SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA – APRIL 26: ENHYPEN attends the showcase for ENHYPEN’s new album ‘BORDER : … [+]
For more than a decade now, the Billboard 200 has been one of the friendliest charts in America for K-pop artists. The main albums ranking, which lists the most-consumed titles combining sales and streaming data, regularly features at least one or two titles by South Korean stars, as their fan bases in the U.S. buy their latest wares in large enough numbers to make them charting successes.
In 2021, 17 different albums by South Korean musicians debuted on the Billboard 200, making it the busiest year yet for K-pop solo stars and vocal groups.
Five names appeared on the Billboard 200 for the first time in 2021, with the bands Aespa, Itzy, Ateez, Enhypen and Seventeen all making notable debuts on the tally with popular new collections. As if breaking into onto the competitive ranking wasn’t enough of an accomplishment, all of those figures (except for Aespa) placed more than one title somewhere on the list, proving that they had massive fan bases in America.
There were just four albums by K-pop musical acts that broke into the top 10 on the Billboard 200 in 2021, and half of them came from first-timers in the region. Twice broke barriers when they pushed their collection Taste of Love to No. 6 in June. Before the year was up, they had returned to the area with a new set, Formula of Love: O+T=<3, which brought them to a new high point of No. 3.
Fellow K-pop superstars Tomorrow X Together also landed their first win inside the top 10 on the chart with The Chaos Chapter: Freeze, which climbed all the way to No. 5. Hitmakers NCT 127 likewise pushed back to the highest space on the roster with Sticker, another win for the band. That title rose to No. 3.
In total, 10 K-pop acts debuted a new collection of some sort somewhere on the Billboard 200 in 2021. The list includes the beloved acts Tomorrow X Together, Itzy, Enhypen, Twice, Seventeen, BTS, Ateez, NCT 127, Aespa and Monsta X. Impressively, most of those artists sent several titles to the tally in a single year, with one managing three smashes. Tomorrow X Together sent a trio of efforts to the chart, while Itzy, Enhypen, Twice, Seventeen and Ateez scored a pair of wins. Only Monsta X, NCT 127 and BTS added to their career totals just once.
2021 beats 2020 in terms of the most new K-pop albums debuting by a handful of releases. In 2020, 14 efforts broke onto the all-encompassing tally, just three fewer than the most recent year. 2022 could wind up being even bigger, though it’s still early days, so there’s no telling which acts will make impressive comebacks or hit the list for the first time.
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/hughmcintyre/2022/01/04/enhypen-seventeen-twice-ateez-and-aespa-2021-was-k-pops-biggest-year-ever-on-the-billboard-200/