RAK, PAK, and CAK are the three terms you need to know about if you’ve fumbled around K-Pop charts. Know more about K-Pop charts and find out if your favorite K-Pop star has made it or not. South Korean Music isn’t all about pop. If categorized, it can be divided into genres of folk music, K-pop, and Western-influenced non-popular music. As we know, of all these genres, only K-Pop has managed to take over the world. How does one decide which songs have ranked higher than the others?
This is where the music charts become a necessity. These charts decide which solo or group performer is about to be the next big sensation in the K-Pop world. The South Korean Instiz iChart is considered to be the most trustworthy music chart. The charts divide themselves into real-time, daily, and weekly charts to show more transparency. South Korean music industry named these sections RAK, PAK, and CAK.
Let us take a look at what these terms mean.
Also read: Top K-Pop Soloists with the Highest Chart Rankings
What Does RAK Mean?
RAK or Real-time All Kill exposes songs that are hit in real-time. RAK is a South Korean music chart status to rank songs that are currently hit. The real-time data can only be found in the first-ever South Korean music chart called Instiz iChart. The online music chart uses a variety of ranking data from music streaming platforms and music agencies to conclude the rankings. Other major streaming platforms that calculate real-time ranking data include Genie, Vibe, Flo, Bugs! and Melon. These Real-time All Kill charts are usually updated every thirty minutes every day.
Other music chart statuses include PAK and CAK. PAK refers to a Perfect All-Kill. A song can only achieve the Perfect All-Kill if it attains the number 1 position in the real-time, daily, and weekly charts as well. CAK, on the other hand, refers to Certified All-Kill. A song is titled CAK when it reaches the topmost position in both real-time and daily charts.
How To Check Real-Time All Kill Chart?
To check the RAK chart in Instiz iChart, you need to go here. The website shows a graph window. At the top left of the graph, you can toggle between “weekly accumulation” and “real-time”. On clicking “real-time” it will show the chart with a specific date and time. If you scroll down, the list shows all the songs ranked in real-time. Don’t forget to translate the page if Korean is hard for you to read.
As of 18-08-2022 at 15:30 KST (12:00 pm IST), the Real-time chart shows NewJeans’ “Attention” song listed as #1. The song has also scored #1 weekly. “Attention” is currently #1 on Daily Top 100, according to Melon and Genie. The next songs that follow “Attention” in the chart are “Hype boy”, “At That Moment”, Forever 1″, and “Love Dive”. The charts, therefore, conclude that the girl groups like NewJeans and Girls’ Generation are easily on the list of best K-Pop artists. The graph also helps to identify which songs have suddenly grown into fame and which songs could not keep their pace intact.
However, the charts are moving fast, and they are not recorded forever on the website. Anyone can access them only for three months. It only helps new artists to come under the limelight more often.
Also Read: Most Hated K-pop Idol 2022: Who Might It Be?
