If you, dear reader, are like me, then you are probably curious about Kpop in Korea. After all, most of us are international fans. I had the opportunity to be in Seoul (more specifically, the Myeongdong and Hongdae area) for a week. While I was enjoying my time buying and eating everything in Seoul, I paid attention to the songs that Korea (or rather, Korean shops I suppose) were listening to. A few notes before moving forward:
- I recorded songs that were within hearing range. I wasn't about to bulldoze my way through a crowd to figure out a song because that's unnecessary. And like mentioned earlier, these were primarily in the streets of Hongdae and Myeongdong.
- My library is not all-encompassing. There were certainly songs that I didn't recognize, and I tried to account for them as best I could whenever I had the time (because an international plan only gets you so much data).
- Girl groups and soloists only. I didn't pay attention for boy groups, but even then I could easily tell you that the three dominating parties were: ballads, hip-hop and rap (plenty of San E), and Big Planet (Big Bang and EXO). I also heard more Psy than I would have thought.
So this is certainly not 100% perfect or scientific as possible, but with all that out of the way, here is the data, in as much of a ghetto graph as possible because that's all I'm capable of.
I don't know why the miscellaneous category isn't more than 30...goddammit. Whatever. Here's the full breakdown of the songs, in order of number of hits - ignoring the miscellaneous hodgepodge, which is really just anything that didn't place top 10. I also put exclamation marks to entries I thought were surprising, or just interesting in general. Lastly, I'm aware some of the featured songs aren't labelled properly but c'mon now, most of us know the full artists for those songs anyway.
#1. GFriend (23): Me Gustas Tu (12), Rough (4), Navillera (3), Glass Bead (2), Eunha -Inferiority Complex / Yuju - Spring Is Gone By Chance
#2. Girls' Generation (18): Taeyeon - Rain (5), Taeyeon - U R (2), Taeyeon - Why (2), Gee (2), Taeyeon - Starlight (2), Party, The Boys, Beep Beep, TTS - Adrenaline, Jessica - Fly (let me dream)
#3. Sistar (16): I Like That (5), Say I Love You (2), String, Alone, Wanna, My Sad Lullaby, How Dare You (!), Hyorin - Stalker, Shake It, Loving U, Touch My Body
#4. Twice (9): Like Ooh-Ahh (5), Cheer Up (4)
#5. Lee Hi (7): Breathe (4), My Star, Hold My Hand, World Tour
#6. A-Pink (6): Eunji - Hopefully Sky (2), Remember, Luv, NoNoNo, Mr. Chu
#7. AOA (6): Good Luck (3), Like A Cat, Heart Attack, Jimin - Puss
#8. EXID (6): L.I.E (5), Hot Pink
#9. Wonder Girls (6): Why So Lonely (5), So Hot (!)
#10. 2NE1 (5): Falling In Love, Scream (!), Can't Nobody, I Am The Best, Go Away
Miscellaneous / Other (36): IU - Zeze / IU - Friday / IU - 23 / IU - You & I / Mamamoo - You're The Best / Mamamoo - Girl Crush / Mamamoo - I Miss You / Mamamoo - Um Oh Ah Yeah / I.O.I - Dream Girls (3) / I.O.I - Pick Me / Girl's Day - Ring My Bell (2) / Girl's Day - Nothing Lasts Forever (!) / Unnies - Shut Up (3) (!) / Hyuna - Roll Deep / 4minute - Crazy / Hyuna - Red / Ailee - I'll Show You / Ailee - Mind Your Own Business / 15& - Can't Hide It / Stellar - Vibrato / FIESTAR - Apple Pie / KARA - Mister / Baek Ahyeon - So-so / DIA - On The Road / Brown Eyed Girls - Abracadabra / T-ARA - Roly-Poly (!) / miss A - Bad Girl Good Girl / Red Velvet - Dumb Dumb / 9MUSES - Glue / Raina - Midsummer Night's Sweetness, Davichi - Two Lovers
So, what are some conclusions that we can draw from this?
- Well, nothing, really. This was just a fun "project" and the top 3 girl groups are distinctly above the rest: GFriend, Girls' Generation, and Sistar. Overall the representation was fairly accurate to what I pick as the top 10 girl groups right now, with a few exceptions of course. Also, of course Twice would get exactly nine hits.
- I was pretty surprised AOA even got as many as they did, what with the shenanigans regarding Seolhyun and Jimin, etc. etc. More expectedly, Girl's Day was pretty much an afterthought given their inactivity since "Ring My Bell."
- Words can't describe the emotions I felt when I heard "Glue." I teared up (not really). 9MUSES is a group that have made me super proud and super sad across their career since 2013, and honestly I wasn't even thinking I'd hear one of their songs.
- And lastly, ME GUSTAS TU, GUSTAS TU, STU-TU-RU JOAHAEYO!
Hope this was at least a little fun to read. Until next time.
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