Aespa Becomes 5th K-Pop Girl Group To Join 'Half Million Seller' Club With Over 500K copies of album 'Savage' Sold (Photo : SBS Radio/CC BY 3.0)
South Korean girl group aespa has debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 chart with its first extended play track "Savage". The group debuted just eleven months ago. It is the highest rank achieved by a K-Pop girl group's first album, according to the group's management agency.
aespa is a female quartet group that was launched by top Korean talent agency SM Entertainment in 2020. The all-female group is composed of Winter, Giselle, Karina, and Ningning, who is the only Chinese member of the group. "Savage", which is also the group's latest eponymous single, has become this week's second best-selling album in the US, as stated by Billboard on its Twitter account.
"Savage" is the first physical album released aespa after their debut in November 2020. It contains six songs, including the title track "Savage", which is a sub-genre of hip-hop music called trap genre and features notable bass lines and aggressive drum beats.
The song is No. 6 at present in the list of top music videos on YouTube since it premiere on October 5. The track is composed by Hautboi Rich, Yoo Young Jin, Jia Lih, and Kirsten Collins, with the Korean lyrics written by Yoo Young Jin.
There is an ongoing heated discussion brewing between loyal fans of K-pop superstars BLACKPINK and aespa that peaked today, with netizens comparing one group over the other. Fans of BLACKPINK, known as Blinks, accused aespa of copying the former, while aespa fans, known as My, said that Blinks were sensitive.
Meanwhile, 2021 could be the year of K-Pop stars as more South Korean musicians are successfully entering the international scene with certified hits on the Billboard chart. Over the past months, Korean pop groups including BTS, BLACKPINK, Twice, SEVENTEEN, and many more have been making their presence felt on the Billboard music charts.
Super K-Pop boys group BTS has broken multiple long-standing records and Lisa from BLACKPINK has become the first female solo artist who dethroned Drake to take the top position with her new hit single "Money". Now, aespa has joined the roster of acclaimed K-Pop artists.
The Billboard 200 ranks the week's most popular albums in the US. The ranking is measured by equivalent album units, which comprise digital sales records and physical album sales. "Savage" had topped real-time charts of numerous domestic music streaming services on its release earlier in October.
