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How Meaningful Is It That Korean Pop Artists Hold the Top Two Spots on the Billboard 200 This Week?
Stray Kids' 'Ate' and Jimin's 'Muse' are Nos. 1 & 2 on the Billboard 200 this week, the first time that Korean pop albums have held the top two spots.
It’s an impressive indicator of Korean pop’s current commercial strength, and it makes for an eye-catching headline, but it feels more like good timing than a particularly new breakthrough — especially since Stray Kids and Jimin had both reached their respective placements this week on the chart before with prior sets. Jason Lipshutz: Aespa has earned multiple top 10 entries on the Billboard 200, and recent album Armageddon marked a sizable leap forward in the group’s aesthetic (you’re simply not going to find many pop-rock songs more fun than “Live My Life” in 2024). Andrew Unterberger: With his top five-charting Indigo and Right Place, Wrong Person solo sets, RM has established himself as one of the most thoughtful, ambitious and creative albums artists in modern pop — it seems like only a matter of time before stateside audiences catch up and grant him his first No.
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