Plus Magazine

| Written by Chung Dayul (Editor for the music webzine IZM)

For those who are passionate about music, especially K-POP, the significance of music shows and music streaming sites is extraordinary. This is because they provide an opportunity to be a part of a judgment scene where fans can witness firsthand the performance of the works by the artists they have been supporting. Our fascination with such rankings began at a certain point in history. Now, going beyond merely the results of competition, charts serve as cultural indicators. We will delve into the origins of these charts.
 

The evolution of media as a vessel for capturing sound
 

A chart refers to a table that organizes various data in an easily understandable way. The core information that music charts aim to provide is the overall trend of music popular at the time. One might ask, what criteria can be used to measure the popularity of these charts? Naturally, as the term “music” (음악, 音樂) implies, it is essentially about people ‘listening to, singing along with, and enjoying’ a song. To fulfill such fundamental conditions, the role of the medium transmitting music, in other words, the role of media, is very important.

In the immeasurably distant past, sound was merely transmitted orally from mouth to mouth and relied solely on the human vocal cords. However, with the development of civilization, musical instruments that produced different sounds appeared, and along with them, musical scores that documented how to play these instruments emerged. Although the scales and forms differed by region, from that point on, music could finally be preserved not just in memory but in written records.

The Billboard charts, which are among the most influential in the music industry, also started from this point. Billboard magazine originally launched in 1894 as an advertising industry publication called . However, shortly after its launch, it began publishing entertainment-related articles on outdoor advertising boards and transformed into an entertainment trade magazine. It is said that in 1913, they started to tally the number of sheet music sold at performance venues and released rankings based on that.

Considering that sheet music does not allow for immediate playback, it is difficult to consider it a comprehensive medium for conveying music. Only after the advent of record production technology and electromagnetic wave communication technology did sound gain the ability to directly vibrate the eardrums. Cylinder records, which are the prototypes of phonograph records, were sold as physical items that could be listened to anytime with a phonograph, contributing to the birth of music as an industry. Radio provided the scalability that allowed music to reach anywhere as long as there was electricity.

The music scene led by the broadcast industry

Since the late 19th century, during the modernization period, South Korea actively embraced Western culture including classical music and phonographs. However, due to the Japanese occupation and the Korean War that followed the liberation, people did not have the leisure to enjoy social activities. It was in the 1970s that popular culture truly began to take root. With the popularization of radio and TV, numerous broadcasting stations were established, and they developed programming that encompassed not only news but also sports, dramas, and entertainment shows

From this time, our popular songs began to slowly resonate. TV shows that absorbed the format of theater performances alleviated people’s long-standing cultural cravings and created an enormous response. The singers who appeared on the shows naturally rose to stardom. However, despite these shows being the only source of music consumption in the broadcasting industry, music could not take center stage entirely because the shows combined singing with comedic skits.

Seizing this opportunity, a new music show was launched in 1981, which was KBS’s . The show was distinct right from its name. Drawing from the formats of the UK’s BBC and Japan’s TBS <ザ・ベストテン (The Best Ten)>, this show selected 30 popular songs based on its own criteria, announced their rankings, and emerged as the representative music stage in South Korea. While there had been year-end awards to highlight singers who had made a mark throughout the year, such as new artist awards or top 10 singer awards, ‘Top 10 Songs’ was the first to rank individual songs.

In the early days of the show, it was common for a particular song to stay at the top for an extended period. In fact, Cho Yong-pil, a legendary singer who dominated the 1970s and ’80s, held the number one spot for 10 consecutive weeks in 1982 with ‘Can’t Find the Oriole’. As a result of this incident, introduced the ‘Golden Cup System,’ where a singer who ranked first for five consecutive weeks would graduate with honors. While the intention of this system was to prevent one song from monopolizing the chart and to embrace various artists, it had its flaws. It did not fully record the chart reign of steadily popular songs, and if the wins were not consecutive, a song could reclaim the number one spot even after five weeks.

The historical context of the time also imposed limitations. Just before the show started airing in 1980, South Korea entered a military regime, which led to a media consolidation, dissolving and restructuring numerous newspapers, broadcasting companies, and communications agencies. During this process, KBS, a public broadcaster, absorbed almost all broadcasting stations under its umbrella and forcibly acquired 65% of the shares of MBC, a private broadcaster. This effectively led to nationalization rather than public broadcasting. There were a considerable number of singers who could not perform on the show without passing through state censorship, so there were clear limitations in considering the show’s rankings as reflecting a fair and objective trend.

Despite various criticisms being raised, the ranking concept planted by the first dedicated popular music show continued to take root in the music industry. In the late 1980s, after the broadcast industry freed itself from repression through a constitutional amendment for direct presidential elections, it diversified and produced various music shows such as MBC’s and SBS’s . With stages being established in various locations, the scope of the singers’ performances expanded. However, they still largely adhered to the basic framework established by , which continued to be a significant element.

However, with the advancement of technology, a systematic ranking compilation method was established, and it actively engaged viewer participation. It was noteworthy that voting was not only limited to panels selected by music industry professionals or research institutions but was also open to the general public who could cast votes during live broadcasts through phone ARS and PC communication, considered to be the early forms of the internet. Then, with the emergence of idols, the digital generation, which rose as a consumer base in the music industry, showed strategic movements to help their favorite artists reach number one on terrestrial broadcasts. From purchasing albums beyond what is necessary to increase record sales that are reflected in the scores, to actively promoting or persuading to increase votes, it is no exaggeration to say that the consumer culture unique to the modern K-POP was established around this time.
 

The emergence of digital music and streaming

The appearance of a game-changer that breaks stereotypes is always innovative. The MP3, an audio format developed in 1997, was one such game-changer. MP3 allowed for playback without the need for physical media like tapes or CDs, and it was capable of achieving sound quality close to that of CDs with relatively small file sizes. In the digital age, which values convenience, and during the IMF crisis when the country was in turmoil but did not let go of IT businesses, the MP3 was an exceptionally optimized format for South Korea.

The basic infrastructure was in place, and the situation was such that all that was needed was to spread music over the now-ubiquitous information and communication network. At that time, P2P (Peer to Peer), which allows computers to communicate directly without going through a central server, faithfully performed the role of a broadcaster. Since its operation in 2000, Soribada had over 20 million users signing up, as the service, which allowed users to exchange music files for free, gained sensational popularity at the time.

This was a tremendous benefit for consumers, but suppliers couldn’t help but be anxious. The decline in album sales due to this, although the regulation on the online world was insufficient at the time, was not insignificant. The music industry, suddenly hit by indiscriminate sharing, eventually took legal action, and with the revision of the Copyright Law in 2005, the upload of commercial music files on the internet was completely banned.

Subsequently, in the more regulated online music ecosystem, streaming emerged as the next-generation contender. Fundamentally protecting copyrights through monetization, the services equipped with not only downloads but also real-time playback functions provided an ideal listening environment befitting the times and gradually shifted the music market landscape toward digital music.

After attracting numerous users, the data accumulated on servers soon became charts. As was the case with , the perception was the same that the top 10 songs are the current hits, and the 50 or 100 songs that are exposed within a larger framework have the potential to become hits. The difference from the past was that immediate record-keeping became possible. There were always issues to be raised, but thanks to establishing timely criteria, accepting criticisms, and continuous maintenance, the chart culture has maintained its vitality.
 

The domain of algorithms stumbled upon unintentionally

In the 2000s, internet usage was very limited except for computers and laptops. Later, with the release of smartphones in 2010 and the entry into the LTE era in 2011, one could connect freely anywhere as long as there was a signal. One service that broke free from spatial constraints and soared was YouTube. Although it is essentially a video-sharing platform, it is also currently the music streaming site with the largest market share in South Korea. The ‘music for viewing’ that has been passed down since the MTV era has evolved into ‘music for easy viewing’.

In 2012, when the proliferation of smartphones was on a stable trajectory, Psy’s ‘Gangnam Style’ unknowingly swept across the internet networks around the world, recording explosive music video views. It became the first in the world to achieve 1 billion views on YouTube, and riding on that momentum, it astonishingly climbed to number 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

The unexpected dominance of K-POP on the international stage presented a new paradigm in the age of new media. According to Billboard columnist Jeff Benjamin, “’Gangnam Style’ couldn’t reach number one at the time because YouTube views were not counted in the Billboard charts.” Having recognized this new phenomenon, Billboard began to incorporate YouTube streaming data into its ranking calculations starting the following year. Although it wasn’t a deliberate breakthrough, thanks to Psy paving the way for globalization, global K-POP stars like BTS and BLACKPINK were able to emerge.

The seismic shifts in the media ecosystem did not stop thereafter. The tendency to consume music through videos remained unchanged, but the format and length have gradually shortened, with so-called short-form content continuously throwing new topics into the music industry. Looking at the musicians and music that made their mark on TikTok, in 2019, Lil Nas X’s debut song ‘Old Town Road’ gained massive popularity by being used as background music for the Yeehaw Challenge, where people transformed into cowboys at the beat switch. It set a record by staying at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart for 19 consecutive weeks and remained the biggest hit of that year.

TikTok also swept through South Korea like a storm. In January 2020, the musician ZICO, who released ‘Any Song’ with its captivating minimal beat, chose TikTok as the primary marketing tool for his new song. The videos, which caught attention by syncing with different partners each time, focused on composing a dance with simple moves that anyone could follow, injecting fun into mimicking the moves. As a result, the track reached number one on various music charts, and the challenge culture, which was still relatively unfamiliar at the time, solidified itself as an essential promotional route in the Korean music industry.

While many songs focus on visuals, there are also cases where the music itself takes the lead. One example is FIFTY FIFTY’s ‘Cupid,’ which successfully entered the Billboard Hot 100 in the shortest time among K-pop artists after their debut. Whether it was the original version, which removed rap and solely featured English lyrics, or the speeded-up versions created by TikTok users, who playfully increased the song’s tempo, the victory was firmly based on the aspect of ‘listening to music,’ even if the appreciation of the song may differ. Through the girl group backed by small-scale captial, we were once again able to realize that the essential power of music still thrives amidst the rapidly changing market.

Chart culture that needs to be developed together

Recently, it was reported that Melon, South Korea’s major streaming platform, has signed a deal with the Billboard’s data management company to provide streaming data. The categories are ‘Global 200’, the chart ranking global songs, ‘Global Excl. US’, which excludes streaming data from US, and ‘South Korea Songs’, the local ranking of South Korea. For the first time, Billboard reflects Korea’s streams and digital sales, bringing global collaboration to the table.

In the meantime, Melon, after a few days, went on to reorganize their own chart system, chaning ‘Recently-release’ chart to ‘Hot 100’ chart. The maing points are: 1) the new chart only refelcts the hourly data, 2) changing the criteria of “recently-released”, from “1 weeks/4 weeks” to “30 days/100 days”, and 3) reveal the ranking graphs for the top 5 tracks by 1 hour and 5 minutes. But the new chart looks so much alike the previous the ‘real-time chart’, which disappeard by negative opinion for encouraging too much competition. Ironically, Melon experienced a user exodus after the removal of ‘real-time chart’, and is currently losing ground to other platforms including Youtube. Consider this, the new chart systemcan be read as a double-edged sword to overcome the crisis and recreate its past glory.

Chart means the accumulated data. There can be some distortions of pure indicators. It can be an active support by fandoms, or an abusing by using virtual accounts. Regardless of the purpose, the chart is only a reflection of the phenomenon. If somebody try to manipulate the phenomenon, the chart will isolate genres, separate generations, and ultimately block the access to music. Hopefully heartfelt music, aiming at our hearts not the chart, portray our times naturally.

 

※ Manuscripts from outside writers may not reflect the editorial direction of this magazine.