Dreamcatcher Wraps Up Holiday-Shortened “Odd Eye” Promotions With New Records

K-Pop — Dreamcatcher Recall

South Korea’s Lunar New Year approaches, but not before Dreamcatcher forges into new territory with “Odd Eye” in February 2020.

As soon as the news broke that Dreamcatcher’s performance on SBS Inkigayo on 02/07/21 would be their last for “Odd Eye” promotions due to the upcoming Korean Lunar New Year holiday in South Korea, I had to immediately change the title on this draft. But even though InSomnias now have to say goodbye to Dreamcatcher’s performances of “Odd Eye” just as it seems like they were really getting going, that changes almost nothing about what I’m recapping this week. It was a promotions week filled with some new records, markers, and achievements for South Korea’s rock/pop girl group, and not even shorter-than-normal schedules could stop their momentum. Let’s take a look at what happened this past week in the last portion of Dreamcatcher’s “Odd Eye” era.

How about some album numbers, to start? Dreamcatcher set some new high marks with “Dystopia: Road to Utopia” this past week, with both the Gaon weekly Retail Album Chart and physical Album Chart placing “Dystopia: Road to Utopia” right at the very top at number 1, with 40,705 sales for 01/24/21/ — 1/31/21. This is Dreamcatcher’s first chart-topper and is absolutely well-deserved.

What about on the Hanteo front? I reported last week that Dreamcatcher was already at 62,000+ copies, and this week, another 5,000+ were recorded, bringing the number up to an eye-popping 67,473 so far. Before promotions, I had hoped that lifetime Hanteo sales at 70,000–75,000 would be ideal for the group’s continued growth, and it looks like Dreamcatcher is well on its way to the first of those markers. In a world where we’re still in COVID pandemic mode despite the rollout of vaccinations to the public, seeing album sales be this high for a group dependent on international touring is reassuring for the company and group’s financial future.

But what about that elusive first music show win? Pending the outcome of a potential winners’ announcement on the 02/10/21’s Show Champion, it looks like Dreamcatcher may not pick one up this time around, coming in behind a surge of popularity from boy group Golden Child, consistent top performer (G)-IDLE, and powerhouse musical artist IU, all worthy and deserving contenders. But that doesn’t mean InSomnia or Dreamcatcher should feel bad about what they’ve helped achieve with “Odd Eye”. Along with another 2nd place finish on SBS MTV’s The Show, “Odd Eye” is the first Dreamcatcher title track of theirs to place in the top 10 across all weekly music shows (M! Countdown 4th, Music Bank 7th, and 5th on both Music Core Inkigayo, according to a helpful tweet compiled by Dreamcatcher fan Shapley_Somnia on Twitter).

This is good for a couple of good reasons, the first being that this reflects a slow but steady upward trajectory of the group that has been happening since Deja Vu as far as popularity goes. Dreamcatcher solidified itself in the mid-to-upper tier of girl groups in 2020, and this builds on that foundation. The second reason is that even though Dreamcatcher is still propped up quite a bit by a decent-sized international fanbase, that there are more domestic fans in South Korea aware of and appreciative of, the group. While there are ways in which the international fans help with this, shows and charts will largely display (as they should) what Korean K-Pop fans are listening to and find appealing.

That Dreamcatcher has finally consistently cracked the top 10, even if for just a short time, shows that the domestic fanbase, while small, is growing. While certainly there are some fans who might feel a little disappointed at having a first music show win potentially elude the group yet again this time around, there’s also a lot to be happy about. Dreamcatcher themselves certainly would want a win at some point(who doesn’t want to be recognized, after all), but it’s important to note that it doesn’t appear to be their end-all, be-all necessity to be successful. If you don’t believe me, you can just hear it from main vocalist Siyeon, instead:

I’ve written this before, but based on the upward momentum Dreamcatcher has, it’ll be a matter of when, not if, they pick up that first win. Whether that is on Show Champion on 02/10/21 or later this year, they’re well on their way.

So what about the variety and appearances front? There were quite a few this past week, but the highlight, for me and for others I’m sure, was a full 50-minute episode for Dreamcatcher on the well-known K-Pop variety show “Weekly Idol”. I know that when I was first getting into K-Pop acts over a decade ago, that searching up “Weekly Idol” episodes with my favorites was a fun way to get to know them a bit better off-stage, but Dreamcatcher, aside from a short 10-minute appearance in 2018 and Siyeon appearing alongside other female idols, hasn’t had one on their own. That changed this past week on 02/03/21 as the show welcomed Dreamcatcher for almost an hour’s worth of getting-to-know-you activities, talented skill displays, and of course, signature Dreamcatcher chaos.

While veteran InSomnias are well aware of how fun Dreamcatcher can be offstage, Weekly Idol was good for showing that to newer fans as well. And it’s not like fans like me didn’t learn new things. Among many of the highlights included who is prone to make the most mistakes, how quickly SuA handles Korean tongue twisters, Handong’s eating habits, and more. It was a great appearance with new hosts who I feel have been bringing the best out of their guests and I highly recommend you check it out the full playlist of Dreamcatcher Weekly Idol clips on ALL THE K-POP if you have time.

Other than this, Dreamcatcher returned to a couple of stops they’ve been on for the variety appearance circuit before, with TongTongTv’s “Broken Karaoke” being one of them. Handong missed out on this one due to her time in China last time, so seeing all seven members work to complete an “Odd Eye” performance with a bunch of tempo and song changes and distractions was entertaining.

One of the other places from before that Dreamcatcher also dropped by was NADOL and their “Idol Family” segment. While it was certainly nice to hear that leader JiU, much like her own personality, had a sweet and loving set of family members, I watch variety for the funny stuff, and SuA’s try at the segment definitely delivered. I won’t spoil it, but I’ll simply tell you to A)lower your volume significantly and B)that SuA says she doesn’t come from a family that traditionally tells each other “I love you”. I’ll just leave the details for you all to watch.

But just because Dreamcatcher stopped at places they’ve been before variety-wise doesn’t mean they didn’t do new things. Esquire Korea coupled a great glow-up for the group fashion-wise into a short little film called “The Spy Who Loved Me”. There weren’t any words spoken by the group, but there really didn’t need to be. Esquire lived up to its name as one of the most well-known style/fashion publications and it showed in the femme fatale/secret agent motif they appeared to be going for here.

Those were just a few of the variety appearances for “Odd Eye” promotions that happened, and as if that wasn’t enough, there was plenty more from the Dreamcatcher official front this week:

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_IXVez10dU8[/embed]

• The “Odd Eye” Dance Practice video, which gives a nice, wider angle to just how cool the choreography was for this song.
• A Dance version of the “Odd Eye” music video (warning: quite a few flashes here for folks sensitive to epilepsy), the first of the viewing awards Dreamcatcher company has set for this era (as of this writing we are currently at close to 18 million views, 2 million off of the final viewing goal of 20 million)
• Two Jacket Making films for the album — Part 1 and Part 2.
• The second MV Making film.
• Four more online fansigns, allowing a few lucky InSomnia that have purchased albums to meet up briefly with the group.

You’d think that was more than enough, even for shortened promotions, but just in case you might think Dreamcatcher might be done, think again. Their last performance on Inkigayo on 02/07/21 had several teases via choreography changes of what might be upcoming for the group. Where have we seen those circular motions and subtle swiping changes before? For the answer, one only needs to look back at the other song with choreography that Dreamcatcher performed for their showcase, which has been conspicuously missing from their trek through the music show circuit.

[embed]https://youtu.be/dF9LfeIXkJI?t=396[/embed]

That’s right — it looks like after Dreamcatcher takes a brief holiday to celebrate the Lunar New Year, that they’ll be back on an extended (albeit brief) run of promotions for “Dystopia: Road to Utopia”, but this time they’ll be armed with cyberpunk rock/hard-hitting pop B-side “Wind Blows”. Assuming this will be officially announced (and not just teased in performances or blatantly spoiled by Handong during a fansign), it looks like we’ll be seeing more of Dreamcatcher on the comeback trail for just a little while longer. With upcoming appearances on more variety and radio shows (including After School Club on the 9th and one on Idol League on the 20th, both in February), we haven’t seen the last of Dreamcatcher — and that’s never a bad thing.

I’ll see you next week with another recap of Dreamcatcher content!