France is part of of the west, it has nothing to prove. That number of people listening to French music is significantly higher in Canada and Europe. There are quite a few huge international French hits that everyone knows from recent years. The number of kpop listerner is also significantly lower in Europe than the US where there are big Asian diasporas whereas Arabic music for e.g. would definitely be bigger in Europe. In other words kpop as whole is very niche in the west and caters mostly to young teens. KPOP’s biggest market is not even SK, China or Japan it is SE Asia the biggest conumer of anything ”korean”. Apparently the faze is slowing down there too, that is why they are becoming desperate.
Now Kpop has been copying western pop culture since the beginning, especially black American culture in many respects. Combine Japanese idol system with the boy and girls bands from the nineties with a korean spin to understand kpop. What exactly has been new or innovative about kpop in terms of music and dance, the music style isn’t even theirs to begin with. Compare this to Afrobeats which has taken over, music style imported from Africa and now widely consumed not only in the West but worldwide.
Now these kpop companies buy their songs as well, e.g. the Cupid song which blew up was written by 3 unknown Swedes, who in turn have plagiarized it from another song. Girl and boybands are as old as ever, nothing new about them. Unfortunately some girl groups in Hollyweird were created for the sole purpose of being pimped around. I hope this is not the case for these ones. Western celebrities need scandals and relationships to stay relevant, pretending to be model citizens or staying single for the fans som has not a been a thing really. The one thing that Kpop and jpop do differently is toxic fan culture. They take parasocial relationships and delusions to the next level to sell.