Popstar Academy is the Netflix documentary of Hybe x Geiffin’s training and development program and the survival show Dream Academy that led to the selection of the six members of Katseye.
They finally went public with the K-pop style survival show Dream Academy. However, until this point, participants didn’t know that they would be in a survival show with fan voting. They were under the impression that the judges would be the ones deciding the final lineup of the group, with no input from fans.
In order to sell a popular reality TV show, the producers wanted to include some drama. The main sources of contention in the show were the second mission and the work ethic of Manon.
In the second mission, each girl was asked to choose which five people they would want to debut in a group with. They were told that these answers would remain private, but the producers shared the results and even counted up how many times each girl was chosen by the others. By this point, everyone had spent months training together and were really close friends, so it was hard for them to have to choose between each other. It was also really upsetting for the people who received zero or only one or two votes from people wanting to debut with them. This created a lot of drama for the show, but really hurt the participants, causing one contestant, Lexi, to leave the show as it no longer aligned with her morals.
Another source of drama was the work ethic of Manon. Manon was asked to join by casting agents who found her on social media and thought she had a lot of star quality and would be great in a group. However, she had no experience and wasn’t used to training as much as the other contestants. She ended up missing some rehearsals, which upset some of the other contestants. They felt that it was unfair that she was getting to miss practice and not work as hard, but still be very popular and have a good shot of getting into the group. This argument was resolved when the other contestants and Manon had a discussion to resolve their feelings, but some viewers took sides and are still angry at either Manon or the girls who confronted her today.
In the end, the six girls to debut were Sophia, Lara, Yoonchae, Megan, Daniela, and Manon. Many of the participants of the show have seen some separate success: Adela has made a career in solo music, and Lexie, Samara, and Emily are a part of the group Prelude: the Final Piece, although the group has had mixed reactions from fans.
Katseye has currently released two albums and been a part of many successful ad campaigns. The group is seeing the success Hybe x Geiffin hoped for.
Soft is Strong
The most popular songs of this album were “Debut” and the viral song “Touch.” Lots of people were recreating the dance on social media, and the album was definitely a success,
Beautiful Chaos
This album caused some contention among fans with the lead single “Gnarly” because of its somewhat ridiculous lyrics of it. While the girls were praised for their incredible energy and dancing during performances, some fans couldn’t get over the cringy lyrics of the song. Despite the criticism, “Gnarly” was a commercial success. It was Katseye’s first song to earn a spot on Billboard’s Top 100. The album was a major shift from the sound of their debut album.
Katseye has continued to see success with their wildly popular collaborations with different companies, especially their recent Gap ad, which was a hit this summer, especially in comparison with Sydney Sweeney’s American Eagle ad.
I think the main strengths of Katseye are their performances, dances, and personalities. It’s addicting to watch their dance videos because of their perfect synchronization with the music and each other, and the girls’ infectious energy. Also, their songs, while not having profound lyrics, are incredibly catchy.
