How did IU able to chart with her b-side from the beginning??

Nagging is her first song that get to #1 on chart. However, it just a single. IU was never popular with her b-side.

She then exploded in popularity with Good Day.

써클차트 - CIRCLE CHART, 글로벌 케이팝(K-pop) 음악차트

However, her B-side is already doing somewhat great. All of her album is in the top 50.

Then, with You & I, Iu already able to clean the chart with her album.

써클차트 - CIRCLE CHART, 글로벌 케이팝(K-pop) 음악차트

Whereas nowaday, we barely see anyone that can do that?? Even with popular singer like Blackpink and BTS.

Since Real EP- Good Day, the lowest peak rank of any of her releases B-sides or any, is #28 on Gaon, I think.

All songs have charted above 30, upon release.

So you have to look at Melon for period before Nagging, she has 3 releases with multiple songs. Those even the titles did not chart very high. So B-sides would not matter.

How she is able to do that and others' aren't - that indeed is a puzzle.

Some speculation.

Others' - groups, primary way to attract is by their performance MVs, which typically is produced only for the Title track, 1 or 2 songs of the release. Other B-sides are only music release with no visual component.

Fandoms are focused highly on 'performance - visuals - concepts - choreos' don't care about the pure music/singing songs.

Whereas with soloists, the performance aspect is not that critical, the focus is on singing-music. So the audience tends to listen to all songs.

IU's specialty has been the lyrical authenticity and even before she started writing her own, Kim Eana was a major contributor, influencer and mentor. Their lyrics definitely resonate even to non-Koreans via translation, so Koreans are absolutely enchanted by them.

While most of Kpop performance oriented songs have utterly rubbish lyrics and onomatopoeic sounds - to cater for being a 'bop', grammar, structure all be damned as long as it is a 'bop'.

That again works only if it is a performance.

B-sides with no performance and still mediocre lyrics will be ignored.

IU straddles both the Kpop scene and non-Kpop, so she gets the boost of Kpop fandom dynamics as well as GP who are into just good music, not into bop/dance stuff.

Just speculation.

why compare iu to groups who don’t even attend music shows or variety shows like iu? you should compare to soloists like lyw or taeyeon.

IU has been around since 2010 she is well established than bp from yg or bts from a nugu company.

Nagging was helped by being the theme song to "We Got Married", a popular variety show at the time.

"Good day" went viral and that helped the brides for that mini album - remember though in the age of digital downloads it was easier for bsides to chart with dedicated fans.

Her absolute digital dominance was then shown in Last Fantasy album a year later thanks to the Good Day hype.

Quote from Dozen (877)

why compare iu to groups who don’t even attend music shows or variety shows like iu? you should compare to soloists like lyw or taeyeon.

IU has been around since 2010 she is well established than bp from yg or bts from a nugu company.

Ok, so are the other soloists like LYW or Taeyeon charting their b-sides high?

I know that no song of IU since Good Day has not peaked below 30 on Gaon. What is the statistics for Taeyeon or LYW?

And related to that is the metric, OP mentions of all IU's albums since Real are in the top 50 albums.

How does Taeyeon fare?

LYW has just one release with B-sides, so may not matter much. Besides he is not Kpop.

And I did not get how music shows and variety shows are related to this, which again is open to most top acts - solo/group. In fact IU in recent years has considerably reduced her activity in such shows.

Quote from Dozen (877)

why compare iu to groups who don’t even attend music shows or variety shows like iu? you should compare to soloists like lyw or taeyeon.

IU has been around since 2010 she is well established than bp from yg or bts from a nugu company.

It looks like you didn't look at my comment at all.

I'm talking about IU during You & I when she only debuted 3 years and she already able to have 8/10 of her songs in the top 10 of Gaon.

Quote from OP

It looks like you didn't look at my comment at all.

I'm talking about IU during You & I when she only debuted 3 years and she already able to have 8/10 of her songs in the top 10 of Gaon.

But you mention "from the beginning".. which should include

Lost & Found 2008

Growing Up 2009

IU..IM 2009

Gaon did not exists for those, so you should check Melon and she did not do well with those releases, definitely not the B-sides.

It is only since Real-Good Day, has she been unstoppable, a digital wall every time she releases.

There are others though MC Mong charted 10 out of top 10.

Bigbang, Busker Busker- Beom Jun, AKMU all have charted multiple songs in the top 10.

But IU has been doing it most often and for the longest time. Since 2010, all the way to 2021 with Lilac in 2021 - had 5 songs from the Album in the top 10, even Pieces had 3/5 songs in the top 10.

I have my reasons I would share but I know annoying mods won't accept it

What's the point of anon sub forum if you only allow flowers and rainbows???

Quote from I’m on the NEXT… LEVEL (296)

But you mention "from the beginning".. which should include

Lost & Found 2008

Growing Up 2009

IU..IM 2009

Gaon did not exists for those, so you should check Melon and she did not do well with those releases, definitely not the B-sides.

It is only since Real-Good Day, has she been unstoppable, a digital wall every time she releases.

There are others though MC Mong charted 10 out of top 10.

Bigbang, Busker Busker- Beom Jun, AKMU all have charted multiple songs in the top 10.

But IU has been doing it most often and for the longest time. Since 2010, all the way to 2021 with Lilac in 2021 - had 5 songs from the Album in the top 10, even Pieces had 3/5 songs in the top 10.

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Those song didn't do that well, so I didn't include them. Nowadays BTS who have big fandom that can pretty much chart their whole album on the chart or Blackpink/Gidle who have some well known b-side so gp will listen.

IU at that time never have a popular b-side before or after good day so what make IU suddenly able to have 8/10 of her song in the top 10? so what actually make the public listen to her b-side(Just her being popular shouldn't be a reason tho)

Quote from OP

Those song didn't do that well, so I didn't include them. Nowadays BTS who have big fandom that can pretty much chart their whole album on the chart or Blackpink/Gidle who have some well known b-side so gp will listen.

IU at that time never have a popular b-side before or after good day so what make IU suddenly able to have 8/10 of her song in the top 10? so what actually make the public listen to her b-side(Just her being popular shouldn't be a reason tho)

Ok. I was not following Kpop then, so don't know why the public started listing to all her songs.

But then you should look to popular acts active at that time, to check whether IU was an anomaly or were there other acts who charted their B-sides well. Maybe the listening habits were different and people were not so fixated on the "visual performance aspect" as today.

As to contemporary acts BP/BTS/GIDLE, are they as consistent as IU in charting their B-sides, or is it an occasional B-side that strikes hot?

I don't know their stats, to make the comparison. It should be both compared with their own title tracks and also against IU, since the question has her as the benchmark.

As far as I know, only Bigbang comes close to IU when it comes to digital dominance and in the last few years BTS has been.

look at this. The one who can have multiple song in the top is:

MC Mong

IU

BigBang

Akmu

Busker Busker

What is the common about them?? It is the vocal.

Kpop group can't chart multiple of their song because most of them are good for their performance/dance, not the vocal. Therefore, no one will listen to their b-side except their fans and Big Bang just built different.

Quote from OP

Those song didn't do that well, so I didn't include them. Nowadays BTS who have big fandom that can pretty much chart their whole album on the chart or Blackpink/Gidle who have some well known b-side so gp will listen.

IU at that time never have a popular b-side before or after good day so what make IU suddenly able to have 8/10 of her song in the top 10? so what actually make the public listen to her b-side(Just her being popular shouldn't be a reason tho)

Good day was just that big, but even then she had slowly worked her way up with her previous 2-3 releases which all did well even if they are often forgotten with what was to come. She also was everywhere on radio and tv shows during this time, and when good day dropped it was in the middle of her doing the variety show Heroes which also helped her especially with the general public.

Her fandom exploded and became one of the biggest in korea after good day, which also helps explain how entire albums of hers shot up, as the realtime charts back than was much easier influenced by fans compared to how the charts work today, and many artists could chart multiple songs including b-sides high back then, if only for a few days.

In short, Good day skyrocketed her to top, and she never left it after that. The real magic trick she pulled was transforming from the popular cute idol, which in normal cirumstances have a shell life of 3-4 years, to a sing-songwriter that kept much of the fanbase from previous years and grew even further, especially among the female demographic.

The reason basically only IU can still chart an entire album in top 10 still today after all the chart changes is because she is the biggest artist in korea, and that by a wide marigin compared to still active acts. The few that could compete either dont really release full albums, are not active any longer, or are on their way to military service.