Katherine’s K-Pop Recap: May 31 – June 6

A summary of the news, current and upcoming comebacks, charts and music show wins, and more!

NOTE: Except in special cases, the news recapped in these posts will refer to K-pop only. K-dramas, variety shows, and other forms of entertainment will only be mentioned if there is an idol or idol group involved.

News to Note

• All of the members of TXT tested negative for COVID-19 after finding out they came into contact with someone who tested positive. (It was a staff member who worked on one of their schedules, but that person does not work for Big Hit Music/HYBE.) It appears the only change to TXT’s promotions was to cancel the offline part of their comeback showcase. You can read more about the situation and a translation of Big Hit Music’s statement here.
• YG Entertainment has opened “the SameE,” a special space for fans across from their new headquarters that includes a cafe, a merchandise store, and spaces for events and exhibitions. You can see pictures and learn more about it here.
• Jellyfish Entertainment announced that VERIVERY member Minchan has returned from his 8 month hiatus and will be participating in group activities from now on. You can read a translation of the agency’s statement here.
• MNET’s survival show held its live finale on June 3, featuring brand new songs by competing groups BTOB, iKON, SF9, The Boyz, Stray Kids, and ATEEZ. I won’t spoil the winner here, but you can click here to find out (and see the performances).
• Ravi came under fire for referencing girl group Red Velvet in his new song with the same name – he included some of their song titles, as well as a couple of the members’ names (through wordplay). Since some of the lyrics are suggestive, many felt like the song was sexualizing the members of Red Velvet. Ravi posted a public apology for the situation – revealing that he contacted the group personally to apologize as well – and removed the song from all streaming sites. You can read a translation of his apology here.
• Prosecutors have dropped charges against BoA and her staff member for illegally importing drugs into Korea last year. (Short summary: one of her staff members in Japan sent her some prescribed sleep medication through the mail, but didn’t realize they had to go through certain customs procedures and get permission since it could be considered a psychotropic drug.) You can read a translation of SM Entertainment’s statement when the situation first happened here, and you can read their statement about everything getting resolved here.

This Week’s Debuts and Comebacks

(Please note that I won’t necessarily link every release that came out this week – just the ones that I’m aware of or popped up on my radar. The same is true of the “Coming Up Next Week” category.)

Coming Up Next Week

Monday (6/7)	Tuesday (6/8)	Wednesday (6/9)	Thursday (6/10)	Friday (6/11)
EXO	EPEX (*debut*)	TWICE	LIGHTSUM (*debut*)	Yugyeom
		WEi

This Week’s Music Show Wins

The Show (SBS MTV)	EVERGLOW, “First” (1st win)
Show Champion (MBC)	BTS, “Butter” (3rd win)
M! Countdown (MNET)	NCT Dream, “Hot Sauce” (8th win)
Music Bank (KBS)	BTS, “Butter” (4th win)
Music Core (MBC)	BTS, “Butter” (5th win)
Inkigayo (SBS)	BTS, “Butter” (6th win)

Album Sales, Streaming, and Charting

Gaon Chart

NOTE: Gaon‘s weekly charts reflect the previous week.

To see a full breakdown of the chart, you can go here.

	#1	#2	#3	#4	#5
Album Sales	NCT Dream, Hot Sauce	NCT 2020 Resonance Pt 1 (kit version)	NCT 127 We Are Superhuman (kit version)	EVERGLOW, Last Melody	ITZY, Guess Who
Overall Digital	BTS, “Butter”	Heize, “Happen”	Oh My Girl, “Dun Dun Dance”	aespa, “Next Level”	Justin Bieber, “Peaches”
Streaming	BTS, “Butter”	Oh My Girl, “Dun Dun Dance”	Heize, “Happen,”	Justin Bieber, “Peaches”	Brave Girls, “Rollin'”
Downloads	BTS, “Butter”	The Boyz, “Kingdom Come”	Heize, “Happen”	Im Young Woong, “If We Love Again”	MSG Wannabe, “Journey to Atlantis” cover
Social	BTS	Im Young Woong	Kang Ho Joong	BLACKPINK	NCT Dream

The International Side of K-pop

• BTS’s “Butter” debuted at #1 on Billboard‘s “Hot 100,” becoming the group’s fourth song to reach the top of the chart. BTS has also become the first group to ever have three songs debut in first place on the “Hot 100.”
• ENHYPEN’s mini-album Border : Carnival spent a second week on the Billboard 200 at #190.
• TXT will be performing on Good Morning America on June 10th.
• The following music videos reached new viewer milestones on YouTube:
  • BTS’s “Dynamite” is now the fastest K-pop group music video to reach 1.1 billion views, beating the record previously held by BLACKPINK’s “Kill This Love.” It’s worth noting that the only two BTS music videos which currently have more views are “Boy With Luv” (released in 2019) and “DNA” (released in 2017), and both of those are somewhere in the 1.2 billion range. So, “Dynamite” is racking up views at a really fast pace in comparison.
  • BTS’s “Butter” is now the fastest K-pop group music video to reach 300 million views, which was previously held by “Dynamite.”
  • Red Velvet Irene & Seulgi’s music video for “Monster” reached 100 million views.
  • BLACKPINK’s “DDU-DU DDU-DU” is the first K-pop music video to hit 1.6 billion views, doing so in just under three years.

Notable Variety Shows Featuring K-pop Idols

	Weekly Idol	Knowing Brothers	Amazing Saturday
This Week	aespa	aespa	Non-idol guests
Next Week	Monsta X	Non-idol guests	TWICE (Sana and Dahyun)

---

SOURCES NOTE: I get my news from a mix of sources, and all of them report the same information and sometimes cite each other as well. So rather than linking the exact article for each and every news item (unless the article provides a lot more detail), I will cite my general news sources below. Each of them will most likely have an article and/or tweet providing more details on the item in question.

MY REGULAR NEWS SOURCES: Soompi, Omona They Didn’t (Livejournal), The Seoul Story (Twitter @theseoulstory), and Girl Group Zone! (Twitter @girlgroupzone)

FEATURED IMAGE SOURCE: Starship Entertainment (Monsta X)

VIDEO SOURCES: YouTube, Big Hit Music (TXT)* GROOVL1N (Ravi), IOK Company (B.I), Maroo Entertainment (Ghost9), RBW Entertainment (MAMAMOO), SM Entertainment (Joy and NCT 127**), Starship Entertainment (Monsta X)
*TXT’s music video distributed by HYBE.
**NCT 127’s music video is posted on their own YouTube channel.

OTHER SOURCES:  YouTube, Wikipedia, Billboard, Gaon Chart, KBS, MBC, MNET, SBS