Dreamcatcher While the group is one of the rare acts managing
to go up the river in the hyper-competitive industry, this story is still only true outside
their homeland. Because the rock, heavy metal and dark concept
has never been the taste of South Korea, their rank in the country is rather low despite
having debuted for 4 years. In their peak years from 2017 to 2019, they
had never managed to set foot into the top 20 most famous KPOP girl groups in Korea.
Yep, after three years into the industry with multiple achievements offshore and some real
big world tours, they only ranked at 47th out of 50 most famous acts in KPOP.
Not only that, their agency even had to send four out of seven members to MIXNINE to boost
up the reputation of Dreamcatcher in South Korea.
But, hold on, their reputation overseas is a completely different story.
Towards the end of the year Dreamcatcher debuted, they received critical acclaim from music
critics worldwide for their unique sound that incorporated influences of rock and metal
music. "Chase Me" was ranked No. 19 on Billboard's Best Kpop Songs of 2017: Critics' Picks and
the group was also listed No. 3 on Billboard's Best New Kpop Acts in 2017.
If the context is in South Korea, you can hardly ever imagine how a group like Dreamcatcher
can be put above the literal queens of KPOP like BLACKPINK and TWICE.
However, if you’re in Japan, you’ll see how normal this is because in the past, there
was even an article in Japan praising Dreamcatcher while contrasting them with the aces of YG
and JYP.
On top of that, even when Dreamcatcher just released their first ever EP under their new
name titled Prequel on July 27, they immediately debuted at No.5 on the the Billboard World
Albums Chart and peaked at No. 1 on the US iTunes K-Pop Top 100 Chart.
Their coverage offshore was so huge that in 2018, just one year after debut, they had
already toured 7 countries in Europe as part of their “Fly High” world tour.
Well, Dreamcatcher’s reputation in other countries is in huge contrast with theirs
in Korea. Even when they will hardly ever get the massive
like from their country like other girl groups, fans still hope that the talents of Dreamcatcher
will soon be recognized Korean audience.
EVERGLOW While the group had a fairly good start in
South Korea with the debut song Bon Bon Chocolat in 2019, they didn’t manage to grow further
in the domestic market with their following comebacks.
Despite having been in the industry for two years with up to five promotions: Bon Bon
Chocolat, Dun Dun, Adios, La Di Da and FIRST, they have just only gotten their first win
on Music Show for Adios and recently another one for FIRST.
The number of album sales was just okayish, with the highest being around 37,000 copies
for the latest one and the lowest for around 28,000 copies. [disappointed meme gif]
In fact, you may not even need to look at these figures to know that EVERGLOW isn’t
doing well in South Korea because FOREVER themselves have also voiced about this matter
multiple times on the Internet. On Reddit, an article titled “ATEEZ & Everglow
will never make it big in Korea...” got up to 84% upvote and fans had nothing to say
but admit the truth that their fanbase is larger offshore than in South Korea.
On top of that, the Youtube channel Kimchi or DimSum even made a video about “Why EVERGLOW
is NOT POPULAR in KOREA” (1:19-1:34) and said that as to their contents about EVERGLOW,
among thousands of viewers, no one had ever came from South Korea.
However, in contrast to the nonchalant attitude of domestic fans, the group received quite
a warm welcome from the international audience. Just with their debut song alone, EVERGLOW
had already peaked at No.5 on the World Digital Song Sales Chart, selling 5,000 copies in
the States as of August – which was ¼ of the total sales in South Korea. [meme gif
nod of approval] As their reputation offshore was so great,
just eleven months after their debut, EVERGLOW was set to embark on their first Everlasting
Tour in the States, going through five big cities: Dallas, Atlanta, Chicago, Jersey City
and Los Angeles.
LOONA Debuting in 2016 with a line-up of 12 members,
LOONA still struggles to thrive in the home market despite having gained a fair amount
of achievements offshore.
So basically, if they debut in 2016 then it has been 5 years since they entered the industry,
right? Still after tons of promotions, the first
win on a music show they got was after the song So What that was released in February
2020. Since their debut, the group has never gotten
to set their foot on the top 20 of the Girl Group Brand Reputation Rankings and about
their single albums…maybe it’s hard to believe but the highest number of copies they
got was around 116,000 and the lowest being just over 61,000.
With the nickname “the girl group that is invested 8 times more than TWICE,” those
have never been good figures at all.
However, in total contrast with their performance in the home market, LOONA has been doing insanely
well overseas. Until now, the group has made four achievements
on Billboard’s social chart system: “Butterfly” ranked No. 6 in the Digital Digital Song Sales
chart, the album “XX” ranked 4th at the World Albums, just behind 3 albums of BTS,
and reached 8th in the Heatseeker Album chart. And you know what’s even more mind-blowing?
LOONA even won the award of Outstanding Korean Artist at the MTV Europe Music Awards 2018
- the time that they hadn't achieved anything in Korea. [Oh my god wow meme]
Of course LOONA’s fans are well aware of this situation but since their concept and
music taste hasn’t fit well with the general public in South Korea, there was nothing much
to be done as fans themselves.
KARD Until now, South Korea still has only one
internationally famous co-ed act and that is no doubt KARD. However, things haven’t
been so good for them in the domestic market and the situation has been going for so long
that it’s not hard to see opinions like “the public is sleeping on KARD,” and
“KARD is literally nothing in South Korea”. As an international KPOP fan, maybe you will
find it hard to believe but yes, their reputation was so low in the country that at one point,
they prepared about 20 snacks for fans coming to see them at a music show but ended up taking
back some because 20 was still too much. [crying cat meme]
After the group debuted in 2017, their single “Oh NaNa” was met with international success,
charting at No.4 on the US iTunes Kpop chart and ranking at number 10 for the same iTunes
chart in Japan, while also being reported to have entered music charts in the UK and
France. Following the release of the song, Billboard
magazine included KARD in its list of "10 Best New K-pop Groups in 2016," ranking at
number 8 with the group making it into the list just eight days after starting their
pre-debut project. Oh NaNa then became the group's first entry into the Billboard World
Digital Song Sales chart, with the song peaking at number 5 and remaining on the said chart
for 8 weeks.
Their successes offshore were so big that right in the year they debuted, the group
had already embarked on their first concert tour, which was held in 11 cities covering
Canada, the United States, Mexico, and Brazil. [wow meme gif]
Back to the domestic scale, things were quite gloomy. Until now, their achievements in South
Korea were pretty unimpressive. No member of KARD has ever appeared on the top 20 on
individual reputation ranking since debut and on music shows, they haven’t ever got
any wins since debut. Their footprint on awards was also quite vague
because until now, they haven’t had any big awards as well as nominations besides
four titles they earned in 2017 and 2019.
ATEEZ Debuting in 2018 under KQ Entertainment as
an eight-member boy group, ATEEZ quickly rose their fame on the international market but
didn’t have many achievements in their home country.
On Reddit, there was even a thread about how they could never go big in South Korea that
received up to 84% upvotes and on forums like Quora, it’s not even hard to see things
like “ATEEZ is popular internationally but things are not like that in South Korea”
because according to netizens, their color of music, image and concept is way far from
what the general public in Korea expect to see at a boy group.
Though the group has already had three years working in the industry, they only got two
mediocrite awards in domestic markets, which were Golden Disc Awards 2019 Next Generation
Award and Soribada Best K-Music Awards 2019 Best Performance Award
However, on the international playground, the recognitions they got were super huge
since they bagged home up to two prestigious awards: MNET 2019 Worldwide Fans' Choice and
MTV EMA Awards 2019 Best Korean Act. You didn’t hear it wrong. It’s “Best
Korean Act”! [shock meme]
Moreover, just after three months of debut, which was January 2019 to be exact, ATEEZ
announced their first tour and guess where that was? It’s the US!
The group then extended the shows to Europe and performed at 10 more urban centers. Their
tickets were completely sold out for all the shows and in early June, ATEEZ once again
extended their tour to Australia. As if those news weren’t good enough, in
July 2019, they even signed an exclusive contract to RCA Records and prove to the world that
they would for sure go big in the future.
Are there any other groups that you think should deserve more recognition in the home
country since they’re super big offshore? Comment below to share your thoughts with
us. Also, don’t forget to like, share, and subscribe to BeBossTV since there will be
lots of fun waiting for you ahead. Thank you for watching!