JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
A K-pop hit tops this week's Billboard albums chart, but it's not the song you might expect. NPR Music's Stephen Thompson has the report.
STEPHEN THOMPSON, BYLINE: It's another big week for K-pop music on the Billboard charts and another big week for the "KPop Demon Hunters" soundtrack, which again lands four songs in the Top 10. And yes, the song "Golden" by the fictional girl group HUNTR/X still sits at No. 1. We won't play it again here because, well, you've probably heard it before. But on the albums chart, "KPop Demon Hunters" has to settle for second place because yet another K-pop juggernaut debuts in the top spot. That'd be the boy band Stray Kids, whose new album is titled "Karma."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "CEREMONY")
STRAY KIDS: (Singing) Listen to the war cry. Karma, karma, karma, karma. Hip-hip hooray. Hip-hip hooray. Hip-hip, hip-hip. Karma, karma, karma, karma.
THOMPSON: The success of "Karma" is tied almost entirely to album sales. The group's sold nearly 300,000 copies, which is remarkable in the age of streaming. It's the second-biggest sales week for any album released this year, after The Weeknd's "Hurry Up Tomorrow." The problem with sales where the charts are concerned is that they don't carry over from week to week. For sustained chart success, albums need a huge audience on streaming. And on the Billboard streaming charts, "Karma" is at No. 34. Without massive streaming numbers, just one Stray Kids song cracks this week's Hot 100 - "Ceremony" at No. 52.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "CEREMONY")
STRAY KIDS: (Singing) Ceremony. Hip-hip-hip-hip-hip-hip-hip hooray.
THOMPSON: Still, Stray Kids have done something no artist has ever done before. Of the seven albums and EPs they've landed on the Billboard albums chart, all seven have debuted at No. 1. With the success of "Karma," Stray Kids have also racked up the most No. 1 albums by any artist this century, surpassing BTS, Linkin Park and Dave Matthews Band in the process. That's a big deal, given that those seven chart-toppers came out in the span of just 3 1/2 years. But don't get used to "Karma" sitting at No. 1. All six of Stray Kids' previous hits topped the chart for just one week. Stephen Thompson, NPR Music.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "CEREMONY")
STRAY KIDS: (Singing) Karma, karma. Ceremony. Hip-hip-hip-hip-hip-hip-hip. Whoa, ceremony. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
