Meet the K-Pop Groups Taking Aim at the Genre’s “Manufactured” Stereotypes
NewJeans; ADOR
Near the end of NewJeans' video for their new title track “OMG”, Danielle pounds the table in a mental health hospital and shouts, “You guys really don’t remember? Come on! We’re NewJeans!”
Instantly the video reels back to several clips from NewJeans short, but insanely prolific, career before landing on their lead single “Attention”.
You remember “Attention” right? Of course you do. “Attention” forced K-Pop into a hard left midway through 2022: Breezy, light and perfect for summer, there was nothing in mainstream K-Pop like the single. The concept was simply the girls being teenagers, something that drew fierce criticism from audiences because nearly all of the members were minors when they debuted. [ADOR, the group’s company, responded with a strongly worded statement, particularly regarding the group’s song “Cookie”.]
The video for “OMG” assumes that you are caught up in the runaway success of NewJeans. But the video is not interested in fan-service. Its intent is shocking us; subverting the NewJeans we thought we knew and instead commenting on a generation that lives inside their phones. Look closer and you might even see a slight tip of the hand or an indictment against stans who develop para-social relationships with their idols.
Hanni, the group’s lead dancer, opens the video with a wild declaration while the girls sit inside a mental health facility. “I was actually an iPhone.” she says in what looks like group therapy. The members stare back at her as their eyes widen. “I exist for you. When you call, I’ll run to you anywhere, anytime. I’ll show you only what you want to see. I will speak for you and sing for you.” Is NewJeans even real? Yet Hanni’s most disturbing line feels nuanced: “What do you want from me?” The subtext is unsaid: “What do you want from me — as an idol?”
aespa and their ae avatars; SM ENTERTAINMENT
“OMG” follows a trend set in motion by fourth generation groups that call for both self-critique and myth-making in the music. K-Pop companies are aware that the genre is thought of as manufactured. For years, this accusation is why many critics guessed K-Pop would never succeed in the West.
“Ultimately, K-pop is not just about selling music – it’s about selling a fantasy,” Alyson Kang wrote in an article criticizing what she described as archaic, tightly controlled industry. To survive, K-Pop companies have shifted tactics. Companies don’t deny the groups are manufactured anymore. Instead, groups are created to support this ideology. The leader in this cultural critique is aespa, a group whose lore is situated in a meta-verse called KWANGYA created by the group’s company SM Entertainment. For their first single “Black Mamba” the group’s avatars were featured just as heavily as the members. You, too, the marketing message claimed, can join aespa in KWANGYA and hang out with their “ae’s” – by downloading the SM app.
The first introduction to aespa came from a promo video featuring the group’s leader Karina and her “ae”. Seated on a set resembles a talk show, the video opens by breaking the fourth wall as staff finish touching up Karina’s makeup before she opens her show. Sitting next to her is ae-Karina, a virtual version of the singer. “Hey, you look too frozen,” Karina chides ae-Karina after they say hello. “Now try again waving your hand,” she instructs as a way to soften the ae’s reflexes.
SM Entertainment faced opposition when the group debuted because of the ae-aespa members, which many critics worried would further a “parasocial relationship” with fans and “de-individualize” the artists. But the company doubled down on aespa’s virtual reality concept with the smash hit “Next Level” and the follow-up single “SAVAGE”. Throughout each release, the members sing about subjects that are nonsensical if not sometimes pure camp: “My naevis, we love you!” They proclaim to naevis, a possible deity in KWANGYA, on “SAVAGE”.
Yet as much fun as each single is, SM only allows so much introspection to slip through the music, with the exception of aespa’s second single “Forever” and "Life’s Too Short”, a ballad from their latest mini-album. This song, which takes aim at the group’s online “haters”, debuted at Coachella in 2022. It’s a softer version of aespa, one where they portray something refreshing: Young adults trying to mind their mental health and advocate for themselves. “I’m doing me regardless,” they push back in the chorus. “And I don’’t care what you say about it.”
Perhaps more than any boy group, ATEEZ brilliantly balances lore and introspection. Like aespa, their music exists inside of a universe created by their company KQ Entertainment. On “Guerilla”, a title track that simmers with macho-masculinity, the group yells to “Break the wall”.
Their latest release, “SPIN OFF”, continues the display of aggression they’ve steadily built towards since debut. The video for “HALAZIA”, the title track of “SPIN OFF”, is set in a war-torn city. “I can’t feel what it’s like to be alive,” Jungho sings.
But where ATEEZ excels the best is when they examine the emotional rollercoaster of growing up. On “Turbulence”, the excellent opening single of “ZERO: EPILOGUE”, the battle isn’t between good and evil, but within. “I’m already overwhelmed to be myself,” Jonghyo admits, followed by San wondering, “What should we become?”
“ZERO: FEVER EPILOGUE” served conceptually as a graduation for ATEEZ. It was considered the end of the “FEVER” series and reflected the group’s maturity as young men. But what it did best was remind us that the boys of ATEEZ also grapple with uncertainties and insecurities, too. “You think you’re the main character of this drama?” Mingi raps wryly in “THE REAL”. “I don’t know if I’ll die/ I’ll find out by watching.”
It’s hard to imagine K-Pop exploring these themes even as recently as ten years ago. Idols in those years were constructed too tightly to be anything less than perfect. Consider that Rain’s early aughts popularity was built around his sexuality and, at times, portraying a man you could envision as a perfect son-in-law. Rain’s story of finding redemption in music after the death of his mother made for an alluring backstory. But this never filtered into his music. Onstage Rain was only allowed to be one-dimensional, sexy and masculine. It’s certainly progress that groups, particularly boy groups like ATEEZ, can explore themes of loneliness and depression.
Graduation concept photos for ATEEZ’s “ZERO: FEVER EPILOGUE”L; KQ Entertainment
When the group shouts to “break the wall”, as they do in their previous title track “Guerilla”, the call feels like a shot for self-acceptance. “Everyone can break their own wall,” the group’s leader Hongjoong affirmed in an interview.
In ATEEZ’s and NewJeans renderings, there’s something that is often lacking in other group’s music: An active, internal monologue about what it means to be a young adult right now. “If [fans] hear our songs, or see the concert, we hope they see us and say, ‘They’re real,” Hongjoong told Paper this year.
NewJeans on the set of their music video “Ditto”; ADOR
Maybe this is why the video for NewJeans’ “Ditto” stuck with me. It’s filmed inside of a real high school, with lush muted colors permeating every shot. The video is composed of clips of the girls dancing on the school’s rooftop, laughing in class and a possible love interest all filmed by a mystery classmate. Above the members in one scene, strikingly, is a Korean flag. The video has its own lore it’s chinking away at, namely who is their mysterious classmate who films them, but their world is our world.
“OMG” deepens the idea that NewJeans’ concept is something darker and more complex than we first thought. Perhaps NewJeans’ creative team knows that requiring their audience to think and to constantly engage with their content might exhaust fans. Maybe that’s why at the end of the video for “OMG”, a girl sits at her computer and types, “Is anyone else uncomfortable with the NewJeans video? Just show your faces and dance.” This strikes a core criticism surrounding K-Pop: Do the manufactured concepts distract from the music? Most groups ignore this debate. At least NewJeans dare us to consider the question.
