i feel like one of the biggest mistakes with KATSEYE was marketing them so heavily in K-pop spaces, because it created expectations for them that don’t really fit the market they’re actually targeting.
Once you put a group in front of a K-pop audience, people naturally start viewing them through an idolgroup lens. That means their styling, clothing, performances, personalities, group dynamics etc. are all going to be compared to K-pop idols. And honestly, KATSEYE’s styling can look pretty “normal” if you compare it to Western pop artists.
A lot of the outfits people criticize as being “too revealing” or “not appropriate” wouldn’t necessarily stand out that much if the same outfits were worn by a Western female pop artist. The difference is the context we’re viewing them in.
I think that’s where the marketing becomes confusing. KATSEYE is a global group with a primarily Western facing pop market, but they were introduced and promoted in a way that made a lot of K-pop fans see them as another idol group. So now people are judging them by K-pop standards even though they’re not necessarily trying to operate within those standards.
This isn’t me saying people can’t dislike their styling. You absolutely can. I’m just saying that some of the criticism makes more sense when you realize that we’re applying K-pop idol expectations to a group whose image is much closer to Western pop.
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