The “Big Four” K-Pop Label That Didn’t Rank On The “2023 MelOn Yearly Chart”

The “2023 MelOn Yearly Chart” was recently released, which lists the most popular songs in South Korea based on streaming numbers. This list usually looks quite a bit different than the most popular international K-Pop songs, and this year is no different, with artists like YOUNHA, Lim Young Woong, and Parc Jae Jung charting alongside NewJeans, IVE, and (G)I-DLE.

NewJeans alone took four of the top 10 spots, while IVE is behind three of them. The highest-charting boy group song is “Fighting” by SEVENTEEN‘s BSS, which ranked at #15.

BTS also had three of their full-group releases from past years make it into the top 50 despite not coming out with an album this year, including “Spring Day”, which has been on the chart for a record-breaking seven consecutive years!

But there’s one label from the “Big Four” — which consists of HYBE Labels, SM Entertainment, JYP Entertainment, and YG Entertainment — that is notably absent from the “2023 MelOn Yearly Chart”, and fans have taken notice.

HYBE Labels had the most songs make the chart at 16, while YG Entertainment comes in second with five top 50 songs. Starship Entertainment had four songs rank thanks to IVE, Cube Entertainment had three songs on the list thanks to (G)I-DLE, and SM Entertainment had just two songs (by aespa and NCT DREAM) chart.

That means that JYP Entertainment surprisingly didn’t have any songs by their artists make it into the top 50 songs for 2023, despite the success of TWICE, Stray Kids, ITZY, and NMIXX in other areas of K-Pop fan culture.

On a Reddit post sharing the top 50 songs on the “2023 MelOn Yearly Chart”, fans expressed their surprise and confusion over JYP’s lack of inclusion on the list.

Given that album sales for JYP Entertainment artists have been at record highs lately, it definitely seems odd that their streaming numbers don’t match. But maybe this year will be different!