There’s no need to argue when saying that the super competitive environment has made
the K-pop industry become a real survival battle for idols.
Once they didn’t refresh themselves to satisfy netizens or didn’t receive proper support
from their agency, they would soon be blurred in the midst of the K-pop world where others
are trying hard to take their place.
Currently, there are some groups and idols who are said to have been facing this situation.
If you’re curious, there’s nothing quite like staying tuned with our video to figure
out who they are.
1.
ITZY
Since dropping their debut, ITZY has taken over the Kpop world thanks to many hit songs.
However recently, there are many signs showing that the girl group is gradually losing their
own reputation.
Many netizens noticed the alarming performance of ITZY when none of their songs reached top
Spotify Daily this year.
Their latest mini-album 'Cheshire' was expected to hit a turning point like what Sneakers
have done to the group but unfortunately, its low chart rank, which is even below the
average, has let everyone down.
Accordingly, after 24 hours of release, Cheshire just received 6.6 million views and 635 thousand
likes on Youtube, which is half that of Sneakers.
Though after running Youtube ads, the number of views has increased but not really considerably.
What’s more, it just needed at least 980 million streams to win a place in Spotify’s
chart, surprisingly, Cheshire couldn’t make it too.
Needless to say, many believed that ITZY was left behind by their rivals as they didn’t
receive as many awards as expected.
Some even assumed that ITZY now couldn’t escape from the huge shadow of their previous
hit songs like Dalla Dalla, Wannabe, and Sneakers.
Objectively speaking, there are many given reasons that could account for their current
heat loss.
One of them is the fact that ITZY has to share the spotlight with numerous new gen4 girl
groups that have mushroomed recently like NewJeans, IVE, Le Sserafim, etc.
They, thus, have more competitors, and the biggest rival of them is Le Sserafim who has
a similar concept with their reputation remarkably rising, especially with the song Antifragile,
which climbed up straight to a high place in Spotify chart global.
Many netizens were concerned that if ITZY couldn’t make any changes to their upcoming
products, Le Sserafim would immediately get in all their way and take over their market.
What’s also worth mentioning is that ITZY’s agency, JYP Entertainment, supposedly didn’t
launch a proper marketing strategy to promote ITZY’s individual activity though all the
members are evaluated to be really talented.
While other agencies all try to push each member in their groups with multiple individual
activities, JYP is just treading water in group activities only, which was said to not
help increase the members' recognition.
Not only that, it’s easy to see that one of the most important factors that make ITZY’s
previous songs successful is the eye-catching and powerful choreography, but in their comeback
with ‘Cheshire’, the choreography was said to be too underwhelming and not live
up to netizens’ expectation.
That’s why many MIDZYs are demanding JYP take action to turn the tables and lead the
girl group to the right track as soon as possible.
2.
OH MY GIRL
Another group that netizens believe is losing its reputation is Oh My Girl.
Previously, after participating in Queendom and releasing back-to-back hits namely “Nonstop”,
“Dolphin”, “Dun Dun Dance” within the last few years, Oh My Girl has become
one of the most outstanding 3rd generation girl groups.
They were also considered one of the “digital monsters” in Korea and even surpassed a
series of formidable opponents such as BLACKPINK and TWICE to achieve a record with the song
“Non-stop”.
However, it’s likely that netizens are losing interest in Oh My Girl and their songs because
recently, Oh My Girl has ended up performing poorly on many charts with “Real Love”.
On Melon, “Real Love” has dropped to an even lower rank than Oh My Girl’s previous
title track released nearly a year ago, “Dun Dun Dance”.
Besides the underwhelming digital rankings, the physical sales of “Real Love” are
also disappointing.
After 6 days, “Real Love” only sold about 48,240 copies.
This number is not even close to the first-day sales of Oh My Girl’s 8th ep Dear OHMYGIRL
with 53 thousand copies.
Thus, many wondered why the group cannot be able to maintain their popularity anymore.
To explain this, fans claimed that their comeback with Real Love deviates from the concept that
made Oh My Girl so successful, and the songs in this album are quite terrible.
Moreover, they also pointed out that “Real Love” MV is a copy of Dun Dun Dance, which
gives off a sense of boredom when watching.
Whereas, some said that it’s time for gen4 groups to gain ground so the fact that a gen3
group like Oh My Girl gradually loses their popularity is totally understandable.
Moreover, Oh My Girl’s spare comeback schedule (only once a year) is also one of the key
factors that have made Oh My Girl’s reputation steadily drop.
3.
Leeseo (IVE)
When talking about idols’ fame that is dropping, Leeseo, the maknae of the super rookie girl
group, IVE, is another name that comes up in many netizens’ minds . It can be said
that since debuted, IVE has achieved countless success beyond netizens’ expectation with
a string of hits: the mesmerizing debut with “Eleven” which has become wholly inescapable
on TikTok; the captivating second single “Love Dive,” or a sentiment that's furthered by
the delirious, disco fuelled majesty of the latest single After LIKE.
They are what the Korean entertainment industry likes to call “monster rookies,”.
In contrast to the ever-increasing popularity of the girl group, netizens believe that Leeseo’s
reputation is getting down.
This opinion has received mixed explosive reactions from both Korean and international
fans.
Some agree with that opinion and say that Leeseo is getting lost in her popularity because
almost no one has mentioned her since After LIKE.
On social platforms, people are mostly praised Wonyoung for her surreal visual, Gaeul for
her skillful hair-flipping and catchy rap, or Yujin for her outstanding stage presence,
and even Liz as well as Rei for their controversial figures.
All of this seems to take all of Leeseo's attention although she is the youngest and
freshest in IVE.
Some even admitted that when watching IVE’s stage, they always keep their eyes on Wonyoung
or Gaeul because of their doll-like visuals and charisma.
Besides, they claimed that if Leeseo had debuted in another girl group that doesn’t have
such prominent members like Wonyoung, Yujin or Gaeul, perhaps she would have built up
an enviable reputation with her sweet visuals and talents.
What’s more, while most members have got their own endorsement deals, Leeseo hasn’t
got any.
For example, Wonyoung is the muse of many brands such as MiuMiu and Innisfree, Yujin
has also signed contracts with various well-known brands such as Pepsi and Burberry Beauty,
Liz and Rei also attracted attention with their own CF for Bonajouror Olive Young’s
Vegan Beauty campaign.
Meanwhile, Leeseo stills stand without any advertising contracts.
Therefore, her reputation does not seem to increase but in fact gradually declines.
However, many fans defended that it’s not that Leeseo is cooling off, but IVE is actually
taking turns being popular.
It can be clearly seen that Wonyoung and Yujin are well-known in Eleven, then Leeseo and
Liz in Love Dive, then Rei and Gaeul in After Like.
Moreover, Leeseo is too young to handle being said to be not enough.
Really, netizens expect too much from a young girl as they bash her just because she doesn't
meet their expectations.
So, aside from Leeseo's case since it seems a bit absurd, what do you think about netizens
thinking that ITZY and Oh My Girl are losing popularity?
If that's true, what do you think is the real reason behind it?