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Follow-Up to ‘Gangnam Style’ Hits No. 5

Psy performing Reuters Psy performing “Gentleman” in Seoul.

Two months ago, Billboard began incorporating YouTube views in the formula for computing its all-important Hot 100 singles chart, allowing viral-video smashes to reach No. 1 even if they trailed other songs in sales and airplay, two of the chart’s other criteria. Sure enough, Baauer’s “Harlem Shake,” a huge hit online, sailed to No. 1 in the first week of the new chart.

If one artist embodies viral video smashes, it is Psy, the South Korean singer and rapper of “Gangnam Style.” His new song, “Gentleman,” was released two weeks ago, and immediately racked up big numbers on YouTube. It hit 100 million views in four days, and is now at about 218 million. Sounds like a shoo-in for No. 1, right?

But this week “Gentleman” is only No. 5 on the Hot 100. One reason it didn’t reach higher is that YouTube’s publicly displayed tickers are for global views, but Billboard counts only those in the United States. According to Billboard, the song had 8.6 million streams here last week, which counts not only YouTube but also music services like Spotify.

“Gentleman” has also not caught on with pop radio (like “Gangnam Style,” it is sung mostly in Korean), and its sales are low for a song that is supposedly one of the most popular in the world. Last week it sold 72,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan, making it the 20th most downloaded track of the week â€" behind Tim McGraw’s “Highway Don’t Care,” which has been out for three months. The No. 1 song on the Hot 100 this week, Pink’s “Just Give Me a Reason,” had 262,000 downloads and 4.7 million streams.

Fall Out Boy tops Billboard’s album chart this week with “Save Rock and Roll” (Island), its first new release in five years, which sold 154,000 copies. The rapper Kid Cudi is No. 2 with this new “Indicud” (Republic), which sold 136,000, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ new “Mosquito” (Interscope) bowed at No. 5 with 38,000 sales.

Justin Timberlake’s “20/20 Experience” (RCA) remains at No. 3 with 76,000 sales, and Blake Shelton’s “Based on a True Story…” (Warner Brothers Nashville) likewise holds its spot at No. 4, with 42,000.