Gaon Charts 2015

Korea’s national music chart Gaon has published its charts for 2015. It was the year of Hyukoh for sure, something clearly visible on all the charts.

Gaon Korean Album Chart

The Korean boy bands had a good year in 2015, according to Gaon’s Korean album chart for 2015. The top is all EXO, but strangely enough the group’s second full-length album Exodus has 3,582 sales less registered at the end of the year than it did half-way through the year. Here’s the top 3:

1. EXO – Exodus (Korean version) [478,856 sales]
2. EXO – Sing For Me (Korean version) [318,698 sales]
3. EXO – Love Me Right (The 2nd Album Repackage) [299,623 sales]

Not a single indie album made the 2015 Korean album chart, i.e. selling more than 11,957 copies. Going over all the album charts throughout the year, however, it seems Hyukoh’s 2nd EP 22 was the bestseller of the indie category with a total of 3,998 copies sold during the year.

 

Gaon Korean Digital Chart

Gaon’s digital chart combines the results of Gaon’s download, streaming and background music charts. Much like at the half-year checkpoint, Big Bang’s “Loser” and Naul‘s “같은 시간 속의 너” are also now found in the top 3. The very top spot, however, belongs to Big Bang’s “뱅뱅뱅 (Bang Bang Bang)” from June release A.

1. Big Bang – “뱅뱅뱅 (Bang Bang Bang)
2. Big Bang – “Loser
3. Naul – “같은 시간 속의 너

Out of 6 indie related entries on the overall digital chart for 2015, 4 songs can be attributed to Hyukoh. There’s the lead track from 2014 EP 20, “위잉위잉 (Wi Ing Wi Ing)”, and the lead track from 2015 EP 22, “와리가리 (Comes And Goes)“. There’s Hyukoh leader Oh Hyuk‘s single for tvN drama Reply 1988 (응답하라 1988) from November. And there’s country track “멋진헛간 (Wonderful Barn)“–the Infinite Challenge (무한도전) concert contribution from Hyukoh’s project band with comedian Jeong Hyeong Don, The 5 Emperor.

Additionally, the September collaboration single between Sistar‘s Soyou and 10cm‘s Kwon Yeong Jeol can be found midway on the chart. And towards the end of it, there is Korea’s spring favorite “벚꽃 엔딩” from Busker Busker–still going strong after 3 years.

2015 RankSongMonthly Ranks
8Hyukoh - "위잉위잉"x-x-x-x-x-x-3-7-17-44-57-98
16Hyukoh - "와리가리"x-x-x-x-x-x-2-14-28-698-9-x
51Soyou & Kwon Jeong Yeol - "어깨"x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-9-5-24-62
56The Emperor 5 - "멋진헛간"x-x-x-x-x-x-x-9-14-75-x-x
58Oh Hyuk - "소녀"x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-2-3
94Busker Busker - "벚꽃 엔딩"x-x-13-21-62-x-x-x-x-x-x

 

Gaon Korean Download Chart

Looking to the top 3 of the Korean download chart for 2015 all the same songs as the top 3 of the digital chart are featured.

1. Big Bang – “뱅뱅뱅 (Bang Bang Bang)” [1,581,284 downloads]
2. Naul – “같은 시간 속의 너” [1,510,162 downloads]
3. Big Bang – “Loser” [1,505,163 downloads]]

On the indie side of things, the entries from the digital chart are all found also on the download chart, supplemented by Hyukoh’s “Hooka“. During July every single song ever released by Hyukoh appeared on the download chart. Just shy of the top 3, Hyukoh’s “위잉위잉” proved to be he band’s strongest song to date.

2015 RankSongDownloadsMonthly Ranks
4Hyukoh - "위잉위잉"1,493,141x-x-x-x-x-x-3-15-21-48-51-87
11Hyukoh - "와리가리"1,357,375x-x-x-x-x-x-1-20-31-63-81-x
41Soyou & Kwon Jeong Yeol - "어깨"965,020x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-4-10-25-64
44The 5 Emperor - "멋진헛간"920,194x-x-x-x-x-x-x-5-18-74-x-x
55Oh Hyuk - "소녀"837,861x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-2-3
87Hyukoh - "Hooka"659,354x-x-x-x-x-x-11-53-96-x-x-x
90 [-16]Busker Busker - "벚꽃 엔딩"642,600x-x-12-31-71-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

 

Gaon Korean Streaming Chart

The top two songs on Gaon’s Korean streaming chart for 2015 are the same as found on the download chart. In third spot we find K-Pop Star 1 second runner-up Baek A Yeon‘s comeback single “이럴거면 그러지말지 (Shouldn’t Have…)” from May.

1. Big Bang – “뱅뱅뱅 (Bang Bang Bang)” [82,868,776 streams]
2. Naul – “같은 시간 속의 너” [82,810,734 streams]
3. Baek A Yeon – “이럴거면 그러지말지” (feat. Young K) [74,079,040 streams]

From an indie perspective, the streaming chart for 2015 contains the same songs as the overall digital chart albeit with different rankings:

2015 RankSongStreamsMonthly Ranks
5Hyukoh - "위잉위잉"72,527,311x-x-x-x-x-x-5-2-11-24-39-64
15Hyukoh - "와리가리"60,109,906x-x-x-x-x-x-2-8-22-46-69-x
54Soyou & Kwon Jeong Yeol - "어깨"39,683,711x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-24-4-15-39
80Oh Hyuk - "소녀"31,976,488x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-13-1
83The 5 Emperor - "멋진헛간"31,528,317x-x-x-x-x-x-x-21-9-50-x-x
85 [-36]Busker Busker - "벚꽃 엔딩"31,362,407x-x-8-14-36-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

 

Gaon BGM Chart

While counting towards the digital chart, Gaon’s background music chart looks quite different from the other related charts. Unlike the other digital charts, the BGM chart does not separate foreign and Korean entries.

The top position on the BGM chart is held by the title track off 90’s balladeer Lim Chang Jung‘s first ever mini album, 또 다시 사랑 (Love Again), released in September. Folk singer No Sa Youn started her career in the 70’s but remains active till this day. Her “바램” is featured twice on the BGM chart for 2015, with the single edit as high up as spot #2. Like the two previous dramas in the Reply (응답하라) series, Reply 1988 (응답하라 1988) has done well both in viewer ratings and soundtrack sales. Kim Feel‘s remake of Sanullim‘s “청춘” together with Sanullim’s own Kim Chang Wan has done the best out of all Reply 1988 singles so far.

1. Lim Chang Jung – “또 다시 사랑
2. No Sa Youn – “바램
3. Kim Feel – “청춘” (feat. Kim Chang Wan)

While there are many differences in which songs appear on the overall digital chart and which show up on the BGM chart, the indie titles remain familiar. In spite of not being released until mid-November, Oh Hyuk’s cover of Lee Moon Sae‘s “소녀 (A Little Girl)” did rather well for itself.

2015 RankSongMonthly Ranks
38Oh Hyuk - "소녀"x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-5-6
57Hyukoh - "위잉위잉"x-x-x-x-x-x-9-16-99-x-x-x
90Soyou & Kwon Jeong Yeol - "어깨"x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-17-11-x-x

 

5 Comments Gaon Charts 2015

  1. Pingback: A look back at the films and music of 2015 | London Korean Links

  2. Cap

    GAON corrects the album sales figures later because of returned copies that’s why some album have less yearly figures than the half-year one. Yearly figure is the most accurate numbers of album sales you can get.

    Reply

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