Gloating

[koganbot]

Today's Billboard Korea K-pop Hot 100 chart:

1
Bar Bar Bar
Crayon Pop
1 2 6
First heard the song thanks to David Frazer posting it here. Odds are you first heard it from me.

"Bar Bar Bar," live on June 8:

Click to view

Not that I'm any kind of great prognosticator. This is me on June 27: "'Bar Bar Bar' enters the Gaon Chart at 143, three lower than

Comments

What's up with Sony?

[anonymous]

So what's up with Sony and Crayon Pop (or their K-pop strategy in general)? In business terms, is this like buying a one hit wonder stock at the top? I wish the girls best though, since they worked for it.

http://blogs.wsj.com/korearealtime/2013/08/13/sony-music-looks-to-korea-signs-crayon-pop/?mod=WSJBlog

Re: What's up with Sony?

[koganbot]

Saw the same piece you did, and I don't know anything more (e.g., don't know whether Sony's just capitalizing on the song or investing in the group long-term). Did notice that Chrome is intending to do a new video, which I think they need to - the official video doesn't do right by the dance formation, especially the piston jump (what is now getting called "The Straight Five Engine Dance").

[petronia]

"Bar Bar Bar" is actually my least favourite of the Crayon Pop stuff I've heard (it's riffing off Eighties stuff I didn't like in the initial iteration), but they seemed underrated to me before and so I'm glad they're now appropriately rated.

[koganbot]

I'm glad you mentioned the '80s; I'm surprised that no one else I've seen has, since one of my first thoughts when I heard "Bar Bar Bar" was that it could have emerged from Los Angeles circa 1980. Of course, as Kuhn points out, in looking back at anything it's easy to unconsciously interpolate later elements. So I haven't really reexamined 1980 to test whether I'm right, or if I were to take a psycho-teleporter back to my 1980-consciousness some element of "Bar Bar Bar" would jump out as strange and novel in comparison to what I was expecting from power pop. And of course, some of that '80s power pop was self-consciously recalling the '60s (which is why I referenced Townshend and Davies over on the Jukebox comment thread).

Speaking of 1980s, a recent throwback you might like more is Baek Ji Young's "떠올라" (which pop!gasa translates as "Remember"; a lot of YouTubers call it "Reminded of You"):

The lyrics could have come from the same heartbreak and hate that are all over her ballads, but the music is far more lively

[koganbot]

Gaon has now fixed its site, and "Bar Bar Bar" falls from 3 to 5, about what I was expecting from seeing the Instiz charts over last week. My guess - and I emphasize it's a guess, since I don't know anything about Gaon's methodology - is that the difference here between Billboard and Gaon is that Billboard includes dance covers in its total. "Bar Bar Bar" is number 1 on Gaon's background music chart and number 2 on both its social chart and its streaming chart, though my guess is that dance covers don't get pulled-in there, either

[koganbot]

Beginning this week, Gaon has changed its weighting methodology to give more prominence to purchased downloads. The order of the aggregate chart is now almost identical to the downloads chart, and Crayon Pop doesn't seem to benefit from the fact that they're #2 on streaming and #1 on BGM, mobile, and karaoke (the social chart is a new thing and is currently not factored into the aggregate chart). This change came in response to the recent news that the Big 3 companies are planning to investigate digital manipulation of the charts, where companies allegedly employ multiple user accounts and IP addresses to stream certain songs 24 hours a day. While there's good evidence that this type of manipulation is happening, and it's good that the charts are taking steps to counter it, simply lowering the weight of streaming doesn't seem to be the right way to deal with it. Streaming is still the primary method people in Korea use to listen to music and is a better indicator of a song's popularity over time than downloads, which tend to be

[askbask]

Quoting user 3XS over at Popjustice:

"
Gaon just updated their website and the download figures are now COMPLETELY adjusted. Too much to post at once, but here's the main gist as far as I can tell right now:

-Aggregate numbers are the same. Total chart is unchanged.
-All chart positions remain unchanged
-The only change is in the download numbers since the end of June. Songs before the June 29 chart remain unaffected.

Differences in download sales of #1 singles since June 29 chart:

Aug 3: f(x) - "First Wisdom Tooth (Rum Pum Pum Pum)"
Original: 1,690,748 | Adjusted: 328,098

Jul 27: Ailee - "U & I"
Original: 649,440 | Adjusted: 155,458

Jul 20: Ailee - "U & I"
Original: 1,002,370 | Adjusted: 258,217

Jul 13: 2NE1 - "Falling In Love"
Original: 1,244,916 | Adjusted: 376,823

Jul 6: Dynamic Duo - "BAAAM"
Original: 1,029,922 | Adjusted: 363,272

Jun 29: Lee Seung Chul - "My Love"
Original: 603,774 | Adjusted: 229,155
"

[koganbot]

There are (at least) several things here I don't understand:

(1) Are the adjustments down or up?

(2) Does this means Gaon is not changing the weighting of downloads as opposed to streams but just getting a more accurate tally of downloads - and therefore the post above is incorrect and streams aren't being downgraded or downloads upgraded, the only change being a more accurate download number?

(3) Or is Gaon changing the weightings - so this isn't the actual number of downloads but a change in the weighted number assigned to downloads (so either a fractional multiplier lower than 1 was removed or a multiplier higher than 1 was added, or both

[davidfrazer]

Crayon Pop will be in Los Angeles on August 24th and 35th, but it looks as if they will not be appearing a KCON. One comment says:
I hope they're not traveling that far (and spending their own money on top of that) to do a guerrilla performance.
I would feel bad for them if they came all this way and didn't even get to participate in the K-pop concert. That would seem like a big waste of time and money.
At best, a guerilla performance would have minimal benefits and at worst be extremely awkward (see T-ara).

[koganbot]

A guerilla performance in L.A. would be brilliant - and would probably get plenty of press, too.

[davidfrazer]

KCON now say that a "colorful" girlgroup will be attending...