SuperM’s debut album tops Billboard 200

SM Entertainment’s supergroup SuperM has topped the Billboard 200 Albums Chart for the second time as a Korean act.

Billboard wrote on its website on Sunday (local time) that SuperM’s debut album, which was released on October 4, is No. 1 on the Billboard 200 for the week of October 19. The Billboard 200 ranks the week’s most popular albums ranked by sale, digital downloads, and streaming activity.

SuperM is a K-pop supergroup formed jointly by SM Entertainment and Capitol Music Group (CMG). It is a dream team consisting of seven members from four boybands, including SHINee’s Taemin, EXO’s Beakhyun and Kai, NCT 127’s Taeyong and Mark, Ten and Lucas of Chinese band WayV.

The South Korean boyband made their Hollywood debut, performing at Capitol Records Tower on October 5 in Los Angeles. It appeared on NBC TV’s daytime talk show “Ellen DeGeneres” on October 9. SuperM will begin their North American tour from November.

Billboard cited unique purchase pattern of K-pop fans as the reason behind SuperM’s successful debut on Billboard chart. “K-pop fans are often passionate about buying collectible physical packages of an album,” Billboard said. “The 1st Mini Album had more than 60 merchandise/album bundles available to purchase through their official web stores, a concert ticket/album sale redemption offer with their upcoming arena tour and eight different CD variants of the album.” It continued that opening a week-long pop-up store in LA was another factor contributing to the band’s strong entrance on Billboard 200.

The first South Korean act to top the Billboard Album Charts was BTS in May last year. The K-pop sensation has had three No. 1 albums on the Billboard Album Charts so far.


imi@donga.com