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On April 12, KATSEYE, the upcoming girl group housed under HYBE Labels, revealed their fandom name, EYEKONS. The name is a wordplay through a merge of their group name and the word, 'icon'. While many were happy with the fandom name and found it quite creative, several people pointed out the similarity with the veteran K-pop boy group, iKON.
This allegedly directly stands as disrespect to the artist since the names are not just a close correlation but also hold an uncanny resemblance to the K-pop group. Additionally, it can also be seen as an effortless and exploitative marketing strategy. Since both EYEKONS and iKON are pronounced the same and also have the same Korean spelling, issues of KATSEYE feeding off the popularity, fame, and market crowd that iKON created for themselves might arise.
Therefore, there have been conflicts and arguments regarding the same amongst netizens. People have also been calling out HYBE Labels for their failure to consider the consequences of the fandom name.
HYBE Labels under fire for KATSEYE's fandom name that shares uncanny similarities with the veteran K-pop boy group, iKON
HYBE Labels' latest global girl group, KATSEYE, has been garnering a lot of attention from netizens. HYBE Corporation collaborated with the American record label, Geffen Records, for a global reality survival program, Dream Academy.
The show received participants from all around the world, and the finale resulted in the debut of the members, Manon Bannerman, Sophia Laforteza, Daniela Avanzini, Lara Raj, Megan Skiendiel, and Jeong Yoon-chae. The group, therefore, stands as the first-ever American girl group to incorporate the choreography and promotional strategies of K-pop.
Following the wrap-up of the reality survival show, netizens have been eagerly awaiting the group's official debut. HYBE and Geffen Records have revealed that the group will release a studio album sometime in 2024 to inaugurate their official debut in the music industry. However, before the official debut announcements, KATSEYE revealed the official fandom name for the group as EYEKON or EYEKONS to refer to a plural crowd.
While people liked the innovative name that incorporated the identity of the group's name, they soon realized that the fandom name was directly related to an existing K-pop boy group. iKON which debuted in 2015 under YG Entertainment is a six-piece K-pop group. Given that the group has been active in the industry for almost ten years and also houses a large fandom, iKON's fans were angered by the uncanny similarity in names.
Several factors can be affected by this similarity. Not only does this result in confusion among netizens on differentiating EYEKON from iKON, but it also raises trademark issues. Since iKON has registered for the trademark of the name, the group ideally owns rights to the word and its usage. While the names aren't similar in English, they are spelled very identically in Korean with iKON spelled as 이콘and EYEKONs as 아이컨스. This might eventually lead to confusion among the fans when these names are written out in Korean.
Additionally, iKON is one of the most popular K-pop groups in the industry. The group has released hits such as Love Scenario, Killing Me, My Type, etc. Therefore, this similarity might increase circumstances where KATSEYE would be benefiting from iKON's success. Since it exploits the group and its fame, fans have been angered at HYBE's choice of fandom name for their upcoming group.
However, this isn't the first time HYBE was called out for using pre-existing names in the industry for their new artists. Their most recent K-pop girl group, ILLIT, was produced through the reality show, R U Next? holds its fandom name as Lilly. This is not just the name of an NMIXX member, Lily, but is also the fandom name for BLACKPINK's Lisa.
