October is shaping up to be a girl group battleground: IVE, NMIXX, ILLIT, and MEOVV are all rolling out new music within a two-week stretch, while RESCENE’s two-year-old tracks won’t leave the top of the charts.
According to AtStyle, the crowded lineup pits four very different concepts against a chart already ruled by RESCENE’s reverse-run hits, setting up a fall race for chart supremacy.
MEOVV strikes first on October 12 with the single “GO HARD,” about four months after June’s mini album “BITE NOW.” NMIXX follows on October 19 with sixth mini album “Strange Muse,” led by title track “Birthday Wish” and three debut unit songs — Lily and Haewon, Sullyoon and Bae, Jiwoo and Kyujin — with the members on lyrics and Kyujin also credited as a composer.
IVE drops a pre-release track the same day ahead of the full album “Looks Can Kill” on October 26, this time as six “girl heroes.” ILLIT closes the run on October 26 with fifth EP “BREAK EVEN” and the title track “Chepohagesseo” (“I’ll Arrest You”), with HYBE chairman Bang Si-hyuk credited on every track.
The competition is steep: IVE has 83 music show wins and a sixth career perfect all-kill this year, ILLIT’s last single hit No. 2 on Melon and No. 26 on the Billboard 200, and NMIXX just won the Sound of the Year daesang at the Fact Music Awards.
But the chart queen right now is RESCENE: “LOVE ATTACK” topped the Melon Top 100 two years after release, and the group holds three Top 5 spots — “LOVE ATTACK” at No. 2, “Deja Vu” at No. 4, “Pretty Girl” at No. 5 — with a fourth mini album due November 3.
With university festivals fueling RESCENE’s rise and four comebacks landing in two weeks, this fall’s chart race is only getting hotter.
