Global Girl Group KATSEYE
As a fan of K-pop for nearly 10 years, I’ve seen the evolution of this music genre going from
relatively underground in the US to exploding into mainstream music that has millions of fans all over the world, as it now sits on a global stage. Since 2020, I have noticed the steady acceptance into Western Record Labels who look to learn and grow from what is happening with K-pop, most notably building a fanbase similar to the average K-pop fan (meaning superfans).
Am I surprised? Nope, not at all. I have always wondered why artists and labels in the US aren’t doing what K-pop is doing, especially on the fan and artist interaction side. Having faithful, loyal, and diehard fans definitely don’t hurt an audience. In fact, if you don’t know this, it is extremely beneficial. Aside from supporting an artist by going to concerts, streaming their music, and following them on social media, fans have become the media themselves. This means that out of love for an artist, fans will spread the word about a new release, an upcoming tour, or any interviews they have attended.
If you are a K-pop fan, you are probably very familiar, to the point of intuition, with what a high level of fan and artist interaction is and how you, the fan, are the media. Through fan calls and fan meets, montages of funny moments, clips of interviews edited with funny captions and music, edits, buying albums, going to cup-sleeve events, fans will (sometimes, not always) die on a hill for their idols– that is how intense, and fun, being a K-pop fan is. In turn, K-pop groups receive unwavering support and love, catapulting them to become the top artist in the world, or at least an album or two.
Since 2021, HYBE and Interscope Record entered into a partnership of sorts (aside from Interscope being the US counterpart for all groups under HYPE labels) by putting together a girl group to fulfill this very notion of superfans, but in the US. You may have heard of them: KATSEYE. Together, and with the HYPE Training & Development team, they looked, auditioned, and cast a group of 20 girls out of a pool of 120,000+ applicants from around the world, who underwent the training program that HYBE has developed for their trainees. From this, six women formed the group KATSEYE, coined as a 'Global Girl Group.'
I think that this is just the beginning of seeing Western artists and labels tap into some of the elements that make up K-pop, especially as the genre becomes more and more mainstream and sees more and more success.
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