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K-pop Accounts for the Top Two Spots on the Billboard 200 for the First Time: Here’s When Other Genres Accomplished This Feat

Written by on July 30, 2024

K-pop has been gathering commercial momentum in the U.S. over a decade, and this week it achieves a historic milestone on the Billboard 200. As Billboard reported on Sunday, this current chart (dated Aug. 3) marks the first time that the top two spots are both held by K-pop (Korean pop) albums. Stray KidsATE debuts at No. 1, while Jimin’s MUSE, a solo album by the BTS member,opens at No. 2.

ATE arrives with 231,000 equivalent album units earned in the U.S. in the week ending July 25, according to Luminate. That’s the largest week of 2024 for any K-pop album, and the sixth-biggest debut for any album this year. Of ATE’s 231,000 first-week units, album sales comprise 217,000, SEA units comprise 13,000 and TEA units comprise 1,000. With 217,000 copies sold, ATE is the top-selling album of the week. It also nets the largest sales week for any K-pop album this year and 2024’s second-largest sales week for any album of any genre (trailing only Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department). 

MUSE moves in with 96,000 units, and gives Jimin his second solo album to reach No. 2 (after last year’s FACE). Of that sum, album sales comprise 74,000, SEA units comprise 15,000 and TEA units comprise 7,000.

This historic week for K-pop made us wonder: When did nine other genres and recording configurations first occupy the top two albums on the Billboard 200 in the same week? (The chart originated as a regular weekly feature on March 24, 1956.) Read on to see our findings — with albums being defined as belonging to a genre if they also charted on that genre’s corresponding albums chart.

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