I posted this question as a celebration for Cutie Street's positive reaction from Koreans on their recent performance on M Countdown (see: https://youtu.be/aanKhmeCl-s?si=bBCpA4FwZHRYMQ-e ). 500k views in 16 hours, 25k likes, comments mostly in Korean than Japanese and is praising the song and the member's visuals…
These artists don't "sound" like Kpop, didn't and never promote in Korea but somehow it got viral there and the public loves it. It's not the first time too. Snow Man on M Countdown, =LOVE got invited on Ingalive Unicon, Tokisen, Honeyworks, Kenshi Yonezu casually on the Melon Weekly Top 10. These artist performed there by invitation, not promotion.
Yet somehow, the Kpop Jpop groups especially LAPONE and Jpop groups from the big 3 has never created a single hit that is viral there. Yeah, of course, they appear on KCON and that was it but it's not a flex bcause it is mandatory for a Kpop group to appear on such festival and a bit of a promotion to let Kpop fans know they exist.
OBJECTIVELY, these Kpop Jpop groups have blander songs than the Korean Kpop groups but I don't think that was the sole reason that they never trend.
by Miserable_Seat_9226
3 Comments
It “somehow” went viral because it’s an extremely popular song on TikTok
Because Koreans don’t need to listen to Japanese groups imitating K-pop when they can just listen to the real deal itself. Japanese style idol groups like Cutie Street offer something different. Korean audiences are fine with Japanese idols – lots of Japanese idols are active in Korea these days – but when it comes to songs in Japanese from explicitly Japanese groups, ones which offer something different are more likely to take off.
>OBJECTIVELY, these Kpop Jpop groups have blander songs
What exactly makes these groups more bland objectively?
>These artists don’t “sound” like Kpop, didn’t and never promote in Korea but somehow it got viral there and the public loves it
You answered your own question here! They are different and that’s part of the appeal. A group like INI, for example, isn’t super different from other boy groups in Korea so they end up blending in, whereas groups like Snow Man and Cutie Street stand out visually and sonically.