I am not unorthodox. I am orthodox in a skewed world.
I run a weekly K-pop chart on TikTok and YouTube.
It is not like most charts.
Most charts are built for fandoms. They stack one group’s songs in the Top 10 to validate the fans who search for that validation. The algorithm rewards it. The views explode. The comments turn into battlegrounds. It works — if your goal is virality.
My chart follows a different rule: one song per group.
No stacking. No bias. No echo chamber. Just a weekly curation of the K-pop landscape, presented as objectively as I can manage.
It does not explode. It does not go viral. The algorithm is confused — it cannot decide whether to show it to a boy group fan, a girl group fan, or an indie soloist listener.
But the viewers who find it are not looking for validation. They are looking for discovery. They are multi-stans and casual listeners. They are loyal.
That is the trade-off. Slow growth, loyal audience.
And it was only recently, through a conversation about music copyright that turned into a deeper analysis, that I realised something.
My chart is not unorthodox. The world outside is skewed.
The chart mirrors who I am.
In a world that rewards tribalism — political, social, cultural — I have chosen neutrality. In a world that rewards echo chambers, I have chosen curation. In a world that rewards extremes, I have chosen consistency.
This makes me seem strange to some. “Why are you so strange?” is a question I have been asked more than once.
But the question assumes that I am the outlier.
I no longer believe that.
I believe the lens is the outlier. The world has skewed toward tribalism, and anything that does not feed that skew appears strange by comparison.
I am not strange.
I am orthodox.
I run my chart the way I run my life: one entry per group, no bias, no echo. It is slower. It is quieter. It is not designed for the algorithm.
But it is accurate. And the people who care about accuracy will find it.
That is the insight I wanted to share.
If you have ever been told you are strange for not fitting in, ask yourself: is the lens skewed, or are you?
Sometimes — not always, but sometimes — the answer is the lens.
#NPSAMCHOON #KPOP #Charts #Objectivity #HAS
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