Year-end Review: Dreamcatcher Cements 3rd-Generation K-Pop Legacy With The New And Familiar In 2024

I've often written about the volatility of K-Pop on this blog, and how the industry can be difficult for many groups. From a girl group perspective, the often-brutal nature of K-Pop business was made especially apparent in 2024, where smaller groups such as Cherry Bullet, Nature, PIXY, and signature had contracts ended. Others such as fromis_9 ended contracts amidst speculation of underpromotion, while others, such as NewJeans and MADEIN, were embroiled in controversy.

This turbulent 2024 made me more thankful for the (knock on wood) relative stability of a group like Dreamcatcher, who spent this past year solidifying themselves as a steady veteran presence in being one of the last remaining 3rd generation K-Pop girl groups. Officially beating the "7 year curse", Dreamcatcher soldiered forward and maintained their loyal fanbase, while also doing both familiar and new things during the year to get there. As always, I like to take a look back at the year for the group, so here's some thoughts on Dreamcatcher's 7th year!

Dreamcatcher returned to one of the pillars of their identity by being one of K-Pop's most-traveled touring groups.

I've frequently linked the interview that had CEO Lee Joowon stating this, but he's always envisioned Dreamcatcher as being a group that had touring as one of its revenue-generating pillars of identity. And outside of the COVID-19 pandemic, Dreamcatcher has kept to that calling card and toured every single year since their debut, event as competition to see them on tour became fiercer.

This year, however, is where I think they really returned to that identity in full force. Their Luck Inside 7 Doors World Tour spanned most of the major regions (Europe, Southeast Asia, Latin America, and North America) over twenty-four shows, and kept the group busy for almost one-third of the year.

Many of the shows, such as the ones in Latin America, were a triumphant return for Dreamcatcher after years away, and it was nice, as someone like myself who has been privileged to see the group multiple times, to have other fans who've been waiting patiently get their chance to see them back armed with years of songs to perform. Yet even in this year of touring, there were new achievements to be had, such as the group's first-ever performance in Hong Kong, a milestone that Chinese-born member Handong has wanted to reach for a very long time.

Besides touring, travel, in general, took Dreamcatcher to places new and old for performance gigs, such as Germany for Europe's inaugural KCON event and Budapest, Hungary, to headline the South Korean government-sponsored Mokkoji concert. Suffice it to say that Dreamcatcher was all over the globe in 2024, with a traveling itinerary I haven't seen since 2019.

In 2024, less was more for Dreamcatcher, with a balanced schedule that still resulted in regular content.

From a pure media generation perspective, 2024 had a bit less content than in previous years. From a video standpoint, per the Dreamcatcher Video Database that I maintain, my last update for 2024 will likely put the number of generated videos a little bit above 400, which is a third or so less than the 722 videos of 2023 or 624 for 2022. With K-Pop groups living and dying by how much content they typically generated, on the surface, this might seem a bit concerning, especially when you consider that in Dreamcatcher's 7th year they broke from their tradition of at least two comebacks a year, with 10th Mini Album VirtuouS and its title track "JUSTICE" being the group's only formal promotion period of 2024.

Yet if you look at what we did get from Dreamcatcher in 2024 overall, it reflected a more conscious effort to be cognizant of the group's aforementioned aggressive travel schedule and other obligations and create a more balanced content cadence that had less overall content but was still interesting and more efficient to the group's time and effort.

Special Clips were filmed in conjunction with existing travel schedules, resulting in more interesting locales (such as Handong's "11:11" cover being filmed during Europe tour and Yoohyeon and Dami's "Love me or Leave me" Special Clip taking place in the streets of Hong Kong. Birthday lives were summarized with English subtitles and also featured fun activities like JiU's Animal Crossing island tour. And individual content, though lessened in 2024, was filled with memorable, fun moments, such as Gahyun's valiant attempt to make Greek Yogurt treats for the group, with hilarious results. There was a sense that we saw more selective choices from Dreamcatcher about what to create for fans, and while discourse arose in the fandom a few times in 2024 about how the group's expected content output was perceived or budgeted, in retrospect I personally feel Dreamcatcher Company did pretty well ensuring Dreamcatcher fans received a relatively consistent bit of content and activity to discuss.

And it's not like we didn't get some brand new things to look forward to from Dreamcatcher, either. To pick just a few things, Siyeon continued onward with her solo portfolio with her cover/MV of "Start Over" along with two more OST gigs for "Queen of Divorce" and "Red Swan", SuA got to make a small solo song debut with "Feel Alive", and JiU and Yoohyeon made their OST debut with "Daisy" for the "Brewing Love" drama. It seems cliche to say, but to me, there felt to be a more "quality over quantity" philosophy from the group that served them well in 2024.

Dreamcatcher showcased their resilience and long-lived career by reaffirming their place in K-Pop and continuing to check off milestones.

If I saw anything from Dreamcatcher in 2024, it was the fact that year 7 was the year of reminding fans and K-Pop followers overall that they have a unique place among their generation and girl groups overall, one that makes them steady in the face of so much industry volatility.

I've already mentioned how their identity as a touring group played into this, but it also was reflected in their music as well. From releasing rock remixed versions of 2019's "The curse of the spider" and 2017's "Lullaby" as part of their Luck Inside 7 Doors concert series to "JUSTICE" era being a veritable vocal display from all the members (even as Siyeon had to take a much-needed break and the other members had to step in), Dreamcatcher reminded the K-Pop industry that they occupy a specific "something different" space by making rock a part of their pop music style and concert-ready vocals a trademark of all of their performances. Fans already knew this, but those that don't follow Dreamcatcher as closely got their opportunity to see them in action, whether it was covering one of boy group SEVENTEEN's best loved songs in "Rock With You" at KCON Germany or accepting an award and being invited to perform at yet another Dream Concert in South Korea.

Achievements also continued to be checked off for the group in 2024. Aside from the aforementioned OST and solo releases, Dreamcatcher did their first reprint of beloved classic albums, participated in another skincare collaboration with brand Coreelle, and most recently, put a checkbox on a long-desired want to both release and perform/celebrate holiday music with their fans, something leader JiU in particular pushed for all the way back in the beginning of the year. For a veteran group to be getting to do things they've always wanted to do but didn't have the chance to previously, that has to feel good, especially as a way to put a bow on the year as a whole.

In an industry with fans and companies so focused on bigger numbers and overall popularity, I'm still appreciative of Dreamcatcher continuing to show themselves as this resilient, steady ship that keeps moving forward. And while their fanbase and metrics overall may not be as currently high as some of the more well-known, South Korean general public K-Pop girl groups out there, what they are and always have been for the most part is solid, consistent, and sustainable. Any of us, and certainly Dreamcatcher and Dreamcatcher Company themselves, would welcome the kind of surge in popularity that have led more popular groups to amazing heights and endless opportunity. However, what they've achieved already, no matter what the future might hold, is something, to take a quote from one of the most-cancelled but beloved shows ever, "that makes them mighty". I'll honestly take that in the face of so much turmoil in 2024 for K-Pop's girl groups, and look forward to what Dreamcatcher will do in 2025.

Want to read my other year-end reviews for Dreamcatcher? You can check them out here:

• 2023
• 2022
• 2021
• 2020

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