[STAT THREAD] Biggest Songs in South Korea (2010-2020)

Spreadsheet is here.

It’s as the title says. I took the past week or so for an hour at a time, and used my previous spreadsheets and available statistical information to create what is at most a fan-made interpretation of the biggest songs released in South Korea, from 2010 to 2020.

This thread is not attempting to cover cultural impact, which is an intangible factor known only to the people experiencing the effects of the song.

Here is the basic criteria for this chart:

If you have any questions, ask away. I want this to be an informative thread that gets attention. I spent a lot of time doing this for I-fans’ benefits.

@keaji  selfmate  FoReveries done!

Before anyone asks, I didn't include weeks charting on Gaon Digital top 100, as that would heavily skew the chart in favor of songs released 2015-now. They had the advantage of the Streaming chart which makes it much easier for hit songs to chart for longer, as opposed to the comparatively short runs of hit songs in 2010-2014.

Quote from wsoet

The 3P Streaming column adds 75 points in the spreadsheet; seems like it should be 50 based on this statement.

Thanks for catching that.

Quote from wsoet

Wait, so a song with a value of 1 in the GYE 1 column should have a corresponding value of 100 in the GYE Score 1 column right? If so, that's not the case in the spreadsheet. Just look at Cheer Up, for example.

I know why that happened. Thank you for pointing it out.

It was my first time experimenting with Excel on a big scale, editing values using the "Find and Replace" function had that consequence.

Quote from alexS

I do agree with the rankings, it makes sense.

It just weird that TT is higher than Cheer up.

Cheer up was the song that made them loved by the entire nation

This happened on this thread too: Hit Song Analysis (Year-End Digital Charts: 2010-2020) [Discussion Thread]

I think it's because TT had an amazing start and was released near the end of 2016, which then carried over in good performance in 2017 when it did most of its charting.

CHEER UP is obviously bigger in South Korea. I guess it got screwed because of its release date.

This thread doesn't take other platforms like Genie or Melon into consideration; Gaon is an aggregated chart and Gallup is pretty accurate (above a 90% accuracy rate).

Also, yes, a lot of songs are tied with each other. The numerical rankings in the 1st column will change soon.

Quote from JiminieKookie

When NU'EST's debut song is one of the most viewed debut songs of all time but you didn't see it in that list

RIP

You can keep bringing it up, but it does nothing to change hard numbers.

Quote from better-than-sex

Look at DNA. This underrated queen never makes it into National Hits Discussion and is always overshadowed by Spring Day but here she is making it into top 10, even higher that BWL and Idol.

Question: I thought Spring Day already reached 5m downloads, am I wrong?

DNA is not higher than BWL.

Spring Day probably reached it by now, but Gaon drops Observation Notes at random times.

Quote from SAINTROSE

What a waste of time when relativity is not considered.

Relativity in what capacity? Downloads? Streaming? Specify please, or else this comment is a waste of my time.

Quote from chilean-stan1

Gallup is a subjective way of measuring success, if you want to base it around stats only, it shouldn't be included, also uls should be included too

Melon and Genie are losing market share, but I suppose using Melon wouldn't hurt. The only thing is it's only a part of the Korean streaming services and doesn't represent a whole picture like Gaon does.

Gaon providing ULs wouldn't make much sense though, considering it's an aggregated chart.

Quote from chilean-stan1

Gallup is a subjective way of measuring success, if you want to base it around stats only, it shouldn't be included, also uls should be included too

Hold up, I just realized that Gallup is a valid statistical measurement.

Those interviewed (at monthly points during the year)represent a sample of the South Korean population, and the results even come with a confidence interval.

Quote from SAINTROSE

In almost every aspect on korean digital platforms every year- Some recent problems are the decrease in users in melon while having increase in users overall, the changing market share, the changing gaon index methodology. I wouldn't even think to compare gaon stats of two songs from different years seeing how volatile the music market share is but here u are doing it for a whole decade. Anyways, some 2nd gen hits (2010-2015) are way bigger than ur calculations.

Do you have any way of finding an efficient method to account for that? Otherwise, you're only repeating what I already know and thus only used year-end positions to account for it, as they're one of the only stable metrics to use for longevity.

Quote from Armedryu

Cheer Up should be above TT

I mean your ranking kinda make sense though

Discrepancies like that are inevitable, but year-end rankings only favor hits released near the end of the year if the song performs very well in that first month or two.

Quote from SAINTROSE

never mind it's a waste of time. Do u know growl's year end position?

I'm genuinely interested if you wanted to have that conversation.

#56 in 2013.

Quote from chilean-stan1

They are losing market share now, but both were a big music platform used by a lot of korean people in the past years and still a good way to measure a song's success in those years, its kinda similar to how downloads consumption decreased each year and were replaced by stream consumption, yet still something that is looked to determine how big a song is

I would likee to get some more opinions about including Melon, but it's an interesting idea I want to use.

Quote from chilean-stan1

yeah Gallup is a representation of South Korean population thinking of songs, but in a limited period of time, its something that its tied to change since its anual nature, also going by the huge changes of 2020/2021 consumption, the gallup top 10 song of 2020 could be not charting in gallup 2021, but also have bigger stats in other metrics than the gallup top5 song of 2021

Speaking of 2020 Gallup, I absolutely hate how they split it by age group. Counting individual songs per age category (13-19, 20s, 30s, etc.) was so boring. And only 4 of the "top 10" for 2020 were certified; trot songs took up the other 6 spots and I doubt any of them other than Lim Youngwoong's Trust in Me will ever be close to being certified digitally.

Going back to your main point, Gaon is also tied to annual change; it just reflects the monetary consumption of songs within any said year. Gallup represents public opinion and is the most trusted source available for that metric.

For example: IU's Through the Night appeared on Gallup's 2017 and 2018 top 10 song list, yet was in the top 10 of Gaon only in 2017. Contrasting that, EDEM by Paul Kim was top 3 on Gaon's YE chart in 2018 and 2019 yet didn't appear in any Gallup top 10 song list.

Quote from 2techs

Lim Changjung is a beast. He won a daesang over H.O.T in 1997 and then he repeaked in 2015.

Wow, 1997?

I've heard he is actually one of the few Korean celebrities to be successful in film, music, and entertainment. Like a Korean EGOT of sorts.

Quote from thirstaer

spring day is THAT idol song.

And she always will be.

Quote from chilean-stan1

I get the idea of having the public opinion involved, but it is clearly biased to the songs of that specific year, giving them an advantage that put them over bigger songs, like with your example of EDEM and TTN, that clearly shows that the later is smaller in consumption than the former but since it didn't appeared on gallup in the ranking its looks like a much smaller hit by the difference of 200 points

I understand your point, but that doesn't explain how songs such as:

Like It by Yoon JongShin

Red Flavor by Red Velvet

TT by TWICE

DNA by BTS

IDOL by BTS

Love Again by Lim Changjung

Growl by EXO

all appeared in 2 consecutive years.

Even Jin Sung's "At Andong Station" appeared in Gallup in 2014-16 yet never hit any digital markers.

Quote from chilean-stan1

mmmm out of all those songs the ones I know are RF, TT, DNA, Idol and Growl, and i know that all except the last were released around the second half of the year, so them appearing in gallup 2 years makes sense since are huge hits that made it to gallup in their first year, and from what I heard somewhere gallup is also applied in 3 times in a year, so they could had made it because were still fresh in the very first months of the next year

In order to appear on Gallup, songs have to appear reasonably high in multiple age group categories. So for songs to appear in the top 10 for multiple years is insane.