Tik Tok VIral Stars: KATSEYE - "Touch"

0:03 Kalaroga Shark Media. I'm Garrett Fisher and this is the Hit Maker Chronicles. I want to tell you about the most transparent pop star manufacturing process in modern music history. And before you think I'm being cynical or dismissive, I'm not. What happened with Katsi and their breakthrough single Touch is genuinely fascinating, whether you think it's brilliant or dystopian or both. In November twenty twenty one, Hybe, the Korean entertainment corporation that created BTS, literally the biggest pop group on the planet, partnered with Geffen Records to launch global auditions. Their goal was specific create the world's first truly global girl group.

0:52 They received over one hundred and twenty thousand submissions. Let me put that in perspective. This wasn't American Idol, this wasn't The Voice. This was an industrial scale experiment in applying K pop's famously rigorous training system to a multi national group designed for American and global markets. According to Hybe chairman Bong Zi Hyuk, the intention was to form an international group based on K pop methodology or as one executive said, during the process, and this was captured on camera. The people that created BTS had this vision to take the K out of K pop and make it global. Everything that followed was documented, everything was strategic, and the result was Katsi. From those one hundred twenty thousand submissions, Hybe and Geffen selected twenty young women ages fourteen to twenty one from the United States, South Korea, Switzerland, Slovakia, the Philippines and Japan. These twenty girls moved to Los Angeles for intensive training. I I say intensive training, I'm talking about the K pop system, dance lessons, vocal coaching, media training, etiquette training, performance training all day, every day for months under the supervision of K pop's most renowned instructors.

2:17 Then came the debut Dream Academy, a twelve week survival show that ran from September to November twenty twenty three on YouTube, weavers and a Bama TV. The twenty girls competed in performance challenges, Fans voted online, executives judged the field narrowed from twenty to ten to six. On November seventeenth, twenty twenty three, the final lineup was announced in Los Angeles. Sofia La Forteza from the Philippines, Lara Raj from India and the US, Yunchai Jung from South Korea, Megan Skian Deal from the US, Danielle Avenzini from Venezuela and the US, and Men and Bannerman from Ghana, the US and Switzerland.

2:59 They called themselves Katsai. Here's what makes this significant. This group includes Hybe's first Indian, Filipina, Latina, and black artists. Teen Vogue named them one of twelve girl groups to Watch in twenty twenty four before they'd released a single song, and the entire process, from auditions to training, to the survival show to the final reveal, was documented by Netflix in an eight episode series called Pop Star Academy Katzi, directed by Nadia Halgren, who'd previously made the Emmy nominated Michelle Obama documentary Becoming So. By the time Katsi released their first single, millions of people had already watched their formation on YouTube. Millions more would eventually watch the Netflix series.

3:46 The group had a fan base before they had music. Touch was released on July twenty sixth, twenty twenty four, and I Need you to understand something. This song was designed from the ground up to go viral on TikTok. The song itself is liquid drum and bass infused dance pop with R and B undertones. Lyrically, it's about moving on from a lover, but the real story is in how the choreography was constructed. Kats Eye's executive creator Son Sung Duke, along with choreographers so Hey Sugihara and Grant Gilmour, crafted moves with one primary goal make it simple enough for anyone to learn, memorable enough for everyone to want to try. I feel like it's not so hard for people to learn, Daniella told Billboard, talking about the signature pinky to thumb touching gesture in the chorus, Sophia jumped in about her favorite part, the little booty pop, and Daniella added, I was like, people are going to gag.

4:48 It's so cute. Think about that for a second. They're literally describing choreography designed for TikTok virality. The pinky to thumb gesture that's instantly recognizable in a nine second vertical video. The hip hop that's visually interesting but easy to execute in your bedroom. These are movements engineered for social media. The music video, directed by Cody Kritchelo leans hard into y two K aesthetics, low rise jenes, crop tops, platform shoes, all that late nineties early two thousands visual language that gen Z has been mining for the past few years. The plot involves a citywide search for Yuncha, who's gone missing, while showcasing each member's dream charm, Sophia's anchor, Megan's cherry, Danielle as Shield, Laras Key, Manan's Tiara, Yuncha's shell. The video dropped July twenty sixth, twenty twenty four, the same day as the single. Then came the strategic rollout. Katsy partnered with other K pop groups under Hybe's umbrella. They posted a TikTok with Mannin and Yuncha dancing Touch with members of an hyphen, another Hybe boy band, to cross pollinade audiences. They released official choreography tutorials, They engaged with fan covers, They performed at festivals, music shows, mall meat and greets, and for weeks, the song built slowly. Then September twenty twenty four, hit and TikTok caught fire. The

6:21 Touch dance challenge exploded. Users across the platform learned the pinky to thumb gesture. Attempted the hip hop. The choreography tutorials racked up millions of views. The song entered charts across Southeast Asia, Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, Hong Kong. It debuted at number twenty two on Billboard's Bubbling Under Hot one hundred chart. It hit the Billboard Global two hundred. In New Zealand, it debuted at number sixteen. By November twenty twenty four, Touch had climbed to number thirty two on the Pop Airplay chart. The TikTok to radio pipeline worked exactly as designed. Mitre Durab, president of e H times g at Hybe America, explained the strategy to Billboard.

7:05 We had our eye on radio, but knew we needed key levers to feel confident it was the right time to go. We would see significant growth weekly, not only at DSPs, but in TikTok and reels creates and their social growth. We also knew we needed a big cultural moment to bring awareness to the group, which we achieved with the Netflix documentary. Once that was released, all our goals started to fall into place. That's the quote that tells you everything. This was planned. This was strategic this worked. In August twenty twenty five, Catsie starred in Gaps Fall twenty twenty five Better In Denim campaign. They danced to a re recorded version of Kellis's Milkshake with new choreography by Robbie Blue. The campaign achieved over four hundred million views and eight billion impressions across platforms in under two weeks.

8:00 GAP's CEO Richard Dixon called it a cultural takeover and said the ad got more views in its first three days than the brand's previous four releases combined. Now here's where timing matters. Earlier in twenty twenty five, American Eagle had released a Jens campaign featuring Sidney Sweeney that got criticized for promoting narrow beauty standards. Katsi's campaign, six young women from different countries, different backgrounds, different body types, all dancing together in perfect sync, got praised as inclusive and empowering, and the milkshake choreography became its own separate TikTok trend.

8:40 Thousands of people learned the dance who'd never heard of Katsi's music. The group's reach expanded way beyond their core fan base. By November twenty twenty five, Katsi had two Grammy nominations Best New Artist and Best Pop Duo Slash Group Performance for their song Gabriella. So Here's where I want to pause and think about what we're actually looking at. Katsi is a product of K pop's trainee system applied to a multinational lineup. They're a Netflix documentary subject before they were a charting act. They're a viral marketing case study dressed up as a girl group. As Danielle said in an interview with ID, we're the first American girl group to make American pop music, but trained to do the crazy choreography of K pop. Their second EP, Beautiful Chaos, dropped June twenty seventh, twenty twenty five, and debuted at number four on the Billboard two hundred. Lead single Gnarly earned them their first Billboard Hot one hundred entry, and I think this raises fascinating questions about what authentic even means.

9:46 In twenty twenty five, every aspect of Katsie's formation was documented and strategized. The choreography for Touch was designed for virality before the song was even released their Netflix series premiere, before they'd had a hit. Their gap campaign was time to counter negative press around a competitors campaign. But, and this is important, the six members are real people. They auditioned against one hundred nineteen thousand, nine hundred and ninety four other hopefuls. They trained for months, They survived a televised elimination process. They learned brutally difficult choreography. They perform live, They sing, they dance. Sophia, Lara, Yunch, Megan, Daniela and Manon aren't characters. They're performers who happened to be assembled through the most transparent pop star manufacturing process in modern music history. Touch isn't just a song about moving on from a lover. It's a case study in how pop music works in twenty twenty five. The pinky to thumb gesture isn't just choreography. It's a branded in. It's a call to action. It's a way to convert passive listeners into active content creators, who then become walking advertisements for your song. This is the new pop star assembly line, not five guys thrown together by a manager with a vision, but a multinational corporation spending millions to create a group

11:20 through documented auditions, televised eliminations and strategic partnerships with the world's largest streaming service. And you know what it worked. Catseye sold out shows, Grammy nominations, four hundred million views for a Denamad Coach brand Ambassadors PSAs for the NYC Subway Global chart success. Touch proved you can engineer a viral moment if you have enough resources, expertise, documentation, and understanding of how social platforms reward participatory content. But here's what you can't manufacture. The way Daniella throws her head back during the chorus, The way un Che moves with precision earned through years of training. The way Sophia's voice carries the emotional weight of the bridge. The way six individuals create something that feels bigger than its strategic parts.

12:12 Katsi is an experiment, an expensive one, a transparent one, a successful one. Their proof that in twenty twenty five, you can reverse engineer a pop group from first principles. Start with a concept, assemble talent through global auditions, train them using proven methods, document everything for content, release music designed for algorithmic distribution. Watch as millions of people participate in making your manufactured pop stars into actual pop stars. Touch went viral because it was designed to go viral, but it stayed in the conversation because six talented performers sold it like it meant something, because the chorus is genuinely catchy, because the choreography is actually fun to learn, Because for all the strategy and engineering, there's still a spark when those six voices blend and those six bodies move in perfect sync. You can't manufacture everything, but in twenty twenty five, you can manufacture enough. And that's not a criticism. That's just the industry we're living in. The question isn't whether it's real or fake. Those categories don't apply anymore. The question is does it work, does it connect?

13:26 Does it make people feel something? For Cats, Eye and Touch, the answer is yes. One hundred twenty thousand people auditioned, six made it. They trained like k pop idols, they performed like pop stars, They went viral like TikTok creators. They succeeded like a multinational brand campaign. And somewhere in all of that strategy and engineering, six real people are living out a dream that one hundred nineteen thousand, nine hundred and ninety four others didn't get. That's the story of touch, that's the story of cat's Eye. That's pop music in twenty twenty five.