FEATURE: Spotlight: BLACKPINK — Music Musings & Such

FEATURE:

Spotlight

BLACKPINK

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THIS is another Spotlight feature…

where I am featuring a group who command huge love and have a giant fanbase. BLACKPINK are a sensation, for sure - thought I feel they are not known to everyone. Moreover, I feel that their music gets defined or pigeonholed. Many assume that they are reserved for a certain audience – usually younger and female. I am going to bring in a couple of interviews in addition to a couple of reviews for their 2020 release, THE ALBUM. The fact the album is in Korean might mean that some avoided it. Before then, I am going to Wikipedia to bring in some background and biography:

“Blackpink (Korean: 블랙핑크; commonly stylized as BLACKPINK or BLΛƆKPIИK) is a South Korean girl group formed by YG Entertainment, consisting of members Jisoo, Jennie, Rosé, and Lisa. The group debuted in August 2016 with their single album Square One, which featured "Whistle" and "Boombayah", their first number-one entries on South Korea's Gaon Digital Chart and the Billboard World Digital Song Sales chart, respectively.

Blackpink is the highest-charting female Korean act on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at number 13 with "Ice Cream" (2020), and on the Billboard 200, peaking at number two with The Album (2020), the first-ever album by a Korean girl group to sell more than one million copies. They were the first Korean girl group to enter and top Billboard's Emerging Artists chart and to top the Billboard World Digital Song Sales chart three times. Blackpink was also the first female Korean act to receive a certification from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) with their hit single "Ddu-Du Ddu-Du" (2018), whose music video is currently the most-viewed by a Korean group on YouTube. They have the most top 40 hits in the United Kingdom among all Korean artists, and their 2018 song "Kiss and Make Up", a collaboration with Dua Lipa, was the first by a Korean group to receive a certification from the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) and a platinum certification from the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA).

Blackpink has broken numerous online records throughout their career. Their music videos for "Kill This Love" (2019) and "How You Like That" (2020) each set records for the most-viewed music video within the first 24 hours of release, with the latter breaking three and setting two Guinness World Records. They are also the first music group and Korean act to have three music videos each accumulate one billion views on YouTube. Blackpink is currently the most-followed girl group on Spotify and the most-subscribed music group, female act, and Asian act on YouTube. Their other accolades include the New Artist of the Year Award at the 31st Golden Disc Awards and the 26th Seoul Music Awards, the Mnet Asian Music Award for Best Female Group in 2020, an MTV Music Video Award (first win by K-pop girl group), inclusion on Forbes Korea's annual list of the most powerful celebrities in South Korea (placing first in 2019 and third in 2020), and recognition as the first female Korean group on Forbes' 30 Under 30 Asia”.

I don’t think one needs to be a fa n of girl groups or K-Pop. There is something about BLACKPINK’s music that translates music borders and languages. In the absence (largely) of strong and popular girl groups in the U.K. and U.S., I think that there is a lot to be said of K-Pop artists and what they provide. I want to bring in an interview that was conducted with Elle last year. In it, we discover more about the band’s meteoric rise:

“In addition to the obvious Beatlemania comparisons, Blackpink’s clear-cut empowerment message places it within the lineage of great girl groups past. The Spice Girls come up a lot. Being compared to a group “whose contribution to pop culture and music was so intense and massive is an honor,” Rosé says. “But it was never like, ‘Let’s become this or them.’ ” Bekuh Boom, an L.A.-based songwriter and frequent Blackpink collaborator, agrees. “[Rosé, Jennie, Jisoo, and Lisa] are going to set the standard for the new girl group in America. We haven’t had anyone like them since Destiny’s Child. [Blackpink] is going to fill that void.”

Over a Zoom call with the group in mid-July, Rosé tells me that meeting face-to-face with their international fans during Blackpink’s inaugural world tour, which ran from November 2018 through February of this year, felt “real and genuine, not like we were watching it on a screen or getting feedback on Instagram—it was literally right in front of our eyes.” Jennie jumps in to add, “We felt the energy, and that’s the best feeling.”

The band may have taken its time to release a full-length album, but that hasn’t affected its meteoric rise. Since debuting in Seoul in 2016, they’ve amassed billions of streams on Spotify, despite having only 15 songs (including “SOLO” by Jennie) to their name. Granted, every song has been an instant hit—engineered to be sung along to regardless of language, and supplemented by videos conjuring hyperfeminine bubblegum-pop utopias, cut with a dash of hip-hop swagger. The video for “How You Like That,” a trap-pop track that serves as the group’s “comeback” single (a colloquial term in K-pop referring to a new release), broke three Guinness World Records after receiving 86.3 million views in a 24-hour period back in June. On YouTube, Blackpink is the most subscribed-to music group across genre and gender, with 44.3 million followers as of this writing—surpassing Ariana Grande and the mega-popular K-pop boy band BTS.

In addition to selling out arenas, collaborating with superstars like Lady Gaga (“Sour Candy”), Dua Lipa (“Kiss and Make Up”), and Selena Gomez (“Ice Cream”), and serving as brand ambassadors for the likes of Celine, Chanel, Dior, and Saint Laurent, Blackpink was the first K-pop girl group to grace the Coachella stage last year, where the band shared a tent with Jaden Smith. “Will Smith was backstage,” Jennie says. “He said, ‘You guys are so great.’ That was a starstruck moment for me, definitely. Like, Will Smith knows us. Wow.” The group’s Coachella performance also serves as the dramatic finale to a new Netflix documentary, Blackpink: Light Up the Sky, directed by Caroline Suh (Salt Fat Acid Heat), launching October 14.

PHOTO CREDIT: Hee June Kim for Elle

Blackpink is a contradiction, to be sure, a global pop phenomenon without household-name recognition (yet), the future in the present. The group thrives in a digital world and an American market that’s grown less hesitant to embrace non-English singles—the same shift that has benefited artists like Rosalía and Burna Boy. This is partly because K-pop fans, in general, are a highly coordinated, digital-native lot. Some might recall how they mobilized alongside TikTok teens this past summer, claiming to have registered for tickets to President Trump’s Tulsa rally (and then not showing up). Blackpink’s fans are equally zealous. Within seconds, Blinks can make their favorite group trend worldwide—or turn an image of Lisa dancing in thigh-high boots into a “sexy legs” meme. “We’re moved by our fans,” Jisoo says. “We feel their sadness and happiness. We’re deeply connected.” If there was ever a pop group primed to break out when all of our social interactions happen via screen, it’s Blackpink.

Like most K-pop idol groups, Blackpink was formed via an intricate process at a pop-star boot camp. Each member had to pass an audition with YG, move into a dorm, and train for four to six years, beating out other girls with the same ambition before getting selected for a new group that placed equal importance on flawless appearance, skill, and charisma. (Think Making the Band, only cutthroat.) “We all lived together since the beginning,” Jennie says. “After our training time was over, we’d go home together and order food, talk about how scary the teachers were, how the work was too much. And just like how kids at school become friends, we just got along. It was very easy—we didn’t really have to try.”

While Blackpink remains largely apolitical in conversation, Rosé is quick to celebrate the group’s global diversity—something few K-pop groups can claim: “Music [doesn’t] always originate from the UK or the States. It’s global, it’s Asia, it’s the most random places you can imagine. I’m very proud that we all originated from different parts of the world”.

I am looking ahead to see where BLACKPINK might head. I think that they will become more of a household group in the future. One might assume that, because of the pandemic, last year was a pretty quiet one for BLACKPINK. As we discover in a Vogue interview from December, THE ALBUM was received hugely positively:

“2020 has been a rollercoaster of album releases and cancelled tours for Blackpink. In October, they released their first full record, The Album, which Rosé explained meant “a lot to us personally. For that to be in their hands and have our fans react to it in such a positive way and have them enjoy it.” Jisoo also added that though they are aware of their chart positions and the critical acclaim, it’s the response of the fans they await the most and feel grateful for social media during this time. “We always listen to our fans’ feedback and monitor their responses because in these times, especially when we can’t meet them face to face, the feedback we get through social media is more valuable. So we want to use it and respond to it as much as possible.”

Through social media, the band have also come to understand the new audience that has discovered their music over the last 12 months, and will be adding to this with a YouTube concert named plainly, “The Show,” set to be broadcast on 27 December. A peak between-Christmas-and-New-Year pick-me-up. Think of this as Blackpink’s festive treat to the Blinks, old and new.

“We’re surprised every day. We’re like, how can somebody be so supportive of a person?” Rosé added on the fans’ dedication. “It’s just unbelievable. I think we really commend them. They work very hard for us and it just blows our minds how they can be so supportive of somebody else. We [have] learned from our fans too. We want to say we’re very thankful for how hard they try, how much support they give us and we appreciate it. We really do”.

That brings me to THE ALBUM itself. 2018’s BLACKPINK IN YOUR AREA was the group’s debut and their first Japanese-language release. The album is a compilation of every song released by BLACKPINK at the time, including their self-titled Japanese E.P. and debut Korean extended play, Square Up. I feel that THE ALBUM is more of a proper debut. In their review, this is what AllMusic had to say:

“Within half a decade from their debut, K-pop quartet Blackpink crashed the international mainstream, topping charts around the world and breaking records along the way with their bombastic singles, EPs, and live albums. Two years after issuing their Japanese debut, they finally released their first Korean-language effort, The Album. Effortlessly blending both Korean and English, the group delivered a short-but-sweet set of empowering anthems, led by the characteristically thundering banger "How You Like That." Overflowing with confidence, Jisoo, Jennie, Rosé, and Lisa conquer each track on The Album with their vocal ability (both singing and rapping) and effortless charm, switching up styles to offer something for every type of fan. They bare their teeth on the glitter-trap "Pretty Savage," a collective middle finger to the haters, just as well as they take a stand for self-worth on the delightful kiss-off "Love to Hate Me." On "Crazy Over You," they long for romance over sexy, slinky production, before flipping the script on the gloriously rousing "Lovesick Girls." Following collaborations with Dua Lipa and Lady Gaga, Blackpink further bridge the East-West gap by recruiting Selena Gomez for the playful pop gem "Ice Cream" and Cardi B for the enticing "Bet You Wanna," two surefire moments designed to increase their global reach. Beyond the upbeat and energetic fare, the group close The Album with the inspirational "You Never Know," adding heart and vulnerability to their range. While it would be nice if The Album had a few more songs, there's enough variety to keep fans sated, excited, and empowered until the next big release”.

To wrap up, I want to bring in the review from The Guardian. I think that a lot of western Pop artists and groups lack hooks, adequate energy and any real sense of thrills. When it comes to BLACKPINK, we get something in the form of remedy and reversal:

“This highly efficient extraction of pocket money runs the risk of making music seem like a secondary consideration, but that doesn’t tally with The Album’s contents. It deals in precision-tooled rap-influenced pop that makes most western artists’ efforts in that area seem wan. Its songs are unrelenting three-minute bombardments of hooks: barely a second passes where you’re not in the presence of a melody you struggle to erase from your brain, a snappy throwaway aside anyone else would build an entire chorus around – How You Like That’s cry of “look up in the sky, it’s a bird, it’s a plane” is a prime example – or an equally snappy production touch: the Popcorn-esque melody that ping-pongs behind Lovesick Girls’ chorus, the woozy-sounding staccato synths that open Ice Cream. This production approach reaches a deranged height on Crazy Over You, its backing track constructed from a patchwork of eclectic sounds – bursts of Bollywood-ish strings, flute, rave-y synth stabs, a Brazilian cuica, what sounds like a Japanese gottan – interspersed with bursts of sub-bass.

You’re struck by the sense that the quality control has been set very high, and that the writers and producers – old hands at K-pop and big western names including Ryan Tedder and the team behind much of Ariana Grande’s Sweetener alike – have felt impelled to bring their A-game. The possible exception is the lyricists. Devoid of an overarching concept and eschewing the need to show a human heart at the centre of the K-pop machine – the raison d’etre behind much of BTS’s recent output – it sticks to the topics of how great Blackpink are and how that perennial bugbear The Haters aren’t getting to them. In fairness, given the vociferousness of said Haters, perhaps the latter subject has more heft in the world of K-pop”.

I would advise people to seek out BLACKPINK if they have not done so already. I feel we will see a few more albums from the South Korean superstars. I think that their fanbase will widen. Thinking about the demographic in the U.K., it may still be reserved to an audience that consists largely of women and girls. I feel their music needs to be heard by everyone. In the next year or two, the group are going to keep growing bigger. When they can tour again, people around the world will be able to see songs from THE ALBUM brought to life on the stage. I think it is the perfect album to get you motivated. It will definitely…