The breaking of Melon's stranglehold in KPop digitals helped the 4th Gen a lot

    I had expected IU to reign over the 4th Generation, because of her iron control of Melon charts, but something I hardly expected occurred.


    Youtube Music has taken over as the primary digital service of K-O-R-E-A.


    Which basically means doom for the digital-based trottists and balladists.


    although well known names such as Lee Jieun, Lim Youngwoong and Younha are kinda immune from this change, lesser known balladists and trottists would not have the sway they used to have based upon Melon.


    In a sense Itzy was unlucky; it was caught by the gaggle of fake balladists whose songs which no one gave a crap were infesting Melon. Also a bunch of acts which were not album based as well.


    But because YT music had broken Melon's stranglehold, useless ballads which simply crowd out better acts in Melon are now meaningless since if they don't do well in youtube music they are seen as being fake.


    Which made the world safe for the 4th Gen acts who can now roam free without the useless balladists and pesky trottists largely out of game.


    It also breaks the incalculable power IU held over other acts; they no longer have to fear Lee Jieun who had a stranglehold on KPop for all these years. With Melon less relevant, and IU not involved in the management of YT music, acts can now ignore her Seniority and thrive.


    As I have hinted in another post, it is like the English Channel turning into land during the Napoleonic Wars; instead of the French Emperor, it would have been the English Government, the King, the Regent, the Parliament and all that, having to run to York (as Toronto was called back then) across the ocean.


    A tectonic change which the companies are now getting a lot of hint of.


    4th gen would be mostly free from the ravages of melon and the balladists. YT music unwittingly saved the 4th Gen from the older style of music and singers, especially ... IU.

    youtube music is more younger generation, i don't expect kids, teens and young adults to listen to ballads non stop, melon was more all generation so the older gen pushed some songs, same as younger gen pushed some songs


    I think people should stop focusing on youtube music or melon and focus more on Circle which have all the charts together, at the end of the day Circle is Korea's national chart, like billboard


    edit: actually i take back since i remember how circle don't add youtube music, which i hope they do soon

    It just means segregation of fandoms.



    older people will stick to their faves on melon, and in theory it should be easier for ballad singers and trot singers to do well on Melon.


    pop acts will dominate on YouTube as that is where the younger listeners are migrating to.

    Quote from SunnySun

    youtube music is more younger generation, i don't expect kids, teens and young adults to listen to ballads non stop, melon was more all generation so the older gen pushed some songs, same as younger gen pushed some songs


    I think people should stop focusing on youtube music or melon and focus more on Circle which have all the charts together, at the end of the day Circle is Korea's national chart, like billboard


    edit: actually i take back since i remember how circle don't add youtube music, which i hope they do soon


    OMG please no, Gaon is terrible. LYW got 50 MILLION Gaon points in one week because of his insane fandom downloads, while not even charting top 20 on Melon that week cause he couldnt muster even a paltry 200 or 300k ULs.


    Melon Weekly Chart is still the best bet to gauge general public popularity. It is the toughest chart in Korea, just like how the Hot 100 is the toughest chart in the US.


    As for OP, YT is still way behind Melon in Korea. Melon with 40 percent share, YT with 20 something percent share just ahead of Genie, which is third.

    Quote from BlackpinkHouse

    OMG please no, Gaon is terrible. LYW got 50 MILLION Gaon points in one week because of his insane fandom downloads, while not even charting top 20 on Melon that week cause he couldnt muster even a paltry 200 or 300k ULs.


    Melon Weekly Chart is still the best bet to gauge general public popularity. It is the toughest chart in Korea, just like how the Hot 100 is the toughest chart in the US.


    As for OP, YT is still way behind Melon in Korea. Melon with 40 percent share, YT with 20 something percent share just ahead of Genie, which is third.

    Someone posted a while ago that YouTube had caught up in Q3 of 2022.


    But I can't find the source right now.


    Maybe Melon just had a bad quarter, I do not know. YouTube is growing fast among younger Koreans.




    Found it, it was for October 2020


    Korea-is-finally-out-of-Melons-world.webp


    Korea is finally out of Melon’s world – Pannkpop

    You mean this youtube?

    External Content twitter.com
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    pasted-from-clipboard.png


    Seems like IU have established her control over it already ..



    Problem with almost all of these surveys are that they are based on app installations, in this case android only, which often come preinstalled with youtube


    Youtube is for sure gaining, but i dont think its surpassed melon just yet

    But now Lee JIeun is in the open air with no Melon to back her up. It is like turning from One and only to First among equals, and without the power from Kakao she cannot wield a dictatorial power over other singers.


    Youtube and youtube music combined have suppressed Melon, which is now becoming more irrelevant every day.

    Quote from BlackpinkHouse

    OMG please no, Gaon is terrible. LYW got 50 MILLION Gaon points in one week because of his insane fandom downloads, while not even charting top 20 on Melon that week cause he couldnt muster even a paltry 200 or 300k ULs.


    Melon Weekly Chart is still the best bet to gauge general public popularity. It is the toughest chart in Korea, just like how the Hot 100 is the toughest chart in the US.


    As for OP, YT is still way behind Melon in Korea. Melon with 40 percent share, YT with 20 something percent share just ahead of Genie, which is third.

    Gaon , now called circle, will use 1/2 of its points from overseas chart to award singers, knowing people like LYW have infested the charts to make it kinda useless.

    Quote from SunnySun

    youtube music is more younger generation, i don't expect kids, teens and young adults to listen to ballads non stop, melon was more all generation so the older gen pushed some songs, same as younger gen pushed some songs


    I think people should stop focusing on youtube music or melon and focus more on Circle which have all the charts together, at the end of the day Circle is Korea's national chart, like billboard


    edit: actually i take back since i remember how circle don't add youtube music, which i hope they do soon

    Circle will have to add youtube music by next year.


    Which means more KPop songs and less only-for-K-O-R-E-A trots and ballads.

    Basically, that was what happened after Seo Taiji came along. Trot and ballads were relegated to leagues of their own, from which they lingered on for years. Ballads were kinda released from their dungeon by Sung Sikyung, Lee Sooyoung and later Baek Jiyoung in 2000s, while Trot was released by the Miss Trot and Mr Trot shows, but now they will have to go back to their cages.

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    Moved the thread from forum KPOP to forum KPOP.

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