With his new album “Rainy Rhapsody,” singer Lim Jae Hyun is being accused of “saejagi,” or chart manipulation.
This is the second time that fans have accused him of this. The song has gotten a lot of attention after doing very well on big music charts.
“Rainy Rhapsody” was number one on Melon’s Top 100 chart, which is Korea’s biggest music outlet, on January 12.
It also took the top spot on Genie Music’s weekly chart during the second week of January of that year. This song, which is a copy of Choi Jae Hoon‘s original, is a sad ballad about being apart.
The song’s popularity comes from the fact that it has a catchy tune and Lim Jae Hyun’s amazing singing voice.
“Rainy Rhapsody” did better than LE SSERAFIM‘s long-running hit “Perfect Night” on the Melon Top
100 chart and Taeyeon‘s “To.X” on the Genie Music weekly chart to become the number one song.
As of today, December 3, 2023, “Rainy Rhapsody” has been consistently and impressively popular for over a month, consistently holding high places on the charts. Lim Jae Hyun is getting ready to share a new song as early as this spring.
Even though there were earlier rumors that the artist was manipulating the charts, all of Korea’s investigating bodies—the police, the prosecution, and the judiciary (Eastern District Prosecutors’ Office)—have made it clear that the claim that “Singer Lim Jae Hyun is engaging in chart manipulation is unequivocally false.”
They confirmed that Lim Jae Hyun was not involved in any actions that changed charts. It turned out that Block B member Park Kyung had to pay Lim Jae Hyung 30 million KRW (~23,000 USD) to make up for falsely charging Lim Jae Hyun of “Sajaegi” in public.
However, netizens think that the charts may have been hacked because his most recent song again beat out many famous K-pop songs.
“The only way to see it is as chart manipulation is because fandom has an effect on sites like Melon,” said Korean internet users. How did a singer who doesn’t have many fans and isn’t well known in that area win first place?” “This is why I use Spotify.” Melon is full of trying to change the charts,” “I get that the song is good, but how did he beat LE SSERAFIM?” How about Taeyeon? Why not Aespa?” “There are songs that barely make it to the chart even if you stream the song for 24 hours straight for one month long,” “Am I the only one who doesn’t know about this song?” “Who is this?” And “Is there a new way to top the charts other than chart manipulation that we don’t know about?”
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