[Article] BIGBANG across generations and gender… The Return of the K-Pop Emperor

According to the agency YG Entertainment, the digital single ‘봄여름가을겨울 (Still Life)’, released by BIGBANG after about 4 years, was released at 00:00 on the 5th and as of the 15th, Melon Top 100 24hits, Genie, Bugs, Vibe, Flo It has been occupying the top of major music charts for the 11th day. On the 15th week of the Gaon Chart (April 3rd – April 9th) run by the Korea Music Contents Association, it won 6 gold medals. 1 in digital, download, streaming, BGM, ringtone, and RBT categories.

In particular, ‘봄여름가을겨울 (Still Life)’ from Melon, which boasts the largest share of the domestic music market, was counted as being listened to by 908,000 people in the first 24 hours of its release. In terms of boy group music, it is the highest since 2020, and it is the highest record since Melon started its music service, and it is in the top 10 of all time. In particular, ‘Stil Life’ is the only new song to have a new name in the past three years.

What is interesting is BIGBANG’s music consumer group. Existing idol group music tended to focus on a specific generation, but BIGBANG’s ‘Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter (Still Life)’ showed an even distribution. It was almost equal with women using 56% and men 44%. By age group, those in their 20s accounted for 45%, those in their 30s 20%, and those in their teens and 40s each accounted for 13%.

The method of listening to BIGBANG’s music was also found to be quite active. According to YG, as a result of analysis of music video streaming on YouTube, direct search for BIGBANG’s ‘Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter (Still Life)’ listeners accounted for the largest portion at 39%, not inflow by algorithm recommendation. YG explained that the topic and favorability have increased compared to BIGBANG’s previous works.