As I wrote a month ago, this year I’m back to keeping track of what happens on the various Gaon music charts with k-indie related releases. As the week-to-week changes are fairly repetitive I’ve taken to tweeting anything interesting on the weekly charts when I find something worth mentioning. Gaon generally updates with monthly charts a couple of weeks after the month has actually ended and those I’ll be sharing here on the blog.

Gaon Korean Album Chart

Although several k-indie albums could be spotted on the Gaon’s Korean album chart during the month, the total chart for January 2015 only included 2 releases: the soundtrack for tvN hit drama series Misaeng (미생), released on Christmas Eve 2014 containing the drama score as well as songs from Han Hee Jung, Rose Motel, Yi Sung Yol, etc; and 10cm‘s 3rd full-length album, released in mid-November 2014.

The albums that did make an appearance on the album chart during the month, but didn’t sell enough to qualify for the monthly chart (i.e. less than 325 copies) were the following:

Gaon Korean Digital Chart

Gaon’s digital chart combines the results of Gaon’s download, streaming and background music charts. Few indie songs make the joint chart, but all new songs to enter any of the related charts are added to Indieful ROK’s Gaon Digital 2015 YouTube playlist.

The only indie songs to make the monthly Korean digital chart were 10cm’s “쓰담쓰담” from November and Acoustic Collabo‘s two contributions to KBS2 drama Discover of Love (연애의 발견) from September.

During the first week of the year, however, the new version of Standing Egg‘s “햇살이 아파” featuring Mamamoo‘s Wheein and O broject‘s Yukdal as well as Nell’s “청춘연가” could both be found on the list.

Gaon Korean Download Chart

The Korean download chart for January 2015 only included 1 indie song.

In addition to the songs that also qualified for Gaon’s digital chart during January, there were 2 additional indie tracks registered on Gaon’s download chart during the month: J Rabbit‘s “Don’t Know Why” from tvN drama Valid Love (일리 있는 사랑) and EZ Hyoung‘s “Duet” with K-Pop Star 3 contestant Kwon Jin-ah.

Gaon Korean Streaming Chart

The Korean streaming chart for January 2015 looks quite similar to the overall digital chart for the same period.

No indie songs that didn’t also make the overall digital chart any week during the month qualified for the streaming chart.

Gaon Korean BGM Chart

The Korean background music chart is where to go to find more Korean indie music titles. Here’s an excerpt from the Korean BGM chart for January 2015.

Other indie songs that could be spotted on the BGM chart during January were Superstar K6 contestants Red Cheek Puberty‘s Misaeng OST contribution “가리워진 길“; Lucia and Epitone Project‘s 4 years old “부디“; Nemesis‘ “지킬” for webtoon Hyde; Annyeongbada‘s 2009 debut EP lead track “별 빛이 내린다“; Autumn Vacation’s “가끔 미치도록 네가 안고 싶어질 때가 있어“; as well as Tearliner and Low-End Project songs off the soundtrack for tvN drama Heart To Heart (하트 투 하트).

Gaon Mobile Chart

Similarly to the BGM chart, Gaon’s mobile chart lists many Korean indie artists–so also for January 2015. This is the only chart that does not separate Korean and foreign artists.

The double entries for Annyeongbada’s “별 빛이 내린다” can be attributed to the different versions off first full-length album City Complex and debut EP Boy’s Universe. The same thing holds true for One More Chance‘s Yoo Jae Ha cover “널 생각해” off the self-titled debut EP and first full-length album First Album.

Other songs that could be found on Gaon’s mobile charts during January without making the monthly chart are Rose Motel’s Misaeng OST contribution “로망“; Standing Egg’s “햇살이 아파”; and The Barberettes‘ The Ronettes‘ cover “Be My Baby“.

Gaon Korean Noraebang Chart

Whereas the other charts saw a high influx of Korean 90’s in January and end of December thanks to the 90’s K-pop special of Infinity Challenge the Gaon’s noraebang chart has seen some of those songs around for much longer so there have not been all that many changes on the Korean noraebang chart for January.