Weekly K-Pop Music Chart 2012 - January Week 1

Happy New Year everyone!  After we took the last week off to present the 2011 Soompi Gayo Awards, our weekly music chart is back for the first week of the new year.  Time really flies fast, this is already the 8th year we are bringing you our weekly music chart.

Before we get to this week’s chart, as usual it is time to make some changes in the scoring and also the sources of this chart. I review this at the end of every year and make necessary changes for the following year in order to bring you the most up-to-date hit songs in Korea each week and also to keep fine-tuning the accuracy of our chart.

We are making some drastic changes to this year’s chart:

1. Album Sales (5%) is no longer part of our scoring – As Korea music industry continues to be more singles (song) based rather than album based, and the digital music era is pretty much taking over, we already keep declining our album sales percentage each year. When we started out in 2005, album sales was 20% of our scoring, and then we keep reducing it and it was down to 5% last year, making this score nominal. Now we are comfortable enough to take this part out altogether. Another reason we abandon our album sales score is that many of our chart sources already factored album sales into their chart, so there is no need for us to duplicate.

2. Chart Korea (5%) is no longer a source – Chart Korea is an airplay source and over the years we found that they are usually one week behind our other airplay source Air Monitor. We decide to take them out to avoid redundancy and to be more updated each week.

3. Gasoo Appearances (10%) on music shows is no longer counted – We feel that this measure is too subjective and if record companies are at odds with certain TV stations, many of their artists won’t be allowed to appear on that station’s music shows.  In the past, we use this source to get brand new songs to debut faster into our chart.  But with enough credible sources now, this is no longer necessary.

4. Billboard Korea is a new 15% source – Billboard has been the official music chart in the USA for a long time, and they finally open their Korea branch last year and started their Korean chart last August.  We are proud to feature Billboard Korea as one of our chart sources from now on.

5. Monkey3 and Cyworld are no longer part of the internet scoring – We have not changed our internet sub-chart sources in a few years but have decided to pull the plug on Monkey3 and Cyworld. The main reason is that we notice that these two charts have intentionally left out some of the most popular songs. For this year, we are going with Olleh, Bugs, Melon, Soribada, Naver, and Daum as the internet chart sources.

6. MNet Chart has increased back to 10% – Since MNet revamped their website last year, we feel that their chart is more accurate and up-to-date now than before and we increase it back from 5% to 10%.  Now all four major stations SBS, KBS, MBC, and MNet each is a 10% source, with Air Monitor, GAON, Billboard Korea, and Internet Charts each being a 15% source. These eight sources added together is the base of our weekly music chart.

With all these changes you will see songs on the top having higher scores than before. It is possible again now for a dominant song to score a perfect 1000 points.  Also, with the album sales score out of the picture, we may finally see a digital single to be crowned No. 1 song in the near future.

Now back to this week’s chart.  With all of the above changes in scoring and a week’s layoff, you will think that the top 10 will be totally different. But instead, the top three songs remain the same as the last chart of 2011: IU‘s “You And I” is No. 1 for the third straight week; Hyuna and Hyun Seung‘s “Trouble Maker” is still No. 2; and T-Ara‘s former chart topping hit “Cry Cry” is still holding steady at No. 3. Due to the change of scoring mechanism, these three songs all reported a much higher scoring than the previous chart two weeks ago.

There are two new songs in the top 10.  T-Ara has 1.5 songs in the top 10 this week. Aside from “Cry Cry”, their collaboration with Davichi, “We Were In Love,” debuts at No. 7 this week. This is not the first collaboration between the two groups as they collaborates previously (also with See Ya) on “Women Generation”. “We Were In Love” is first released as a digital single and it also serves as the sneak preview song on T-Ara’s fifth mini-album “Funky Town” which is scheduled to release next week.

The other new song at No. 10 is coming from two of Super Junior’s members Dong Hae and Eun Hyuk.  Together they released a digital single “Oppa Oppa.” It had a modest debut at No. 40 two weeks ago and made a big 30-spot jump to the top ten this week. “Oppa Oppa” is a bright upbeat number with retro disco sounds. The fun lyrics are a plus to the song.

SOOMPI CHART for 2012, Month 1, Week 1

1. (–) IU – 너랑 나 (You And I) ***3rd Week @ No. 1***
Score: 971
Genre: Pop Ballad

Music: Lee Min Soo / Lyrics: Kim Ina
Album: IU Vol. 2 | Purchase this Album
Watch: MV

2. (–) Trouble Maker – Trouble Maker
Score: 951
Genre: Pop/Dance

Music: Shinsadong Tiger, Rado / Lyrics: Shinsadong Tiger, Rado
Album: Trouble Maker mini-album | Purchase this Album
Watch: MV

3. (–) T-Ara – Cry Cry
Score: 875
Genre: Pop/Dance

Music: Cho Young Soo, Kim Tae Hyun / Lyrics: Cho Young Soo, Ahn Young Min
Album: T-Ara mini-album Vol. 4 | Purchase this Album
Watch: MV

4. (+3) Huh Gak & LE – 그 노래를 틀때마다 (Every Time That Song Is Turned On)
Score: 715
Genre: Pop Ballad

Music: Rado / Lyrics: Rado, LE
Album: Huh Gak & LE digital single “Every Time That Song Is Turned On”
Watch: MV

5. (-1) A Pink – My My
Score: 650
Genre: Pop/Dance

Music: Shinsadong Tiger, Rado / Lyrics: Shinsadong Tiger, Rado
Album: Apink mini-album Vol. 2 | Purchase this Album
Watch: MV

6. (+3) Ali – 촌스럽게 굴지 마 (Don’t Act Countrified)
Score: 649
Genre: R&B Ballad

Music: Choi Joon Young / Lyrics: Choi Joon Young
Album: Ali Vol. 1 | Purchase this Album
Watch: MV

7. (new) Davichi & T-Ara – 우리 사랑했잖아 (We Were In Love)
Score: 608
Genre: Pop Ballad

Music: Cho Young Soo / Lyrics: K Smith
Album: T-Ara mini-album Vol. 5 | Purchase this Album
Watch: MV

8. (-2) Electroboys – Ma Boy 2 (feat. Sistar Hyo Rin)
Score: 597
Genre: Hip-Hop

Music: Brave Brothers / Lyrics: Brave Brothers
Album: Electroboyz 2nd single “Rebirth” | Purchase this Album
Watch: MV

9. (-4) Wonder Girls – Be My Baby
Score: 575
Genre: Pop/Dance

Music: Park Jin Young / Lyrics: Park Jin Young
Album: Wonder Girls Vol. 2 | Purchase this Album
Watch: MV

10. (+30) Dong Hae & Eun Hyuk (Super Junior) – 떴다 오빠 (Oppa Oppa)
Score: 479
Genre: Pop/Dance

Music: Peter (Team Onesound) / Lyrics: Peter & Young Sky
Album: Dong Hae & Euh Hyuk digital single “Oppa Oppa”
Watch: MV

YESTERDAY ONCE MORE:

MC The Max – 잠시만 안녕 (A Brief Goodbye)
Genre: Rock Ballad

Album: MC The Max Vol. 1 (2002) Track 3
Watch: MV
Comment: MC The Max is a ballad rock group formed by ISU, J. Yoon, and Jung Min Hyuk. The trio formerly started out as members of the rock group Moonchild but renamed themselves to MC The Max in 2002 and focused more on rock ballads. For many years in the early to mid 2000s, winter in Korea wouldn’t be complete without a sad rock ballad hit from MC The Max. In their early days, MC The Max’s music has a heavy Japanese influence, working with famous musicians like Kouji Tamaki and Kohmi Hirose. Their debut hit “A Brief Goodbye” is the Korean version of well-known Japanese rock band X-Japan’s classic hit song “Tears”. This song rose to No. 1 in many music charts 10 years ago in early 2002. Two years later, X-Japan’s “Tears” was featured in Jang Hyuk and Jun Ji Hyun’s movie “Windstruck”. Fans then discovered this song’s Korean version and it became a hit song again for the second time.    

About the Soompi Music Chart:

Soompi Music Chart is unlike any other music charts or television rankings.  It takes into account rankings by various major music charts in Korea and airplays of each song, making it an unbiased and objective tally of what’s going on in the world of K-pop.  Our chart is composed of the following sources:

Air Monitor Chart – 15%
GAON Music Chart – 15%
Various Internet charts (Olleh, Bugs, Melon, Soribada, Naver, Daum) – 15%
Billboard Korea – 15%    
SBS (Inky Gayo Take 7 + voting list) – 10%
MBC Inky Top 100 Chart – 10%
KBS Music Bank K-Chart – 10% 
MNet Chart – 10% 

Thanks to Mardi09 for helping on this week’s internet chart research.