Korean netizens argue that ITZY’s digital music rankings are too low compared to expectations

What is the reason behind ITZY’s long slide on digital music charts: The song ‘LOCO’ is not impressive or because of the netizen’s coldness before Lia’s bullying scandal?

At 13:00 on September 24 (KST), ITZY made a comeback with their first full album titled ‘Crazy In Love’ and the title song ‘LOCO’. This is the girls’ second comeback in 2021 since ‘Mafia in the Morning’ was released in April 2021.

So far, ITZY’s songs have always had good results on digital music charts even though they are only a 4th generation Kpop girl group, but the effect from the song ‘Mafia in the Morning’ is not as expected. Because of that, many people were also looking forward to the song ‘LOCO’, but in the end, this song was even a disappointing slide on ITZY’s digital music chart.

Recently on the Korean Network forum, the story of ITZY’s disappointing digital music achievement and the theme song ‘Loco’ became the hot topic. Accordingly, right after the first hour of release (i.e. 14h on September 24, welding hours), the song has a debut screen at 3 charts with No.3 in Bugs, No.41 in Genie, and No.88 in Melon.

This is a pretty good achievement because ‘LOCO’ was released in an unfavorable time frame in Korea anyway and ITZY is still a group with a young age.  Many people believe that after a few hours or after a few days, the song will be able to reach the public’s taste and gradually accelerate on the chart.  However, that did not happen when the song continued to have poor rankings on digital music charts, especially in the Melon Top 100 chart, although this chart has now changed its rules more easily.

Witnessing this, many Knets confirmed that the comeback with ‘LOCO’ was really a flop for ITZY. In fact, other 4th gen girl groups like aespa and STAYC do even better than ITZY. Since then many people wonder why ‘LOCO’ can’t succeed.

Is the first reason due to the song ‘LOCO’ itself?  Previously, ITZY’s songs that caused mixed reactions were usually produced by JYP. However, if it were at the hands of the GALACTIKA production team, it would be different because they are behind many hits for ITZY such as ‘DALLA DALLA’ and ‘WANNABE’. Therefore, when hearing that this production group also made ‘LOCO’, many people believed that this would be the next hit of the JYP girl group. Even the GALACTIKA team also believed in that.

However, after ‘LOCO’ was released, many listeners felt let down because the song could not live up to expectations. The song is not ‘picky’ and even quite catchy and easy to listen to, but it all stops there.  Many netizens think that ‘LOCO’ is only an acceptable song without any highlights and it fails to leave any impression after listening.

In addition, Knets also claim that LOCO exposes all of ITZY’s weaknesses. Accordingly, ITZY has long been known as a strong girl group in terms of dance and performance, but vocals are their weakest point. Even the main vocalist Lia continues to be involved in controversies over her singing ability, while the other members all have a low tone and average vocal color, so they can’t help the song sound better.

Another reason that is said to affect ITZY’s comeback: Lia’s school bullying scandal. Accordingly, the main vocalist of ITZY was accused of being a bully. JYP took legal actions against the accuser. However, on June 13, the police department again declared the accuser innocent and did not commit slander against Lia. This led netizens to believe that A’s accusations were accurate and since then, their trust in Lia has also been destroyed.

Although JYP later stated that they had continued to file lawsuits to get justice for Lia, the outcome or development of the case has not yet been reported. What Knetizens saw was that throughout the scandal, Lia is still happily participating in all of ITZY’s activities as if nothing happened. Meanwhile, Kpop idols who have been caught up in similar scandals, whether it’s verified or not, they would still go on hiatus for a while, waiting for the case to be clarified.

JYP’s stubborn attitude and the fact that Lia is having normal schedules make Knets unable to stop criticizing on various online forums. This is also said to be part of the reason why ITZY’s music is no longer as well received as before. Many Knets claim they will only support ITZY when the bullying incident is resolved. Currently, the whole group’s image has been seriously affected because of Lia.

Some comments of Knets on ITZY’s declining digital achievements with ‘LOCO’:

• They should have released a better song than ‘Mafia’… ㅠㅠ Or is it because their vocals are still lacking? Their voices are all low, even the main vocal is weak at live singing… The members can’t even rap… The concepts are limited.
• It’s funny how they released the song at 1pm on Friday… Do they think they’re BTS or BLACKPINK? Wake up JYP ㅠㅠ Please explain Lia’s controversy!!!
• I heard it at a coffee shop before, and the song was fine, but I won’t listen to it again because of Lia…
• Please explain Lia’s school violence controversy, please let Yuna be the center, change the coordi, change the concept to teen-crush style… JYP needs to know how to listen to fans’ opinions. Since they deliberately ignore the feedback, of course they will fail. Yuna is beautiful and stands out on stage but they continue to experiment and give her weird styles.
• I saw some comments saying it’s not Lia’s problem but the song’s. But for me the biggest issue is because of Lia.
• It’s been 3 years since their debut, don’t blame the agency or the music. This is because they lack skills. ITZY’s strongest point is their performance, but so far Lia still can’t dance well. Except for Yuna, the other 4 members all have deep voices, so their voices don’t appeal to listeners. ITZY was originally a strong group in terms of performance and choreography, but their choreography this time is not that difficult. JYP didn’t even explain Lia’s controversy. This result is as expected, don’t blame the stylist or the management company.
• Well, I guess it’s because they didn’t explain Lia’s controversy. I like ITZY since ICY, I was looking forward to ‘Mafia’ MV and I also watched their latest MV. I heard this new song for the first time on a music show. Yuna, Chaeryeong, Yeji, and Ryujin are all very pretty and I like them, but I think JYP should give an explanation for the accusations against Lia.
• Honestly, I wish they had released a refreshing song this time. Something that sounds like ‘Dalla Dalla’. I feel sorry for them.
• The reason for this flop is because of 2 things: Bad song and Lia’s scandal.
• I really don’t want to hear Lia’s voice every time I listen to their song.