A huge part of the success of NewJeans ¡ª the most creatively promising new K-pop act of the past two years ¡ª has been its music videos: stylistically sophisticated, vividly colorful, palpably joyful. Starting with music that deploys top-shelf songwriting buoyed by production savvy about global microtrends, the group developed a singular aesthetic to go with it, drawing equally from high fashion, lived-in nostalgia and contemporary cuteness.
So it was striking when, a couple of weeks ago, the group released a video performance unlike any that preceded it. In a live broadcast on a burner YouTube account, the group¡¯s five members ¡ª Danielle, Haerin, Hanni, Hyein and Minji ¡ª spoke for almost 30 minutes about their dissatisfaction with their parent company, Hybe. They particularly focused on how it had de-emphasized the role of the group¡¯s executive producer, Min Hee-jin, in their work.
Here was a group putting its external image and its internal leverage at risk to argue for their creative lives. It is an infrequent scenario at this level in K-pop, a genre and business in which careful choreography ¡ª of music, visuals and star behavior ¡ª is crucial to the power of the art.
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