“Nilo” has apparently become a slang term in Korea for ranking high on music charts through manipulation.
Nilo is the obscure artist who received attention for beating EXO-CB and BIGBANG on the charts back in April.
Everyone’s Talking About This Obscure Indie Artist Beating EXO-CBX and BIGBANG In The Charts
As a result of his unbelievable ranking, beating EXO and TWICE, netizens began accusing his entertainment company, Limez Entertainment, of chart manipulation.
The company responded to accusations by claiming that their company specializes in viral marketing and has not manipulated the charts in any way.
Since the incident, a post claiming that they found “the next Nilo” has been garnering attention from netizens.
The post was titled, “The next hitter to take the mound on Melon after Nilo”.
A popular Facebook account that introduces new music had introduced two new less-known songs, guaranteeing that if their followers didn’t like it after listening, they could go ahead and unfollow their Facebook page.
The two songs they recommended were “Misfortune” by OVAN and “Way Back Home” by SHAUN.
After being introduced on the Facebook page, the song “Way Back Home” by SHAUN jumped from no. 49 to no. 38 on the charts extremely fast, arousing suspicions of chart manipulation.
Netizens have been suspecting that this was another case of chart manipulation.
- “The artist is from another company but that Facebook page is the place where they supported the Limez artists.”
- “Wow, they’re just blatantly doing it now.”
- “There goes their know-how again. Whether or not the song is good, there are plenty of good songs. The problem is that they’re using their ‘know-how’ to raise their rankings.”
- “Sounds like the same pattern Nilo went through.”
- “The damn know-how. I wish they’d stop discouraging hard-working musicians and just go away.”
Moreover, they have been using the word “Nilo” to describe the phenomenon. The word is apparently used as both an adjective and verb.
- “It’s very Nilo.”
- “But being popular on Facebook is not a problem. The problem is being Nilo. Maybe people started listening to the song more after it was posted on Facebook. Is there any evidence that they Niloed?”
- “They Niloed.”
- “No matter how good the song is, if they Nilo, it puts me off.”
- “I listened to it after seeing it here, but the song is pretty good lol but Niloing…let’s really stop doing that.”
- “This is why they go to great lengths to Nilo.”
