4 Reasons Why ENHYPEN is not Popular in Korea (Though They Should Be)

ENHYPEN seems to have everything: Great talent, good music, a stand-out concept, and a loyal fanbase. In fact, they are one of the most popular K-pop groups nowadays on the global market, yet for some reasons the group hasn’t made it big in their home country – Korea. 

Particularly, ENHYPEN songs have not charted well on Korean charts, even including “Polaroid Love”, a viral song of the group that completely took over SNS in 2022. 

In fact, the fact that ENHYPEN is not popular in Korea has been addressed by Sunoo, a member of the group, back in 2022.

At the time, Sunwoo appeared on the program “Yongjin’s Health Center” and mentioned how he noticed that ENHYPEN had many international fans before expressing his desires to grow the group’s Korean fanbase. 

So, why exactly is it that ENHYPEN is not popular in Korea? Netizens seem to suspect 4 likely reasons. 

1. 4th Gen Boy Group “Curse”

From the 1st to the 3rd generation of K-pop, boy groups and girl groups both chart well on Korean charts, albeit the scale is tipped towards female artists. 

However, by the 4th generation, it was girl groups that completely dominated Koreans’ favorite songs, with artists such as ITZY, NewJeans, IVE, LE SSERAFIM and (G)I-DLE consistently charting high on Korean music platforms like MelOn. 

In contrast, despite their international reputations, top 4th gen boy groups, such as Stray Kids, TXT, ENHYPEN, and ATEEZ, generally don’t do well on Korean charts, making for what is called the “4th Gen boy group curse”. 

The reason why 4th gen boy groups are largely ignored is because the Korean general public have associated their music with “noise”. As a result, even though the groups no longer release “noisy songs”, the public failed to overcome their formed belief, and automatically skip 4th gen boy groups when listening to music. 

ENHYPEN, unfortunately, is not an exception to this “curse”. 

2. Pandemic Debut

ENHYPEN made their debut in November 2020 – right in the middle of the COVID-19 Pandemic. This means that the world was in lockdown, and there were barely any stages for the group to perform and barely any shows for ENHYPEN to appear on and get their name out. 

Contrary to international audiences, who are already used to watching their favorite idols through the screen, Koreans are more fond of seeing the idols themselves – whether it be through live music shows, concerts, or offline fansigns. 

However, ENHYPEN’s pandemic debut made all of these impossible, leading to them being well-received by international fans, but ignored by local fans. 

3. No Popular Senior 

Unlike other HYBE groups, such as TXT with BTS, TWS with SEVENTEEN, and LE SSERAFIM with GFRIEND, all with direct popular senior groups – ENHYPEN was the first group to debut under Belift Lab. 

This means that they did not enjoy the direct promotion of popular senior groups, and there was little fanbase transition from senior groups to their juniors. 

It is important to note that unlike international fans, who love to be “multi-stans” and follow multiple groups at once, Korean fans are likely to be devoted to one group only. As their favorite start to decrease activities, these devoted fans will often move to stan the junior groups – a trend which was not observed in ENHYPEN

4. Dark Concept 

ENHYPEN is known for their fantastical concept, which adopts a rather dark and sensual atmosphere. This concept is carried to their music, which is perfectly embroidered with the same color. 

However, while the dark concept is perfect for building international fanbases, it generally doesn’t do well with the Korean general public. 

Instead, Korea tends to prefer K-pop boy groups with Hip-hop vibes (such as in the case of BIGBANG and BTS), or those with bright and youthful concepts (like SEVENTEEN and nowadays RIIZE). 

As a result, it is understandable that the public would overlook boy groups with dark concepts like ENHYPEN. 

Conclusion

Now, it is important to note that ENHYPEN is a relatively young group – both in terms of seniority and age. While some groups became popular immediately after debut, there have been many cases where it takes years for a group to blow up, and BTS is a prime example. 

Therefore, fans should be confident, as ENHYPEN is still growing and their limitless potential may one day be vastly recognized in Korea as well.