Can American labels replicate K-pop’s success? This new girl group could offer an answer

Within the first episode of Netflix’s new docuseries Pop Star Academy: Katseye, HYBE chairman Bang Si-hyuk, the Okay-pop mastermind behind BTS, explains that he has an easy rule: He solely meets the younger hopefuls coaching to grow to be idols at his firm in individual after they debut as a part of a group. He prefers to observe their month-to-month ability evaluations on-screen as an alternative.

“Most people become fans when they’re watching content such as music videos or shows, which is why I think that I should also watch the trainees through the screens,” Bang says within the docuseries, which debuted on Aug. 21.

This on-screen connection is important for constructing a loyal fanbase, and the billion-dollar Okay-pop business is very adept at it, with a bunch of survival reveals and digital content material that enable the viewers to be a part of an artist’s journey. It’s one thing Bang’s label and Geffen Information are attempting to replicate stateside with Katseye.

Described as an “international group based on K-pop methodology,” Katseye is a flagship effort from Hybe x Geffen meant to mix the Korean leisure business’s meticulous coaching and improvement system with a world perspective. Apart from the Netflix docuseries, Katseye’s formation additionally received the survival-show therapy through The Debut: Dream Academy, a 12-week YouTube sequence that debuted in September 2023. The place Dream Academy presents a curated, social media-driven have a look at forming a girl group, Pop Star Academy: Katseye presents a meta view of how Hybe and Geffen are bringing the Okay-pop mannequin to Western audiences.

K-pop’s growth into world markets isn’t new; it has been doing so for many years in close by nations. In 2018, JYP Leisure (house to TWICE, Stray Youngsters) founder J.Y. Park referred to as this technique “globalization by localization,” or adapting content material for particular markets. It’s been a profitable mannequin in Japan for years. JYP has its Japanese girl group NiziU, fashioned by means of the competitors sequence Nizi Mission, and HYBE Labels Japan manages &Staff, a nine-member boy band created on the audition program &Audition — The Howling.

Now, Okay-pop is setting its sights past Asia. The recognition of acts like BTS and BBackpink overseas has elevated K-pop’s visibility and profitability in markets the place Korean artists have traditionally struggled to achieve traction, just like the U.S. In line with Luminate’s annual report, Okay-pop albums made up seven of the highest 10 best-selling CDs within the U.S. in 2023.

Nonetheless, the mega-success of a handful of teams can’t maintain the vitality of an complete business. To actually increase K-pop’s world affect, it’s essential to leverage its proven expertise in creating and managing teams, whereas maximizing the fan expertise, and apply these methods to new markets. Hybe’s Bang understands this, telling reporters last summer, “For K-pop to truly become mainstream worldwide, the ‘K’ in K-pop needs to be removed, and it should just be ‘pop’ in itself.”

[Photo: Hybe x Geffen]

Step one in envisioning Okay-pop past the ‘K’ is the creation of extra teams like Katseye and extra ventures like Hybe x Geffen that mix K-pop’s excessive manufacturing worth and artist improvement mannequin with a serious label’s understanding of an evolving world pop market.

Right here, too, there’s precedent. Final yr, JYP and Republic Information lately debuted VCHA, an American girl group fashioned on the competitors sequence A2K (“America2Korea”). The sextet, ages 14 to 19, spent months coaching at JYP’s headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, earlier than settling in Los Angeles. In the meantime, Okay-pop titan SM Leisure is teaming up with UK manufacturing firm Moon&Again — based by Nigel Corridor, the co-creator and govt producer of The X Issue — for Made in Korea, a sequence in regards to the formation of five-member British boy group Dear Alice. Katseye stands aside in its world lineup, that includes women from numerous cultural backgrounds, permitting them to attract from a wider range of influences. To this point, the group has already seen promising success, with its debut EP touchdown on the Billboard 200, signaling its potential to resonate with a broader viewers.

Notably, these teams aren’t made in a vacuum. Their origin is being filmed for public consumption, distilling charisma into fan cams and edits on TikTok and X. Dream Academy eschewed the episodic format popularized by Okay-pop lately to offer a fan-first interactive expertise throughout social media platforms, and Pop Star Academy: Katseye ups the emotional ante. That connection between an artist and their followers is an important component of what makes the Okay-pop methodology so profitable. Nowhere is that extra obvious than in a contest sequence the place followers bear the emotional weight of their idol’s survival.

However can these applications have the identical impact exterior of the Okay-pop market? Hybe x Geffen is banking on it, and the stakes are make or break for his or her buzzy three way partnership—and the way forward for music advertising and marketing.

[Photo: Netflix]

The success of the survival sequence format

Following the discharge of its first EP final July, boy group Zerobaseone set a sales record in South Korea, changing into the primary Okay-pop group to promote 2 million copies of a debut album. The group’s meteoric rise has a lot to do with Boys Planet, the Mnet survival present by means of which it was fashioned.

In the course of the present’s reside finale telecast, which recorded over 10 million views throughout all platforms, together with broadcast, folks from 184 nations solid greater than 9.3 million votes. All through its 12-week run, Boys Planet gathered greater than 140 million votes, roughly 70% of which got here from areas exterior of South Korea.

The audience-participation facet of those reveals isn’t new, however the attraction, in line with Boys Planet producer Kim Sin-young, is the connections followers make with contestants. “The success or failure of a show largely depends on how charming the participants are,” Kim says. As an instance, Boys Planet runner-up Sung Han-bin’s sturdy efficiency was fueled partly by a following that grew out of his older dance clips that went viral when the present aired.

The Dream Academy contestants have been inspired to submit on social media to attach with followers, and part of their attraction was their relatability — the concept a Okay-pop fan from the Philippines like Sophia Laforteza could not solely debut as an idol however meet her favorite idols Enhypen in individual.

The reveals incorporate the viewers component into how they body the competitors, Kim says. Viewers members are referred to as “star creators,” a time period that places the contestants’ desires within the fingers of their followers. “Viewers don’t just watch the show; they get to participate and experience it,” Kim says, including that a part of that have is watching an unpolished trainee rework into an idol, culminating in “the moment the star is born.”

“This nuance is part of the identity of K-pop idol survival shows,” Kim says. “What pushes viewers to vote is how much the participants want this dream to happen. The participant must have the passion [and] the drive to give their all to this.”

It’s why, he says, “There is a difference in the relationship between the fandom of a group that debuted from a label versus the fandom of a group that was born from a survival show.”

[Photo: Netflix]

Remixing the format for world viewers

Although impressed by the success of a Okay-audition present, Dream Academy didn’t comply with the norms of a typical one. It maintained the essence of the format by making a platform for expertise discovery and interesting followers within the group’s journey from the start, but it surely largely unfolded on YouTube and social media.

“We were trying to create something different,” says Mitra Darab, the president of Hybe x Geffen. “However, we completely understand the power of an audition show because it is a fundamental part of building the fandom in K-pop. It’s that connectivity at a very early stage. And we wanted that because we knew we were creating something different that the average K-pop fan may not completely buy into.”

So Hybe and Geffen designed the kind of present that felt true to the venture—one thing that hadn’t been performed earlier than, a extra interactive initiative for followers “that wasn’t this competitive cutthroat program.”

From over 120,000 world candidates, 20 finalists have been chosen to compete within the present. Followers could comply with their journeys by means of staff missions and efficiency movies shared throughout YouTube and TikTok and in the end vote on the ultimate lineup through the fan app Weverse. The multinational, multicultural members of Katseye—Daniela, Lara, Manon, Sophia, Megan, and Yoonchae—have been unveiled throughout a reside broadcast on HYBE’s official YouTube channel in November.

Dream Academy targeted on teamwork, emphasizing how “these girls supported each other and wanted to see each other win,” Darab says. “You look for idols that have those characteristics, right? That camaraderie, that sisterhood, is so important. Fans are smart. Fans can tell a million miles away if it’s fake or you just put something together. That’s why some of these groups do well and some of them don’t. You just don’t want to have that disingenuous nature to it.”

But, they have been nonetheless making a TV present, and producers discovered methods so as to add stress and generate tears. When every contestant was requested to decide on the 5 members they wished to debut with, the ladies felt they have been being pitted in opposition to each other. The fallout is captured on Pop Star Academy: Katseye, main one promising contestant, Lexie Levin, to drop out of the venture solely, saying, “It didn’t align with my values.” Nonetheless, Darab insists that the choice was made with the followers in thoughts. “We needed a more compelling storyline,” she says within the sequence. “Yes, you’re creating the group, but equally important is that you’re building that fanbase.”

The drama in the end fosters a extra intense sense of loyalty and funding within the group’s success. On Weverse, HYBE’s digital vacation spot for superfans, the members of Katseye submit common updates and host reside streams for his or her greater than 311,000 followers, permitting followers to witness their artistry and development as folks in actual time. Their influence extends past superfandom. Following the discharge of Pop Star Academy, daily streaming numbers for the group’s second single, “Touch,” surpassed over 1 million and it continues to climb.

The Hybe x Geffen method represents a shift within the world notion of what Okay-pop might be. The core of its identification has little to do with the music itself, the place you’ll be able to hear the pervasive affect of Western tendencies—components of pop, rock, and hip-hop mirrored by means of a Korean lens. It’s pop music that transcends geographical boundaries, however extra notably, it’s a cultural export that ensures high quality, charisma, and excessive manufacturing worth.

The true problem now’s whether or not Katseye is the primary of many Western labels can successfully harness these components and apply them to a new technology of world pop stars.