This is the K-pop boy band TOMORROW X TOGETHER, aka TXT. (Big Hit Music's official Twitter account) 

By Hong Angie

The share of songs in Korean streamed on the U.S. music market in the first half of the year was nearly double that from 2021. 

Luminate, an American company that analyzes music and entertainment data, on July 12 announced in its midyear report that 88.3% of the top 10,000 streamed songs on U.S. music platforms in the period were in English, 7.9% in Spanish and 0.9% in Korean. 

Tunes in Korean came in third for the third consecutive year, but their share this year approached 1%, up from 0.5% in 2021 and 0.7% last year. 

Songs in Korean streamed on the U.S. music market in this year's first half ranked third behind those in English and Spanish. (Screen capture from Luminate) 

Luminate said, "It’s no secret that non-English language music has grown in popularity, both in the U.S. and globally over the past ten years, especially within the Latin and K-Pop genres, both of which have both seen unprecedented sales and streaming growth." 

The K-pop boom was led by BTS and BLACKPINK. BTS member Jimin in April became the first Korean solo artist to top Billboard's main singles chart Hot 100 with "Like Crazy." K-pop further expanded its influence in the U.S. thanks to fourth-generation acts debuting from 2018-19 including Stray Kids and TOMORROW X TOGETHER (TXT). 

Compared to the average American music listener, K-pop fans spent an average 75% more per month on music-related consumption, the report said. The combination of these factors helped K-pop dominate the U.S. CD market in the first half of this year. 

With the exception of No. 6 Taylor Swift, K-pop acts held nine of the top 10 spots in CD album sales in America.

Stray Kids (JYP Entertainment) 

TXT, which in February hit No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart with its fifth EP "The Name Chapter: Temptation," topped the list with album sales of 395,000 in the U.S.

Second was Stray Kids' "5-Star" with 322,000, TWICE's "Ready to Be" 258,000 and Seventeen's "FML" 233,000. BTS member Suga was fifth with his first solo regular album "D-Day." 

K-pop's influence was also strong outside of America. Among the top 10,000 songs streamed worldwide, those in Korean accounted for 3.1%, fourth behind those in English (56.4%), Spanish (10.6%) and Hindi (8.7%). In Indonesia, Korean songs had the third-biggest market share of 6%, trailing only those in English with 39.1% and Indonesian 25.7%. 

shong9412@korea.kr