[News] Kim Hyun Joong - Features on Manila Bulletin "Break Down" Album No.4 "Best Selling Korean Artist"

Philippines really is on to K-Pop now! luv it!


credits:   Jonathan M. Hicap@Manila Bulletin


Re-post with full credits.

The Top 5 bestselling Korean artists in 1st half of 2011 (Clockwise from top left): TVXQ, Big Bang, BEAST, CNBlue and Kim Hyun Joong (Photos from YG Entertainment, CJ E&M, and www.Newsen.com)

MANILA, Philippines – For dominating Korean album sales in the first half of 2011, K-pop duo TVXQ was named the number one best-selling Korean artist by the Gaon Chart, South Korea’s equivalent of the US Billboard and Japan’s Oricon chart.

Gaon Chart, supervised by the Korea Music Content Industry Association, released the rankings of the Top 100 artists, which they based on album sales for the period January to June this year. Ruling the top ten of the chart are a slew of boy bands.

TVXQ ranked No. 1 on the chart, selling 230,922 copies of their album “Why (Keep Your Head Down),” which was released last January.

The repackage version of the album also charted at No. 9, selling 55,234 copies.

Big Bang, whose album “Tonight” (released in February) sold 133,951 copies, landed in second place. The band’s “Big Bang Special Edition” also came at No. 6 with 83,726 copies sold.

BEAST came in at No. 3, selling 111, 201 copies of their first full-length album “Fiction and Fact,” which was released last May.

SS501 leader Kim Hyun Joong’s first solo album “Break Down” placed fourth, selling 100,433 copies. The album was released only last June 7 and in just a month, the album sold 100,000 copies. The singer is the highest ranking solo artist in the chart.

Boy band CNBlue’s “First Step” album (released last March) is at No. 5 with album selling 93,059 units.

Completing the Top 10 are 2PM’s “Hands Up at No. 7 (67,819 copies sold); f(x)’s “Pinocchio” at No. 8 (58,419 copies); and the official soundtrack of the Korean drama “Secret Garden” at No. 10 with 47,373 copies sold.

Some of the albums that charted were released in previous years.

The rest of the rankings:

11. FT Island – “Return” – 40,229
12. Big Bang’s Seungri – 1st Mini Album VVIP – 40,003
13. “You’re Beautiful” OST – 37,087
14. “You’re Beautiful” OST Part 2 – 33,469
15. IU – “Real” 32,506
16. MBLAQ – “BLAQ Style” – 30,281
17. 4Minute – 4 Minutes Left – 29,550
18. CNBlue – “First Step +1 Thank You” – 28,925
19. Heo Young Saeng – “Let It Go” – 28,256
20. Girls Generation – “1st Asia Tour Concert: Into the New World” – 27,126