[bluewave68]

Hi everyone,

I'm a graduate student at the NewSchool University in NYC. I'm working on a research project specific to the exchange of pop culture between Japan and South Korea. I'm trying to find some information and wondering if anyone on here could point me in the right direction.

I'm looking for music chart information (for singles and cds) going back a few years (to about 2003). I'm not looking for everything, just a small sample from each year so I can spot trends in what's popular in the South Korean market. Since I don't understand Korean, and am not familiar with the big sites, I'm looking for a little help.

Any info anyone has would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance

AJM

[edward1849]

Unfortinately, Korea doesn't have an "official" music chart. Each TV station have its own rankings. But all 3 big stations (MBC, SBS, KBS) has since abolished their weekly rankings then. Right now, we can only look for rankings from M!Net (bi-weekly) and other internet charts.

These sites are all in Korean. You can refer to our weekly music chart, which is in English. But our chart only started in 2005, and majority of earlier 2005 chart info has been lost due to the site crash.

If you are talking about trends of Korean music, in the early 2000s, dance hits were popular. Back then, there were lots of boy bands and girl groups compared to now. I think the last 2 years, the SG Wannabe type of R&B mid-tempo music has taken over.

The record sales trend is more obvious. In the early 2000s, a lot of albums were selling over 1 million copies. Now if an album can sell for over 100,000 copies it's considered excellent. MP3 downloading has caused album sales to decline dramatically each year. Starting last year, some record companies choose to release digital singles instead, and we are seeing more and more digital singles now.

[bluewave68]

Thanks very much for the reply. The info you gave me is helpful.

Thanks once again.

AJM