By Calvin Liu, ’24
In a way, NewJeans is unlike anything I, or anyone else, has ever seen before.
Their debut was unorthodox right from the start. 3rd and 4th Generation K-Pop groups have traded in the sudden and unexpected release of an album in favour of building hype over time. Take LE SSERAFIM’s recent EASY comeback: #MakeItLookEasy has been trending since Christmas, and concept photos backed by “Good Bones,” were posted a month before the full release. Even their title track was revealed a week before the album countdown, steadily building anticipation.
In this way, NewJeans was different.
There were no early promotions, album drops, or sample tracks. People only knew Minji as the girl who appeared in two promotional advertisements for ADOR (All Doors One Room). There were no guest appearances on shows —even filming for their first album was a closely guarded secret, with the group flying out to Spain to avoid attention. There was no floodgates release, simply because no one knew what they were waiting for, or that they were waiting for anything at all. Even HYBE Labels, the K-Pop conglomerate behind groups like BTS and SEVENTEEN, was clueless. In a follow-up interview, the ADOR CEO stated that “NewJeans’ EP [was planned] as a surprise party for the world, and surprise parties are only fun when you can keep them secret.”
On July 21st, 2022, lead single “Attention” dropped. By the end of the day, millions had become acquainted with a group that had just appeared that morning. In under three months, “Hype Boy” had received over 100 million streams. A week later, “Attention” surpassed that milestone. Following a mid-December prelease, “Ditto” from the singles album “OMG” reached 100 million streams in a month, and it only took titular song a week more to hit the same goal. 219 days after the group’s debut, NewJeans became the fastest K-Pop group to reach 1 Billion Spotify streams, beating BLACKPINK’s Lisa and BTS’ Jung Kook.
Despite these extraordinary feats, NewJeans’ popularity stems from something far more regular. They are a breath of fresh air to listeners, invoking a style more akin to the groups in Generation 1 and early Generation 2 of the Korean wave. Plain clothes mark a stark departure from the costumes of Generation 3 and 4, distinctly seen in groups like TWICE and Red Velvet.
Instead of utilizing precious music video minutes to build a fictional universe, NewJeans opted to tell unique, individual stories. Listeners do not need to worry about parsing through lyrics and dance to locate and frantically grasp onto which fictional character each member portrays, but instead, enjoy each journey for what it is worth. Fundamentally, ADOR, and Min Hee Jin’s vision of creativity, is embodied within NewJeans, a group that is not afraid to take risks and discard the formula to make space for something new.
Style
Today’s society is best embodied with an “out with the old and in with the new” narrative. Songs, movies, themes and stories prevalent in the culture of our parents are not experienced as novel, hit sensations, but rather classics. NewJeans’ musical style can be attributed to turning over the rock of nostalgic, 1990s sounds and themes for an audience who have either never experienced them truly for the first time, or an older audience who now have the opportunity to hear nostalgic tones on an actually decent microphone.
Couple this with the fresh take through which the group presents its songs, much of which be attributed to the ages of the girls themselves. Minji, the oldest, was 18, while Hyein, the youngest member of the group, was 14 at debut, still finishing up high school. It could only be said that they are terribly, problematically young for their debut (note that Korean age, an addition of some 2 years, slightly skews this for Western observers). While the age for K-Pop group members is certainly a topic tabled for another time, half the members being unable to stay for the full duration of several award shows due to a Korea law for working hours of minors certainly should raise concerns. Nevertheless, presenting a vision of nostalgia led by girls who have never truly experienced this sect of musical genre was an interesting and exciting take.
As other groups have enhanced each release with further complexities, NewJeans is uncharacteristically simple. Centered around just enough content to be original and enough repetition to be catchy but not tedious, NewJeans makes listening to their songs accessible. This is paramount for their induction into multiple international charts, where having a discography of songs consisting of more English lyrics than Korean lyrics aids the song in comprehension. One particularly interesting note is the incorporation of lyrics by NewJeans members themselves. Each member, with the exception of Hyein, has contributed lyrics to at least one song. Much more than the impact of a line or two of lyrics, though, is the willingness by which ADOR allows NewJeans to have creative voice and direction in the way each song is performed. With a backlog of songs and albums dictated formulaically by designated directors, allowing artists a larger role within K-Pop may not necessarily have enhanced the quality of a piece, but added a unique tone, which is far more valuable.
Music Videos
I don’t think this would be complete without an unraveling of NewJeans music videos, and I think my opinions here may be quite tainted coming out of back-to-back LE SSERAFIM and especially 2-year hiatus IU album comebacks, but it is important to discuss nevertheless. NewJeans has made a music video and crafted unique choreography for every song, and in cases such as “Ditto,” “OMG,” “Super Shy,” and “ETA,” which have been performed for multiple award shows, this is not normal. In comparison, BTS has 72 music videos over 235 songs, and LE SSERAFIM has 7 over 22. NewJeans has a music video, dance video, a special video, remix videos, occasional a-sides and b-sides, as well as a unique perspective for every member in the case of “Hype Boy,” totalling 61. Over the span of 14 songs. Each music video is a reminder of what NewJeans is, but at the same time, only adds to who they are; each dance practice is not merely a thrown-together-and-cut recording of practice, but a performance in itself.
The truth is, NewJeans doesn’t strive for quantity. Sure, the quality of some music videos in particular are lacking; “ASAP” music video is the group running through a forest in the dark cut over animated paper rabbits, and the “Hurt” music video, too, leaves a lot to be desired, but an earnest attempt was made to build choreography and cinematography around otherwise stationary songs. And even if NewJeans sometimes miss, when they do hit, the music videos are incredible.
ETA
While “Gods” could perhaps outrank “ETA” as a song, as a result of the prior’s lackluster choreography and performance, coupled with the incredible story of “ETA”’s music video, the best Get Up album song makes top three. The music video can be interpreted in multiple ways, but the most common retelling follows Eva, who finds out through the NewJeans girls that her boyfriend was cheating on her at a party. In a fit of rage, she drives her car until she finds them, crashes into them, throws them into her trunk, and drives her car to the top of a cliff. Only at the end was it revealed that the NewJeans girls did not actually exist and never actually contacted Eva. All of her actions in the music video, she did of her own paranoid belief and volition.
While “ETA” can be remembered solely for its fable-like warnings of the dangers of rumors and messaging, perhaps a greater emphasis can be placed upon the fast pace of the song coordinated with sharp cuts in the cinematography, which, coupled with bizarre scenes such as NewJeans dancing in gray uniforms at a gas station cutting to a vibrant colorful party, further disorientate the viewer. The storyline focuses on core themes of deception and hurriedness, often rolled into a singular obstacle: a constant beat and the repetitive “what’s your ETA” created urgency to stop the deception, while the deception was, in reality, a cause of the constant need to rush and meet “your ETA.” “ETA” is a meaningfully repetitive masterpiece which takes the consistent “tik-tok” beat from “ASAP” and the fervent energy of “Hype Boy.”
OMG
“OMG,” the song, peaked at 74 on Billboard Hot 100, a valiant feat for K-Pop songs from an under-1-year-old group. The music video revolves around the group in a psychiatric ward, with each member representing a different ‘trope.’ Hanni was not stuck in an iPhone; she was the iPhone: the runner on the disc to help the music play, the speaker on the phone, the eyes on the camera, the voice of Siri. Minji believes herself not to be a patient and instead the doctor, but later finds herself in the form of a patient in the yard, and is thrown into the psychiatric transport that she herself was initially driving. The switch back and forth between Minji and the actual doctor makes her true identity ambiguous. Haerin was literally a cat, and Hyein played a maiden-in-distress princess-type character who needed to be rescued. Only Danielle truly believed that she was a member of NewJeans, referencing their previous music videos and even breaking the fourth wall to talk to the cinematography team. The settings switch between NewJeans dancing in medical gowns to wearing colorful clothes and a bunny backpack at a large party. Oftentimes, the cuts break, with the girls in their gowns out of place in the party or similarly, wearing idol costumes in the ward, disorienting the viewer and mixing one setting with another. The music video ends with the NewJeans members disappearing from the ward, and a man picking up a notebook, full of drawings, left behind on a desk. A post-credit scene displays Minji, now a doctor, telling an unseen patient commenting on social media the lack of sensitivity NewJeans has to sensitive topics, that it was time for bed.
Fundamentally, the song alongside the music video serves as a reminder to the audience of the relationship between idols and their fans. Especially in the case of NewJeans, a young group by the standards of personal and group age, “OMG’”s depictions of each member as a thing in service of another — an iPhone, a doctor, a cat and a hero-reliant princess — pushes a message that each member is far more than they appear in performances and even interaction. Idols are not items in service of their fans. The lyrics and echoes of “Oh my, oh my God!” are repetitive but help create ambiance for the quick transitions between settings in the music video. While the lyrics themselves appear generic in obsessing over an individual, they connote a far more powerful message regarding over-obsession.
Ditto
The two songs in the single album OMG tell two different stories between the same two groups of people: the relationship between idols and their fans, featured in “OMG,” and the relationship between fans and their idols in “Ditto.” “Ditto” is an experience that can only be enjoyed by viewing the two music videos, Side A and Side B, back to back.
Speed and pace is used to great effect. Critics have pointed out that the “era of NewJeans” has led to a growth in calmer music in K-Pop, and this music video is perhaps the best example of that. The opening scene is NewJeans members running down a school corridor; the clip is slowed for the video to match the pacing of the song. “Ditto” is a memory, and everything we remember seems to last longer than it truly did.
The camcorder serves as a large and clunky reminder of the nature of perception. Numerous scenes, especially at the end of Side A, reveal the awkwardness of the girl hiding her face behind a camcorder. But it is awkward because only one person is hiding their face. In reality, “Ditto” reminds us that we all have our own ‘camcorders’ which we use to perceive others and to mask ourselves. People do different things depending on who is watching them, and if they are being ‘recorded.’ As a result, we adjust our reaction. As we never see the face of the girl with the camcorder, it reflects that we are rarely able to see the true faces of a person until they put their ‘camcorder’ down.
There is a constant drift between fantasy and reality. When recording NewJeans members dancing, the camcorder is focused on the boy, presumably a person she likes. Yet when she is recording the boy, she yearns to be distracted instead by the NewJeans members. While this can be interpreted in numerous ways, it is reminiscent of the tone of NewJeans as a group. Since their debut, NewJeans experimented with more styles than a traditional K-Pop group. The shifting attention between subjects is akin to the way NewJeans is able to focus and capture the traditional K-Pop style, while keeping the element of creativity, risk-taking and innovation.
Side A and B are not uncommon in music videos, but “Ditto” uses it to great effect. In an interview, first-time director Shin Woo-seok stated that he wanted Side A to represent “Hope,” and for Side B to represent “Despair.” I would argue a contrast between Side B as the “Delusion” and Side B as the “Vision,” instead.
In the “Delusion,” the camcorder dances with the NewJeans girls, who are revealed to actually be a dreamed-up fantasy, as she yearns to have a group of friends around her. The “Vision” preserves the imagination of the camcorder, but also presents a far more realistic depiction of her life; it chronicles how she and the NewJeans girls were in an accident, with only her making it out alive. NewJeans serves as a place of comfort rather than as a deluding coping mechanism utilized to escape the cruelties of her life. Towards the end, she transcends the need for their physical appearance, and smashes the camcorder which captured their memories, seeking joy from her memory of their existence. With a clear vision, she no longer needs her camcorder, leaves the mirage of NewJeans, and at least partially reveals her face, no longer needing a mask of delusion to protect her.
I also want to briefly comment on the “Ditto” dance practice: while each song has its own dance video, “Ditto” stands out to me particularly, especially given that the choreography was not displayed as prominently as in “ETA” or “OMG.” Notably, the dance practice features three categories of movements: solo movements, where an individual moves while the rest of the group stays still, coordinated group movement, where all members do the same or roughly the same action, and uncoordinated group movement, where all members do different things. In each instance, the action would not have been as impactful as if the group had not been there. This may sound simple, but is incredibly resonant. Even when one dancer is moving and the rest are staying still, their lack of movement becomes their movement. While each member may, at times, do completely different movements, their differences tie them together. The girls begin and end in the same resting position, reliant upon each other for support. At its core, “Ditto” is neither a song nor a story, but a warm embrace.
Closing
I know that I’ve compared NewJeans to LE SSERAFIM a lot, but I would say it is for good reason. Both debuted under labels under HYBE, and serve as arms of HYBE’s efforts to create more girl groups to contrast from BTS, TXT, SEVENTEEN and ENHYPHEN. Furthermore, both debuted at roughly the same time during the summer of 2022. In an environment where both groups shared roughly the same resources, drastic differences emerge in both song, style, direction, and artistic vision, as well as personality and image.
I think that the image of NewJeans is perhaps just as powerful as their gauntlet of music videos or discography troves. I’ve said before that they have become the new face of K-Pop, heralding a new trend in musical style, fashion, and creative design. Perhaps because of their age, the girls are willing to commit fully to untested, unproven concepts. While not unprecedented, NewJeans took the risk of debuting entirely under their real names. 김민지 (Kim Min Ji) remained Minji, 강해린 (Kang Hae Rin) remained Haerin, 이혜인 (Lee Hye In) remained Hyein. It has often been observed that NewJeans behave and interact far more like a family when compared to other idol groups.
NewJeans, however, probably won’t exist in 5 years. They have already faced multiple scandals and drama, and have remained strong. Perhaps it can be best explained in this way. Min Hee Jin once said that NewJeans was named for two reasons: that jeans never go out of fashion, and the homophone of bringing “new genes” to the K-Pop industry. Even if jeans don’t go out of fashion, old, non-vintage pairs do, and get replaced for new ones. New genes eventually are diluted into old genes then just “genes” in a genre of genetic generalities.
While HYBE Label’s ultimate plan may be extracting as much value as it can from its artists and making NewJeans last for as long as possible, I don’t think NewJeans needs to last forever. It’s an aspiration: ADOR’s absurd yet actualizing belief that Generations are merely confining boxes to break out of. Within twenty short months, straying from the path more traveled by, New Jeans have made all the difference. In the coming years, as each new album harbingers a step closer to the finale, know that NewJeans will leave a world better than they were left, and will have left us the key to opening new doors.
And that quality of excellence in NewJeans is something I have seen before.