On September 12, Kpop girl group aespa performed their newly released song "Rich Man" on the US show "Good Morning America".
This is a stage that gives aespa the opportunity to promote their song in the US market, enhancing their competitiveness to reach the Billboard Hot 100 chart - something the group has never done after 5 years of operation.
However, aespa's performance on US television was disappointing. On social networking platforms, many international audiences criticized the group for their lack of vitality in performance and uneven choreography, making the studio atmosphere look gloomy and boring.
In his native Korea, a post about aespa's performance on the online community theqoo attracted nearly 60,000 reads and nearly 900 comments, most of which were criticism of the group.
Many viewers disagree with aespa's lip-syncing on American television. They said this was a "ugly" K-pop, expressing confusion because aespa was not a bad live group but chose lip-syncing.
Other opinions said that aespa's choreography in the song "Rich Man" is less attractive than previous songs. On the other hand, the members seemed to lack practice, making the choreography and stage messy and unsynchronized.
I always feel that aepsa focuses on image and beauty rather than performance.
"I lip-synced but couldn't dance yet. The stage and choreography look like cold rice".
This video alone is enough to explain why SM Entertainment is not popular in the US. They can't even dance and lip-sync, that's why they don't have fans in the West" - some notable comments.
In addition, the audience analyzed other factors such as the absence of a powerful dancer and the sparkling camera angles often seen in Korea, which were the reasons why aespa's performance did not meet expectations.
One viewer commented: K-pop is an industry where film directors, sound and lighting work together, showing that this industry has had effective methods to upgrade artists.
However, that was also a double-edged sword. When leaving the support of the crew, if the artist is not talented and courageous enough, his flaws will be revealed.
aespa is the most famous group of the 4th generation of Kpop, but surprisingly, the group has never had a song enter the Billboard Hot 100 chart - an important measure of a song's popularity and cultural impact in the US.
NewJeans, LE SSERAFIM, Stray Kids, Ateez are Kpop 4-gen groups that have appeared on the Billboard Hot 100 many times.
The audience believes that if they want to conquer the US market, aespa should practice their performance skills, show off their talents, and real values, rather than focus on building an image and taking care of beauty.
