The Only “Big Four” K-Pop Entertainment Company That Has Never Made It On The Billboard “Hot 100” Chart

With the news of NewJeans making it onto the highly coveted Billboard “Hot 100” chart 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 any 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 shouldn’t have accomplished it yet!

JYP 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.

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.

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 takes 26 of the 58 K-Pop songs that have ever made it on the chart (and many more if you include individual members). And as stated earlier, NewJeans was also recently added to the HYBE Labels artists to make it on the chart.

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”.

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where netizens expressed their varying opinions on the matter, such as that SM Entertainment’s music style is too outdated for the west.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!