Viral Today, Forgotten Tomorrow: A X:IN and Kasteye Case Study

While focusing on social media can be great for facilitating fan’s psychological connections with idols, music is what is important. This is one of the biggest problems with X:IN. They put a lot of effort into their social media, while ignoring what actually matters. Most groups have one or two things that are blatantly obvious for grabbing a fan’s attention. For X:IN it is their diversity. But what gets fans to stick around is the music. The vast majority of READY’s are international fans where (at least this was how it was for me) stuck around because they are so desperate for representation. There is going to be a point however, where those fans are going to stop caring unless they improve their music. X:IN are not going to be able to survive if they don't fix this. Additionally, X:IN are a full on kpop girl group (unlike Kasteye who i’ll talk about later) yet they have essentially no Korean fanbase. This is a huge problem because that is where a large chunk of their potential audience and market are located. If you compare them to Blackswan, while they still have this issue, it is not as pressing because they do a better job at appealing to Korean fans through Korean variety shows, performing on Korean broadcasting stations (like Music Bank on KBS), and of course, they actually have decent music. (Honestly I did not love “I Like It Hot”, but I did enjoy “Roll Up”).

Here are a few of the issues I personally have with their music:

First of all, their company did a terrible job of composing the group. They all (except for Aria, but she’s a rapper so it doesn’t really matter) have very similar vocal tones. It honestly gives me a headache listening to their music because of how metallic and nasally they all sound.  This was their company's fault, I do think some of the girls could use some more vocal training. Bringing me to my second issue is the lack of utilization of Nizz’s vocals. She is an amazing vocalist, but this is not utilized enough. Her part in “RRUN” is by far the most enjoyable, and I was amazed by her live vocals when watching the behind the scenes recording. Finally, the quality of their music itself was quite poor in the past, but seems to have gotten better with their new comeback, so lets hope their new company knows what they are doing.

Now I want to quickly talk about Kasteye because it seems like we are actually witnessing their downfall in real time, and I think the cause of this is very similar to some issues shared with X:IN. They seemed like the most up and coming thing, but it seems that the craze has now died down. They spent so much time on their social media presence, and making music that would go viral, instead of focusing enough on what actually matters. Let's be honest, Katseyes music has taken a turn for the worse, and that is especially prevalent with “Sugar” (IDK if it’s actually real, but the same issue was there with “Internet Girl”). These girls went through brutal training, and a cutthroat survival show just to be singing the most stupid songs. These girls have talent, so why is it being wasted on music that is not going to bring them any longevity as a group. All of their newer music feels like they were made to go viral, be a trend for a few months, and then fade into oblivion. 

I feel like there were so many groups that shot up in popularity after debuting, were expected to be the next big thing, and then completely lost the plot. Groups like Momoland, or even Itsy, where they either were not consistent with their music, did not build a strong enough fandom, or for some other reason completely fell off. Its groups like Mamamoo or BTS who actually worked for their initial success, meaning they found the right fans who are going to be loyal, or groups like Twice who have been consistently putting out good music, and staying relevant. Another thing that I want to mention which is super important for groups who want longevity, is knowing your fandom and building a brand. For example, Dreamcatcher consistently puts out rock or rock-adjacent music. While yes, this may make it so they aren’t for everyone, that is okay because it means that their fans are truly the fans for them. Fans that will stay show up for every comeback.