i wore this to see "the drama" and i rlly enjoyed the movie!! id give it a 4/5 in my book, the visual storytelling is incredible. i genuinely loved how certain things were left to the viewer to decide if they were real or what the character was imagining would happen in the scenario. so yeah, good night haha
Katseye/Eyekons and how 'camp' and 'experimental' have become meaningless
I'll admit, the death of camp's meaning isn't entirely Katseye's fault, but their content and Eyekons' reactions to said contend has played a significant part in it. Since being 'a fan' means to consume with 0 criticism, Eyekons in particular are the first and fastest to name anything bad they do 'camp' or 'experimental'.
Bad music? It's experimental hyperpop, its camp, it sounds like that on purpose, its laughing at people who don't like it
Horrific outfits? It's cunty, it's drag-inspired, it's a statement
Clunky brand integrations? Katseye is the only reason the brand is relevant, they saved the brand.
In the eyes of many Eyekons, Katseye is incapable of producing bad content because it will ultimately reflect that Eyekons enjoy bad (read: cringe) content.
And you know what? That's okay!
Not everything your fav does has to be the best thing ever, all artists, even the best ones, will have a swing and a miss sometimes. I REALLY love Buenos Aires and Vampire by IZ*ONE. I will never say those are good songs lmao. I just enjoy something objectively bad. There is nothing wrong with personally enjoying something bad as long as what you're consuming isn't harmful to others. Stop trying to over-justify bad content just so you feel less 'cringe' enjoying it PLEASE.
This brings me to the bigger issue: poorly produced, poorly written, advertisement-fraught media is being green lit and produced en masse because of the idea that it can just be passed off as 'camp' or 'experimental'.
This is not an issue only for Katseye, it's been present in TV (example: All's Fair) and movies (example: Wurthering Heights) recently too. However, Katseye is the most obvious and consistent example of this.
In the past, things became camp and/or experimental cult classics in one of two ways (from my experience and understanding):
1.) It was intentionally made as an experimental piece of media with a specific message in mind by using production methods atypical to mainstream content. It's usually not well received in the moment, but it's message/artistic value becomes more relevant over time.
2.) It was poorly made piece of media created in earnest. Over the years, it becomes recontextualized often as comedic but occasionally as some sort of social statement. Ultimately, the content viewed in a different way than it was intentionally created for.
This new trend completely forgoes the element of artistic intent or the passage of time allowing room for interpretation and just labels soulless, advertiser-driven slop drawn up in a boardroom and slapped on our screens as "camp" or "experimental". There is no heart, there is no deeper meaning, there's nothing that these works are saying. They just exist to reference pop culture and show us attractive people doing random shit. The effort that a director, producer or artist would put in to make something good, and if not good, genuine, has now been passed off to the viewer. It's up to us to make it good for them. The sad part is that the mislabeling of soulless, gen z buzzword content as 'camp' or 'experimental' has left those words with little to no meaning now. Real art gets buried under all the slop. People who call 'Pinky Up' "eXpErImEnTaL rAvE iNsPiReD" would have a heart attack if they heard the type of electronic music played at real raves.
This type of fast fashion music excuses trash lyrics and questionable production decisions relies on listeners collectively turning off their brains and resigning to the 'experimental camp it's not that deep its cunt' line of thinking for every new comeback that scrolls across our screens. There's plausible deniability there. Feel good party songs have existed before, pop typically isn't a deep genre. This would be fine if Katseye SPECIFICALLY wasn't marketed as something deeper than 'just another girl group'. It would be fine if those songs were written with the intent to capture a feeling, not sell the newest aesthetic.
Let's get it straight:
"Gnarly" was not experimental if it was written/produced in 2023 and only saw the light of day in 2025 because mild versions of hyperpop were dominating the mainstream. You cannot be experimental while literally being on trend.
The GAP ad was nothing more than just that: an advertisement. It was not revolutionary, we have seen people do choreographed dances in ads before. Katseye being there doesn't change the fact that it was just a denim ad. It was embarrassing to see people hype up an advertisement even with the context of it 'responding' to Sydney Sweeney's AE ad.
Nothing about Pinky Up is experimental and camp. Just because people claim it's 'inspired by rave culture' doesn't make it less corporate. It's well known that large music company's appropriate various cultures as an attempt to sprinkle artistic integrity on a soulless project. It's a bad song, with a confusing music video that had a pause DEAD IN THE MIDDLE TO PROMOTE SOME DAMN FROZEN FRUIT.
Scraps of fabric thrown on conventionally attractive people is not 'camp' or 'drag inspired'. That is such an insult to the art of drag? They are just bad outfits with no other purpose than to make new ways to frame their bodies for voyeurs unfortunately. A funky hat or weirdly cut top does NOT equal experimental fashion.
