Why does Nielsen think BTS is “world music”?

(Thread.)

Last week, some ARMYs asked why @BTS_twt’s #MAP_OF_THE_SOUL_7 wasn’t listed under pop’s “Top Five Albums” in Nielsen's mid-year report despite ranking ahead of Billie Eilish in another chart.

When I asked Nielsen about this discrepancy, they told me, "We used Core genre and BTS core genre is 'World'. While BTS is eligible for Pop charts, the Core genre keeps genres unique."

This confused me.

Why would Nielsen categorize @BTS_twt as "world," thereby not allowing them to appear under "Top Five Albums," but include two other non-American artists, Justin Bieber and Harry Styles?

I needed to find out.

First, I asked what "core genre" actually means, because I'd never heard of that term before.

Nielsen: "Core genres are 'one and only one', meaning if something is Rock (for example), it can't be flagged as another genre. If we don't use Core Genre, we have overlap, where one album can be eligible for multiple genres. In this case, BTS is World Music for core genre."

Ok, that does give some clarity as to the meaning of "core genre."

But the more important question remained: Why does Nielsen classify @BTS_twt as "world music" but not these other non-American artists?

Nielsen didn't want me to attribute the next quote to them. They told me they were sharing it "on background," which is journalism speak for not saying they said it.

But I never agreed to that, so I'm sharing it with you all anyway.

Nielsen said: "On background, from a pure data perspective, music is placed into core genres based on where it best fits. While BTS may be Pop music in other parts of the world, in the US, it is World Music first and Pop music second."

Nielsen continued: "Unlike Harry Styles and Justin Bieber, the majority of BTS’ music is in Korean, not English. Language is another factor - music in Spanish is classified as Latin from a genre perspective and even if it is Latin Pop, it is still classified as Latin, not Pop."

So, there you have it. Because @BTS_twt doesn't sing in English, Nielsen classifies them as "world music" first and "pop music" second.

Harry Styles and Justin Bieber are treated differently, even though Harry Styles is English and Justin Bieber is Canadian.

For those who want to understand "on background" better, here's a little journalism lesson.

TL;DR It's an agreement between a reporter and a source. If the reporter doesn't agree to it, it means nothing.

(/Thread.) https://www.thebalancesmb.com/off-the-record-on-background-and-not-for-attribution-2295934