Melon Magazine: Artists Loved by Melon Listeners - TAEYEON

Intro

 

The Hall of Melon’s ‘Billions Club’, a collection of artists who have been streamed more than a billion times on Melon. Only 92 out of 250,000 teams entered the ‘Billions Club’, and so we gave a special spotlight to ten teams that left significant data behind. In 8th place following Lim Youngwoong, it’s ‘Trust and Listen’ Taeyeon.

 

The 8th artist loved by Melon listeners: Taeyeon

2.79 billion cumulative streams and 13.15 million unique listeners

 

 

‘Trust and Listen to Taengoo/Taeyeon’. It’s a word that became her nickname so naturally. However, how much time and effort did it take to maintain that nickname?

 

Today’s main character is Taeyeon. She has become a ‘textbook of girl groups’. Since 2007, as Girls’ Generation, and since releasing her first solo album in 2015, she has been active as a representative vocalist in Korea with different concepts and diverse genres. In addition to (being a part of) TTS, who presented an example of a K-POP unit group, and supergroup GOT the beat, she has collaborated with Crush, Naul, and Nell’s Kim Jongwan, etc. and displayed gem-ike masterpieces.

 

These moves are also reflected in the Melon data. Currently, Taeyeon’s total number of streams on Melon is 2.79 billion based on just her solo songs. You may have already expected that as she’s already an unrivaled solo artist and a digital powerhouse, but no other solo artist who came from a group has recorded a higher number of streams than Taeyeon to date. This record as a female solo singer is also not easy to achieve. 2.7 billion streams is the third highest number of streams after IU and Bolbbalgan4. (*Based on May 24 data aggregation).

 

More noteworthy is the number of Melon unique listeners. Currently, Taeyeon has 13.15 million, the third highest number of unique listeners among all artists on Melon.

 

To sum it up, Taeyeon is the representative of the nickname ‘Loved by Melon Listeners’. In celebration of her 2.7 billionstreams achievement, we are going to shortly look back on the moments when 10 million people ‘trusted and listened’ to Taeyeon. Of course, the songs and backgrounds that each person came to ‘trusts and listens to’ Taeyeon will be different, so let’s look at the ‘data’ left on Melon.

 

Story | Even as time passes, always Taeyeon

 

 

An OST craftsman who started with ‘If’

 

 

Do you remember? The year after Girls’ Generation debuted when Taeyeon sang the OST ‘If’ for the drama ‘Hong Gil-dong’.

 

Anyone who was familiar with popular culture at that time will know. Among the ‘Idol OSTs’ that became popular around that year, Taeyeon’s delicate and explosive vocals shone. At that time, it decorated Cyworld’s BGM and was #1 in the Melon OST category for 19 consecutive weeks. This song, along with other OSTs such as, ‘Can You Hear Me…’ is a steady seller that’s been on the Melon OST chart even 15 years later.

 

More importantly, ‘If’ was the start. So far, Taeyeon has participated in 30 OST songs. (*Based on Melon), and out of these 30 songs, the most listened to on Melon is neither ‘If’ nor ‘Can You Hear Me..’. It’s ‘All About You’, the ‘Hotel Del Luna’ OST which arrived relatively recently in the summer of 2019. ‘All About You’, which topped the Melon chart at the time, is also part of Taeyeon’s overall TOP3 most streamed songs.

 

Let’s listen to the OSTs that were loved on Melon. Although it’s music that was born for dramatic dramas, they are songs that contain a glimpse of Taeyeon’s original interpretation. (▼In turn, Taeyeon’s OST Melon Streaming Top 1, 3-6th place. ‘If’ is in 2nd place.)

 

 

A legendary start, her first solo album in 8 years [I]

Taeyeon’s Melon TOP streamed album is?

 

 

‘Master of OST’, ‘SNSD’s High notes Expert’. Because of that, there were a lot of expectations for her solo album, but the album came to us late. It was in 2015, eight years after her debut and the first solo mini album ‘I’, which arrived after a long wait, was a piece of work that ‘exceeded expectations’ in many ways. It wasn’t ballads that people were familiar with like an OST, it was full of colorful music, including the modern rock title track ‘I’.

 

What is like me? Finding that was great homework. I wanted to break people’s prejudice a little? I’ve sung a lot of OSTs. The prejudice of ‘For some reason I think she’s going to sing a ballad song again’.

- Taeyeon in an interview on SBS Hanbam’s TV Entertainment (2015.10.14)

 

As you know, the desire to break prejudice worked. The title song ‘I’ was loved on the charts as soon as it was released, and it is recorded as Taeyeon’s best Melon streaming album now that time has passed. Solo vocalist Taeyeon who broke expectations and imprinted her identity. That perfect start, ‘I’s songs are down below:

 

 

A Genre Explorer vs. A Person Rich with Hit Songs

#ModernRock #Pop #Acoustic #Jazz #R&B #AlternativePop

 

 

Since then, everyone knew that Taeyeon had emerged as a solid ‘digital powerhouse’.But what’s more meaningful than the results is that Taeyeon’s songs were new every comeback. For example, ‘11:11’ was an acoustic pop ballad that remained on the charts, allowing us to hear a new Taeyeon, and in particular, the first full album ‘My Voice’ in 2017 included Urban R&B ‘I Got Love’, tropical house ‘Cover Up’, and Nell’s Kim Jongwan’s ‘Time Lapse’ that was personally produced by him, opening up Taeyeon’s colorful palette.

 

 

There have been numerous hit songs and elaborate b-side tracks too, but I can’t mention them all due to limited space. However, I have to mention the song that was most loved on Melon. This is the song that peaked out of all the many hit songs.

 

‘Four Seasons’ the built-in song on the chart

Which song do you listen to the most on Melon?

 

 

In technical terms, the ‘Melon Zombie Song’. As many people expect, the main character is ‘Four Seasons’, released in the spring of March 2019. Arriving as a single, this song entered the Melon chart going around spring, summer, fall, and winter, spending all four seasons with us for 372 consecutive days. The ‘single’ that contains this song, which ranked 7th on the annual chart that year, is also in Taeyeon’s TOP2 streaming albums. (*A single with two songs, ‘Four Seasons’ and ‘Blue’.)

 

More significant than results, it must have been another evolution. At that time, Taeyeon expressed the coolness of the alternative pop genre ‘Four Seasons’ and was once again recognised for her competence as a vocalist by many. Following that, ‘All About You’, ‘Spark’ succeeded one after another, and that year Taeyeon wrapped up the 2010s passionately by writing her narrative of the ‘Digital Daesang’.

 

At this point, we will reveal Taeyeon’s TOP10 Melon Streaming songs one by one. But before revealing them, I’m warning you in advance. Before we listen to the music, you might first yell out, ‘This song is not in TOP10?’. That just means that there’s (Taeyeon has) a lot of hit songs and b-side tracks that are loved.

 

 

Taeyeon of the 2020s (feat. Melon’s Hidden Data)

 

 

‘She does well every time, she’ll do well again’. Taeyeon has been doing that difficult thing every time even in the 2020s. The success of ‘INVU’ (2022) is representative of this, and the anecdote that ‘Taeyeon directly pushed it as the title song overcoming the objections of many’ is also famous. It would have been a success driven by the discernment of a highly experienced idol from Girls’ Generation and the willingness to participate in the production stage (of an album). That’s how ‘INVU’ ranked #1 on Melon’s daily/weekly/monthly charts.

 

The interesting news is that as of 2023, the song had a reverse run on Melon (*Entered TOP100 from TOP200). It seems to be because Taeyeon announced news of her solo concert in June and recently sang the song on the entertainment show ‘Amazing Saturday’.

 

There is more hidden data. Melon announced in February of last year that Taeyeon had collected 9.2 million Melon listeners. (*Feb 24, 2022). As mentioned earlier, Taeyeon currently has 13.15 million listeners, which means that about 4 million new listeners have emerged. Can you see? ‘Born to be Idol’ Taeyeon attracts new fans like this even after 10 years.

 

 

The reason Taeyeon is still popular in her 16th year

 

 

‘Solo’ Taeyeon’s voice has been played 2.7 billion times on Melon but it's hard not to talk about Girls’ Generation when explaining Taeyeon. Apart from that, there’s Girls’ Generation-Oh!GG, TaeTiSeo, and supergroup GOT the beat. So, adding up the number of Melon streams in all these activities, how many times was Taeyeon’s voice flowing through Melon? The result of the total number of streams by each team and Taeyeon is that she has been streamed on Melon more than 4.5 billion times. Isn’t it amazing?

 

 

 

When talking about Taeyeon’s music, quite a few fans leave comments like her singing is ‘expressing sadness and joy without exerting too much effort’, and ‘she doesn’t make it look difficult when singing the high notes’. Just like her name, it is calmly beautiful. (*Taeyeon means calm)

 

But behind the outcomes which make the listeners comfortable, every one of her comebacks must have had a will for newness, a love for music, and a fierceness learnt from her trainee days. The reason she is called ‘Trust and Listen Taeng’ and ‘Even So It’s Still Taengoo’ is because Taeyeon’s singing, which began in 2007, didn’t stop. If Taeyeon’s singing continues, then in the past, now, and in the future it’s Taengoo.

 

 

Source: Melon Magazine

Translated by @309KTYSS

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