It’s a case of Korean pop vs. K Pop.
The new album from Stray Kids, a Korean pop group, soundly thrashed the new release this week from Jimin, a singer from K Pop’s supergroup BTS.
Jimin and BTS are part of the whole Hybe hype, now run by Scooter Braun. BTS fans — and Jimin’s — regularly ballot stuff iTunes so it appears their acts are swamping the charts.
But Stray Kids, which has rival management, just does their thing. And they came out on top big time this week.
Stray Kids’ “Ate” sold a total of 225,000 — most of which came pure album sales and downloads.
Jimin’s “Muse” sold jut 94,000 copies — again, most of them were from physical albums and downloads.
The two South Korean acts finished first and second this week, knocking Eminem’s “Death of Slim Shady” to number 3 and 81,000 copies.
Several new releases hit the top 50 this week including “Glass Animals” and Childish Gambino, each with around 36,000 copies total.
How did K Pop get so popular? They’re boy bands, fashioned a decade or more after the American fads. Their releases don’t last long in the charts, they’re more of pop-up pop phenomenon.
Meantime, solo US pop boy wonder Shawn Mendes seems like he’s ready to drop his first album in four years. Mendes, who took a mental health break from his career at age 25, may be going back to his original singer songwriter roots. That’s what he was like when we met him 7 or 8 years ago.
Will his fans show up? Stay tuned…
