A man walks past a commercial poster showing K-pop group BTS members outside a duty free shop in … [+]
BTS are back at No. 1 on this week’s Hot 100 with their unstoppable smash “Butter,” which vaults from No. 7 to the throne after the South Korean vocal re-released the newly-crowned Song of the Summer with rapper Megan Thee Stallion on board. The updated tune has now racked up 10 frames atop the most competitive singles list in the U.S., and with one more turn on the tally guaranteed, the cut makes history in yet another fashion.
When Billboard refreshes the Hot 100 in its entirety tomorrow (Wednesday, September 8), “Butter” will earn its fifteenth stay on the chart. That’s not a terribly long tenure for most mega hits, but when looking solely at those songs performed and released by musicians from South Korea, it is a very impressive residency.
With 15 weeks spent on the Hot 100, “Butter” ties as the fourth-longest-charting song by a South Korean musical act. As of tomorrow, the tune will be on the same level as Psy’s “Gentleman,” which departed the ranking after 15 frames. That cut became the K-pop musician’s second top 10 on the roster back in 2013 when it peaked at No. 5.
Earlier this year, BTS broke the all-time record for the longest-charting song by a South Korean musical act with their globe-dominating tune “Dynamite.” That track, which debuted at No. 1 on the Hot 100, becoming the first of five leaders (so far) for the band, lived on the chart for a record-setting 32 turns, vacating the tally in 2021.
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“Dynamite” beat the previous record holder, Psy’s “Gangnam Style,” by just one week. That smash, which became the first top 10 hit by a South Korean musician in U.S. history when it stalled one rung shy of running the show back in 2012, managed 31 frames on the list.
The third-longest-running Hot 100 hit by a South Korean musical act is “Baby Shark” by Pinkfong, which can be described as something of a band/brand hybrid. The earworm only rose as high as No. 32, but it has remained a viral sensation for years, and though it disappeared from the chart after 20 weeks, it still performs extremely well on platforms like YouTube and Spotify to this day.
On next week’s Hot 100, “Butter” will likely not only vacate the No. 1 spot, but perhaps the top 10 entirely. Drake is set to invade the ranking with songs from his new album Certified Lover Boy, and those immediate successes will push everything else out of the way. BTS’s current smash will probably manage to hold on and appear on the chart again, and in doing so, it will break its tie with “Gentleman,” standing alone as the fourth-longest-charting song by a South Korean act.
