Credit
ArticleSeo Seongdeok (Music Critic)
DesignKim Minkyoung

Taylor Swift’s album The Tortured Poets Department is once again queen of the throne. TTPD debuted on the chart on May 4 and held onto number one for 12 straight weeks. It then dropped to number four, where it had stayed for the past two weeks, after Eminem’s new release, The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grâce), soared on the back of impressive streaming figures. Last week, the Stray Kids album ATE also sold a lot of albums, as did Jimin’s MUSE. All this goes to show that, three months after its release, TTPD can’t count on holding onto number one every single week. Still, much like Morgan Wallen’s album One Thing at a Time, which has spent over 70 weeks on the chart and is always within the top 10, there’s a good chance Swift’s album won’t drop too far for a long time to come. Speaking of Wallen’s latest album, it’s sitting at number two this week.

With 13 weeks at number one, TTPD has spent more weeks there than any other album recently since One Thing at a Time racked up a total of 19 weeks at the top. The last time a woman’s album spent 13 or more weeks at number one was 21 by Adele over 2011 and 2012, when it sat atop the chart a total of 24 weeks. It took One Thing over a year to accumulate 19 weeks at number one as well, having hit the milestone earlier this year in March. And with Swift’s Eras Tour scheduled to continue through till December, there are plenty of opportunities for her to bring her record even higher. TTPD moved 71,000 units this week—77.73 million streams, equivalent to 59,000 units, and 12,000 albums sold—putting it third and sixth on the Top Streaming Albums and Top Album Sales charts, respectively. Album sales are up 34% from last week thanks to restocking CDs on her website after they had previously all sold out. If 71,000 units sounds low for a number-one album, it’s because it’s actually the lowest figure since One Thing hit its fateful 19th week at number one in March—with just 68,000 units. You can chalk it up to a lack of notable debuts for the week.

One Thing at a Time, meanwhile, sits at number two, with 64,000 units, while Zach Bryan’s album The Great American Bar Scene is number three, with 61,000 units. Last week’s number one, Stray Kids’ ATE, has since moved down to number six, with 52,000 units, but continues to hold the top spot on the Top Album Sales chart for a second week, while Stray Kids themselves are number four on the Artist 100. While most albums in the top 10 saw anything from a minor to a sharp decline from last week, there were two notable exceptions: The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess (Chappell Roan) held onto steady sales, jumping up from number eight to four—a record for the artist—while BRAT (Charli XCX) leaped up from number 14 to number nine, making it the only album in the top 10 to have moved up since last week. Expect to be seeing these two artists on the chart for a good while still.

Shaboozey’s single “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” continues its reign, holding onto number one for three consecutive weeks and four weeks total. The song has shown consistently strong performance across the board, and it’s still ramping up. It currently boasts 35.9 million streams, comparable to last week and putting it comfortably at number one on Streaming Songs, while the single has surged in terms of radio play to become number one on Radio Songs, too. “Bar Song” now has a clear lead over the previous top dog of radio, Post Malone and Morgan Wallen’s duet “I Had Some Help,” with no real contenders in sight for the time being. That said, while “Bar Song” sold a healthy 10,000 copies, it can’t dethrone Jimin’s single “Who” from number one on Digital Sales. Had Shaboozey managed to best Jimin here, it would have been the first time a song hit number one across all three of the charts that feed into the Hot 100 since Adele put out “Easy On Me”—but the possibility is still very much there.

Meanwhile, Shaboozey’s number one on the Radio Songs chart has set a new record for country music. “Bar Song” is only the seventh song ever to top both the Radio Songs and Country Airplay charts, and only two other songs have ever achieved this simultaneously: “Meant to Be” by Bebe Rexha and Florida Georgia Line in 2018, and Malone and Wallen’s duet. That means this is also the first time in history that two different songs have pulled the trick off back to back.

Jimin’s single “Who” rises two spots on the Hot 100 to number 12 this week, officially becoming the highest-charting K-pop song of the year. It should be noted that it’s a rare occurrence for a K-pop track to start climbing up the Hot 100 after it’s already debuted, especially for a solo artist. The rise can be attributed to two factors: First, digital sales remained strong this week, with nearly 50,000 copies sold—similar to last week’s 52,000, and allowing “Who” to secure number one on Digital Song Sales for the second week in a row. Second, streams jumped up from 14 to 18 million. Jimin’s song debuted at number 25 on the Streaming Songs chart last week and has since climbed up to number 18 as a result.

The song’s also doing well by global metrics. For the second week running, “Who” topped both the Global 200 and Global Excl. US charts. Global streams also increased from 90.5 million last week to 93.4 million this week. On Spotify’s Daily Top Songs Global chart, the single debuted at number three on July 19, hit number one on July 23, and, as of August 5, had already stayed there for 14 days and counting. It held onto number one on the weekly chart for a second week, with prospects for a third week looking good. MUSE as a whole, meanwhile, sits at number 17 on the Billboard 200 and number 10 on Top Album Sales, while Jimin himself is currently number six on the Artist 100.

We’ve already gone over Stray Kids and Jimin, so now let’s look at how other K-pop artists are doing. ENHYPEN’s new album ROMANCE: UNTOLD has now spent three weeks on the Billboard 200, where it currently sits at number 44. The album is number four on the Top Album Sales chart, followed by GOLDEN HOUR: Part 1 (ATEEZ) at number 23, Armageddon (aespa) at 27, NCT 127’s sixth album, WALK, at 32, and minisode 3: TOMORROW (TOMORROW X TOGETHER) at number 40. ILLIT also returns to the Emerging Artists chart at number 49. The Emerging Artists chart is calculated the same way as the Artist 100 chart, but it only includes artists who have never ranked in the top 25 of either the Hot 100 or the Billboard 200.

Lastly, there are no K-pop debuts on the Global 200 this week. Notably, however, Jung Kook’s single “Seven” (feat. Latto) climbed its way back up to number 74.

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