FEATURE:
Spotlight
that the K-Pop sensations, NewJeans, release their first single album, OMG (the pre-orders surpassed 800,000 copies). The build-up and countdown was exciting. They put out their first E.P., New Jeans, last year. I will bring in a review. I am going to bring in a review for the E.P. It offers positives whilst highlighting at some flaws. I think the new album is the most complete and finest release from NewJeans. It is a full exploration of their wonderful sound. Formed ADOR, a subsidiary of Hybe Corporation, the South Korean group are conquering the world. They have this infectious and bright sound that is impossible to ignore! The group is composed of Minji, Hanni, Danielle, Haerin and Hyein. The K-Pop market is no longer confined to South Korea and Asia. Groups such as BTS and BLACKPINK have brought the genre to a worldwide audience. I want to bring in interviews with the group. First, Billboard wrote a feature that was published about a month after NewJeans released their debut video. One that came without any hype or run-up at all. Min Hee Jin, HYBE’s current chief branding officer and CEO of her newly created label, ADOR, discussed an incredible moment for K-Pop:
“NewJeans was helmed under ADOR, a newly created subsidiary under the HYBE Labels umbrella that includes BIGHIT Music (home to BTS and TOMORROW X TOGETHER), PLEDIS Entertainment (SEVENTEEN and fromis_9), KOZ Entertainment (Zico), BELIFT Lab (ENHYPEN) and SOURCE Music (LE SSERAFIM). The new label is under the direction of Min Hee Jin, HYBE’s current chief branding officer, who became famous for her work as the creative director under Korean super-label SM Entertainment, shaping top K-pop acts like Girls’ Generation, EXO and Red Velvet. In 2019, Min joined to help rebrand BIGHIT Entertainment into its larger corporation HYBE and was named CEO of her newly created label ADOR, standing for “All Doors, One Room.”
While envisioning game-changing new K-pop acts wasn’t a foreign task for Min, shifting how a label could shake the status-quo system became her challenge. “I wanted to create a label with a brand-new look that did things never seen in the K-pop scene before,” Min tells Billboard in this exclusive interview. “The kind of music I’m going for is something that hasn’t really been attempted in the K-pop scene, so an independent label was essential to push ahead with this.”
The members of NewJeans — Minji, Hanni, Danielle, Haerin and Hyein — see Min’s vision and meet her as part of forgoing the typical, traditional rules of the industry. “I thought to myself it would be cool to release them without any teasers,” Hyein, the group’s youngest at 14, says. “And I was surprised when I heard CEO Min’s explanation because she actually had the same idea!” Haerin, 16, adds, “When CEO Min explained that we wouldn’t have teasers, my initial thought was, ‘Oh, this is going to be fun.'”
Listeners have been enjoying the ride, with more joining as time passes. After unveiling music videos for new songs “Attention,” “Hype Boy” and the sparse a cappella-based b-side “Hurt” throughout July, NewJeans unveiled the full, four-track EP titled NWJNS on Aug. 1 worldwide. Initially, only “Attention” and “Hype Boy” entered the Global 200 chart at Nos. 82 and 116, respectively. But as time passed, both songs rose on the chart, and “Cookie” also entered the Billboard Global Excl. US chart. “Attention,” with a sound inspired by ’90s R&B that would make SWV smile, went on to top the Korean charts, while the uplifting future-bass rush of “Hype Boy” became a trend to dance to among fellow K-pop stars. “It’s been really fun watching other people do our songs and I keep checking because I’m really curious!” Danielle, the 17-year-old Australian-Korean who co-wrote “Attention,” says.
The NWJNS EP as a whole began catching on too and hit its best position yet on World Albums this week at No. 11 after six weeks on the chart. In Korea, the EP hit No. 1 and and broke sales records for new K-pop groups once on sale following the surprise release. NewJeans have since teamed up with Geffen Records, joining fellow HYBE artists BTS, SEVENTEEN and LE SSERAFIM at the Universal Music Group label.
What does it mean to you, and the industry, that a label’s first-ever group with a “surprise” debut has been able to break records and top the charts with its singles?
Min: I find it significant that we’re able to give hope and assure people that it’s okay to try something new. We tend to stick with what’s stable because we fear failure, but nothing interesting ever happens if you just stick with what’s stable. If we’re ever going to make the world a little more interesting, we have to try new things and adopt an attitude of being more open and accepting about it. I always talk with the members of NewJeans. We’re ready to take on this adventure together, and I hope that all the new things we’re working on fill people’s lives with a lot more fun!
NewJeans, congratulations on such a successful debut! All four of your songs are making big impact. What were your initial reactions to the music?
MINJI: The first time I heard them, I was instantly hooked. There’s a line in our song “Hype Boy” that goes, “Got me chasing a daydream,” and the song really did make me feel like I was in a dream when I heard it. So, of course, I fell in love right away when I first heard it.
HANNI: When we first heard “Attention,” it really left a strong impression! I just loved the energetic and hip vibe it has! The remaining songs really had a very new style that we hadn’t heard in K-pop, especially from a girl group. The fact that we are now able to call them our songs is very special and makes me feel very proud of the new color we introduced as a team through our debut!
PHOTO CREDIT: HYBE
Can you share a bit more about your musical and K-pop backgrounds?
MINJI: To be honest, I was just an ordinary student who really loved K-pop and other music. I really liked listening to music, but I wasn’t confident enough to sing and I had never danced. I joined the label completely by chance and I think I fell in love with music even more after learning a wider variety of music and culture at ADOR. And that’s the experience that led to all us members meeting and debuting as NewJeans.
HANNI: I’ve also been very involved in music and took part in a lot of extracurricular activities before I came to Korea! I took dance lessons for a few years and my mom taught me and my sister to sing when we were younger. She would bring us into the bathroom—because of the good echo!—and then she’d play a song for me to sing and would try to teach me to sing like the artist. I remember the first song she ever taught us was “All at Once” by Whitney Houston, an absolute gem of a song, Her voice and the song just radiate together.
I’d like you to introduce your group and members in your own words.
MINJI: All five of us are friends and they’re all precious to me. I feel like I can have a conversation with HANNI by just looking at her eyes. She’s always caring for the people around her and considerate towards them. DANIELLE’s bright smile just warms my heart and at times she is like an older sister you can learn things from. HAERIN is the most honest person in the world, so I feel like she’s someone I can trust and lean on. She’s really thoughtful, too. Everything about HYEIN is amazing. She says she doesn’t see it, but that’s actually one of the best things about her. I can’t wait to see what the future holds for her.
HAERIN: All five members have their own characteristics that make them special, but what first comes to mind is how good DANIELLE is at embodying emotions when she sings. She has the power to draw the listener in with her ability to express intricate emotions through the lyrics of any song”.
OMG (the single album) is now out in the world. Having been on the scene a short time, there has been this very quick and intense wave of fandom and love! From their TikTok videos getting reaction around the world to their videos amassing millions of views on YouTube, there is no doubt NewJeans will be among those defining and shaping the music of this year. Rolling Stone spoke to NewJeans about their debut singe album and the success they have already accrued:
“Congratulations on all of the success you’ve had already. I don’t know if you had a chance to see it, but we ranked “Hype Boy” as the 24th-best song of the year, and your debut EP as one of the 100 best albums of the year.
Minji: Of course. After reading the Rolling Stone article, I think we all couldn’t believe it. It was so surprising and it made me feel so thankful once more to everyone who loves our music.
So many of your seniors and peers in the industry are have covered and are still covering “Hype Boy” and “Attention.” Are there any that you were particularly surprised about?
Danielle: All of them, really. We have our chatting room, and when we see a senior doing another cover we just send it to each other.
Hanni: We share them all!
Danielle: And we’re like, “Oh my gosh! No way!” It would always be such a huge honor. And to have so many people enjoy our music and enjoy the dance as well. Because choreography is really special to us as well. It’s always a huge honor.
The members of your group participated in the writing process for “Ditto” and “OMG,” as you did for your first EP as well. Can you walk through your writing process a bit?
Hanni: So it was the same situation as when we all contributed in writing lyrics for our debut. We received songs and then all of us wrote lyrics and then with our label, we go through a picking process and pick the good lyrics. Me and Minji’s lyrics got picked. I think it was a pretty similar process. Listening to the demos, personally, I always try to think of a scenario, and paint a picture in my head, and then try to write lyrics that unpack that. I find nice, pretty words that are nice to listen to — like, good to the ear — and try to match the melody. Because we had the experience of doing it for our debut album, I think it was just a little bit easier, coming to writing lyrics.
Danielle: It came more naturally.
Your fandom name was recently unveiled to be Bunnies. How did you all decide on that name?
Danielle: Oh yeah! Well, I think it’s such a cute name. We all adore bunnies. And I think it’s just the perfect name for them because it mirrors our relationship with our fans and, like, a close friendship, that type of feeling. We really cherish that friendship feeling. So we chose the name bunnies, and I feel now even more, it suits with the winter weather, a fluffy bunny. It’s so cute.
Hyein: It’s also like a friendship… like a cute nickname you would use with your friends. Also, since we write out the letters NJ in the shape of a rabbit, we wanted our fans to also be rabbits, so sometimes we will also call them “Tokki” in Korean. It’s so cute. We’re always sharing things and communicating with each other. Although we’re not physically nearby, we feel close to them, so we gave them a nickname as if they are our friends.
PHOTO CREDIT: ADOR
Fashion is a big element in K-Pop. NewJeans’ style is the top trend right now, right? For me, too, I always curl my hair, but recently, I got it permanently straightened.
Minji: [Gasps.] Oh!
Hanni: It suits you well!
It’s now the end of 2022. Do you have a New Year’s resolution?
Hanni: We actually talked about this quite a lot. Because we debuted in the last half of this year, even though we did quite a lot in a very short amount of time, we had like five, six months of 2022. But next year, we have the full 12 months.
Minji: Yes.
Hanni: I think that gives us the time and opportunity to explore a lot more as NewJeans and as ourselves as people. And gives us the opportunity to perform a lot more, release more content and music, as a goal, just for us to really enjoy ourselves and show the world more of NewJeans. There’s a lot more that we haven’t shared”.
I am going to finish with a couple of different bits. NME reviewed the amazing New Jeans E.P. They had positives to offer about a group who were definitely offering something fresh and memorable:
“NewJeans, the latest girl group to join HYBE’s ranks, were primed from the beginning to go against the K-pop grain. An unorthodox band name. Atypical promotion tactics. Novel musical takes on oft-attempted nostalgic callbacks. Nearly everything about the five-piece’s debut so far aims to frame them as innovative dark horses among the industry’s latest wave of superstar hopefuls.
The first step in understanding the NewJeans ethos is to dive into the meaning of their moniker. As Min Hee-jin, the chief executive of HYBE’s independent label ADOR, explained in a press release: “Pop music is a culture that is very close to our daily life, so it is like the clothes we wear everyday. Just as jeans have withstood the test of time and found popularity among many regardless of their age and gender, NewJeans aspires to become an icon of generations – one you never grow tiresome of putting on.” This lofty ambition clearly demands some degree of ingenuity, especially in a space that often prefers proven formulas and tradition. But as NewJeans prove with their new four-track record, they have what it takes.
@newjeans_official NewJeans 1st EP ‘New Jeans’ COUNTDOWN LIVE🍪 08.01. 5PM(KST) / 4AM(EST) #NewJeans #뉴진스 #COUNTDOWNLIVE🆕👖 ♬ 오리지널 사운드 - NewJeans
Comprising members Hanni, Hyein, Haerin, Danielle and Minji, NewJeans were introduced to the public with zero warning – their first single and EP opener, ‘Attention’, was released on YouTube with an accompanying video well before ADOR shared any information about the members themselves. ‘Attention’ paradoxically charms by being more subdued than the approach one expects from K-pop’s fourth generation, anchoring itself on a groove and keeping its early 2000s R&B-influenced instrumentation minimal. The lack of bombast lends more focus to the heart of the song: NewJeans’ vocal ability. The palpable ease to the song’s delivery feels like a breath of fresh air.
The rest of ‘New Jeans’ continues to flesh out the group’s Y2K vision. ‘Hype Boy’ ups the ante with comparatively frenetic synths and instrumental distortions, but doesn’t divert from NewJeans’ commitment to making their voices the crux of the mini-album. Rather than invoking the slow-jam nostalgia of ‘Attention’, ‘Hype Boy’ instead invokes contemporary reimaginations of 2000s sounds with its tropical touches and future bass, but the way these elements are arranged make for a dreamy, almost hazy atmosphere. As they point out in the chorus, “’Cause I know what you like, boy / You’re my chemical hype boy / Open my eyes to see old days gone like a dream / Hype boy, all I wanna, hype boy, gonna tell ya.”
‘Hurt’ serves a lightweight interlude, a brief respite from the energy of the preceding song. This mellow track is a slow, emotionally charged offering that opts for a consistent groove and in doing so risks repetitiveness. There are no climaxes or dynamic vocal changes, only one-note grooves. ‘Hurt’ might be remarkable as a stand-alone single, but when sandwiched between songs that boast more melodic variation, it ends up falling through the cracks.
And finally we come to ‘Cookie’, an R&B-pop song with a bubbly cadence that has become the most controversial entry on the mini-album. Like the other tracks on the record, ‘Cookie’ is textured in an understated way that still appeals to a wide audience – keen ears will pick up traces of swelling synths, gentle 808 flairs and a fluttering bassline. Unfortunately, this meticulous, subtle production is paired with lyrical innuendo that can only be described as concerning when delivered by a group of 14- to 18-year-olds – some examples that listeners have flagged as distasteful are “Looking at my cookie / Do you ever smell it different? (Taste it) / What’s with a bite isn’t enough?” and “Made a little cookie / Come and take a lookie / Only at my house, come over and play”.
NewJeans’ debut effort is a project of hits and misses. It’s unreasonable, though, to expect complete perfection from a freshly debuted K-pop group. With their musical ability and the label’s bold artistic vision, NewJeans have managed to lay some solid groundwork for a bright future as trailblazers. Will they be able to build momentum and carve out a distinctive, even timeless style as they flesh out their body of work? That remains to be seen”.
I will finish with an article from Hypebae. They shone a spotlight on the first single from OMG, Ditto. One of the best songs from NewJeans so far, it definitely got people excited for the new album. I know there will be huge touring demand and we will see the group take their album around the world. They are a huge sensation and one of the most important groups of this year:
“Buzzy K-pop group NewJeans has dropped their latest single “Ditto,” the first off their upcoming second album titled OMG.
The release was teased over the past week with snippets from the latest music video, where members Minji, Haerin, Hanni, Danielle and Hyein are seen running down the hallway of a school. With mysterious captions such as “NewJeans 6” and six girls seen running past the camera in the teaser, fans were speculating the introduction of a new member, although the rumors were quickly debunked after producer Min Hee-jin shared in an interview that there will be a surprise cameo appearance.
“Ditto” is co-written by Minji and musicians The Black Skirts and Oohyo. Listen to the track on major streaming platforms like Spotify now and watch the music video above. OMG will drop on January 2, 2023, at 6 p.m. KST (4 a.m. EST).
The quintet took to social media to tease their upcoming winter-themed release, titled “Ditto.” The group had already announced last month that they would pre-release a winter song ahead of the official launch of their upcoming album OMG, which is slated to drop in the new year.
The teasers for the anticipated tracks feature motion graphics reading “NewJeans” in a holiday-themed layout while another visual features select song lyrics. Though there isn’t much revealed through the teaser visuals, fans have been commenting, “OMG OMG I’M SO EXCITED,” “Better than nothing I guess, thanks ADOR.”
NewJeans, comprised of five members Minji, Haerin, Hanni, Danielle and Hyein, debuted in August this year with direction by Min Hee-jin, a K-pop veteran known for her work with iconic groups such as SHINee, Girls’ Generation and f(x). The rising music act is the first from ADOR, a sub-label of HYBE Corporation, which is home to BTS”.
Go and listen to and follow the amazing NewJeans. Having been formed only recently, they have already achieved so much. With great K-Pop groups like NewJeans and STAYC offering such vibrant and stunning music, I think there should be more focus and attention paid to the genre. I hardly hear it played beyond certain radio stations. That is a shame. NewJeans have shown that one listen of their incredible music and you are…
COMPLETELY hooked.
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