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

[Pandauralife 483]

1 hour ago, RAMROD said:

Yes.

[StrawberryBlond 13,382]

As I said a short while ago, albums charts should be a reflection of fan support but singles charts should be a display of public opinion. Albums are for the fans, singles are for the public. Singles are what make the history books for the most part, which is partly why so many people are annoyed at BTS getting all these #1's because whether we like it or not, those achievements alone will get them in the history books and yet, we don't think they've made a big enough impact on the culture to warrant that. More needs to be done to combat fan-driven sales, though I don't quite know what. Not allowing discounts until the song is more than a few weeks old, for one. And stop allowing remixes to count towards sales of the original. I think remixes should always chart separately, as should live versions because they're utilised too often now to cheat the system. Just as well clean versions no longer exist because that used to be another way to crack the system. That was the sole reason Cheryl Cole got her final #1 in the UK - released a song that contained swear words so naturally had to have a clean version available. Her fans downloaded both on the release week and it went straight to #1 which it never would've done if clean versions weren't a thing (this was before streaming started counting so charts were purely based on sales alone and I watched how the dirty version even fell from #1 as the week went on but the clean version kept it propped up). She did this in 2014 as well, just slipping under the wire before we stopped this practice. If it still happened, a rap song would be #1 every week!

[BUtterfield 8 38,738]

The writer of the article posted a follow up statement 

 

[Grace 338]

This is how Kpop fandom culture has always been.  The idea coming out on top is one of the most important things to the fans of these groups.  That's why Korea has a bunch of different charts and its important to get #1 on all of them (the "All Kill" as its called).  That's also why each of their billion music shows awards a prize every airing.  It's manufactured to make these fans care most about getting the big numbers and winning things, period.  Group think makes them love the song regardless of its quality, and the Kpop system motivates them to go as hard as they are.  Now they're just getting the opportunity to do this with American charts.

[Born This Way 1,646]

BTW vibes 

[Serial Chiller 8,044]

On 6/5/2021 at 7:24 AM, Melancholia said:

it does, but not to the same extent. none of the other groups at a similar level of fame to bts get such highly inflated chart positions. blackpink don't even have a top ten, and they're arguably just as big as bts. it's a kpop issue, but it's amplified a thousand times in the case of bts.

bts have inflated their us success by mobilizing their fans to get them number ones and break flashy records, whereas twice, blackpink, nct etc. don't use the same sh!tty tactics, and therefore don't have the same degree of 'success' as bts.

nnnnn no every major international kpop act uses the same streaming purchasing tactics to "grind" streams/sales/views. Just look at the Youtube first day view records - All kpop acts. Who watches a video in the first 24hrs of release? Only the fans.

It's just that bts base is exponentially larger than the others so they can make waves here in the US. And also the reason why they appear super sh**ty. As large as they are they must attract a bunch of flies. Similarly why the Swifties appear extremely ferocious and ruthless. Simply because there are SO MANY of them.