Melon names Rescene the standout act of 2026's first half for a two-year old song powered by a meme

One of the biggest music-chart stories in Korea this year wasn't about a song released this year. It was about girl group Rescene's 2024 song “Love Attack.” 

Melon, Korea's prominent music streaming service, named Rescene as the standout artist of the first half of 2026 in a chart published Thursday. The five-member group's 2024 lead track “Love Attack” first appeared No. 904 on Melon's daily chart and quickly faded — like many lesser known K-pop songs. The song, however, climbed back to No. 5 on Melon's Top 100 by the end of June, nearly two years later. 

And now the song has landed at the top of Melon's Top 100 chart as of Wednesday. 

The revival is a classic example of what Koreans call a yeokjuhaeng, or reverse run, which refers to songs that shoot back up the charts long after their release and official promotional periods. 

This one was set in motion by a meme: a cheerful “Geojae Yaho” catchphrase, roughly translating to “Hey Geojae,” from member Woni's YouTube in February that spread across short-form feeds this spring. As the meme took off, so did the group's music. 

Streaming of “Love Attack” jumped as much as 2,019 percent compared to before the video, Melon said, and searches for Rescene rose more than 6,500 percent.

Elsewhere on the chart, girl group IVE and music duo AKMU tied for the most weeks at No. 1, with six each, while girl group I. O. I reached the top a decade after its debut.

Rescene dropped the song “Pretty Girl” on Wednesday, a cover of the popular KARA song from 2009. 

BY CHO YONG-JUN [[email protected]]