Consumption of pop music decreases due to success of K-pop music

연합뉴스 / 2022-11-22 10:09:58

▲This photo, shows Kpop Girl group. (Yonhap)

▲This photo, provided by Circle Chart shows, numeric data. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)

▲This photo provided by Circle Chart, shows numeric data. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)

SEOUL November 22 (Yonhap) -- Due to the uprising of K-pop, consumption level of pop music has decreased.

According to the lead researcher Kim Jin-woo of the Circle Chart on Tuesday, starting from January until September of 2022 pop consumption has been accounted 22 percent per month, at this rate consumption rate of pop music will be able to hit lowest point, even lower than its record in 2017, 19.6 percent.

The proportion of pop music consumption compared to K-pop was accounted 23.9 percent in 2018, 27.5 percent in 2019, 31.4 percent in 2020, and 27.2 percent in 2021, however it has decreased down to 20 percent.

Moreover, consumption level of pop music based on the statistics accumulated within the same duration of period, the numbers collected in 2022, showcased 12.6 percent decreased in overall consumption of pop music.

In 2021, total of 12 tracks were included within the top 100 of Circle Chart, however, only 6 tracks made it to the 2022 version of the chart.

Digital Chart provided by the circle chart accumulates total streaming counts, download, Background Music, and sales to place the tracks within the rank therefore it is considered one of the reliable charts.

Despite of renown artists Beyonce, Harry Styles and numbers of artist’s comeback the reason for its lack of consumption, seemed to be based on the growth of K-pop based on K-pop girl groups, and hit tracks released by those artists.

Summer of 2022, featured numbers of K-pop girl groups latest track releases, and comebacks.

“Born Pink” which was released after K-pop super girl group Blcakpink’s first musical released in nearly two years, topped Billboard’s Main album chart “Billboard 200” for the first time as k-pop girl group, and espa, TWICE and more k-pop girl groups continued on with their noticeable work.

Moreover, rookie girl groups IVE, Le SSERAFIM, and NewJeans successfully debuted to the K-pop scene, enhancing the trend of K-pop girl group within the k-pop scene.

“It is only natural to see the trend between pop music and k-pop, where when either one of the side increases in demand, consumption of the different side will decrease and vice versa.” addressed researcher Kim Ji-woo.

Another underlying reason behind the decrease in consumption of pop music lies on lack of hit tracks produced by listener’s favorite artists.

Justin Bieber’s track “Peaches,” The Kid Laroi’s “Stay,” Anne Marrie’s “2002,” Ed Sheeran’s “Bad Habits” and more were included within the top 100.

However, some of these artists did not release any of the tracks, or even if they did, they failed to attract listener’s attention.

Researcher Kim Ji-woo stated “Competitive foreign artists had hard time excelling in South Korea, and K-pop girl groups managed to excel within the music industry this year, therefore when in a competition, foreign tracks were struggling against K-pop.”

However, big named figures within Pop genre Taylor Swift, Sam Smith and more who has solid fan base in South Korea made their comeback after September,

“Taylor Swift and Sam Smith has huge fan base in foreign nation, however South Korean fandom is comparably smaller, therefore the growth of K-pop will continue on.” addressed researcher Kim.