Sometimes I debate whether I should be covering Katseye at all on this blog. Despite emerging from HYBE, they’re not really “K-pop” in any sense and I haven’t enjoyed their music enough to ever feature it on a “global round-up” post. Yet, you can’t deny the influence they’ve had on a certain type of K-pop, as their brasher, more rage-bait tracks satisfy the industry’s need for global engagement. And with a song title like Hootie Frutti, how could I not write about this?
One thing I’ll confidently say about Hootie Frutti is that you’ll never forget what song you’re listening to while it’s playing. Katseye open with… well… a half dozen “hootie fruits” and go on to offer dozens more over the next two minutes and twenty seconds. We’re in the Green Eggs and Ham style of songwriting here. Hootie Frutti on your tongue, Hootie Frutti every day, Hootie Frutti pandemic 2026. It’s all patently silly and stupid but could be fun-silly, fun-stupid if the songwriters opted for an actual chorus.
Of Katseye’s gimmicky songs, I actually think this might boast my favorite production. The beat is cartoonish in a garish way but at least it has a resounding lower end. I love the weird synth that comes in for the pre-chorus. It reminds me of how an accordion accents the bass in a polka. Remove the godawful, cringey lyrics, give us a widescreen Red Flavor style chorus and we’d be talking about a serious guilty pleasure. Of course, that would be a different song entirely so for now *this* Hootie Frutti is a skip. But, I’ll be bopping my head and maybe even dancing a ridiculous jig as a I skip it.
| Hooks | 5 |
| Production | 9 |
| Longevity | 7 |
| Bias | 7 |
| RATING | 7 |
Grade: C-
The Bias List // K-Pop Reviews & Discussion 
well, this song is terrible, and i never would’ve expected a high rating from you
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I mean, on this blog a “7” isn’t really a high rating…
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I mean, for Katseye standards it is… (the bar is in the same level of hell as Cortis is)
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lol true
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There is a beautiful saying in Hindi that goes “kutte ke dum kabhi seedhi nahi hoti” (literal translation: “a dog’s tail can never be straight” which basically means old habits die hard lol). And ever since Gnarly went viral and Gabriela became a chart-topping success, I fear we’re gonna get either ragebait slop or boring generic slop, so pick your poison everyone (*ᴗ͈ˬᴗ͈)ꕤ•.ﾟ(the kaomoji’s intentional)
Anyways, 4.25 (2, 7, 5, 3) for me, it’s just boring Brazilian funk production with a repetitive, cringe ass chorus with some godawful writing. I fear you’re being too generous here.
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I think they like hootie frutti y’all…
Anyways, this has got to be a social experiment
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Since this week has been shit, let me bless everyone’s ears with a C-Pop banger from 2019. Inspired by Nick, I shall do a mini review of it as well :3
C-pop girl group SING (backronym for “Super Impassioned Net Generation”) has built their sound on a fusion on traditional Chinese instruments with more modern, electronic flourishes. As an advertisement for Duracell, they venture into a full disco-inspired sound with Dive Into The Sky.
The song begins with a spoken rap intro with a surging instrumental that seems to build into something stronger, before we get to the song’s 1st verse, which is a little reserved even when the beat continues to thump and has us anticipate for more and something better as we get to its surging pre-chorus that luckily builds to an incredible chorus.
The song’s strongest point is its bouyant chorus which luckily is lengthy and developed as the girls sing in unison. The vocal layering is tight and gives the song some life, the chorus shimmers with twinkling synths and a thumping beat as we get to its fun instrumental break as the girls chant “I wanna dive into the sky” twice.
However, my only gripe with the song is the second verse half-time breakdown (I mean, it was released in 2019…) with corny lyrics, but that doesn’t matter when it quickly gets back on its feet and we get back to its fun chorus. Despite this issue, Dive Into The Sky is worth a listen. I don’t know about you but listening to the song makes me want to dive into the sky.
An 8.75 for me (9, 8, 9, 9)
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Unexpectedly seeing SING here, and let me recommend the song that really boost their popularity up in their market – Moonlight Thoughts. Even though they’re not been trained through the K-Pop lens, but their performance always relying on synchronization (especially this song where they use fan as a part of their dance) and live vocal that blendin’ well with traditional Chinese instrument like Er’hu, Gu’zheng & Pipa.
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I wonder if Pablo’s tracks with nmixx influenced them to go for this sound.
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lol, I was thinking the same
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this n wonyoung from ives solo “8” from earlier this year r twins to me in that the instrumental goes hard in a way so much of kpop n western pop is afraid to do these days yet the lyrics r so unbelievably stupid (seriously who tf greenlit that “six seeeeven” line in the second verse) that it kinda sucks everything else into its orbit. id assume nicks rating for that song is abt the same
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I actually like it lol the verses are really nice. chorus is repetitive (annoying) but the production carried.
although considering the mv was inspired by I’m a Slave 4 U, I wish the song was half as good as that.
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I could’ve been sold on this, the instrumental is great. But literally as the song was ending, I could feel it, and I was thinking “NO! Do more! Have a bridge or a breakdown!”. The potential to be a standout was there.
The chorus sounds like a post chorus to me, but that has been the case for kpop for literal years, im not gonna choose to outraged over that now
people are saying lyrics are cringe but they’re very obviously being loose and silly
Katseye’s place and effect on the industry definitely makes some inclined to like their music less. For myself, sometimes the looming manon situation makes me hesitant to check them out
Definitely one of their better tracks
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I hope we won’t have a stellar situation when it comes to how sexual the girls have to be in the video
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in other awful news, gunil was just fired from xdh earlier today. im extremley upset that this happened, espically considering hes happens to be one of my favorite drummers in k rock.
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Now I am gonna say that the song is definitely not my usual cup of tea before others questioning my taste. The production is fun enough, but I just did not enjoy song without engaging verse and actual chorus much. However, I can’t deny that the hook is trendily catchy and the MV is certainly eye-catchingly bold full of sexiness and bootiness.
If Animal was the radio-friendly song, then this tutti frutti song is the hair-rising quirkiness material for SNS virality that they pursued similar to Gnarly. I am sure we will be bombarded with many booty-related shorts performance video later then unknowingly began to bop our heads to tutti frutti tune while making frutie smoothie with our hoodie homies later.
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I think hoodie fruitti is more similar to gameboy. They’re both the third single and have a more clearly (for lack of a better work) global sound to them without being radio filler. The lyrics don’t quite reach gnarly’s absurdity. I think it could gain more attention than gameboy since it’s more danceable and sex filled
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Katseye and Le Sserafim’s music has become filled with gags and gimmicks. It’s been sad watching HYBE butcher them so many times, over and over. At least LSF’s b-sides are decent, but their last few title runs (Spaghetti to Boompala) have been big huge oofs. And Katseye… I’m speechless but not surprised at this point. This song is giving Jennifer Lopez “Get On the Floor” (which isn’t bad persay) x “Like Jennie”, but with a very strange and uncomfortable vibe. Honestly, the exaggerated accented pronunciation and the oversexualized MV is not helping at all. Killer production though. Touch wasn’t that innovative, but wow, to see them go from very metaphorical lyrics and rocking melodies to whatever this monster is so jarring. Katseye legitimately needs to take a break because continuing like this – with this kind of music, concept, outfits, and the immense criticism they’re facing which is affecting the members a lot… it is NOT looking good for them. They need to regroup and take a break to figure out WTF they’re doing.
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So true, I understand that certain gimmicks were being seen as important for marketing strategy in today SNS-driven world (just look at ATEEZ Bad Bad). However the gimmicks should not supersedes the importance of song material itself. lesserafim recent title tracks might be gimmicky but their discography as a whole were still solid and they still held steadfast to their “fearless” concept (seeing a video of literal buddhist priest explaining the meaning of fearless in BOOMPALA was certainly funny, talk about dedication). Spaghetti is still okay for me, but Boompala is certainly too much. Groups like Katseye without fixed concept like most KPOP groups made it seems like they made a gimmick music just for the sake of virality itself and the song quality took a backseat.
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It’s very almost. It’s in my usual idiotic dance music wheelhouse, but dare I say, it’s not irri-taining enough. But respect, respect I guess.
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There really isnt a song behind whatever this is as almost the entire way through its just “hooti frutti” repeated but damn that production is just nasty. It saves the entire song for me. I still maybe prefer pinky up but they are kinda in the same realm of “earworm”
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the music video on the other hand was ass. Well, literally, just “ass”. I was watching Daniela grind the wall and shake some ass for almost 2 minutes.
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I’m far from a puritan and call me whatever you want but I really don’t think it’s on me for feeling a lil awkward for preferring to listen to the “”song”” on this “”music”” video without looking directly at the screen.
Man, whatever, we’re here to discuss the music, not its aesthetics.
The music sucks.
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An instrumental-only version would suck all the blood back into my ears, though.
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i don’t think this is a puritanical opinion at all. their youngest member is only 18 and they’re under a massive company with little to no agency over their public image. like you said, not the place for a wider discussion on it, but one doesn’t have to be a prude to find it uncomfortable.
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I disagree, there’s no reason we can’t have those discussions here. Even the man running the site and says himself that he wants to focus on the music consistently brings up the context surrounding a release. He’ll do this to varying degree, but does it move the less. I don’t think he has any issue with those topics being discussed, hell he probably won’t even know it’s happening. so why not discuss it?
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you’re right, actually. this is a much safer space to discuss it than, say, twitter, where nuance goes to die.
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There are actual people on twitter analysing this right now as if there’s something deeper to it than “pathetic ad campaign stylised for reddit incels”, so you’re not wrong. And I say this without having a twitter.
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I kinda like it but they need to be more creative in writing lyrics smh
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Nick, out of pure curiosity – were you listening to Bjork back in 90s/2000s? The Homogenic/Vespertine era, do you even enjoy this kind of music? I’ve been a kpop fan for years and recently gave Homogenic a listen, and it honestly changed my whole perception of music. It’s so experimental and doesn’t rely on catchy hooks that I’m used to. Do you enjoy it, or is it not really your cup of tea?
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This is so unserious, from the ad placements (a highly sexualized mv but products targeting children) to the Portuguese posturing. Soulless and gimmicky, but what’s new. A 5 in my books. I don’t understand the “production” arguments. There’s but a thousand songs that have that same instrumental. This song literally does nothing.
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Not my favorite song on the EP, but it’s definitely a song worth dancing to. My favorite song on the EP is Bel Air.
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The production is actually pretty good but I can’t stand this song. It is equally boring and overbearing at the same time??? I think these girls are all really talented, but I am not liking where the company is taking them. At all. It’s like they took the top 5 songs of 2025 and sanitized them so severely. Don’t even get me started on the product placement in this video (for a kids toy too!!).
Like I saw someone else say online, it’s such a shame that there was so much build up only for Pinky Up to be the best song on the album 😭
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I think if Hybe/Geffen really want to keep going with this sound, a Brittany Spears-Circus-era album would suit them just fine. They certainly have the money and the outreach to work with the right producers/writers. An old Timbaland demo even! Just something with more substance, I’m begging HxG!!!
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Same with Pinky Up and Animal, I really wanna like this track, because the production is chef kiss. Really remind me of something between recession pop and party pop.
but I refuse to dance to something that is 2 minute long. Too TikToky for me.
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