KATSEYE: K-pop or Global Pop?
The internationally formed girl group turns heads with their diverse approaches, leaving fans to debate what musical genre they belong to.
The members of KATSEYE. Image: HYBE/GEFFEN RECORDS.
The international girl group KATSEYE shot to stardom with their first single “Debut” in June 2024, after being grouped together one year earlier during the online reality show Dream Academy. The group consists of six members—Manon, Sophia, Daniela, Lara, Megan, and Yoonchae—each coming from diverse cultural backgrounds, with several nationalities and languages represented in the group (American, Filipino, Korean, Swiss, Venezuelan, Indian, and Chinese). In their album promotion released in August 2024, the group defined themselves as a: “sisterhood [...] despite coming from immensely different cultures.”
Dream Academy, a talent competition-style reality show, saw twenty female candidates from around the globe compete in three ‘missions’ to test their artistry and win the chance of a lifetime—to debut in the girl group KATSEYE.
The twelve-week, fan-interactive project grew in popularity as the show prepared to debut an international group using K-pop training methods. Similar to Boys Planet, which boomed in popularity for producing the successful boy group ZEROBASEONE, the show presented the difficulties of standing out in the crowd when all of your competition also brings unique talent to the table.
Dream Academy was produced through a collaboration between Hybe Entertainment, one of Korea’s largest and most influential K-pop labels, and Geffen Records, a huge player in the United States. Additionally, the group’s first live performance as KATSEYE was at KCON in LA, a yearly music festival that celebrates Korean culture. Shortly after this debut performance, they performed at Music Bank in Korea. In November 2024, KATSEYE also performed at the 2024 MAMA awards.
Leaning into K-pop
K-pop albums typically have the following attributes: multiple design options, a CD, collectible photocards, posters, postcards, lyrics booklet, photo collection, or other collectible features. These features make K-pop albums and their attributes highly collectible to K-pop ‘stans’, who often buy multiples of albums to get the photocard of their ‘bias’, or even encourages private sales/swaps between fans.
KATSEYE’s debut ep ‘SIS (Soft is Strong)’ was released in August 2024. The album came with a physical copy, including multiple designs (Strong Version, Soft Version), photocards, lyric cards, a photobook, and more. The similarities between the promotional album choice of KATSEYE and traditional K-pop albums infers the group leaning towards attracting K-pop fans.
KATSEYE at the 2024 MAMA awards, LA. Image: HYBE/GEFFEN RECORDS.
Not only were their initial musical appearances and album designs within the K-pop world, but so was their rigorous training techniques and schedules. The girls trained under the same conditions as K-pop trainees. On their official website, KATSEYE describes themselves as: “The first ever global girl group formed using K-pop artist development methodologies”.
The significance of this fact regarding whether this makes the group a part of K-pop is highlighted by BLACKPINK star JENNIE’s comment in their documentary ‘Blackpink: Light Up the Sky’. When Jennie was asked what defined K-pop, she outlined that it was the trainee system where music companies sign young people up to years of media training, dance classes, vocal classes, and language classes, as TIME magazine mentions.
So, if KATSEYE was trained under the rigorous K-pop training, which is argued to define K-pop, then they must be a K-pop group too, right? Well, not everyone in the music community agrees.
KATSEYE does not sing in Korean, nor are any of their songs in Korean. Rather, they sing in English, and, with only one Korean member, some fans believe KATSEYE can’t be K-pop. Is this a fair judgement? Let’s take a closer look.
Looking beyond genre
Many successful K-pop groups sing in English, with BTS’s most streamed song on Spotify being “Dynamite,” a song sung entirely in English, with over 2 billion streams. TWICE’s recently released track, “Strategy,” performed in English, also garnered commercial success. Whilst people might argue that English songs aid in extending the reach of K-pop music beyond the core K-pop fanbase, helping to spread its mainstream popularity, K-pop music has always included English in its roster. From English sprinkled into the chorus to full cover songs in the language, the use of English is a strategic move, and it’s a move that works for the genre.
Global superstars, TWICE, teamed up with rapper Megan Thee Stallion for “Strategy.”
Regardless of the number of streams, there are big, household names in the K-pop industry regularly singing in English. Fans deem BTS as K-pop, as they do TWICE, but not all of their music is in Korean.
Whilst lots of K-pop fans prefer their favourite groups to sing in Korean, they don’t tend to argue that English language songs don’t fit within the K-pop genre. BTS’s “Butter” is still K-pop, as is Jungkook’s “Standing Next to You.” So, why is it so different for KATSEYE?
Musical Inspiration
KATSEYE have sung in English since their debut and have not yet made public plans to sing in Korean. Moreover, in an interview with Vogue magazine, KATSEYE stated that their musical influences were Beyonce, Miley Cyrus, Britney Spears, Rihanna, Shakira, and Pharrell and many more, with western artists being their main source of inspiration. Therefore, despite being trained under a K-pop company using the same techniques as trainees in Korea, they seem to fall somewhere between two genres—neither fully K-pop nor fully mainstream pop.
On the one hand, this allows the group to be flexible, their reach transcends one genre, is inclusive of multiple cultures, and their songs are sung in a language understood by over 1.3 billion.
KATSEYE features members from different countries, who each speak a different language. Image: Jane Kim.
On the other hand, this ambiguity in genre and lack of categorisation could possibly impact KATSEYE’s fanbase. Fans may feel that whilst KATSEYE has adopted the training attitudes and principles of K-pop which arguably makes K-pop so successful, they are more influenced by Western sounds. Therefore, could this ambiguity make their fanbase too sporadic and inconsistent to attain long-term success?
Catapulted to stardom
Judging from their streams so far, that is not a concern yet. Their top song, “Touch,” has earned the group over 200 million streams across platforms, and as of January 2025, the accompanying music video has over 80 million views on YouTube. Their Instagram has over 2.4 million followers and they have even more followers on TikTok.
In September 2024, “Touch” charted at #14 on the Apple Music South Korea top 100 Chart, and the song reached #22 on Billboard’s 100 in the same month. In the Global 200, “Touch” peaked at #159.
The group also has a Netflix docuseries titled ‘Pop Star Academy: KATSEYE’ which, the group stated, aimed to show the rigorous journey they took to become debut ready. These achievements all fell within a year of debuting, which illustrates the group’s success.
KATSEYE’s ambiguous genre seems to be bringing the group major success so far. The group is pushing musical genre boundaries and trying something new. More to the point, they are each representative of millions of women worldwide, making it easier for more people to connect with the members and their music. KATSEYE is changing the tide of the music industry by celebrating multiple nationalities, backgrounds, and cultures.
So, maybe the title of this article isn’t all that important. Does Katseye have to fit into one genre? If yes, why should they? These questions lead to far deeper discussions into the criticisms of the music industry as a whole.
What matters for now is, as Vogue magazine states, KATSEYE is the music group to watch.
Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.
Edited by Chelsea Cheetham and Aimee Molineux.
