Stereogum: BTS Ruined Charts System + Butter Is Not The Most Popular Song

[RAMROD 97,479]

A week and a half ago, BTS released “Butter,” a song that sounds a whole hell of a lot like “Dynamite.” It’s their second English-language single. The entire creation of “Butter” feels oddly murky; one of the seven credited songwriters, for instance, is Columbia Records chairman Ron Perry, a man with no previous songwriting experience. The song has done what it was intended to do. “Butter” now sits at #1. According to Billboard, no group has cranked out their first four #1 singles this quickly since the Jackson 5 did it in 1970. (Justin Timberlake notched his first four chart-toppers even faster in 2006 and 2007, which is weird. Timberlake only ever reached #1 once as a member of *NSYNC, and none of the hits from his massively successful 2002 solo debut Justified made it to the top.

Here’s the thing, though: “Butter” is not the most popular song in America right now. Billboard figures out its charts through some arcane combination of streaming, sales, and radio play. “Butter” made it to #1 almost entirely based on sales of discounted digital singles. “Butter” did get a lot of streams, but it didn’t get as much as any of the three most popular songs from Olivia Rodrigo’s debut album. At radio, the biggest song in America right now is “Leave The Door Open,” the retro-soul soul ballad from Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak’s Silk Sonic project. There, “Butter” isn’t even a factor.

So “Butter,” like the big BTS hits that preceded it, sits at #1 right now mostly because BTS have effectively mobilized their tireless fan army. BTS sold downloads of “Butter” for 69 cents. They also sold an instrumental version. That’s 69 cents, too, and its sales count towards the chart fortunes of BTS. (There are also physical editions of the single, but those won’t count on the charts until they ship.) BTS fans are extremely plugged into the whole pop-chart thing, and they’re invested in helping the group get to #1 as many times as possible. If that means buying two different versions of the same song for 69 cents a pop, plenty of them are happy to do it. If you look at the charts, then, you’re going to get a completely distorted idea of how popular BTS actually are.

Record labels have always tried to juke the chart stats. Billboard has kept changing its tabulation methods in part because labels keep trying to use shady tactics to push their songs to #1. (At times, Billboard has allegedly been complicit in those tactics; witness the sordid saga of how Andy Gibb’s “Shadow Dancing” blocked Gerry Rafferty’s “Baker Street” from the #1 spot in 1978.) There have also been vast stretches where the Billboard charts haven’t been a useful metric in figuring out what’s actually popular. For most of the ’90s, for instance, record labels refused to sell singles, driving people to buy CD albums instead, while Billboard refused to count any songs on the charts that weren’t officially released as singles. Still, the Hot 100 is the best historic marker we have for what’s big at any specific time. In gaming the system, BTS are fücking that whole thing up.

Now: BTS truly are a massively popular group. They’re big enough that their popularity has actually changed Korean laws. K-pop boy bands used to go on hiatus when the members of the group would have to report for compulsory military service, but thanks to a law passed in 2020, they can now delay their service until age 30. BTS keep appearing on American TV because people want to see them. “Dynamite” was a legit #1 hit — the kind of song I actually heard out in the world more than once. Maybe I’ll encounter “Butter” the same way, too, but I have my doubts. Instead, we’re dealing with a situation where everyone is working to inflate certain numbers and to affect the charts in that way. It’s almost like sports fandom, if you could actually will your team toward a championship by being louder and more obnoxious than anyone else in the arena, or by buying more jerseys than anyone else.

 

 

Source:

https://www.stereogum.com/2149730/bts-butter-hot-100-billboard-chart/columns/sounding-board/
 

 

[Cameltoe Chariot 12,059]

I'm glad people are starting to look at their chart success with a magnifying glass, because it's a complete joke. I won't deny that BTS are a global phenomena, but hardly anyone outside their fanbase is listening to Butter in North America and that's a fact. Record execs have figured out a way to game BTS stans into artificially inflating numbers and chart points so they can line their pockets and climb higher in the music industry. It's so f*cking sad.

[Jose P 23,341]

They did not lie. 

[KORG 4,756]

God bless BTS for exposing how corrupt and convoluted the billboard metrics are.

[Arcadia 1,366]

2 minutes ago, KORG said:

God bless BTS for exposing how corrupt and convoluted the billboard metrics are.

The Billboard metrics are set in place to stop the corruption from labels from artificially manipulating the charting positions, yes.

[JusKeepBreathin 19,311]

 

Gaga mobilizing her fans to buy more than one album.

They won who cares fandoms age and shrink eventually.

[KORG 4,756]

4 minutes ago, boop said:

The Billboard metrics are set in place to stop the corruption from labels from artificially manipulating the charting positions, yes.

Unless.. radio payola, streaming manipulation... and this BTS nonsense..

[PartySick 136,885]

15 minutes ago, RAMROD said:

According to Billboard, no group has cranked out their first four #1 singles this quickly since the Jackson 5 did it in 1970.

[Rat Boy 38,384]

3 minutes ago, JusKeepBreathin said:

 

 

Gaga mobilizing her fans to buy more than one album.

That wasn't Gaga. Someone was impersonating her.

[Justin Drew Bieber 25,317]

11 minutes ago, CameltoeKween said:

I'm glad people are starting to look at their chart success with a magnifying glass, because it's a complete joke. I won't deny that BTS are a global phenomena, but hardly anyone outside their fanbase is listening to Butter in North America and that's a fact. Record execs have figured out a way to game BTS stans into artificially inflating numbers and chart points so they can line their pockets and climb higher in the music industry. It's so f*cking sad.

Perfectly said sis, tbh their only real hit in the US is Dynamite

[JusKeepBreathin 19,311]

3 minutes ago, Mer Boy said:

That wasn't Gaga. Someone was impersonating her.

And was that same person impersonating her during the Joanne era?

 

[RAMROD 97,479]

1 minute ago, JusKeepBreathin said:

And was that same person impersonating her during the Joanne era?

 

Yes.

[JusKeepBreathin 19,311]

2 minutes ago, RAMROD said:

Yes.

Ms. Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta

[Justin Drew Bieber 25,317]

7 minutes ago, JusKeepBreathin said:

And was that same person impersonating her during the Joanne era?

 

That’s not Gaga 

[OMonster 14,213]

3 minutes ago, Justin Drew Bieber said:

That’s not Gaga 

That is Gaga?