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:

Watch on YouTube

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 Chocolat's 'Black Tinkerbell' on its second week, which had debuted a week earlier at 81. Fingers crossed that 'Bar Bar Bar' is only just now getting known and will do better next week. I wouldn't bet on it, though."

[Gaon Chart site is screwed up at the moment so I can't access any of their lists after June. My guess is San E holds the number one spot there, but my prognostication is still not to be trusted.] [UPDATE: Gaon now working correctly. "Bar Bar Bar" falls from 3 to 5, which is about what I was expecting (is neck and neck with number 4, EXO's "Growl," and congrats to EXO for finally cracking the top five). See comment thread.]

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.livejournal.com]

"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"):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=viQZqnknrfU

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

Naturally enough, David and I hear the track as freestylish.

[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.

Actually, the Gaon totals for "Bar Bar Bar" are about the same as last week; there are just more high-profile newcomers on this week's chart than last: since South Korean idol consumption follows the blockbuster pattern, similar to what we see in the U.S. for films, new high-profile tracks open big and then, except in relatively infrequent circumstances (4minute's "What's Your Name" this year, T-ara's "Roly-Poly" two years ago), decline significantly the next week and then fade out over the weeks that follow. So what looks like will happen is that "Bar Bar Bar"'s numbers will hold steady or even go up a little for at least a couple of more weeks while other tracks rise and fall around it. Does have an outside shot at Gaon's number one next Thursday since no new super-high-profile track is competing at the moment (Gaon chart compiles through Saturday, while we can look at the Instiz aggregate of daily and real-time charts to see what's been happening since then). At the moment the tedious Huh Gak looks poised to overtake Crayon Pop, and San E could hang on as well.

(On Instiz, hold your cursor over a song's weekly aggregate total on the right to see what it's doing daily and real-time on the individual charts.)

[(Anonymous)]

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 highest on the day of release before falling quickly. At this point, I'd say the individual Gaon charts are still very useful (and it's good that they've now fixed whatever error was making the numbers so inflated on the downloads chart the past few weeks), but the digital aggregate chart has sort of become redundant now that it's more or less the same as the downloads chart but with different numbers. Plus it's not really fair to compare points from before and after they changed their methodology. Are they going to recalculate the points of the songs from the first part of the year when they do the yearly chart? For now, I'd say the Billboard chart is a better indicator of a song's overall popularity in a given week.

[askbask.livejournal.com]

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)?

(4) Or is this change in the download number in addition to and unrelated to Gaon's changing the relative weighting given to downloads as opposed to streams, which is also happening?

By the way, the phrase "the Big 3 companies are planning to investigate digital manipulation of the charts" in the previous post does not inspire confidence. The Big 3 have a conflict of interest here, and a credible investigation needs to be independent.

[askbask.livejournal.com]

The post above has articles supporting it so I don't see any reason to not believe it. The adjustments for downloads are down - me and some others who have followed the Gaon wondered what happened when one week this spring numbers suddenly jumped from a relatively low average (lower than last year because prices have doubled for subscription services) to again going above a million per week for top 10 artists. Was it a sale? Did they start cocunting differently? But then it lasted for months. Now they're back to the general area they were before and adjusted the figures in that window. Some wondered if, due to presentation mistakes on Gaon's behalf, streaming or other digital consumption was actually counted in the download numbers for that period.

[koganbot]

So you're saying that my number 4 is right? ("(4) Or is this change in the download number in addition to and unrelated to Gaon's changing the relative weighting given to downloads as opposed to streams, which is also happening"?)

Just trying to make sure I understand.

[askbask.livejournal.com]

I have no idea why any of the changes were made, why the downloads got big and then smaller again, or anything.

[davidfrazer.livejournal.com]

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.livejournal.com]

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