THE FUTURE SOUNDS LIKE AT EEZ

The Coachella-slaying, multi-language-singing, genre-obliterating members of Ateez are quickly becoming load-bearing stars of our global pop universe.

- MICHELLE HYUN KIM

ON a windy day in Downtown Los Angeles, the eight members of the K-pop group Ateez swim through a swarm of press toward a popworld welcome: a ribbon-cutting for an exhibit dedicated to them at the Grammy Museum. It's part of the museum's efforts to celebrate the rising influence of Korean pop music. And Ateez, with a growing international profile and a number one album in the US under their belt, are representatives of the next cresting wave of K-pop.

Inside, the group's arrival on the global pop scene is made concrete: Its costumes and props from a 2023 music video are on view right next to a Shakira display, and not far from Michael Jackson's stage costumes. Hongjoong, Ateez's primary rapper, songwriter, and leader revels at the late pop icon's bejeweled gloves and busts into "Man in the Mirror" with glee. "The fact that we're in the same place as Michael Jackson...." He trails off, and Yunho-the group's rapper and dancer with boy-next-door charm-finishes his sentence: "It's an honor."

While the US has already seen major crossover moments from K-pop groups-BTS at the Grammys, Blackpink headlining Coachellathe members of Ateez have emerged as stars in a shifting landscape where questions about the genre's "mainstream" status pale in comparison to the remarkable fandoms its acts have built. In recent years, Ateez-and its millions of fans, called Atinys-packed stadiums across Asia, Europe, and North and South America, and this April it became the first K-pop boy group to perform at Coachella.