By 2025.01.06
A HAPPY NEW YEAR！
Happy New Year.
I look forward to your continued support for this column this year as well.
Now, for the first entry of the new year, I will check the results of my predictions from a year ago.
Looking back about a year ago.
In Season1#5, I wrote a column titled “2024 KPOP Grand Outlook.”
If you haven’t read it, I would be grateful if you could return to this article after reading the Season1#5 article.
So, let’s get straight to the conclusion.
“2024 will be the year of the revival of girl crush.”
Whether my prediction from a year ago was correct or not.
The answer is…
“It can’t be said to be completely right, nor could it be said to be wrong.”
It’s somewhat of a lukewarm result, neither a huge hit nor a total miss.
In 2024, there were three songs that exploded in popularity in KPOP.
ILLIT’s “Magnetic”
aespa’s “Supernova”
And Rosé & Bruno Mars’ “APT.”
Yes, one of the three explosive hit songs is aespa’s “Supernova,” a solid girl crush track.
Moreover, “Supernova” did not just fit into the category of hit songs but achieved unprecedented success.
It achieved a “Perfect All Kill,” simultaneously ranking number 1 on all major music charts in South Korea, and maintained number 1 on the major music chart Melon for 15 consecutive weeks, surpassing NewJeans’ record of 14 weeks with “Ditto,” updating the longest streak of number 1 songs.
Furthermore, the album “Armageddon,” which includes “Supernova,” sold 1.15 million copies in its first week, achieving 4 consecutive million-seller releases and topped the US Billboard World Albums Chart.
At the end of the year, it was also selected as number 1 in Billboard’s “The 25 Best K-Pop Songs of 2024: Staff Picks.”
Billboard stated, “This is the K-POP track that represents this year. This three-minute song perfectly combines innovation and structure, featuring three full choruses, dynamic sections, an emotional bridge, and an overwhelming dance break. Still, aespa maintains a high level of completeness and consistency throughout the song, showcasing new frontiers.”
Additionally, “Supernova” won Song of the Year at the largest music award ceremony in KPOP, the “2024 MAMA AWARDS.”
It was deemed the best KPOP song of the year both in South Korea and internationally.
Considering that 2023 was the NewJeans Year, establishing the Y2K boom and easy listening in KPOP, it’s hard to believe that within just a year, aespa, one of the representative girl crush groups, achieved career-high success that most people probably did not predict.
In that sense, it feels appropriate to say it was indeed a year of revival for girl crush!
In July, the pioneer of girl crush, 2NE1, announced a complete reunion after 10 years, and the tickets for their Asia tour starting in October were sold out across the board.
YG Entertainment’s rookie girl crush group BABYMONSTER’s first full album “DRIP,” released on November 1, topped the iTunes album charts in 11 countries and regions, and the music video for “DRIP” surpassed 100 million views in just 21 days.
In this way, there are countless examples of how girl crush made significant advancements in 2024.
But why can’t the author confidently say that 2024 was the year of girl crush revival?
It’s because when asking general KPOP fans, there may not be many who would respond, “2024 was the year of girl crush!”
The primary reason for that is undoubtedly the presence of ILLIT.
ILLIT’s debut song “Magnetic,” released in March this year, went viral worldwide.
In South Korea, like aespa, it achieved a “Perfect All Kill,” and on the US Billboard main chart “HOT100,” it became the first KPOP debut song to rank, followed by achieving the remarkable feat of charting for 22 consecutive weeks.
Even in Japan, it reached a cumulative play count of 100 million within 11 weeks on the Oricon Weekly Streaming Chart.
This is the fastest record in history for a female group, second only to BTS overall in KPOP.
Moreover, it topped the TikTok Weekly Top20 for five consecutive weeks.
And ILLIT has factors that cannot be measured by just these numbers.
That is the recognition among those who are not KPOP fans.
As previously mentioned, ranking high on the Billboard main chart “HOT100” is difficult unless general users listen to the song, not just dedicated fans.
In Japan, their debut year also saw a landmark achievement of joining the two major year-end music shows: the Japan Record Awards and Kouhaku Uta Gassen.
When considering these elements, I believe that ILLIT’s “Magnetic” likely has greater general recognition compared to aespa’s “Supernova.”
Indeed, when asked what the top-selling KPOP song of 2024 is, I anticipate that a significant proportion would answer “Magnetic.”
Another significant reason why this cannot be termed as the revival of girl crush is Rosé & Bruno Mars’ “APT.”
While Rosé is a member of BLACKPINK, a representative girl crush group, “APT.” is not categorized as girl crush.
On the contrary, it’s a super catchy pop song that captured the spotlight in KPOP discussions from autumn onward.
In fact, it displayed such momentum that it overshadowed both “Supernova” and “Magnetic.”
The music video surpassed 260 million views within two weeks of its release, achieving a “Perfect All Kill” in South Korea.
On Spotify, it secured the number 1 spot on both global and US charts.
In the UK singles chart, it achieved the highest position ever for a KPOP female artist at number 2.
Furthermore, it topped the iTunes charts in 40 countries and regions.
In this way, the KPOP scene in 2024 saw three big waves launched by “Supernova,” “Magnetic,” and “APT.”
Honestly, it seems rare in recent years to have three explosive hit songs emerge from different artists.
However, this should help everyone understand.
“2024 will be the year of the revival of girl crush.”
What I predicted a year ago has resulted in a conclusion that is neither definitively right nor wrong.
This year, I aim to strengthen and improve my KPOP insights for the 2025 grand outlook, and with that, I will conclude my New Year’s greetings.
The End
Peko Neko-machi
Head of the SKOOTA KPOP team
〈Originally a Western rock music fanatic, I once considered working for Rockin’On. I started listening to KPOP due to BTS and became a fan of BLACKPINK, eventually stepping fully into the KPOP world after obsessing over the survival audition program ‘Girls Planet 999,’ which debuted Kep1er.〉
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