Weekly K-Pop Music Chart 2012 – August Week 2

Psy stays strong and repeats as No. 1 with “Gangnam Style”.  This song has an even better score than last week.  “Gangnam Style” is becoming the most popular K-Pop songs so far this year.  Its popularity is spreading quickly outside of Korea, with even CNN reporting about this song.  The music video of “Gangnam Style” has surpassed 23 millions views on Youtube in just three weeks of release, breaking the record held by Girls’ Generation’s “The Boys”.  In addition, Psy will soon release a sequel of “Gangnam Style” and there are rumors that Justin Bieber will be featured in part 2 of this song.  Stay tune.

The top three songs are the same as last week, as Sistar’s “Loving U” and 2NE1’s “I Love You” managed to hold on to the second and third spots respectively.  But their scores are quite far behind “Gangnam Style”.

There are four new songs in the top 10 this week.  Moving up eight spots to No. 4 is the consensus top TV network music show song of this week – Beast’s “Beautiful Night”.  This is the title song of Beast’s 5^th mini-album “Midnight Sun”.  “Beautiful Night” is a powerful synth pop number that is different from the group’s previous beat-heavy dance tracks.  For sure “Beautiful Night” will be the top challenger for No. 1 next week.

Another potential future chart topper is at No. 5.  BoA’s self written new song “Only One” moves up six spots to the top five this week.  This is the title song of BoA’s 7^th album. This mid-tempo song is very different from BoA’s usual dance beat style.  It shows the singer’s maturity in music.

The biggest mover of the week is at No. 8, where 4men’s Shin Yong Jae has this first solo top 10 hit “Again And Again”, moving up 37 big spots this week.  Shin Yong Jae has previous performed songs for drama OSTs but this is coming from his first solo mini-album “24”.  “Again And Again” is is about having feelings for a woman no matter how hard he tries not to.

The last new song in the top 10 this week is at No. 9.  It is a collaboration effort by artists from LOEN Entertainment.  Together they released a mini-album titled “LOEN Tree Summer Story”.  The title song “Sea Of Moonlight” paired IU with upcoming girl group Fiestar, who are debuting soon.  The song has a very summery feel to it with retro 80’s synth pop sounds.  There is another song from this album on our chart this week.  That is Ga In and Ra.D’s “Take Out” at No. 26.

1. (–) Psy – 강남스타일 (Gangnam Style) ***2nd Week @ No. 1***
Score: 977
Genre: Hip-Hop

Music: Psy, Yoo Gun Hyung / Lyrics: Psy
Album: Psy Vol. 6 Part 1 | Purchase this Album
Watch: MV

2. (–) Sistar – Loving U
Score: 911
Genre: Pop/Dance

Music: Ichiro Suezawa, Chance / Lyrics: Ichiro Suezawa, Chance
Album: Sistar Summer Special Album | Purchase this Album
Watch: MV

3. (–) 2NE1 – I Love You
Score: 845
Genre: R&B

Music: Teddy, Lydia Paek / Lyrics: Teddy
Album: 2NE1 digital single “I Love You”
Watch: MV

4. (+8) Beast – 아름다운 밤이야 (Beautiful Night)
Score: 804
Genre: Pop/Dance

Music: Goodnite, Sleepwell / Lyrics: 4realz
Album: BEAST Mini Album Vol. 5 | Purchase this Album
Watch: MV

5. (+6) BoA – Only One
Score: 788
Genre: Pop/Dance

Music: BoA / Lyrics: BoA
Album: BoA Vol. 7 | Purchase this Album
Watch: MV

6. (-2) T-Ara – Day By Day
Score: 610
Genre: Pop/Dance

Music: Cho Young Soo, Kim Tae Hyun / Lyrics: Ahn Young Min
Album: T-ara Mini Album Vol. 6 | Purchase this Album
Watch: MV

7. (-1) Juniel – Illa Illa
Score: 587
Genre: Pop Rock

Music: Kim Do Hoon, Lee Sang Ho / Lyrics: Han Sung Ho
Album: Juniel Mini Album Vol. 1 | Purchase this Album
Watch: MV

8. (+37) Shin Yong Jae (4men) – 자꾸만 자꾸만 (Again And Again)
Score: 506
Genre: Pop Ballad

Music: Shin Yong Jae / Lyrics: Min Yeon Jae
Album: Shin Yong Jae Mini Album Vol. 1 | Purchase this Album
Watch: MV

9. (+22) IU, Fiestar – 달빛바다 (Sea Of Moonlight)
Score: 497
Genre: Pop/Dance

Music: / Lyrics:
Album: Loen Tree Summer Project Album | Purchase this Album
Watch: MV

10. (-1) Brown Eyed Girls – 한 여름 밤의 꿈 (One Summer Night)
Score: 488
Genre: Pop Ballad

Music: Kim Bak Sa, Jea / Lyrics: Kim Ina
Album: Brown Eyed Girls digital single “The Original”
Watch: MV

THIS WEEK IN 2009:

2NE1 – I Don’t Care

Genre: R&B Ballad

Comment: Miss A was No. 1 at this week in both of the last two years.  But we are going back one more year back to 2009, the year where many of today’s biggest K-Pop groups debuted.  None of them is bigger than 2NE1.  The female quartet from YG Entertainment has been in training for many years and finally made their long awaited debut in the summer of 2009.  When they first stepped on to the stage to perform their debut song “Fire”, fans were all amazed that they already performed like a veteran artist.  “I Don’t Care” is their first No. 1 song.  Each year, 2NE1 is coming back with two different style of songs, either hardcore hip-hop tracks with the style of “Fire” and “Clap Your Hands”, or more listener friendly R&B ballads like “I Don’t Care”, “Ugly”, and their recent chart topping hit “I Love You”, giving fans many choices.

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 – 10%
MBC+ Show Champion Chart M – 10%
KBS Music Bank K-Chart – 10% 
MNet M!Countdown Chart – 10%

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