“Ditto” by NewJeans debuted at number 96 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart for the week of January 21. It was the first time the group had landed a song on the Hot 100. Before the release of “Ditto,” NewJeans’ name had shown up on the Billboard Global 200 chart, with “Attention” and “Hype Boy” peaking at numbers 54 and 52, respectively, in September. “Ditto” did even better on the Global 200, debuting at number 36 at the end of the year. It jumped up to number eight for the week of January 14 and was also number eight on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 chart, which ranks 25 songs that fall just short of the Hot 100. The song finally debuted on the Hot 100 the following week. There wasn’t much difference in how it was performing on the Global 200 during those weeks, so what changed? The answer lies with a 60% increase in weekly streams in the US—reaching over 5.1 million plays.

“OMG” is following on the heels of “Ditto” with bigger gains at an even faster pace. “OMG” debuted at number 30 on the Global 200 for the week of January 14, then made it to the Hot 100 two weeks later, at number 91. By the week of February 11, “Ditto” and “OMG” were 90 and 77, respectively. Following promotions for those two songs, “Hype Boy” rose up to number 60 on the Global 200 chart from below 100, while “Attention,” which had fallen off the chart completely, rose back up above 150.

The main way K-pop artists would reach the Billboard charts in the past was through the World Digital Song Sales or World Albums charts. But that view shifted after the creation of the Global 200 chart in 2020, which looks at music trends on a global scale by measuring streams from more than 200 regions around the world. As a result, the Global 200 goes a step further and picks up on trends outside the US—like in Korea, Central and South America and Africa—to measure what effect they have within the US.

NewJeans is a perfect example currently. The group received a noticeable bump in popularity in the US after the release of “Ditto,” particularly with how many streams they received, and people are now listening to the song constantly. Naturally, this translates over onto the Hot 100 as well. It’s different from reaching the Hot 100 in a fiery but brief shot upward during highly concentrated first-week sales. For example, look at how their first EP, New Jeans, fared on the charts compared to their single “OMG.” “Attention” and “Hype Boy” were both in the Spotify global top 80 but none of the tracks off their EP managed to crack the US charts. “Ditto” was number 11 on Spotify (34 in the US specifically), which is part of what was behind the song’s better performance on the Billboard Global 200 chart. Unlike “Ditto,” the response to “OMG” in the US is even better than in the rest of the world, making another jump up toward steady chart performance. It’s been climbing Spotify’s global and US charts five weeks in a row; in the US, it debuted at 48 and now sits at number 30. No wonder it keeps moving up on the Hot 100.

Spotify Weekly tracking period: February 3 to 9 

Billboard Global Chart for week of February 11, 2023 (tracking period: January 27 to February 2)

Looking at the playlists on streaming services, NewJeans appears as a general new artist, rather than one confined to the K-pop category. Spotify, for example, has NewJeans on Today’s Top Hits, Hot Hits USA, Pop Rising and Pop Source. The first two, as the names show, play hit songs, while the other two are all about new sounds.

Zane Lowe, one of Apple Radio Music’s leading DJs, recently played NewJeans’ “OMG” while talking about 23 new groups to look out for in 2023. Every single one of them debuted between 2020 and 2022 and are either just starting to chart or are expected to soon. Needless to say, it’s uncommon for even a new American artist—one who hasn’t even put anything out on SoundCloud or featured on anyone’s track—to make it to the Billboard Hot 100 in just six months. We might really be looking at the first stage of something really explosive about to happen.