The KCON LA 2024 festival, held in late July, was a vibrant showcase of K-pop talent featuring a diverse lineup of artists over three days.
Among the standout performances was the popular boy group ENHYPEN, who delighted fans with their energetic stage presence and engaging interactions with other groups.
The festival, known for its lively atmosphere and fan interactions, saw many exciting moments as idols from different groups collaborated on various projects, including dance challenge videos.
One such video that has captured significant attention features ENHYPEN alongside KATSEYE, a newly debuted girl group.
KATSEYE, announced as one of the opening acts on the festival's final day, made headlines with their single "Touch," and had the opportunity to collaborate with ENHYPEN's Heeseung and Ni-ki for a dance challenge video.
The video shared widely on TikTok, showcased the four idols performing the choreography from KATSEYE's hit single.
The initial excitement from fans quickly turned to mixed reactions.
While many were thrilled to see the cross-group interaction, some viewers criticized ENHYPEN's choreography performance.
Comments on social media highlighted a perceived awkwardness in the dance, with some fans taking issue with what they described as a "masculinization" of the song's moves.
One Twitter user commented, "I'm so over bg pretending them 'can't' do gg dances, like why are you even doing the challenges if you're gonna half-ass the dance??? Grow tf up," while another added, "Is it that hard to just do the choreo?"
The criticism focused on the perceived lack of effort and misalignment with KATSEYE's original dance style.
In contrast, other fans defended ENHYPEN, pointing out that the video was filmed in a constrained space, which may have affected the performance.
They also noted that other boy groups have made similar adaptations in the past. Supporters argued that the critical reactions seemed disproportionate, considering the context of the video.
One fan wrote, "So KATSEYE team basically meant to do this (bg) version with everyone BUT y'all crucified ENHYPEN???" while another remarked, "Still can't grasp the fact that people were hating for a TIKTOK video ... filmed in a hallway."
KpopStarz owns this article.
Written by Cassidy Jones.
