ITZY was once the backbone of JYP's Gen4 girl groups, pioneering and shaping the K-pop industry.
However, despite their explosive debut phase, ITZY is gradually fading away from the spotlight
on the girl group scene Despite a string of music releases, ITZY has
failed to make any significant impact.
In 2022, the group made two comebacks, but neither lived up to expectations.
In fact, they were not only unable to compete with their direct rivals, aespa, but were
even overshadowed by their younger labelmates.
What has happened to ITZY?
From Gen4 pioneering girl group with outstanding achievements
Debuting in February 2019 and quickly rising to fame with their debut hit "Dalla Dalla,"
ITZY was hailed as a breath of fresh air for JYP with their girl crush concept.
Breaking the YouTube record set by their seniors, "Dalla Dalla" also had the highest music chart
score among K-pop girl groups in 2019.
Though they didn't achieve an all-kill, their songs dominated the charts across Asia in
the first half of 2019, propelling ITZY to stardom.
Cut of footage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNfTK39k55U After five months since their debut mini-album,
ITZY returned to the music scene with their second mini-album, "IT'z ICY," featuring the
title track "ICY."
The five girls continued to prove their popularity by achieving impressive results in music charts,
album sales, and YouTube views With their previous successes, ITZY continued
their momentum by releasing "Wannabe" in March 2020, further solidifying the reputation and
unique style of the one-year-old rookie group.
It only took "Wannabe" just over 5 days to reach 50 million views, setting a record for
a rookie group.
The hand gesture choreography by Ryujin quickly went viral and the song's message of self-assertion
was widely embraced.
With their album "Not Shy" released in August 2020, ITZY sold 144,355 copies in the first
week alone.
The music video for the title track, "Not Shy," officially became the group's fastest
MV to reach 100 million views in just 1 month and 10 days.
This is a remarkable achievement for a rookie group, demonstrating their strong breakthrough.
The images of the five JYP girls dominated social media in 2020, turning it into a successful
year of celebration for ITZY's one-year anniversary.
It can be said that at the time of ITZY's debut, when there were not many Gen4 leading
groups, ITZY was a pioneering girl group, leading Kpop with both achievements and complete
media effects.
The declining achievements and lackluster comeback that no one knows about
Despite their remarkable achievements at debut, it's sad to see that Itzy has lost their momentum.
The Itzy name has cooled down and is no longer as captivating compared to new competitors
such as aespa, IVE, and Newjeans.
The music of ITZY has not been able to hold the audience's attention for a long time.
Since mid-2021, ITZY has shown signs of slowing down in terms of achievements.
In 2021, ITZY released two music products, Mafia In The Morning and LOCO, but did not
achieve much success.
2022 was a year entirely dedicated to girl groups as not only a series of powerful rookies
debuted but also prominent girl groups of Gen 3 and Gen 2 made their comebacks.
And in that "fire pit," ITZY, despite their active activities, was completely lost.
They made two comebacks with Sneaker and Cheshire, but the situation was still alarming.
The song "Sneakers", living up to the expectation of most Kpop fans, Itzy once again showed
a decline in their performance as the track's achievement fell short of their previous release
"LOCO".
On the first day of release, the total number of listens for the song was only 784,901,
which is an alarming number compared to "LOCO", which garnered 1,238,882 listens.
Even though "Sneakers" was just released for two days, it still couldn't surpass the digital
chart performance of IVE's "Love Dive", which was released three months earlier.
In ITZY's stronghold, the Spotify chart, both "Sneakers" and "Cheshire" failed to make it
to the top of the Spotify Daily chart.
The "Cheshire" MV only received 6.6 million views on the first day, a relatively low number
for a group that has broken records like ITZY.
Moreover, all four songs witnessed a sharp decline in digital charts, with views on YouTube
stagnating.
Album sales are the only area where Itzy can maintain its momentum.
Although they reached a new peak on the Billboard 200 chart, Itzy's international performance
has generally declined compared to their previous comeback and has fallen behind other leading
gen 4 groups.
So what are the reasons for Itzy's decline?
ITZY's slowdown in the past year is not surprising.
Looking at the album sales and international achievements, ITZY is actually still growing,
but the growth rate is too slow to soar higher.
Their reputation in the domestic market is also at a moderate level, with no prospects
for rising to a higher level.
1.
The negligent management approach of JYP Certainly, JYP is aware of this.
But why isn't there a specific strategy to promote the group?
Even the company's investment in ITZY is very lackluster, with a lack of creativity and
diminishing resources allocated to the group.
And then, when JYP announced the debut of the new girl group NMIXX in February 2022,
people realized something startling: ITZY is not the main project in the company's strategy
for developing the next generation of girl groups.
Going back to ITZY's debut in February 2019, at that time TWICE was still the top girl
group, the most important revenue stream of the company with stable sales in Japan and
a strong reputation in Korea.
To this day, TWICE's contribution to the company's revenue still leads among JYP's "chickens."
Thus, it can be seen that ITZY's debut was not because JYP lacked successors for the
company's business, or wanted to create a top Gen4 girl group.
It was simply because JYP wanted an additional revenue source.
Additionally, JYP's need to share resources with TWICE, NMIXX, NiZiU, and the upcoming
new girl group (JYPn) will make it difficult for ITZY to receive the attention and investment
that they deserve 2.
JYP's failure in their experimental strategy The root cause of ITZY's lack of success lies
in JYP's unsuccessful experimentation strategy.
The company clearly aimed to create a new girl group that was distinct from its past
traditions.
ITZY was marketed as a "girl crush" concept, which was completely different from the styles
of TWICE, Miss A, or Wonder Girls.
However, this approach has become quite saturated.
Meanwhile, audiences have become accustomed to powerful girl groups like MAMAMOO and BLACKPINK.
Although ITZY has strong dance skills, their vocal abilities are relatively weak.
Lia, who is the best vocalist in the group, often has to adjust her pitch to fit the group's
songs, which limits her full potential.
This vocal weakness has made it difficult for ITZY to maintain long-term success and
win over neutral audiences.
Moreover, ITZY's ambitious international expansion plans have been hindered by the Covid-19 pandemic
since early 2020.
3.
Not actively promoting Even in their promotion strategy, there are
still lingering issues.
JYP does not truly focus on promoting the group as they do not allow Itzy to pursue
individual activities such as acting, hosting, participating in variety shows, solo projects,
or DJ on radio programs like other artists in the company to boost their fame.
Almost every Kpop group has 1 to 2 hot members to attract fans.
In Itzy, Ryujin or Yuna have the potential to become hot members through individual activities,
but unfortunately JYP has not done so.
Many people believe that JYP is not making good use of the group's strengths, causing
opportunities for fame to be wasted.
4.
Music lacks innovation, not attracting audiences.
In terms of music, ITZY lacks a strong enough title track to surpass other groups in 2022.
While IVE has "Love Dive" and aespa has "Girls," ITZY's music is not viral, and even falls
behind due to a lack of appeal to the public.
The group has had a considerable number of comebacks, but most of their songs are one-dimensional
and sometimes have lyrics that are considered empty.
The excessive number of comebacks has made the group's music monotonous, lacking breakthrough
elements, and gradually falling behind in achievements.
Over time, the public has become too familiar with this musical style, and they are no longer
curious or looking forward to ITZY's new products every time there is a comeback announcement.
5.
The skills of ITZY’s members In addition, there are opinions that the problem
lies with ITZY themselves.
The members of the group are only skilled in dancing, while their singing abilities
are quite ordinary.
Even in their first year of activity, JYP's girls were criticized for some performances
that were not really good, with weak and unstable vocals.
Main vocalist Lia's ranking dropped from Weak to average vocalist to Weak vocalist.
Yuna is also said to have a weak singing voice.
The group's rap skills may not be really good either, as Ryujin and Yeji's rap skills are
not highly evaluated.
The skill that ITZY members do best is dancing.
However, dancing alone is not enough to create success for an idol group.
However, recently, ITZY has been focusing more on live singing on stages and showing
significant and stable progress in their vocal abilities.
6.
The emergence of many strong competitors Another reason for ITZY's cooling off is the
emergence of many strong rivals from major entertainment companies.
Aespa is the most prominent name among them.
Although debuting almost 2 years later than ITZY, aespa's current position is very strong
with a series of impressive achievements from music charts, album sales, to popularity with
the Korean public.
Even ITZY's proud achievement on the Billboard 200 chart has been surpassed by aespa, whose
album "Girl" helped the 4 SM girls achieve the highest ranking among gen4 girl groups
on this prestigious chart.
In addition, the debut of IVE also threatens ITZY's position.
As soon as they debuted, the Starship rookies surpassed ITZY to win the title of the girl
group with the fastest music show debut win in just 7 days.
The name Newjeans also makes ITZY cautious as the group has owned 3 consecutive hits
since debut and become the longest-running K-pop group with a PAK-certified song.
Moreover, Kep1er, (G)-IDLE, and Le Sserafim are also strong competitors that ITZY needs
to beware of.
All issues from music, concept, to promotion strategies, or even subjective attitudes from
the members have made the public feel regretful for the group.
From being a pioneering girl group shaping gen4 at debut, ITZY is now sinking in the
market.
. If at the time of debut, ITZY was the pioneering girl group shaping gen4, from 2021 onwards,
the JYP girl group has to "give up the game" to contemporaries like aespa and IVE.
Although there are many potentials to exploit, if JYP continues to not address the issues
surrounding the group, ITZY will fall further behind.
Fans always hope for positive changes from JYP to help ITZY rise again and regain its
position as the leading girl group of gen 4.
With their potential for development and previous successes, if they improve their skills and
have appropriate strategies, ITZY will surely come back strong and meet the expectations
of their fandom, Midzy.
So, do you think ITZY is going down as many assume?
Or do you believe in a brighter future for the group?