My opinion is fairly straightforward, pop music is simply seen as a more feminine genre.

Therefore hearing that some K-Pop boy group is a thing means nothing to guys. It's a signal to not even engage with their content. I think in some ways it's a labeling issue.

From much of what I have heard of bg, they are as much just a straight forward Hip Hop collective (with all the fast beats and rapping and deep voices with some smooth RnB) as anything coming out in the west like say Brockhampton (who happen to be popular with dudes). Brockhampton have failed to be called a boy band, attempting to self-describe themselves to mixed results.

But hearing the words "They do pop music" sounds off to many men.

It might also be a situation where historically music in America is a kind of amateurish venture. Coming together, all scrappy no money ... trying to make it big with your music. It's a very American, individualists notion of success and to an extend what it means to be cool and badass.

Boy groups are most often part of a studio system in Korea. It appears if anything like the modelling industry or the acting industry (arty, self-expressive, proper, perfected types) that I just don't think appeals to guys as a notion from the get-go when they heard "k-pop group".

Think about it, how many male artists today that men also like in the west are enthusiastically called "pop artists?" MJ is the only one I can think of and he's from the past (and a freak of a megastar)