MRC Data and Billboard issued the “Global Music & Chart Report: A Year in Review” covering top songs and artists in the past year on the Billboard Global 200 and Billboard Global Excl. US charts.
The Billboard Global 200 and Billboard Global Excl. US were launched last year with the first charts issued dated Sept. 19, 2020.
“The weekly Billboard Global 200 chart is inclusive of worldwide data while the Global Excl. U.S. excludes data from the United States. Both collate sales and streaming data, as aggregated by MRC Data, from more than 200 countries, with rankings based on a weighted formula incorporating official-only streams on both subscription and ad-supported tiers of leading digital platforms, and downloads from key online music retailers,” according to the report. MRC Data supplies music data to Billboard.
According to the report, the fastest growing global streaming markets among top 20 countries by audio streaming volume from Jan. 1, 2021 to Aug. 26, 2021 compared to the period Jan. 3, 2020 to Aug. 27, 2020 are:
1. Japan
2. Turkey
3. Russia
4. Poland
5. United Kingdom
6. Mexico
7. Brazil
8. Spain
9. Philippines
10. Chile
The report listed the “hits that have spent every week on both global rankings” (Billboard Global 200 and Billboard Global Excl. US) in the last 52 weeks. These are (by alphabetical order):
1. “Mood” — 24kGoldn feat. Iann Dior
2. “Bad Guy” — Billie Eilish
3. “Lovely” — Billie Eilish & Khalid
4. “Dynamite” — BTS
5. “Don’t Start Now” — Dua Lipa
6. “Perfect” — Ed Sheeran
7. “Shape of You” — Ed Sheeran
8. “Watermelon Sugar” — Harry Styles
9. “Believer” — Imagine Dragons
10. “Savage Love (Laxed – Siren Beat)” — Jawsh 685 X Jason Derulo
11. “Head & Heart” — Joel Corry X MNEK
12. “Shallow” — Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper
13. “Before You Go” — Lewis Capaldi
14. “Someone You Loved” — Lewis Capaldi
15. “Old Town Road” — Lil Nas X feat. Billy Ray Cyrus
16. “Hawái” — Maluma
17. “Memories” — Maroon 5
18. “Circles” — Post Malone
19. “Sunflower (Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse)” — Post Malone & Swae Lee
20. “Roses” — SAINt JHN
21. “Señorita” — Shawn Mendes & Camila Cabello
22. “Blinding Lights” — The Weeknd
23. “Dance Monkey” — Tones and I
24. “Yoru ni Kakeru” — YOASOBI
Under the Global Breakdown section of the report, it cited performance of countries on the global charts.
For South Korea, the MRC Data-Billboard report said the charting artists are BTS, BLACKPINK, NCT, TWICE and ITZY.
“Unlike the insular Japanese market, South Korean acts have often focused on global crossover. BTS and BLACKPINK, for example, represent the vast array of ‘idol’ pop groups, often six, seven or more members deep,” it said.
It added, “They regularly mix Korean with English-language lyrics, embrace production elements from dance and hip-hop, and collaborate with pop hitmakers like Selena Gomez and Sia. South Korean acts have been very successful globally over the last couple of years.”
“BTS has amassed three No. 1 songs in English (‘Dynamite,’ ‘Butter’ and ‘Permission to Dance’) and hit the top another two times while singing in both English and Korean (‘Savage Love – Laxed (Siren Beat)’ with Jawsh 685 and Jason Derulo and ‘Life Goes On’) over the first year of the Billboard global charts,” it added.
Based on the percent of chart positions per country, South Korea has a 2 percent share on the Billboard Global 200 and 3.1 percent on the Billboard Global Excl. US.
Under the “Spotlight on Language” section of the report, it was stated that “roughly 10 song in any given week on the global charts are multilingual. Most of these songs feature English alongside either Spanish or Korean.”
“The part-Spanish songs, more often than not, feature Latin superstars pairing up with someone from the U.S., U.K. or Canada (Karol G & Nicki Minaj’s ‘Tusa’ or Maluma & The Weeknd’s ‘Hawái’) while the part-Korean songs are commonly by an act from South Korea doing its own bilingual wizardry (BTS’ ‘Life Goes On’ or BLACKPINK’s ‘How You Like That’),” according to the report.
It added, “English certainly helps make a global hit. BTS — one of the world’s biggest artists — has had five Billboard global No. 1s that have all included English-language lyrics. The act’s non-English songs have also charted. ‘Blue & Grey,’ off 2020’s Be, which is sung primarily in Korean with some English lines mixed in, peaked at No. 9 on the Global 200. And finally, ‘Film Out,’ performed in Japanese, reached Nos. 3 and 5 on the Global Excl. U.S. chart and Global 200, respectively.”
The report cited as example NCT Dream’s “Hot Sauce,” saying, “BTS may have simultaneously logged three hits on the Global Excl. U.S. chart in three different languages, but NCT Dream did it all in one song. ‘Hot Sauce’ includes lyrics in the act’s native Korean, English and Spanish, making it one of only two trilingual songs to hit the charts all year.”