On May 5, KAACHI's worldwide debut track "Your Turn" achieved 3 million views on YouTube within only six days. The group has been the center of discussion on various social platforms, and this achievement created another wave of feedback from K-pop fans around the globe.
The UK-based K-pop-inspired group, which debuted on April 15, is composed of members with different nationalities, which are Korean, Spanish, and British. They are targeting the mainstream with their concept of making K-pop universal. The four-member group composed of Coco, Nicole, Dani, and Chunseo - KAACHI targets the global market with their new spin of K-pop.
However, as others welcomed and congratulated them for their debut, a slew of K-pop fans coming from different fandoms have been criticizing the group. According to these fans, KAACHI shouldn't be called a K-pop group.
On various social media platforms, online users pointed out the reasons why they refuse to accept the quartet. The reasons include their skills, which do not even pass the minimal standards a K-pop idol should have.
A fan stated, "They clearly don't have the vocals, dancing skills and right Korean."
the music video is just so embarrassing...they clearly don't have the vocals, dancing skills, and right korean..they're just using the culture to get attention and that's so ignorant. I don't know how they're not realising people see them as a bunch of koreaboos #KAACHI_DISBAND — sandra⁷ (@_sbvxii_) April 29, 2020
K-pop idols spend several years as trainees before debuting, while some, unfortunately, are not able to make it. Some idols only trained for months, such as Super Junior's Ryeowook (2 months), Suzy (6 months), EXO's Chen (four months), EXO's Baekhyun (7 months), and Apink's Eunji (two months). However, the skills of these artists during their trainee days, albeit shortly, can surpass KAACHI's skills.
Kpop is more than hair colors and fancy clothes. Idol spent half of their lives training until they finally got the “OK” to debut. It’s not just the years as trainee but also talents and skills, the individualities. Kaachi is just a representation of the misconception. #Disband — Bel (@tmnaxricegirl) May 3, 2020
Second, Chunseo, one of the members of the group, was getting several hate comments as well, following her alleged bullying comments towards BLACKPINK's Jennie and Bangchan of Stray Kids.
@chunseocook what the fuck is wrong with you? You seriously pulling other members down? Your so called “kpop” group is such a disaster if you want clout, make sure to have enough money in your bank for sure these members will sue you and put you in court pic.twitter.com/Yih4p9a7w7 — ☞︎ ♡︎ @cataileeknow on IG ⁰³²⁵ (@cataileeknow) May 3, 2020
This is following the UJJN controversial video wherein a staff member said to UJJN members to dance lazily like Jennie. During that time, Dani and Chunseo were both members of the London-based cover group, which escalated war between BLINKs and the group. Shortly after, UJJN released an official apology letter to fans and Jennie, and the video was soon taken down.
"A year ago, UJJN TV posted a video which was a challenge version of Mamamoo's Gogobebe and featured a member off camera shouting styles for the dancers to imitate, such as cute or boy group. In this video, the member off camera shouted out lazy, and mentioned Blackpink member Jennie. When editing the video, we did not think too much of it as the comment was not intended to be taken seriously.
The video was never deleted until recently because the video as a whole received a lot of support, even from BP fans, and was never meant to be seen as a video mocking or fuelling hatred towards Jennie. Rather, it was a lighthearted, fun game for the girls to enjoy after all their hard work preparing the actual cover. Although it has been emphasized that there were no mal intentions when making the joke in the video, we have come to see that the comment may have offended some, so we have removed the video from our channel and wish to apologize to those who felt hurt when watching our video.
Our member, SJ, has also released a personal statement which you can find on his Instagram @sjhandances. UJJN prides itself on creating content that our audience enjoys and we want to make our fans happy.
To any fans that we have disappointed, we will work harder and strive to show only the best versions of ourselves. And to our fans who continued to support us throughout this situation, thank you so much for your love and positivity.
To conclude, we would like to make this a learning opportunity for all and to address the responses we have received as a result of this situation. We do not and will not ever condone the behaviour and hate speech that our member(s) and supporters have been receiving.
It is abhorrent to send hate and defame others and is absolutely unacceptable to send death threats or be homophobic, no matter the circumstance or how wrong that person may have been. We hope everyone will take this opportunity to reflect on their actions as we have and would like everyone to join us in our journey to becoming better people. Have a great day and remember to spread some love during this global pandemic."
A post shared by UJJN (유진) (@official_ujjn) on Apr 19, 2020 at 5:31pm PDT
Lastly, fans are accusing KAACHI of plagiarism after they noticed the similarity of their music video to TXT's. Also, their logo is claimed to be a mix of SEVENTEEN, BTS, and BLACKPINKs' logos, which is not acceptable as logos define the identity of each K-pop group.
Aight, I’m sick and tired of Kaachi. First off, stop stealing every other groups logo. I don’t care what anyone says this is plagiarism. Someone report this to bighit(I would but I don’t know how) creds to this person on tiktok. #kaachisaysorryforstealing pic.twitter.com/rg2ct3iubf — made_in_bts (@bts_took_my_lif) May 3, 2020
BALCKPINK PLAGIARISM Do you know "KAACHI" ? K- Pop British group copying #BLACKPINK concept and bullied Jennie What do you think? Shall we report? Source : https://t.co/IPLWBNXFpT@ygofficialblink #BLACKPINKISCOMING #BLACKPINKCOMEBACK #JUNE_IS_FOR_BLACKPINK pic.twitter.com/yNZ10xCP73 — BP Global Voting INA (@BPGVotingINA) May 4, 2020
Meanwhile, following the massive criticisms that KAACHI is facing, FrontRow spoke out and plans to take legal action against malicious commenters.
"Because of the recent circumstances, KAACHI has received a lot of hate comments. This is something that FrontRow does not take lightly. Any threatening, abusive or false rumors will be reported and, depending on the severity of the comment, we may even take legal action," the agency said.
