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Stereogum slams Billboard over BTS, calls it 'useless'

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BTS and their fan army are rendering the pop charts useless.

A week and a half ago, BTS released “Butter,” a song that sounds a whole hell of a lot like “Dynamite.” It’s their second English-language single. The song has done what it was intended to do. “Butter” now sits at #1. According to Billboard, no group has cranked out their first four #1 singles this quickly since the Jackson 5 did it in 1970. 

Here’s the thing, though: “Butter” is not the most popular song in America right now. Billboard figures out its charts through some arcane combination of streaming, sales, and radio play. “Butter” made it to #1 almost entirely based on sales of discounted digital singles. “Butter” did get a lot of streams, but it didn’t get as much as any of the three most popular songs from Olivia Rodrigo’s debut album. At radio, the biggest song in America right now is “Leave The Door Open,” the retro-soul soul ballad from Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak’s Silk Sonic project. There, “Butter” isn’t even a factor.

So “Butter,” like the big BTS hits that preceded it, sits at #1 right now mostly because BTS have effectively mobilized their tireless fan army. BTS sold downloads of “Butter” for 69 cents. They also sold an instrumental version. That’s 69 cents, too, and its sales count towards the chart fortunes of BTS. (There are also physical editions of the single, but those won’t count on the charts until they ship.) BTS fans are extremely plugged into the whole pop-chart thing, and they’re invested in helping the group get to #1 as many times as possible. If that means buying two different versions of the same song for 69 cents a pop, plenty of them are happy to do it. If you look at the charts, then, you’re going to get a completely distorted idea of how popular BTS actually are.

Record labels have always tried to juke the chart stats. Billboard has kept changing its tabulation methods in part because labels keep trying to use shady tactics to push their songs to #1. There have also been vast stretches where the Billboard charts haven’t been a useful metric in figuring out what’s actually popular. For most of the ’90s, for instance, record labels refused to sell singles, driving people to buy CD albums instead, while Billboard refused to count any songs on the charts that weren’t officially released as singles. Still, the Hot 100 is the best historic marker we have for what’s big at any specific time. In gaming the system, BTS are fucking that whole thing up.

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46 minutes ago, fab said:

Billboard is 100% gonna adjust their Hot 100 formula at some point in 2021 to deal with this true1 

Hopefully. I’m so tired of this insane fanbase trying to fuck with the system.

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49 minutes ago, fab said:

Billboard is 100% gonna adjust their Hot 100 formula at some point in 2021 to deal with this true1 

Not if their stans have anything to say about it true1 the rule change announcement tweet's about to get 50k quotes and replies.

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For most of the ’90s, for instance, record labels refused to sell singles, driving people to buy CD albums instead

scream1 Is this why songs like Don't Speak didn't chart?

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2 hours ago, LÉON said:

scream1 Is this why songs like Don't Speak didn't chart?

Yes. It was #1 on the Airplay Chart for 16 weeks tho. (a record at the time) katy1  It easily would have been one of the biggest Hot 100 singles of the decade. brit15

 

But maybe this tactic is responsible for Tragic Kingdom reaching diamond status. nicki5

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11 hours ago, harry said:

Yes. It was #1 on the Airplay Chart for 16 weeks tho. (a record at the time) katy1  It easily would have been one of the biggest Hot 100 singles of the decade. brit15

 

But maybe this tactic is responsible for Tragic Kingdom reaching diamond status. nicki5

nicki5 Gee life was tough in 90s America. Imagine paying £10-15 just so you can hear one song. I had/have the DS UK CD single katy2

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3 hours ago, LÉON said:

nicki5 Gee life was tough in 90s America. Imagine paying £10-15 just so you can hear one song. I had/have the DS UK CD single katy2

If you only knew the stupid shit I bought for nearly $20.... for one song.... and that song's remix at the end of the album. gag1

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2 hours ago, harry said:

If you only knew the stupid shit I bought for nearly $20.... for one song.... and that song's remix at the end of the album. gag1

I can relate actually... sometimes the single had sold out or wasn't released here, so I had to buy the whole damn album gag1 Sum 41 comes to mind. I bought their album Chuck just for Pieces gag1 I don't think I know how any of the other 10 or so tracks go

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I agree with this. But if we're calling out people gaming the system then it's only fair to do it to western  artists who do it as well. There's plenty of songs that debut at #1 and then quickly drop off. 

If Billboard is supposed to calculate between radio, streams and sales why is a song #1 only based on sales. There should be a balance between them all. It seems like Billboard has some rules but doesn't follow them.

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On 6/8/2021 at 10:59 AM, harry said:

If you only knew the stupid shit I bought for nearly $20.... for one song.... and that song's remix at the end of the album. gag1

If we're talking kpop single albums, it's that expensive cos of the packaging. The photocard(s), poster(s), (fairly thick) photobook, the outside box/slipcase, the disc itself, and whatever other inserts there are. "Normal" CD singles don't have any of that. They usually just have a Slimline case, a single paper insert and a disc. 

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On 6/9/2021 at 10:19 PM, Chris Morlock said:

If we're talking kpop single albums, it's that expensive cos of the packaging. The photocard(s), poster(s), (fairly thick) photobook, the outside box/slipcase, the disc itself, and whatever other inserts there are. "Normal" CD singles don't have any of that. They usually just have a Slimline case, a single paper insert and a disc. 

I’m talking about from the age of compact discs. Late 90’s mostly. Idk why anyone bothers buying CD’s anymore. It’s weird to me. Buy vinyl if you want something physical. The sound is way better. Supporting your fave is one thing because you like the music but blowing all your lunch money on different versions of the same thing to get them to chart higher is kinda red flag Stan behavior IMO. 

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5 minutes ago, harry said:

I’m talking about from the age of compact discs. Late 90’s mostly. Idk why anyone bothers buying CD’s anymore. It’s weird to me. Buy vinyl if you want something physical. The sound is way better. Supporting your fave is one thing because you like the music but blowing all your lunch money on different versions of the same thing to get them to chart higher is kinda red flag Stan behavior IMO. 

kpop agencies/companies dont really make or sell vinyl. ive only seen one (picture disc) in person of NCT 127's ep We are Superhuman

otherwise its just a release every once in a blue moon.

 

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