[NEWS] GD’s new album not recognized as an album in Korea took No.1 on American Billboard world albums chart for 2 weeks in a row

G-DRAGON, the leader of leading K-pop idol group BIGBANG, has taken No.1 on American Billboard’s world albums chart with his new album, for two weeks in a row.

According to Billboard, America’s most prestigious and time-honored music chart, on June 21, G-DRAGON’s self title album “KWON JI YONG” released on June 8 topped the latest world albums chart (as of July 1). G-DRAGON proved his formidable influence in the world’s music scene by taking No.1 on American Billboard’s world albums chart for two weeks in a row.

In the previous week, G-DRAGON took the 192ndplace on Billboard 200 which is American Billboard’s main albums chart, with “KWON JI YONG” album.

G-DRAGON’s No.1 on American Billboard’s world albums chart is drawing all the more attention, as such record was set after Korean official music chart Gaon’s decision and announcement that “KWON JI YONG” album cannot be recognized as an official form of music album, saying, “Gaon Chart’s definition of an album is different from the definition of record and we only recognize a material object on which sound is fixed as an album”.

The off-line album of G-DRAGON’s “KWON JI YONG” was released in the form of USB memory stick, not CD and the USB stick does not have music fixed in it. Instead, users are led to a website produced by G-DRAGON’s label YG Entertainment after starting the USB memory stick, to directly download the music and related contents. Regarding such new trial, Gaon Chart concluded that they cannot recognize G-DRAGON’s “KWON JI YONG” as an official form of album.

YG Entertainment announced “We respect Gaon Chart’s decision” but added, “We still feel regrettable for Gaon’s way of ranking only the conventional forms of records on their chart, when thinking about G-DRAGON’s opinion that the most important thing is the music itself”.

In the meantime, NCT 127’s new mini-album “NCT #127 CHERRY BOMB” is placed in the second place and DAY6’s “Sunrise” is ranked in 9th in the latest world albums chart of American Billboard, to enter top 10 along with G-DRAGON.

American Billboard’s world albums chart ranks all music albums released outside the United States, based on their sales volume for the week.

Source: YG Entertainment(STARNEWS)