ITZY's performance on the charts led netizens to discuss the group's relevance in an online community.

Here's what people said about the fourth-gen act.

ITZY 'Underperformed' in 1st-Week Sales with 'BORN TO BE'? K-Netz Compare Album's Charting with Previous Releases

On January 14, netizens flocked to a forum, where they discussed ITZY's first-week sales performance with their eighth mini album "BORN TO BE."

The uploaded image featured ITZY's first-week sales chart for their previous album releases, which were each represented by their respective title tracks.

The OP focused mainly on ITZY's newest first-week sales charting for "BORN TO BE," comparing it with "KILL MY DOUBT," the album for title track "CAKE."

It also included a caption that expressed shock over the album's performance, while casually mentioning if ITZY ever had a controversy this comeback since the results "displayed" signs of boycott.

Here's what OP said:

"The grey one is the 'CAKE' album, while the red one is the album for 'UNTOUCHABLE.' Just what in the world happened? Did they get into a controversy? Did this not include any of the Chinese mass orders? Or are they boycotting them?"

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Netizens commented that the same occurrence was also happening with other groups and not just with ITZY. They pointed out that ITZY had failed to receive positive feedback with "UNTOUCHABLE" despite promoting on music shows.

Meanwhile, some pointed the blame to ITZY's fandom and expressed frustration towards MIDZYs for not streaming "UNTOUCHABLE" harder. Others conveyed that the low-ranking performance was due to the song's quality. Read their comments below:

•  "This isn't only happening with ITZY. Starting this year, you can tell that bulk buying became out of trend."
•  "Their digital scores are even worse."
•  "Girl group songs need to be good. But if their songs have been consecutively bad, then their rankings will also be bad too."

In a different thread, international K-pop stans reflected on ITZY's journey as a group, impact and music-wise. Some claimed that the group "declined" in 2021, after releasing "Mafia in the morning" as well as for changing their sound and concept too early.

Here's what they said:

•  "Their journey has been quite said. They were the talk of the town in 2019, and when they released 'WANNABE,' they exploded."
•  "They were doing good until 2021-ish happened. (All releases after MITM just weren't on par with what they released earlier in their career."
•  "Even 'NOT SHY' and 'Mafia in the morning' got criticized, especially MITM since people spammed JYP's IG for its bad lyrics."
•  "The biggest mistake was changing their sound and concept too early in their careers with 'NOT SHY' as its sonically different to 'DALLA DALLA,' 'ICY,' and 'WANNABE.'"

What are your thoughts on this? Which songs from "BORN TO BE" are your favorite tracks? Let us know in the comments below!

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Written by Riely Miller