ITZY, a K-pop girl group under JYP Entertainment, premiered their first music video February 12, 2019. ITZY debuted as juniors of girl groups such as TWICE, Miss A and Wonder Girls, and as seniors to groups such as Nmixx in the same company. ITZY, once a leader in fourth-generation girl groups, started as the only girl group from the Big 3. The Big 3 companies, JYP Entertainment, YG Entertainment and SM Entertainment, revolutionized K-pop with light sticks and styles and became extremely influential. ITZY became the first JYP group girl since TWICE, who debuted four years prior, causing ITZY to put pressure on their debut. 

With their first music show win February 21, 2019, on M Countdown and eight wins following that, ITZY seemed relatively successful at this time. ITZY peaked at number one on music charts such as Bugs, Genie and Flo, but peaked at number two on Melon. The girl group maintained a magnificent winning streak with their following comebacks such as  “Wannabe” which acquired significant success. They retained little to no competition until other fourth-generation girl groups such as Aespa, New Jeans, (G)I-dle and IVE began debuting. Other groups with girl-crush concepts similar to ITZY’s music caused the girl group to appear original style-wise. Musically, ITZY progressed downhill after their “Wannabe” era because of poor marketing.

After “Wannabe,” their music show wins steadily decreased. ITZY’s career began to evidently decline after “Sneakers” from the album Checkmate. ITZY advertised the album as a dark royal concept but appeared as a cute and bubbly one. “Sneakers” appears similar to ITZY’s “Dalla Dalla,” which started slowly maturing from probably one of the best and smoothest concept changes in K-pop. ITZY, with title tracks such as “Loco,” “마.피.아. In the morning” and “Voltage” received praise for their girl-crush themes. Then, “Sneakers” came up with a concept off-track from previous releases, yet one that seemed similar to one of their successful tracks, “Icy.” The majority of international fans did not like the concept of “Sneakers”. Tracks with a girl-crush theme tended to perform higher internationally than in Korea, which could explain the widespread dislike of “Sneakers” internationally. “Icy” did well in both areas, and contains girl-crush lyrics, but also contains a cute concept and tone. ITZY’s attempt to recreate “Icy” became apparent as audiences realized the song’s lyrics contained a girl-boss vibe while a cute concept and atmosphere, “Sneakers” possessed the same qualities “Icy” just not executed as well as “Icy”.

“I’m really torn between what characteristics we should keep and develop to maintain the position together. When our song is good we go up when it’s not that good we go down right away. This seems to happen really fast,” ITZY member Yeji said.

After that, Itzy released “blah, blah, blah” a Japanese comeback that did not receive the amount of  promotion that the Korean ones receive, so fans do not know if the mediocre performance of the song falls to lack of promotion or a reaction to “Sneakers.” “Blah, blah, blah” did return to the original concept of ITZY, though. Then, “Boys Like You” came out and seemed low-quality compared to ITZY’s other tracks.  They released “Boys Like You,” an English track, for English-speaking fans in countries such as the United States to promote their US-based tour. “Boys Like You,” held a similar vibe to “Sneakers,” so the fans in the market tried to appeal, but evidently did not like it so it performed poorly.

The majority of fans seemed to lose interest after this point, with lower wins and views on music videos, and lower views on dance performances. “Cheshire” and “Cake,” even though they can represent old ITZY, experienced significantly lower views than previous tracks, especially after the first week. ITZY lost a majority of public attraction and favor regarding their title tracks. Korean fans complained on online forums after the release of the ITZY Japanese track, “Ringo,” stating that ITZY releases better Japanese tracks than Korean ones.

The main reason plenty of people think ITZY started to do poorly seems to fall on JYP giving them songs that do not fit them, while others believe JYP does not give them songs to highlight their strengths.  In the scenes or vlogs of filming and recording the songs, ITZY members struggle to reach the notes. Hate comments began to spread after those videos, saying ITZY does not contain an adequate vocalist and that the group seems dance-based. People compare ITZY  to numerous groups, especially TWICE, who boasts strong main vocalists and rappers, an asset that ITZY allegedly lacks. Members expressed losing confidence in their abilities because of such comments.

“I can actually see and feel other members enjoying themselves on stage, and that is when I realize I am a little bit different from them. It does not mean that I do not like to be a part of the performance, it is just that I am not good at it,” Itzy member Lia said 

In reality, the decline seems related to poor marketing on JYP’s part. ITZY started with constant hits in a certain genre and a vibe, but instead of riding the wave of popularity, they started switching up concepts and drifted from their most popular track, “Wannabe.” Since “Wannabe” started trending because of the shoulder dance moves in the choreography, people began to like and follow ITZY for a similar type of music with danceability and mature vibes. Then, ITZY started switching up concepts so people who began to like them for a certain vibe began to lose satisfaction and move on to other groups. Different from their debut, other groups used the same girl-crush concepts so fans could listen to other artists’ music. Instead of using ITZY’s representation as talented dancers, they began simplifying their choreography. If they released “Sneakers” as a B-side or title track earlier in their career, the hate train would not seem as significant.