Day By Day drops from 5 to 10, Davichi jumps to 2
T-ara's "Day By Day" fell from 5 to 10 on the new Gaon Chart. Not nearly the dropoff I was expecting. It is significant, though. A drop from 5 to 10 is fairly normal on K-pop charts, the top following a blockbuster pattern, like movies: open strong, rapid falloff. But since its release, "Day By Day" has been tracking almost even with 2NE1's "I Love You" and Sistar's "Loving U,"* so I think in the normal course, without the brouhaha, it'd be hanging on with them, somewhere between 4 and 7.
Davichi's "Do Men Cry?" opened at number 2, so any animus towards T-ara isn't being directed at this Core Contents Media labelmate.
Having no basis for an informed analysis, I'll give you speculation: I assume T-ara will hold onto a lot of their strong fans, even the many who think Hwayoung got a raw deal; but the casual fan - someone who likes 'em but doesn't favor them or think about them much, just someone who likes this song or that, streams the "Day By Day" video and then streams Psy's "Gangnam Style" - is likely to be affected by the general feeling that there's a "bullying scandal," simply sees the phrase and isn't going to spend time examining the stories with a critical eye and won't discover that so far the evidence for bullying has either been fabricated or has been obviously, even at first glance, taken out of context. (This not counting the tweets, which can be interpreted a number of ways.) And then there's the mob that's busy being upset by T-ara no matter what, but more and more they're running into people upset at them.
(Recent TV Daily piece translated on allkpop under the misleading headline "T-ara scandal taking a toll on recent dramas" contains this provocative sentence: "Whether or not the bullying incidents were true, netizens continue to state that they do not want to see the drama that features those who were involved in such controversy." This predictably got responses along the lines of "netizens need to get a life," which earned the retorts, "people who post comments about netizens needing to get a life also need to get a life." No reported opinions on livejournalers who post about people posting about other people who post about netizens needing a life. Anyone got a spare life? (I happened onto the story 14 minutes after it went up. In that time, there were 86 comments, about one every ten seconds.) -The headline would lead one to believe that shows were suffering a ratings fall, but actually the story merely says that some netizens are complaining about Jiyeon, Soyeon, Eunjung, and Hyomin not being dropped from shows. The only bits of hard news - assuming that the story is accurate, and why assume anything of the sort? - are that Hyomin will be appearing with other cast members of Thousandth Man when they meet the press on August 14th, and Eunjung will be doing the same with other cast members of Five Fingers on August 16th.)
Partially making up for listeners T-ara have lost, are rubberneckers who are listening out of curiosity.
So I think "Day By Day" loses more next week, but we'll see.
*"Loving U" is way up at number 2 on Billboard's K-pop chart. Don't know why the ranking is so different. Maybe "Loving U" is the summer song of the summer, with "Gangnum Style" the dance song of the summer. "Day By Day" is merely the best song of the summer. It is a wisp of a thing, though, Hwayoung's two raps and Eunjung's passion on the refrain both being held back enough so as to ground the song without turning it topsy-turvy. It doesn't feel like a chart-dominating type of song.
Click to viewDavichi's "Do Men Cry?" opened at number 2, so any animus towards T-ara isn't being directed at this Core Contents Media labelmate.
Having no basis for an informed analysis, I'll give you speculation: I assume T-ara will hold onto a lot of their strong fans, even the many who think Hwayoung got a raw deal; but the casual fan - someone who likes 'em but doesn't favor them or think about them much, just someone who likes this song or that, streams the "Day By Day" video and then streams Psy's "Gangnam Style" - is likely to be affected by the general feeling that there's a "bullying scandal," simply sees the phrase and isn't going to spend time examining the stories with a critical eye and won't discover that so far the evidence for bullying has either been fabricated or has been obviously, even at first glance, taken out of context. (This not counting the tweets, which can be interpreted a number of ways.) And then there's the mob that's busy being upset by T-ara no matter what, but more and more they're running into people upset at them.
(Recent TV Daily piece translated on allkpop under the misleading headline "T-ara scandal taking a toll on recent dramas" contains this provocative sentence: "Whether or not the bullying incidents were true, netizens continue to state that they do not want to see the drama that features those who were involved in such controversy." This predictably got responses along the lines of "netizens need to get a life," which earned the retorts, "people who post comments about netizens needing to get a life also need to get a life." No reported opinions on livejournalers who post about people posting about other people who post about netizens needing a life. Anyone got a spare life? (I happened onto the story 14 minutes after it went up. In that time, there were 86 comments, about one every ten seconds.) -The headline would lead one to believe that shows were suffering a ratings fall, but actually the story merely says that some netizens are complaining about Jiyeon, Soyeon, Eunjung, and Hyomin not being dropped from shows. The only bits of hard news - assuming that the story is accurate, and why assume anything of the sort? - are that Hyomin will be appearing with other cast members of Thousandth Man when they meet the press on August 14th, and Eunjung will be doing the same with other cast members of Five Fingers on August 16th.)
Partially making up for listeners T-ara have lost, are rubberneckers who are listening out of curiosity.
So I think "Day By Day" loses more next week, but we'll see.
*"Loving U" is way up at number 2 on Billboard's K-pop chart. Don't know why the ranking is so different. Maybe "Loving U" is the summer song of the summer, with "Gangnum Style" the dance song of the summer. "Day By Day" is merely the best song of the summer. It is a wisp of a thing, though, Hwayoung's two raps and Eunjung's passion on the refrain both being held back enough so as to ground the song without turning it topsy-turvy. It doesn't feel like a chart-dominating type of song.