K-pop Accounts for the Top Two Spots on the Billboard 200 for the First Time: Here’s When Other Genres Accomplished This Feat
K-pop has been gathering commercial momentum in the U.S. over a decade, and this week it achieves a historic milestone on the Billboard 200. As Billboard reported on Sunday, this current chart (dated Aug. 3) marks the first time that the top two spots are both held by K-pop (Korean pop) albums. Stray Kids’ ATE debuts at No. 1, while Jimin’s MUSE, a solo album by the BTS member,opens at No. 2.
ATE arrives with 231,000 equivalent album units earned in the U.S. in the week ending July 25, according to Luminate. That’s the largest week of 2024 for any K-pop album, and the sixth-biggest debut for any album this year. Of ATE’s 231,000 first-week units, album sales comprise 217,000, SEA units comprise 13,000 and TEA units comprise 1,000. With 217,000 copies sold, ATE is the top-selling album of the week. It also nets the largest sales week for any K-pop album this year and 2024’s second-largest sales week for any album of any genre (trailing only Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department).
MUSE moves in with 96,000 units, and gives Jimin his second solo album to reach No. 2 (after last year’s FACE). Of that sum, album sales comprise 74,000, SEA units comprise 15,000 and TEA units comprise 7,000.
This historic week for K-pop made us wonder: When did nine other genres and recording configurations first occupy the top two albums on the Billboard 200 in the same week? (The chart originated as a regular weekly feature on March 24, 1956.) Read on to see our findings — with albums being defined as belonging to a genre if they also charted on that genre’s corresponding albums chart.
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Film Soundtracks: Oct. 13, 1956
No. 1: The Eddy Duchin Story
No. 2: The King and I
Notes: The former album was from a biopic about the orchestra leader who had dozens of hits in the 1930s, including “Did You Ever See a Dream Walking?” and “Let’s Fall in Love.” Duchin died of leukemia in 1951 at age 40. The latter was from the film adaptation of the Rodgers & Hammerstein stage musical, which won the Tony for best musical in 1952.
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Christmas/holidays: Jan. 6, 1958
Image Credit: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images No. 1: Bing Crosby, Merry Christmas
No. 2: Elvis Presley, Elvis’ Christmas Album
Notes: Fans got what they wanted in the 1957-58 holiday season, whether they favored a “White Christmas” or a “Blue Christmas.” Crosby’s album was first released in 1945. Presley’s, which spent the last three weeks of 1957 at No. 1, was a new release. The albums remained in the top two positions the following week, though Presley retook the lead.
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Broadway cast albums: March 17, 1958
No. 1: The Music Man
No. 2: My Fair Lady
Notes: The Music Man, starring Robert Preston, won the Tony for best musical in 1958. My Fair Lady, starring Rex Harrison and Julie Andrews, had won the same award in 1957. The albums held the No. 1 spot on the Billboard 200 for a combined total of 27 weeks – 15 weeks for My Fair Lady, 12 weeks for The Music Man. Andrews and Preston went on to co-star in the 1982 film Victor/Victoria. Both actors received Oscar nods for their performances.
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Rock and Roll: Jan. 27, 1962
No. 1: Elvis Presley, Blue Hawaii
No. 2: Joey Dee and His Starlighters, Doin’ the Twist at the Peppermint Lounge
Notes: The Blue Hawaii soundtrack topped the chart for 20 weeks, longer than any other Presley album. Dee and His Starlighters’ album featured their No. 1 Hot 100 hit “Peppermint Twist – Part I.” The album had a six-week run at No. 2, upon which it ceded the runner-up spot to Chubby Checker’s Your Twist Party, which contained the No. 1 Hot 100 hit that ignited the dance craze, “The Twist.”
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Comedy: Dec. 15, 1962
No. 1: Vaughn Meader, The First Family
No. 2: Allan Sherman, My Son, The Folk Singer
Notes: The First Family was a gentle (by today’s standards) spoof of President Kennedy’s family. My Son, The Folk Singer was a send-up of the then-bourgeoning folk scene. The albums held the top two positions for 11 consecutive weeks, through Feb. 23, 1963. The following week, The First Family remained on top, while Sherman’s follow-up album, My Son, The Celebrity, moved up to No. 2. And Sherman still wasn’t done with the My Son franchise — still to come: My Son, The Nut. All three albums reached No. 1. Sherman died in 1973 at age 48.
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Folk: Nov. 2, 1963
Image Credit: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images No. 1: Peter, Paul & Mary, In the Wind
No. 2: Peter, Paul & Mary, Peter, Paul & Mary
Notes: Peter, Paul & Mary was No. 1 for six consecutive weeks in the fall of 1962, then returned to No. 1 on Oct. 26, 1963, the same week the trio’s album In the Wind opened at No. 12. The following week, In the Wind (which contained their hit version of Bob Dylan’s classic “Blowin’ in the Wind”) took the lead, bumping PPM down to No. 2.
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R&B: Aug. 10, 1968
No. 1: Cream, Wheels of Fire
No. 2: Simon & Garfunkel, The Graduate soundtrack
Notes: You may not think of either of these albums as R&B – I don’t – but both made Billboard’s Best Selling Rhythm & Blues LP’s chart, as it was then known. Wheels of Fire reached No. 11 and remained on the chart for six months. The Graduate soundtrack hit No. 32 in its brief, five-week run. Both the soundtrack and the film were massive hits. The album topped the Billboard 200 for nine nonconsecutive weeks. The Mike Nichols comedy was the top-grosser among all films released in North America in 1967.
Since you probably really want to know the first time R&B albums by Black artists held the top two spots in the same week, that was on Oct. 30, 1976 when Stevie Wonder’s Songs in the Key of Life was in its third week at No. 1 and Earth, Wind & Fire’s Spirit jumped from No. 4 to No. 2. These two albums also held the top two spots the following week. EWF’s two previous albums, That’s the Way of the World and Gratitude, had both reached No. 1, but there was no shame in peaking at No. 2 behind Wonder’s masterwork, which topped the chart for 14 nonconsecutive weeks and won the Grammy for album of the year.
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Hip-Hop: Nov. 3, 1990
Image Credit: Alan Singer/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images No. 1: M.C. Hammer, Please Hammer Don’t Hurt ’Em
No. 2: Vanilla Ice, To the Extreme
Notes: One or the other of these albums was No. 1 for 37 of the 38 weeks between June 9, 1990 and Feb. 23, 1991. (Boy band New Kids on the Block snuck in there for one week in June 1990 with Step by Step.)
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Country: Sept. 19, 1992
No. 1: Billy Ray Cyrus, Some Gave All
No. 2: Garth Brooks, Beyond the Season
Notes: Cyrus’ album was in its 15th consecutive week at No. 1, as Brooks’ holiday album jumped from No. 5 to No. 2. A holiday album reached No. 2 in mid-September? Yep: That’s how hot Brooks was at the time. Some Gave All held the top spot for 17 consecutive weeks – which is still the record for most consecutive weeks on top by a country album. It was finally displaced on Oct. 10 by Brooks’ The Chase, which spent its first six weeks at No. 1.
