song was played on Korean television or radio. However, the K-Pop Hot 100 Chart was discontinued on April 23, 2022.
South Korea Songs
The South Korea Songs Chart was founded in May 2022 by Billboard and is part of Billboard's Hits of the World Chart Collection. Weekly, from Friday to Thursday, the chart counts how often a song was downloaded from digital music distributors and how often the song was streamed in South Korea. “Still Life” by Big Bang was the very first number one song on the new charts!
Melon Chart
Melon is an online store for K-Pop and a music streaming service that was founded in 2004. Melon is the biggest music streaming service in South Korea, followed by Genie or Youtube Music, among others!
The streaming service also has its own charts! These include, for example, the 24 Hits Chart, which is updated every hour. It documents how often a song was downloaded and streamed in the last 24 hours. There is also, among others, the relatively new Top 100 Chart, which counts 50% the downloads and streams of the last 24 hours and 50% only the usage within the last hour.
Since about 2009, Melon has also been hosting its own award show: MMA (Melon Music Awards)
Chart terms
Now that we have introduced you to all the big charts in South Korea, let's clarify a few terms you should know as a K-Pop fan:
All-Kill: When an artist simultaneously tops the Korean real-time charts and the daily charts.
Perfect All-Kill: To achieve a Perfect All-Kill, an artist must not only top the real-time and the daily charts, but also the weekly charts.
Whether an artist has achieved a Perfect All-Kill is assessed using the Instiz iChart. This online music chart summarizes the rankings of the most important Korean music streaming services. These include Melon, Genie, Bugs!, Naver VIBE and Flo.
Digital Monster: Sometimes also abbreviated to “Digimon”. The title refers to artists who consistently do well on the charts and can show many digital sales.
Sajaegi: The term is used in South Korea when companies illegally boost the chart rankings of their artists. There are companies that buy their own artists' albums in large quantities or have the songs streamed thousands of times so that they perform better on the charts.
Sometimes even fans use this tactic, buying an album a hundred times over if they can afford it, in order to support the artist. There is also sometimes debate about what already counts as “Sajaegi” and what does not.
Is there another term that we should clarify? Let us know in the comments!
