KATSEYE is one of the most talked about girl groups of the year in 2025. Many fans and bystanders had a fascination with the group, whether that was from their beauty or their odd lyrics and song titles, they’ve been a large contribution to pop culture’s latest discussions.
Despite being a fan favorite, there are still some larger discussions and questions lingering around KATSEYE, making fans wonder if they are truly the girl group sensation their fans present them to be?
Before Katseye
To get a full picture of how Katseye has been in the spotlight, KATSEYE consists of 6 members, all assessing roles similar to K-pop idol’s roles, and trained in one of the largest K-pop record labels headquarters in Seoul. (See where I’m getting with this?) KATSEYE’s creation was not only from Geffen Records, owned by Warner Bros and HYBE Entertainment who manages not only BTS, but CORTIS, LE SSERAFIM, TXT, SEVENTEEN, and formally Newjeans.
KATSEYE rose to fame from their docu-series, “Dream Academy”. This series follows the process and longevity it takes for one person to not only push themself to the idol industry but even place themselves on various record label radars for them to be selected as trainees. In the end, 6 women remained victorious, who are now the faces of KATSEYE. The current members, Sophia Laforteza, Meret Manon, Daniela Avanzini, Lara Raj, Megan Skiendiel, and Jeung Yoonchae.
The groups training was strict and heavily similar to K-pop’s training because of the large amount of time that trainees take to not only focus on their vocal, dancing, and sometimes improving and/or learning a new language (depending on the member). Considering this for KATSEYE’s training, their training was so strict and focused on the talents that many K-pop groups pride themselves upon-the group’s overall performance compared to Western groups were staggering. They fully showcased all the abilities that K-pop groups strive for in an American perspective.
frustrations Began
After the series had released KATSEYE was already established and formed with its current members. Though, people were frustrated and upset after watching the show and seeing who got eliminated and chosen instead. Netizens speculated about Manon’s place in the group, as shown in the documentary, Manon had no prior training in dancing and vocals prior to the show. Leading many people to discuss the ability of Manon and how she’ll progress in the future. Although, this never stopped but it grew in smaller amounts the more the group found success. After the show released, people did not expect the documentary was going to be a survival show. There was many discussions on which contestants should’ve been in the group except Manon. Arguably, there’s a lot of issues that arose from the group’s existence overall.
Many people online began to start discourse regarding about the existence of KATSEYE as a whole. The K-pop industry is infamous for the constant mistreatment, misogyny, and dangerous work levels that idols face in the industry. People opened discussions and questionnaires on online forums discussing the ethics of KATSEYE’s existence overall, people were criticizing the group for bringing mistreatment into the Western industry. K-pop is infamously notorious for the amount of controversies that have sprouted from the industry, even through the harsh conditions of trainings, there was still unlikeliness of the trainees getting into a group, which was massively highlighted throughout “Dream Academy”.
post debut
Although, people continued to follow KATSEYE’s activities and events. The elements of their gravitation were because of their performance ability. Because they were trained in a K-pop environment, their performance style is unique, including the musical and dancing abilities of each member. Many casual listeners began to gravitate to the group because of not only the performances, singing, but especially their personalities. The group incorporates American members, which many fans enjoyed because they not only related to the member but felt connected because the members spoke English.
When KATSEYE first debuted, their debut song was ‘Debut’ which was very catchy and memorable to many, but not as popular as their second “debut” release, ‘Touch’. This was beyond the charts, their song accumulated over 12.5 million streams in one week during its first release in October. Earlier, they released a mini album called SIS (Soft is Strong). Notably, what KATSEYE was well known for was their visuals, dancing ability, and especially their personalities.
Many fans constantly discussed the capabilities of the group because of the amount of controversies they were receiving in the beginning. For starters, K-pop stans were arguing at the essence of their groups existence and essential ethics it placed on musical groups overall, questioning the morality if these types of groups should start debuting in the Western music industry. Alongside this, people were questioning the elements of the group overall.
Is katseye truly changing the industry?
From a global perspective about music, I argue no. I don’t believe that KATSEYE at the largest level is changing the game or industry overall. The fans of KATSEYE who don’t follow K-pop groups were in awe by the abilities of the group, even though the training and the performance style of KATSEYE has been seen and now deemed as the expectations of newer K-pop groups in the industry. An inner workings about a K-pop group is that almost all groups (in the present day) do not write any of their songs, let alone produce them. Fans constantly criticize their lyric ability even when it’s not them writing the songs, they are only distributed the lyrics and their company produces them.
KATSEYE is a gravitating group to watch, but overall, the group lacks outside of that. There are no eye-catching songs that have both good production and lyrics. “Touch” was popular because of the catchiness, “GNARLY” became popular off of the goofiness of both the lyrics and the aesthetics of the music video and era. Their performances connect with this as well, where they are a very engaging and gravitating group to watch and view, but it is difficult to follow. In the essence of popularity and success, they are by all means popular. Will they ever go further in success and global popularity? I don’t believe so, their fandom still revolves around K-pop fans and is extremely rare to see non-K-pop KATSEYE fans.
K-pop is popular, yes, but can groups individually find success outside of that? Not really. Including solo projects members create for themselves, it is really hard for them to find success outside of their own circle. (ex. JISOO from BLACKPINK) I would love to see this be proven wrong, but I am skeptical on whether that would be possible or not. However, I think they are placing new bricks into the industry, being openly queer and an activist for many social and political issues in not only America but globally. But I do not think they are changing the industry overall, the K-pop + Western music industry has been so well established, it is almost taboo to see people operate differently than what has already been established. Which I believe is what is happening to KATSEYE currently.
KAtseye beyond
With the constant discussions about Manon leaving KATSEYE, what is truly in for the group? It is hard to truly see whether the group’s future is successful or not. There is a very blurred line in the future for the groups success and the members individual skills. It is extremely unclear to see what will happen in the upcoming month with Manon’s hiatus, and depending on Manon’s eventual decision. Who truly knows what may happen. But it is hard to deny the all-female musical act was not entertaining to follow and especially listen to, because they are and will continue to be. It is truly up to fate to see where the group will lie in their future.