Rain-Hyori-2PM '1-week reign,' where is the real 'hit song'?
The trends of the music world are endlessly changing.
2PM, Rain, Lee Hyori, Wonder Girls, and other big name singers are having their comebacks one after another as 4Minute, MBLAQ, CNBlue and other up-and-coming idol stars are also capturing fans' hearts.
As a result, online/offline and single/album sales charts are shuffling around the popular songs during every minute of every day, even as every singer that makes a comeback results in a flood of promotional articles saying they made an 'all kill' on the charts.
With a countless number of singers selling new albums every week, defending 1st place on the charts has become as difficult as hanging stars on the sky. It's enough to make one say 'the music world right now is the 1-week reign.'
In the past, one album would dominate the charts for 5 weeks or more, spreading by word-of-mouth to become a 'hit song,' but this has now becoming difficult to find.
In the beginning of the 1990s, Seo Tae Ji and the Kids' 'I Know' was at 1st place for 17 weeks, the emperor of ballads Shin Seung Hoon's 'Unseen Love' was at 1st place on the music charts for 15 weeks, and Shim Su Bong's 'Lady Camellia' was at 1st place for 25 weeks. These kinds of records have become stories of the past.
Is it impossible to find a song that you could truly label a 'hit song' nowadays?
It is hard to define a hit song. The preferences of the public vary from person to person. Typically, a hit song is one which the majority of the public unconsciously hums to themselves, or one that gets stuck in one's head.
However, recent songs that have been called hit songs are not targeted to the general public, but rather certain fans that are in their teens and early 20s, in order to rise to 1st place.
Rather than aiming for long-term popularity, they aim to grab fans' attention for a short time as they climb up the rankings of online charts. Companies' marketing strategies also aim to create the short-lived 'mayfly' hit song.
Ahead of the album's release, teaser videos and jacket photos are released under the titles 'Powerful transformation' and 'Sexy upper body muscles revealed,' stimulating the curiosity of certain fans while also raising interest in the song. This is their marketing strategy.
The quickened turnover rate of singers' comebacks is also an obstacle to the birth of a hit song.
Because of a realization that artists in the past grew far apart from the general public [in between promotions], artists that would take 10 months to several years between albums in the past are now making comebacks within 3~4 months.
As a result, many idol groups in particular make 3~4 comebacks in 1 year, and with eye-popping concepts they dazzle the eyes of the general public, only to create a focus on 'short-term high yield.'
In the prevailing conditions of the music world, the anticipation and expectations by the general public for Rain and Hyori, who were making their comebacks for the first time in a long time, were high. However, although they were easily able to jump to 1st place during the week of their comebacks, they were unable to defend that position.
Even the aristocrats of the greatest names in music cannot overcome the obstacle of the '1-week reign' in the music world, and the music world has been unable to produce a true hit song that can capture the hearts of the general public.
I would like to hear a true hit song that doesn't leave my head for an hour.
Reported by: Kim Jin Kyung
Credit: NATE News
Article: http://news.nate.com/view/20100520n14667
Translated by 49.5bananas @ Wild2Day.org
The trends of the music world are endlessly changing.
2PM, Rain, Lee Hyori, Wonder Girls, and other big name singers are having their comebacks one after another as 4Minute, MBLAQ, CNBlue and other up-and-coming idol stars are also capturing fans' hearts.
As a result, online/offline and single/album sales charts are shuffling around the popular songs during every minute of every day, even as every singer that makes a comeback results in a flood of promotional articles saying they made an 'all kill' on the charts.
With a countless number of singers selling new albums every week, defending 1st place on the charts has become as difficult as hanging stars on the sky. It's enough to make one say 'the music world right now is the 1-week reign.'
In the past, one album would dominate the charts for 5 weeks or more, spreading by word-of-mouth to become a 'hit song,' but this has now becoming difficult to find.
In the beginning of the 1990s, Seo Tae Ji and the Kids' 'I Know' was at 1st place for 17 weeks, the emperor of ballads Shin Seung Hoon's 'Unseen Love' was at 1st place on the music charts for 15 weeks, and Shim Su Bong's 'Lady Camellia' was at 1st place for 25 weeks. These kinds of records have become stories of the past.
Is it impossible to find a song that you could truly label a 'hit song' nowadays?
It is hard to define a hit song. The preferences of the public vary from person to person. Typically, a hit song is one which the majority of the public unconsciously hums to themselves, or one that gets stuck in one's head.
However, recent songs that have been called hit songs are not targeted to the general public, but rather certain fans that are in their teens and early 20s, in order to rise to 1st place.
Rather than aiming for long-term popularity, they aim to grab fans' attention for a short time as they climb up the rankings of online charts. Companies' marketing strategies also aim to create the short-lived 'mayfly' hit song.
Ahead of the album's release, teaser videos and jacket photos are released under the titles 'Powerful transformation' and 'Sexy upper body muscles revealed,' stimulating the curiosity of certain fans while also raising interest in the song. This is their marketing strategy.
The quickened turnover rate of singers' comebacks is also an obstacle to the birth of a hit song.
Because of a realization that artists in the past grew far apart from the general public [in between promotions], artists that would take 10 months to several years between albums in the past are now making comebacks within 3~4 months.
As a result, many idol groups in particular make 3~4 comebacks in 1 year, and with eye-popping concepts they dazzle the eyes of the general public, only to create a focus on 'short-term high yield.'
In the prevailing conditions of the music world, the anticipation and expectations by the general public for Rain and Hyori, who were making their comebacks for the first time in a long time, were high. However, although they were easily able to jump to 1st place during the week of their comebacks, they were unable to defend that position.
Even the aristocrats of the greatest names in music cannot overcome the obstacle of the '1-week reign' in the music world, and the music world has been unable to produce a true hit song that can capture the hearts of the general public.
I would like to hear a true hit song that doesn't leave my head for an hour.
Reported by: Kim Jin Kyung
Credit: NATE News
Article: http://news.nate.com/view/20100520n14667
Translated by 49.5bananas @ Wild2Day.org
May be taken out with credits.
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