'Monster rookies' aespa make Billboard 200 debut with first album 'Savage'
Aespa (stylized as aespa) continue to prove themselves worthy of the title ‘monster rookies’ as they break records with their debut mini-album, ‘Savage’. The girl group first debuted in November 2020 with the single ‘Black Mamba’. And despite coming back only with singles, they continued to dominate the K-pop industry. Well, it looks like that they were just warming up since their first album ‘Savage’ has made history in several categories from music show wins to topping charts like Billboard.
Since the first week of ‘Savage’s’ release, aespa has continued to have an all-kill on music charts which means topping all major South Korean music charts like FLO, MelON, Genie and Bugs. The title track, ‘Savage’, had also secured the #1 spot on MelOn’s Daily Chart for seven days making it the first SM song to do so. They also happen to be on top of the chart’s girl group ranking for 14 days in a row. They are also close to an all-kill on music shows having won on ‘Show Champion’, ‘Music Bank’, ‘Show Music Core’ and ‘Inkigayo. And now, they have made also made a mark on Billboard.
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Aespa debuts on Billboard 200 with debut album
On October 17, Billboard updated some of their charts for this week. And according to it, aespa has entered the top 20 of Billboard 200 chart. The Billboard 200 is a chart that tabulates the success of global albums old and new. Well, fans are impressed that along with huge Western artists like Taylor Swift, Drake and Olivia Rodrigo, aespa debuted at #20 with ‘Savage’. Additionally, it is also #15 on the World Albums chart and #2 on the Top Album Sales chart.
This makes aespa the fastest K-pop girl group to debut on Billboard 200 after their debut. It is also the highest debut for a K-pop girl group. They are also the second-highest debut following their labelmate SuperM who debuted at #1. And aespa is the third K-pop girl group to enter Billboard 200 with a debut album following Girls’ Generation TTS’s ‘Twinkle’ and Blackpink’s ‘Square Up’. At the same time, even their older songs continue to break records.
Their previous release ‘Next Level has tied with Blackpink’s ‘Lovesick Girls’ to have charted in the top 10 of MelOn’s Weekly Chart for 22 weeks. It is #5 for the week of October 18. As for ‘Savage’, it has peaked at #1 on MelOn and Genie’s Weekly chart while the album was #1 on Gaon Album Chart. Additionally, it should be noted that aespa’s Winter is the third fourth-gen female idol to rank #1 for October’s brand reputation of girl group idols. Even the other aespa members were on the list with Karina at #4, Giselle at #5 and Ningning at #6.