It’s April 29, 2025. Katseye are best known for a soapy Netflix reality show, their viral hit “Touch,” and for simply being Hybe’s big international girl group experiment (the group’s six members have roots in at least five continents). They’re coming out with a new single, and based on the teasers, the beat seems catchy. Their future is promising, but still very uncertain.
It’s April 30, 2025 and Katseye have the number one trending music video on YouTube. Every corner of the digital K-pop community seems to be buzzing and performance videos are reaching hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of views in under a day. “Gnarly” has arrived and it’s changed the game.
Let’s be very clear: “Gnarly” is not a good song. It has some good elements—namely a sick beat and fun choreography—but it’s messy, and a lot of the risks it takes don’t pay off. There’s a reason that a lot of the initial online buzz was what-on-earth-is-this themed.
The MV is an especially tough pill to swallow. Class has left the chat: Everything is garishly bright and cheap-looking, despite the constant barrage of product placement (put that advertiser money to good use!). There’s also a lot of AI-generated imagery, which adds to the feeling of artificiality.
Some might defend “Gnarly” by saying it is kitsch (purposefully and ironically garish), and that might have been the intention. However, kitsch requires a million times more finesse than what “Gnarly” has to offer. Crucially, it’s missing a sense of humor. The MV’s visual gags—including brief bursts of pg-rated violence and gross-out food shots that are probably supposed to be edgy—aren’t funny, they’re cringe and try-hard, two adjectives that also apply to the song’s horrendous lyrics.
Properly tuning into the song will result in you being assaulted by lines like “hottie hottie/like a bag of Taki’s” and “Tesla (gnarly)/fried chicken (gnarly).” The track’s second verse is particularly nightmarish:
Making beats for a boring dumb bitch
Fucking gnarly (gnarly)
Don’t talk to me
You’re gnarly, I’m not (shit is gnarly)
Jealous of my mansion?
Yeah the view is (fucking) gnarly
There’s nothing wrong with a nonsense-lyrics here or there, or with swearing for that matter. However, the song’s combination of constant meaningless content and a swear word every five lines makes it feel like it was written by a middle schooler (generous) trying really, really hard to be cool. Funnily enough, the ‘clean version’ of the lyrics—with brand references and swearing removed, likely so that Katseye can perform the song on Korean music shows—is slightly less cringe than the original.
On top of all that, there’s one final strike against “Gnarly,” which is its weird handling of suggestive content. It’s notable here that Katseye’s members range in age from 17 to 22, so what is perfectly appropriate for some of them may be less so for others. With that in mind, some of the booty-shaking dance moves are probably fine (especially since the choreography is the one place where “Gnarly” actually feels playful and cheekily inventive), though a raised eyebrow or two is understandable.
What makes less sense are some of the visual choices in the MV, which like the swear words, feel like shock value for shock value’s sake. Nobody needs to watch two animated flies mate on a sandwich (I wish I was joking). The final dance scene—which sees the girls surrounded by a largely male cohort of photographers, some of whom go disturbingly bug-eyed— also feels insanely tone deaf in a world where women are so often targeted by illicit photography or plain old-fashioned ogling.
With all that said, you might be wondering: If “Gnarly” sucks that much, why is it proving to be Katseye’s breakout moment? There are two main reasons. The first is that it’s a train wreck, and train wrecks are kind of fascinating. Watching “Gnarly” might be an off-putting experience, but it’s certainly unique! This is in contrast to something like “Touch,” which as delightful as it was, isn’t reinventing any wheels and could have been done by any number of other girl groups. “Gnarly” definitely stands out.
That brings us to reason number two, which is that “Gnarly” has succeeded in getting a lot of eyes on Katseye…and once you get past the disaster of the track itself, what becomes clear is that Katseye are killer performers. The members are pretty much the only salvageable thing about the MV. Their commitment and confidence stops “Gnarly” from becoming a total joke.
On stage, Katseye transform “Gnarly” into a fun, fresh performance hit. They are helped by the fact that the song’s best features are its clanging hyperpop sound and party-ready choregraphy, but make no mistake: Katseye are doing the heavy-lifting here. Their energy, dance skills, and stage presence are something to behold, and as the post-release promotion cycle for “Gnarly” has kicked off, the conversation has shifted from (deserved) lyric-bashing and (deserved) critique of Hybe, to praise for Katseye and their charisma.
Funnily enough, “Gnarly” being so bad only serves to highlight the group’s talent. Turning lemons into lemonade is an art, and now, millions of people are watching Katseye manage just that. In a sense, then, “Gnarly” is a triumph. Whatever Katseye do next, the world will be watching.
(YouTube[1][2][3]. Lyrics via YouTube. Images via Geffen, HYBE.)
English (US) · 