A Children’s YouTube Channel And A No-Name Company Have Achieved Historical Feats Before SM Entertainment

With NewJeans, Stray Kids, and LE SSERAFIM making it onto the highly coveted Billboard “Hot 100” chart, especially NewJeans in record time, the topic of which artists have made it at all onto said chart has been circulating online.

It led to the realization that there is only one of the “Big Four” K-Pop labels — SM Entertainment, YG Entertainment, JYP Entertainment, and HYBE Labels — that hasn’t had a single artist rank on the “Hot 100” chart. And while it isn’t easy to make it on there, it seems unusual that any of these major companies are missing from the list.

Wonder GirlsJYP Entertainment was actually the first of any K-Pop company to have an artist make it on the chart, with Wonder Girls reaching the #76 position all the way back in October 2009. Since then, TWICE has also ranked once with “The Feels” back in October 2021, which peaked at #83.

TWICE | Hellokpop

Stray Kids then joined their labelmates when “Lalalala” entered the chart at #90 in November 2023.

The second K-Pop artist to ever rank on the “Hot 100” chart was PSY, back when he was still at YG Entertainment. His mega-hit “Gangnam Style” first charted in September 2012, and peaked at a very impressive #2 with 31 weeks total spent on the chart! He’s had four other songs rank on the chart too.

PSY and Suga (BTS)

The other YG Entertainment artists that have made it onto the “Hot 100” chart at least once are CL (with “Lifted” in October 2016, peaking at #94) and BLACKPINK (who have ranked on the chart nine times as a group, with more as individuals).

Of course, HYBE Labels has achieved the most listings on the “Hot 100” chart thanks to BTS, who has the highest percentage of K-Pop songs that have ever made it on the chart (and many more if you include individual members). And as stated earlier, LE SSERAFIM was also recently added to the HYBE Labels artists to make it on the chart back in March 2024.

So that leaves SM Entertainment. Surprisingly, despite their attempts to break into the western market with groups like NCT and SuperM, they have yet to have any song by their artists rank on the “Hot 100”.

SuperM | SM Entertainment

Even a children’s YouTube channel, Pinkfong, has made it onto the chart with — love it or hate it — “Baby Shark”. And unknown company Attrakt had FIFTY FIFTY’s “Cupid” chart  for 25 straight weeks.

This realization was shared on a post on an online forum, where netizens expressed their varying opinions on the matter, such as that SM Entertainment’s music style is too outdated for the west.

With K-Pop’s growing popularity in the west, it seems more likely that an SM Entertainment artist will make it onto the coveted Billboard “Hot 100” chart eventually, but only time will tell!