Lisenne rides a remake to #4
Lisenne's cover of KARA's 2008 track Pretty Girl reached #4 on Melon's Top 100 — their highest chart position yet. After LOVE ATTACK stumbled, the group pivoted to a proven song. The streaming environment has turned hostile to new material.
They're not the only ones. Taeyeon covered Tsuki's Manchanga (만찬가). Unis tackled BIBI's Sky Land Star Land (하늘땅 별땅), which hit #1 on Philippines iTunes Top Songs. At:Heart (앳하트) remade Rula's 3!4! with Lee Hyun-do (이현도) on arrangement and Rula's Chae Rina (채리나) involved in performance planning.
A pattern that goes back to 2022
Remakes aren't new. NCT Dream released Candy (original by H.O.T.) in 2022. RIIZE dropped Hug (original by TVXQ). aespa put out Sidae Yugang (original by Seo Taiji and Boys). What's shifted is the sheer volume and the math beneath it.
Strip reversal hits and remakes from the recent Melon Top 100. Only two songs released in the past two months cracked the top 10: (G)I-DLE's Soyeon with 퇴사할게여 and BIGBANG's BiiiG. Two. That's the new-release footprint right now.
The industry read on what this means
Circle Chart music data journalist Kim Jin-woo was blunt: "The continued emergence and success of verified remakes may not be entirely a positive signal for the industry."
An industry official went further. The trend "also means there are increasingly fewer new songs worth listening to."
New-song market share on Korean music charts has been falling continuously since May. Remakes are filling the gap. It's a chart story. It's also a question about where original K-pop songwriting stands.
