After almost a decade of the American girl group industry being on life support, America is finally back in its girl group era. The sudden revival of girl groups in the U.S is not coincidental, it is entirely strategic. The music industry saw a growing interest in the K-Pop girl group powerhouses and said “Oh they’re eating…. Drop the recipe.”
Once that recipe hit the kitchen straight from a first class flight from South Korea, we started seeing the industry go right to work. Suddenly, groups like KATSEYE and Say Now are rolling out with intense and polished choreography, roles for the members, and aesthetics that feel influenced by the K-Pop formula. These groups aren’t just singing anymore, they are posting dance practice videos displaying their sharp synchronicity, dropping teaser videos, debuting different eras every comeback, and branding themselves with a hyper-curated style that made BLACKPINK, NewJeans and other various K-Pop girl groups huge in America. This is not imitation nor is it copying, it is an adaptation. American labels watched K-Pop idols find their way into the hearts of the powerful, and amplifying stan culture all while dominating the U.S. and worldwide charts. And they ushered a new prototype of girl groups in the U.S using the foundation of K-pop artistry and precision. If the recipe can work there, it sure as hell can here.
What makes this model so effective in the U.S is that it solves one of the major problems that American girl groups (and boy groups) have faced, which is lack of structure. Historically, industry figures relied on the girl groups’ personality and chaotic-ness, and primarily poured training on vocals to ensure stability, popularity and longevity. On the other hand, girl groups are an entire ecosystem in the K-Pop industry. Every comeback has a new set of aesthetics to follow, and every member has their own specific role in the group, a personal charm that has been strategically placed on them, and every performance has been rehearsed until night’s end filled with strenuous choreography and live singing. K-pop idols aren’t just performing, it’s a spectacle. Watching the vast ability of the human body in action is artistic, demanding, and mostly, it is inspirational. It is that level of work ethic that caught the attention of American listeners. It created a cultural expectation of what a girl group should deliver, raising the question: have American consumers been settling for less? K-pop idols show a world where their artistry is all-encompassing, and how an artist should fully inhabit their world. When you combine this cocktail of character, choreography, concept, and precision, you make an entire universe: and the U.S had one chance to bank on that.
The Debut: Dream Academy, a competition reality TV show created as a collaborative effort between HYBE, a South Korean entertainment company whose chairman Bang Si-Hyuk also founded BTS, and American record label Geffen Records, to create the ultimate global girl group. The reality show is basically America’s Next Top Model meets Dance Moms meets The Voice. The show ran for 12 weeks and involved 20 female contestants from around the world, live fan voting, and training that resembled the K-pop trainee system. At the end of the show, six members were chosen and became KATSEYE, who have taken the world by storm with hits like “Touch” and “Gnarly.” This show blended the Korean training philosophies that turn these artists into powerhouses. KATSEYE is more than just an emerging girl group, they are proof of how effective the K-pop blueprint is worldwide. They were conceptualized with intention, concept driven, choreography heavy, but have that unique factor of member diversity that American girl groups prided themselves on.
Their popularity clearly demonstrates this new wave happening in the U.S with pop groups. They aren’t being thrown together randomly: it is all strategized, analyzed, and perfected. Part of what fuels this sudden awakening is the fact that American consumers have always craved and demanded this impossible achievement of perfection. These cravings are inherently cultural, gendered, and rooted in this facade of the myth of the American pop star that consumers long for and aim to support. Female artists have been held at a disproportionately higher standard. They are expected to embody perfection, flawless harmonies, flawless appearances, impeccable choreography, all while being personally charming and engaging to all of their fans. Perfect ends up becoming both the product and the performance. This idea of the American pop star has always been imagined as someone that exceeds all expectations, always polished, composed, and impossibly put together. The American pop star is an inspiration and an aspiration, and girl groups amplify this notion by multiplying it with different bodies all at once. Although K-pop did not invent this expectation, it definitely perfected it. They offered a formula of excellence and cohesion that aligned exactly with what American consumers are conditioned to yearn for.
Ultimately, the U.S did not revive girl groups by accident. It happened because the industry saw K-Pop explode into American pop culture, dominate the world, and acknowledged that the girl group industry needed more than what it was given in the past. Girl groups now are creative investments, intentional and imaginative, and suddenly the format feels alive again because the effort has changed. So yes, girl groups are back and they never flopped, America was just using the wrong cookbook.