KATSEYE Looks to Expand K-pop’s Global Appeal

The band

KATSEYE is a girl group, and much like other modern girl groups like Fifth Harmony and Little Mix, they were formed from a competition. What makes KATSEYE stand out is that the girls’ training and music are all influenced by Korean music. They have this modern it-girl aesthetic that is very trendy. 

KATSEYE debuted on June 27, 2024, with the six winners of the competition: Sophia, Lara, Daniela, Yoonchae, Megan, and Manon in the order they were announced. In their debut album, they experiment with two title tracks: “Debut” has a more Western pop sound, and “Touch” is very much a K-pop song, just in English.

“Touch” was a massive hit. At the time of this article, “Touch” has over 171,000,000 streams on Spotify. It became a dance trend on TikTok, and because it bridges Asian and Western music, people who usually don’t touch K-pop with ten foot pole got sucked in. From creators on 小红书 (xiaohongshu) to performing live on Good Morning America, “Touch” had officially gone global. 

The industry

For the last 10 years, Korean music has been growing its international fanbase and this spread has only been getting faster. Groups like 2NE1 and Girls Generation broke into the international scene in the 2000s and opened up the world for girl groups, and K-pop in general gained fans outside of Korea. More recently, groups like Twice, Blackpink, BTS, and Red Velvet have further garnered more eyes on the K-pop industry than ever before. Many of these groups had at least one member fluent in English and in recent years many Korean songs released had more and more English lyrics. Nowadays, groups release many full songs in English, have English and Japanese versions of their songs, and tour in Europe, North America, South America, and Japan. Many groups even have full Japanese and English albums. 

One thing to note about K-pop is that all groups have a managing company, and not all of these companies are made equal. There are three Korean companies dubbed the “Big 3”: JYP, SM, and YG Entertainment. These companies are huge; their trainees and idols are all professionally trained and have many recourses and international reach. Any group or artist under these agencies is guaranteed success and fame; however, a new monster agency may just make the Big 3 the Big 4: Hybe Entertainment

Hybe Entertainment may not seem like a familiar name at first, but their biggest group, BTS, sure is. BTS was quite literally a global sensation, they have millions of fans, and even more millions of people have at least heard of them. Originally BTS was under Big Hit Entertainment, but Hybe has bought up Big Hit and many other companies including Ador (Newjeans’ company), Source Music (Le Sserafim and Gfriend), Be:lift (Illit), Pledis (Fromis_9), and more. They have a branch of Hybe in the US, which none other than Ariana Grande is under. KATSEYE is under Hybe Entertainment, but the group is co-owned by American label Geffen Records.

Geffen is worth 500 million dollars and many popular artists such as Cher, Olivia Rodrigo, Elton John, Snoop Dogg, and Guns n’ Roses are under Geffen Records. They have worked with many Western artists and are merged with Interscope and A&M Records. Geffen is a huge player in American music and to have Korea’s and America's best collab on one group is sure to make a huge splash in the music industry. 

The survival show that formed KATSEYE reviewed over 120,000 applications from all over the world and brought on 20 to compete. The fact that it was a competition and that they would go public was actually hidden from the girls, but the questionable and somewhat cruel process of Dream Academy can be talked about in-depth in a separate article. For over a year, the girls were professionally trained in LA. The trainees had to compete in “missions” where they had the opportunity to show off their singing and dance skills. Fans could vote for whichever member they choose and the Dream Academy contestants were then ranked based on how popular they were with fans. The final mission’s outcome was influenced by the fans as well as a panel of judges. 

Sophia, Lara, Daniela, Yoonchae, Megan, and Manon

Sophia gained a lot of attention during Dream Academy because she is one of the only Filipinas in the K-pop industry. She is the group’s leader and well rounded, and skilled in singing and dancing. Lara is an Indian American and was brought into the training program a little later. She is incredibly good at singing and got scouted for Dream Acadamy because of her large following on TikTok, where she posted song covers. Daniela is Latina and has performed ballroom dance since she was young. She trained to learn to dance in a different style and is now considered the best dancer in KATSEYE. Yoonchae is Korean and had auditioned in Korea multiple times before KATSEYE. She is the youngest in the group born in 2007, debuting at 16. Megan is half white and half Chinese and grew up in Hawaii. Manon is from Switzerland and is the face of the group. Being half Ghanian, she is one of the first Black girls to be in the K-pop industry and had to train all her skills from scratch because, before Dream Academy, she had never sung and danced.

KATSEYE performed at MAMA (Mnet Asian Music Awards) 2024 in LA. That performance garnered attention for having a cheer concept with the LA Rams Cheerleaders as their backup dancers, and a bone-breaking dance break. They’ve released a holiday version of “Touch” and performed at Jingle Ball which has gone viral due to music and volume issues, but again, KATSEYE has come out on top. These sound issues could have been detrimental to a group with less developed vocal skills, but KATSEYE’s strong vocals shined even when the backing vocals were compromised. 

I have been a fan of K-pop for a long time and seeing a group like KATSEYE on the rise has me really excited. Their music style is similar to what I already listen to and the members are very active on social media. Their content is funny and creative. Having a group that is so diverse makes me happy because since the style and look of K-pop are so beautiful, seeing it in more people makes me hope for more groups like them. 

I can’t wait to see what KATSEYE will accomplish next.