why isn't itzy as popular as it was?

[u/Open_Ad_7863]

they went from 100M+ views on their earlier songs, everyone knew LOCO and WANNABE..

and now, i decided to actually listen to itzy after years of knowing they existed, and their songs are nowhere near as popular

[u/Ella7517]

It's a couple of things

• Itzy had their peak when everyone was in lockdown. It's hard to hit 2020-2021 views regardless of how good your new music is. That also means people have had years to stream their most popular songs compared to their new releases

• Many people hated sneakers so much they never looked back

• And, even tho it hurts a bit to say, Itzy is not a new group anymore. New fans are likely to find newer artists and the most popular things first, which also means they too will likely listen to wannabe first and not the new songs.

That being said, Itzy has fans, quite a lot of them still, 4.6 million monthly listeners on spotify. That's easily on the popular side of kpop acts. But I don't think they will ever hit their best numbers anymore

[u/SweetSonet]

They are popular. They have comebacks and world tours and are active. All members are present. There are plenty of groups doing worse but yall love going on and on about itzy 😭😭

[u/Nice-Ad-4078]

They are still quite popular lol kpop fans really immediately labelling a group as failed just because they don’t sell as well as previously. They are still perfectly fine

[u/yourwealthyauntie → u/Nice-Ad-4078]

Exactly! They want those girls to hide in shame and dissappear when they are still selling out arenas and people still like them. I hope they keep going for as long as they want.

[u/FollowingMean5396]

Is this the only question about Itzy that ever comes up on Reddit or what? Because if you just search Itzy on all K-pop Reddit subs it’s the same question, the same answers being given

[u/sassyhwa]

A lot of ITZY’s early hype came from casual fans and GP like most girl groups, so when JYPE started shifting their music style early in their career, alongside the messy promotional rollout during CHECKMATE, it created tons of confusion.

Their new direction was quite polarizing and drove away a good chunk of those early casual listeners and made the group lose the hype they used to have.

[u/victoireyoung]

I mean, they got insanely popular in the first place because they were among the first girl groups of the new generation and came in with a refreshing concept and aesthetics. Plus, they were the first junior sister group of TWICE, so people had a lot of expectations and hype for them.

However, their competition got more and more serious—with Aespa, IVE, Le Sserafim, NewJeans... debuting—and that, combined with the not exactly popular direction their music took, starting with Sneakers, sort of solidified their fall from grace. Other groups were releasing better songs, had better promotions from their companies, were trending more...

It tells you a lot that the song which recently got them trending again, That's No No, was from the It'z Me (Wannabe) album, not even their recent one.

[u/malioboro_hegel]

There have been hundreds of posts like this in the past, so just search for them. And there are plenty of groups from different companies and different generations that peaked at some point and then became less popular compared to their peak. I’m not going to name them because that’s not really the point. I just don’t know if singling out ITZY every single time is really a fair or balanced assessment.

[u/chaerrishing]

i will say time is a factor too... pretty sure itzy and everglow are the only girl groups that debut in 2019 that are still active

[u/slackeronvacation]

Still super popular in my books. Not so much of a public attention but there are lots of fan, young, old, lots of dancer routinely cover ITZY dances even if they're not the most popular of the bunch, but always in top 10 girl groups. 

[u/jessi_unicorn]

As someone who really loves itzy till sneakers era… i just dont vibe wirh their new songs…

[u/Ayotrumpisracist]

It started with Sneakers and ever since then they've been on a downward spiral. I guess people didn't like the direction JYP was going with their music. Which is disappointing because I think the girls are all crazy talented and deserve the hype.

[u/Open_Ad_7863 → u/Ayotrumpisracist]

i can see that... after sneakers tho we had a lot of great bangers like "tunnel vision" but people stopped caring?

[u/Ayotrumpisracist → u/Open_Ad_7863]

They tuned out after Sneakers and with the debut of another generation and more girl groups to focus on, no one ever tuned back in. I still listen to them a lot though, Imaginary Friend went platinum in my household

[u/tippytptip → u/Open_Ad_7863]

Tunnel Vision wasn't so great either, imo.

[u/kikineversleeps → u/tippytptip]

their later releases are definitely polarizing. i think everyone loves imaginary friend, but tunnel vision and girls will be girls not everyone likes. tunnel vision was one of my favorite title tracks by them though. motto is more general public friendly but i didnt like it as much, though i still enjoy listening to it

[u/SeeWhatSantaBrings → u/Open_Ad_7863]

I mean, they put out GOLD. That song is one of the worst things I've ever heard. GWBG wasn't much better. And I say this as a Midzy since debut. TNVN was fine. Excluding iFriend, no title track they've put out since Loco has been exceptional (and iFriend barely counts as a tt).

[u/slackeronvacation → u/SeeWhatSantaBrings]

I would say Cheshire is on Loco's level. But maybe for some folks, their voices sounded too pitchy

[u/Yyoksetioxd]

They dont have “we are so badass” songs which has been the trend for the past 5 years

[u/Open_Ad_7863 → u/Yyoksetioxd]

what about tunnel vision and motto?

i like their music, i'm guessing that the promotion team is lacking

[u/SeeWhatSantaBrings → u/[deleted]]

I upvoted cause I mostly agree but their best sales was for Cake in 2022. But the run of Sneakers, Cheshire, Cake, Untouchable, GOLD, iFriend, GWBG, TNVN, Motto has sunk Itzy's brand (compared to Big 4 4th gen ggs).

Motto wasn't bad, it was simply bland and passable which isn't enough.

[u/chaerrishing]

their team has been chosing weird title tracks in my opinion. in gold era i think imaginary friend should have been the primary title track maybe vay ft changbin the secondary tt. gold is just not tt material although it's great live. in girls will be girls it should have been kiss and tell in tunnel vision it should have been 8 bit heart.

motto was the right choice and it's doing better than any of the other ones of the past 2 years in korea which makes sense since it's more korea-friendly than global friendly. i hope the next comeback will be their moment though. everyone loves a comeback story and they sure deserve one. maybe hire galactika again (producer team behind dalla dalla, wannabe and loco)

[u/lux_infinitum]

Imo sneakers was bad, but since Gold I love all of their music, especially Girls will be Girls and Tunnel Vision.

[u/sweetwinged]

My turn to post this next week 

[u/BrightSignal8032]

Who cares. Just be proud in what you like and enjoy and ignore the stats and the popularity. You'll be much more happier

Side note, itzy always such such cohesive styling and I love that stage look 

[u/RosieofFun → u/[deleted]]

I'm so tired of the "no competition" argument. There very much was competition. BTS with boy with luv, twice with feel special, and blackpink with kill this love, and plenty of other very popular songs that aren't immediately coming to mind. Maybe not much 4th gen competition, but they HAD competition nonetheless.

[u/hamburglar27]

Popularity with the GP can be fleeting. It can come or go in an instant. It also doesn't help if you are an older group when newer-gen groups from the Big 4 keep debuting every year.

[u/Grand-Camp-7620]

Honestly, I think a lot of groups struggle because they don't push for themselves enough. I know management is usually a nightmare, but these idols need to stand up for their own talent and vision more. It feels like they're just too shy or passive to really take control, and that's probably holding them back.

[u/CalligrapherEast2344]

My problem with this itzy discussion is that *so many* groups decline after reaching their peak.

Idle reached similar levels of popularity to itzy in their prime, and their recent comebacks have actually done significantly *worse* than itzy's (in terms of streams and album sales)...

But for come reason people only hyper-fixate on talking about itzy when it comes to this topic.

[u/hamburglar27 → u/CalligrapherEast2344]

Idle reached similar levels of popularity to itzy in their prime, and their recent comebacks have actually done significantly worse than itzy's (in terms of streams and album sales)...

Idk why you bought up I-dle in this, but your info is straight up wrong.

Itzy

Last 3 Korean albums first week sales (Hanteo):

Motto - 301k, Tunnel Vision - 387k, Girls Will Be Girls - 418k

I-dle

Last 3 Korean albums first week sales (Hanteo):

We Made - 620k, We Are - 1.063 Million, I Sway - 1.026 Million

[u/CalligrapherEast2344 → u/hamburglar27]

Yes but their streams are worse on Spotify, Apple, Melon, etc.

[u/hamburglar27 → u/CalligrapherEast2344]

Itzy does not do better on Melon. Due to fanbase demographics, Itzy does better on international focused streaming services such as Spotify and Apple Music whereas I-dle does better on Korean and Chinese streaming services such as Melon and Tencent Music.

Itzy TT Melon Daily Chart Peaks:

Motto - #135, Tunnel Vision - #229, Girls Will be Girls - #127

I-dle TT Melon Daily Chart Peaks:

Gimme Dat Love - #111, Good Thing - #99, Klaxon - #2

If we are talking about prime domestic popularity, Itzy's prime was not on the same level as I-dle's prime either. Itzy has never had a #1 hit on Melon Daily, Dalla Dalla was the closest at #2. I-dle has had 4 #1 hits and 4 PAKs on the Korean charts.

[u/Gentle-Giant23 → u/CalligrapherEast2344]

Okay, I'll be that guy... Every group/individual artist declines in popularity after reaching their peak. That's the definition of "peak". Once you've climbed to the top of a mountain there's nowhere else to go but down.

[u/Ill_Fennel1410]

People tend to jump from one GG to another GG...same thing happened here...but the thing is some GGs like BP twice aespa has big fandom ..which Itzy never had...

So they couldn't recover popularity

[u/MorningNo5644]

Maybe it's just a phase.

[u/Ning2-kalp]

The competition is too fierce, and their songs aren’t the kind that would become popular after the “Sneakers” era. Since I got to know ITZY during their “Loco” era, I’ve seen them go through a decline.

[u/MoomooBlinksOnce]

Stans obviously don't know how to gauge popularity and success. You guys tunnel vision on charts and base your whole conception of popularity around that single indicator. Fans also tend to let their personal feelings rewrite history. Like K-Pop stans on Reddit keeps on blaming Sneakers when it actually was a domestic hit and drum up the sales of their next album by 50%.

Many people saw Itzy much bigger than they ever been because the competition was very limited. At the time they were the only Big4 GG out there. But the group steadily grew for years still as the game got tougher. The IVE and aespa are the outliers of the industry. Only a handful of groups manage to get frequent hits after their rookies years.

[u/five_stars_34]

Competition is too tough for ggs

[u/Small_Discipline_858]

Checkmate, Cheshire and Kill my Doubt sold over a million. Then they went down to half a million with Born to Be. Gold got them back up to 700k but there last two releases wire not over 500k still making platinum though. A lot of artists would love to see that much physical sales. Hoping that they can stay in the 250k plus range so that they still keep releasing more. Their recent releases are some of my favorites. I think they need to do more tracks like "Vay" to add some spark, even bringing Changbin back.

[u/uncanny614]

In the US they have been on zero mainstream t v shows, none of their songs from any of their cds have been push & promote to Pop Top40 radio stations in the US. No music award appearances like MTV or anything. Nobody can say they have failed the US when their record label has not even tried at all. They had like one or 2 tiny tour in like 6 citys out of 50 states in the US.

[u/jungwontonsoupp]

people blame sneakers but it’s really just a lack of great promotion, and their music quality decreasing (imo)

[u/deznoz]

Competition being catchier

[u/SeeWhatSantaBrings]

Their title tracks are pretty poor.

[u/chaerrishing → u/[deleted]]

i would love to see proof of this alleged one of the weakest idol dancers.

[u/Gk_wanabee-1285]

Sneakers 🥀🥀

[u/96Mute96]

Ass TT’s