Breaking Free from the Idol Mold: How WOODZ Redefines His Career with ‘Drowning’

WOODZ 'Drowning' Live Clip (Stage Mix ver.)

Woodz has been enlisting for 304 days for now, which means that he has not been able to release any more commercial content like brand promotions, new songs, or merchandise. But, that does not stop him from getting more and  more recognition from the public.

His song ‘Drowning’ has been climbing its way up on several music platforms such as Apple Music, Bugs, MelOn, and Genie lately, not only by one or two numbers but it manages to reach 20-ish position and even single numbered position on the chart. The changes of the song’s position in the chart is pretty surprising knowing that this song was released a year ago, even with little promotion from Woodz himself it’s ability to stay in the chart is amazing.

This might be an outcome from his viral clip on YouTube where he performed ‘Drowning’ a month ago on ‘Immortal Songs 2’ as Corporal Cho Seungyoun in front of his fellow soldier, it gained more than 3 million streams on YouTube and went somehow back to viral again in South Korea. Ever since then, the chart of ‘Drowning’ has been climbing up slowly into reaching the current position and hasn't gone down in any bit lately.

Immortal Songs 2-Corporal Cho Seungyoun [WOODZ] 'Drowning'

‘Drowning’ charted along with songs from big artists like G-Dragon with his newest release after years of not releasing any song, Jennie’s first solo comeback with ‘Mantra’, Aespa’s latest title track ‘Whiplash’, and also not far from the song ‘APT’ by Rosé featuring Bruno Mars that has gone viral and played everywhere. As the weather gets colder, the desperation in ‘Drowning’ sounds even more sentimental and it adds to the experience of listening to it, with the heavy music going on, walking through snow or just simply listening to it when it rains will make you feel like you are in a music video. 

Woodz had been expressing his joy and gratefulness on the webtoon that he routinely releases as a content for his fans while he’s enlisting ‘Not Woodz but Cho Seungyoun’ in the webtoon he thanked his fans and listeners for making ‘Drowning’ charts in a high position. He expresses how happy he is with the situation and he said he feels like he’s full even if he did not eat by looking at his song charting while he’s doing training routines in his barrack. He also thanked his fans in person through his personal ‘X’ account and replied to a few of his fans and did a little chit-chat to celebrate ‘Drowning’s charts.
‘Drowning’s success showed us that true good music will continue to rise overtime. No need to do chart manipulation, when people really like a song then that song will chart high. For a rising star like Woodz, it is a very good thing that his song charts organically even with minimum promotion and it kind of becomes a gate into even bigger success and fame in the future.