INDIO, CA - APRIL 12: (EDITORS NOTE: Retransmission with alternate crop.) (L-R) Jennie Kim, Rosé, ... [+]
Long before they released their debut full-length The Album, Blackpink was already the most successful South Korean girl group in America in many respects. While some solo acts and boy bands had been landing big albums for years, girl groups didn’t hit their stride when it comes to the charts until recently. Thankfully, now a number of big names are opening doors for others and scoring big wins on the Billboard rankings.
Once Blackpink dropped The Album, everything changed and history was made in many ways, and the title continues to do so now, months after it first arrived.
On the current Billboard 200, Billboard’s chart that ranks the most-consumed albums in the U.S. every week, Blackpink’s first full project dips from No. 91 to No. 122 in its twentieth frame on the list. The title is just the fifth by a South Korean musical group to reach 20 weeks on the tally, and it now stands as the fifth-longest-charting effort by a band or soloist from that country.
The four albums by South Korean musicians that have spent more time on the Billboard 200 than Blackpink’s The Album are all by BTS, so the girl group is in excellent company. BTS’s Love Yourself: Answer continues to hold as the title by a K-pop act with the most frames on the tally, as it has now racked up 98 turns somewhere between Nos. 1 and 200, putting it far ahead of every release.
The same band’s Map of the Soul: 7 hits 52 weeks (a full year) on the Billboard 200 this frame, and it’s the second-longest-charting effort by a South Korean musician. The septet’s Love Yourself: Her and Map of the Soul: Persona come next as the third and fourth-longest-charting albums by K-pop acts. They have now racked up 44 and 35 weeks on the roster, respectively.
It’s difficult to predict if The Album will be able to stay on the Billboard 200 for another 15 frames, at which point it would tie BTS’s Map of the Soul: Persona as the fourth-longest-charting effort among South Korean projects. The set is still performing well for a release that’s been out for 20 weeks, so it certainly isn’t impossible, and if anyone can keep it going, it’s Blackpink fans.
