[TALKING TRENDS] 'Bang-board'

Seo Jeong-min
The author is a senior reporter of the JoongAng Ilbo.

Billboard tabulates the popularity of songs and albums on a weekly basis on its Billboard Hot 100 and Billboard 200 charts. They have been published in Billboard magazine every week since 1936.

In the 1980s and '90s, there was a gil-board chart in Korea, using the Korean word gil, meaning street, and the English word board. Back then, pirate mixtapes which contained hit songs by popular singers used to be sold on the street. Songs were chosen and recorded on audio cassette tapes by street vendors.

In a nutshell, those tapes served as a street version of the charts you can see online today.

Because it was illegal, there was no exact data on whose songs were copied or which tapes were sold the most. However, songs that were played by street vendors let you know which singers and songs were popular at that time.

Thirty years have passed and the gil-board chart is long gone. Instead, a bang-board chart has emerged, winning the hearts of young Koreans. Bang-board chart is a newly-coined word which combined bank and billboard.

As the interest rate keeps increasing, commercial banks and savings banks are racing to raise their deposit interest rates. Charts that show the rates in the order from the highest to lowest are posted on investing communities on a daily basis.

Jjantechers, who dream of making a fortune by saving every penny, cannot help but feel grateful for the bang-charts, as they can check the ever-changing bank interest rates and find the bank accounts offering the best deals.

Of course, a mixtape you spent a whole day to make as a gift for your friend might not suit their tastes. So, rather than being obsessed with the numbers alone, investigate thoroughly whether a bank account actually suits your economic situation.

BY SEO JEONG-MIN [meantree@joongang.co.kr]