YG Entertainment’s four-member girl group Blackpink (Jennie, Jisoo, Rosé, Lisa) is receiving global attention for their first full-length album ‘THE ALBUM’, which will be released in October. Blackpink, who debuted in 2016, had a hotter summer than ever. On August 28, the new song ‘Ice Cream’, in collaboration with Selena Gomez, who is considered the wannabe of American teenagers, ranked first on the ‘iTunes’ Worldwide Song Chart on the first day of release and in the global top 50 of ‘Spotify’, the world’s largest streaming site. Entered in 4th place. ‘Ice Cream’ is a pre-released song from the regular album to be released in October, and it is more meaningful because it is a pop star’s feature in a Blackpink song, unlike Blackpink’s previous participation in pop star’s songs. 

Two days later, on August 30, the group won the ‘Best Song of the Summer’ award at the ‘MTV Video Music Awards’, an American music awards ceremony, with ‘How You Like That’, another pre-released song from the regular album. With this award, Blackpink made history as the first Asian girl group to win the best song of the summer at the MTV Video Music Awards.

Keyword #1 Global Popularity
Popularity abroad

In the global market, Blackpink is evaluated as a group that has secured public awareness beyond its popularity limited to K-pop fans. You can tell simply by looking at pop stars who express interest in Blackpink. Lady Gaga, who first suggested featuring to Blackpink this spring, said after working on ‘Sour Candy’, “I like strong women like the Blackpink members, so I was happy to be able to join them. “They are beautiful, young and talented,” she raved. Also, Katy Perry, who released a new album for the first time in three years last August, mentioned Blackpink at a press conference and said, “If there is a sexy and cool song, I want to collaborate.” 

Objective evidence of popularity is that Blackpink is a regular guest on Billboard’s main single chart, ‘Hot 100’. Billboard’s main single chart ranks popular songs in the United States every week by combining streaming performance, music sales, and number of radio airplays, so the barrier to entry is high for non-English speaking singers who have fewer radio airtimes. Nevertheless, Blackpink started at 55th place with ‘DDU-DU DDU-DU’ in June 2018, 41st place with ‘Kill This Love’ in April 2019, 33rd place with ‘How You Like That’ in June this year, and 33rd place with ‘How You Like That’ in September this year. ‘Ice Cream’ broke its own highest ranking every time a new song was released, up to 13th place. In addition, ‘Kiss and Make Up’, a collaboration with British singer-songwriter Dua Lipa in October 2018, ranked 93rd, and ‘Sour Candy’ with Lady Gaga in June of this year ranked 33rd. All songs released this year were ranked in the top 40 singles on the UK Official Chart, the world’s two largest pop charts. 

Some say that Selena Gomez’s popularity is responsible for the high ranking of ‘Ice Cream’, but it is clear that it has raised expectations for her first full-length album. Forbes, an American business magazine, said, “‘Ice Cream’ is the second taste of Blackpink’s regular album,” adding, “Because fans purchase the official album and singles or stream enough for an all-inclusive tally, the set (regular album) is “Once it comes out, the chart ranking will change,” he predicted.

Keyword #2 Youtube Queen
Visual that encompasses fashion and beauty

Blackpink has a strong image as a ‘hip group’ in the global market. How did Blackpink succeed in positioning their image in a short period of less than two years after entering the US market? The hint is on Blackpink’s YouTube channel. Blackpink is the ‘YouTube Queen’ with 47.4 million YouTube channel subscribers as of September 10th. Ranks 3rd among artists worldwide. All uploaded official music videos exceeded 200 million views, including the music video for ‘DDU-DU DDU-DU’, which became the first K-pop group to surpass 1.3 billion views. In fact, ‘How You Like That’ was officially registered in five categories of Guinness World Records, including ‘Most views of YouTube video within 24 hours of release’ with 86.3 million views on the first day. 

Blackpink’s music video does not have a complicated worldview. Instead, it is a lot of fun to see group dances and fashion items that you want to imitate. As all members are models for luxury brands and are loved by the fashion and beauty world, every time a music video is released, the items in the video are sold out. Recently, they captivated the world with a modern reinterpretation of Hanbok in the music video for ‘How You Like That’, and in ‘Ice Cream’, they showed off their sense of matching colorful hippie-style crochet costumes with luxury accessories. Along with fashion, dance is also popular. Even simple choreography videos boast hundreds of millions of clicks, including 190 million views for ‘Boombayah’ and 280 million views for ‘Kill This Love’. 

The YouTube Queen’s reputation is revealed in other places as well. It is said that fans are actively engaging in ‘admiration sales’ by creating and sharing derivative videos such as ‘Learn Choreography’, ‘Cover Dance’, and ‘Doing Makeup Like Blackpink’ beyond simple appreciation. To Blackpink’s fandom ‘Blink’, Blackpink is not a star in the sky, but a cool peer whose every move is curious. Is that why? At the time of the release of ‘How You Like That’, Jimmy Fallon, a popular American MC, praised Blackpink, who performed his first new song comeback on his show program, saying: “Blackpink is unbelievable. It cannot be expressed by the word ‘phenomenon’. “We might have to create a new word to describe Blackpink.” 

Even high-profile luxury brands have fallen in love with Blackpink’s powerful charm. Jennie is the Chanel House Ambassador, Jisoo is the Dior Beauty and Fashion Muse, Lisa is the Celine Muse and Bulgari Ambassador, and Rosé is the Saint Laurent Global Ambassador. The industry and fans say that each brand and member combination is ‘perfect’. Each work released in collaboration with a luxury brand dominates social media around the world in real time, so it couldn’t be a more ‘win-win’ than this.

Keyword #3 Extraordinary Class
Dance · Song · Foreign Language… Amazing class

Blackpink put a lot of effort into the team from the launching stage. It is basic to form a team with members who are fluent in foreign languages ​​with overseas expansion in mind. You can freely communicate with fans from any country in the world, such as Lisa from Thailand, Jenny who studied in New Zealand and speaks Japanese, Rosé who grew up in Australia, and Jisoo who speaks Chinese and Japanese. 

Another point of success was that they showed a different musical worldview than other girl groups. Above all, as revealed by the team name with the contrasting colors of black and pink, Blackpink was different from the beginning. Although she’s pretty, she didn’t try to just look pretty, and the music was also composed of hip-hop-based songs that could bring out the girl crush concept. The lyrics also exude confidence as much as that of solo singer Rain, who is full of self-love, from the debut song ‘Boombayah’ to ‘My body is special’ and ‘The dancing lights surround me’ and ‘The gorgeous lights surround me’. Thanks to this, we were able to quickly and accurately target Western fans who prefer ‘strong sisters’ with personality rather than cuteness. 

Fans who are curious about the story behind Blackpink’s debut recently received good news. The global online video service Netflix will release the documentary ‘Blackpink: Light Up the World’ exclusively on October 14th. Four girls who were different from the beginning became the main characters of Netflix’s first K-pop documentary.

Blackpink x luxury brand

Saint Laurent performer full of Rosé emotion

Main vocalist Rosé (23, real name Park Chae-young), who has an attractive sexy voice, is a talented person who passed first place at the YG Global Audition held in Australia in 2012, overcoming a competition rate of 1:700. She is famous for her team’s hobby, so much so that she learned cheerleading during her school days. She appears to be outgoing and lively, but in reality she is very shy and has a lyrical side. She also cries a lot. She is moved to tears after eating delicious food. The SNS she runs herself is also emotional, just like her owner. Jisoo and Jennie even gave Rosé the nickname ‘Gamseong Chang (Emotional Chaeyoung).’ ‘Gam Seong-chang’s favorite thing to do these days is to return to her lodgings after a day’s work and watch the night view outside her window. If you add a bag of cookies to this, you will be happier than ever. 

Due to her lovely personality, she is called Rosé, which is closer to pink, but the color that has been brought to the fore in her recent new song visual work is mainly black. This is especially true of the work with French luxury fashion house Saint Laurent. Last June, Rosé was selected as Saint Laurent’s global ambassador and advertising model. Rosé is the first Korean to become a Saint Laurent model. Because of this, he was given the nickname ‘Chang Laurent’, a combination of his real name and Saint Laurent. 

When Rosé’s black and white cut, with long disheveled hair and a mini dress that accentuated her body, was displayed in Saint Laurent stores around the world and on large billboards in major cities, fans were surprised by the chic appearance. Regarding this reaction, Rosé said in an interview, “I am a ‘performer.’ “I think my job is to show a different energy than usual the moment I go on stage,” he said. “When I get close to black, I find it surprising and fun. “As a singer and performer, I want to cross the boundaries of various colors,” he said.

+ Related search terms ‘real sister’ 

Many of Rosé’s related search terms are related to family and nationality. She was born in New Zealand and raised in Melbourne, Australia from the age of seven. She sometimes treats herself as a foreigner, so there are times when people are confused that the real Rosé is a foreigner, but she only has dual Korean and New Zealand citizenship and her parents are Korean. She came to Korea at the young age of 16 and was separated from her family, so her love for her family is strong. She is especially close with her older sister, who is four years older than her, and even revealed her older sister on her social media. Her older sister, who looks similar to Rosé and stands out with her elegant beauty, graduated from the Department of Law at the Australian National University and is a bright talent who passed the bar exam. Rose’s father is also known to be a lawyer. At the time of her passing to the bar, Rose said to her sister, “I’m so proud of you. And admire her sister for the achievements she has made. She also held a surprise event at Park Byeon’s house where she sent a card and a bouquet of flowers with the words, “See you soon.”

Jenny
’s fascinating ‘human Chanel’

Jenny (24, real name Jenny Kim) has been a trainee the longest among Blackpink members. She joined YG in August 2010 at the age of fifteen and debuted at the age of twenty in August 2016. The results of her hard work were valuable. Her solo song ‘Solo’, released in 2018, topped iTunes in 40 regions, making her the first Korean female solo singer to reach number one on the iTunes Worldwide Song Chart. The popularity of her solo music video, which surpassed 100 million views in just 23 days of its release, remains strong. On July 28th, the number of views on YouTube exceeded 500 million. 

In the Korean Corporate Reputation Research Institute, which determines the reputation rankings of individual idol brands every month through big data compilation, Jennie was ranked first last August. Koo Chang-hwan, head of the Korea Business Reputation Research Institute, analyzed, “Jenny’s brand had high scores on ‘admire, breakthrough, and fascination’ in link analysis, and ‘YouTube, solo, personal poster’ were high in keyword analysis.” 

What Chanel, a luxury brand among luxury goods, focuses on is Jennie’s trendy yet captivating image and topicality. Just like when singer Lee Hyo-ri once made a name for herself as a sell-out girl, even a simple white T-shirt looks like her luxury item when Jenny wears it, making people curious about her outfit information. Chanel appreciated this and gradually promoted Jenny from Chanel Muse in 2017 to Chanel Korea Ambassador in 2018 and Chanel House Ambassador last year. 

In fact, Jennie is famous for wearing Chanel items well without overdoing them. Sometimes, she mixes and matches the Chanel jackets and t-shirts her mother wore when she was younger with her current outfits. Most of the items Jenny sold out, such as the Chanel 2019 Cruise Collection pullover worn at a fan signing event in 2018 and the purple cardigan she wore when attending the Chanel 2020 Spring/Summer Collection show last year, are clothes that can be worn comfortably in everyday life, but without losing a sense of luxury. It’s as if the familiar nickname ‘Jenddeuk’ (a nickname given by Jisoo to mean that she clings to Jisoo like goo when she wakes her up every morning) and the luxurious nickname ‘Human Chanel’ coexist for Jenny. Jenny, who is as greedy as she is colorful, said, “There are still many things I want to do and show. “I want to always show you something new and cool no matter what activity I do.”

+ Related search term ‘private clothes’ 

Idols must show off their fashion sense even when going to and from the airport, commuting to and from the broadcasting station, or practicing choreography. Jenny is an artist who provides two pleasures at the same time: the fun of listening to music and the fun of looking at fashion. In fact, she is interested in both music and fashion. From a young age, she enjoyed remodeling clothes or buying them and combining them. “She believes music and fashion are inseparable,” she said in an interview. “The reason she decided to become a musician is because she loved these two since she was little,” she said. However, contrary to what many may wonder, she says she has no plans to launch her own fashion brand just yet. She is trying to strike a balance between being a fashionista and a musician so that no one side stands out too much.

Jisoo’s
face genius ‘Miss Dior’

The pretty little girl, who had been singing and dancing in front of her family since she was young, started going to singer auditions with the desire to perform better in front of more people, and finally achieved her dream. Jisoo (25, real name Kim Jisoo), who is the lead vocalist in the team, has one more unofficial role. This is the role of ‘eldest sister’. Jisoo is a member who takes care of her teammates and is the mood maker in Blackpink, which does not have a leader. Jisoo is also the one who takes the initiative to communicate outside of entertainment shows, interviews, and stages. This is not only because he is the only member born and raised in Korea, but also because of his innate personality. In a recent personal live broadcast, Jisoo revealed that according to her MBTI test results, she was a ‘strict manager’ (ESTJ) type. This same strictness even applies to fans. There is a famous anecdote in which he cutely pretended to scold fans who ran dangerously to see Blackpink, telling them to be careful. 

Although Jisoo exudes ‘unni beauty’, she is a natural woman with innocent beauty. Even within Blackpink, which is known for having no flaws in its visuals, she is considered one of the standard beauty dolls. Jenny also chose Jisoo to be in charge of visuals on her team. As a ‘face genius’, Jisoo is active as the muse of Dior beauty and fashion. She has an oriental beauty and her elegant and beautiful facial lines perfectly match the brand image of her pursuing alluring beauty. Jisoo said in one of her interviews, “I like Natalie Portman. It is a great honor for her to be a model for the same brand as her favorite actor. “She becomes more confident,” she said with satisfaction. Jisoo was a part of the theater club during her school days and dreamed of becoming an actress. She is a long-time fan of Natalie Portman. 

Recently, I have had more confidence. Jisoo conducted a digital project with French luxury brand Cartier last September. Cartier is a brand that can often be seen in Jisoo’s casual fashion. To celebrate Jisoo’s birthday on January 3rd this year, Jenny also gifted Jisoo a Cartier wedding ring. These days, collaborations with brands that I like and fit well with are increasing one by one. In a recent Dior fashion pictorial, Jisoo said, “I try not to get excited just because the (sound recording) results are good. “I think this is a moment where we must have a sense of weight and not lose sight of what we are pursuing,” he said, showing his humility.

+ Related search term ‘drama’ 

Recently, Jisoo was cast as the female lead in the drama ‘Snowdrop’ (working title). ‘Snowdrop’ is a collaboration between producer Cho Hyun-tak and writer Yoo Hyun-mi of last year’s ‘SKY Castle’. In the meantime, Jisoo’s fans joke that “she hasn’t done anything except her debut.” During her five years of training, she had a variety of experiences, from small roles in commercials to appearances in other singers’ music videos. She has steadily built up her acting career, including a cameo in the drama ‘Producer’ and the role of Sae Na-rae in tvN’s ‘Arthdal ​​Chronicles’ last year, but it is true that her acting was somewhat disappointing. Through her debut as a leading lady, Jisoo’s beauty, which is undeniable even in her close-ups, is expected to shine even brighter.

Lisa
‘Celine’ loves Barbie doll

The first foreign member chosen by the strict YG was Blackpink’s Lisa (23). Lisa, who is from Thailand, has been a trainee in Korea since she was fourteen, so she is fluent in Korean and can also speak English and Japanese. He is in charge of the team’s main dancer, lead rapper, and sub-vocal, and his charm point is his refreshing dance moves, which he honed while working as a dance crew member since he was young. Yang Hyun-seok, former CEO of YG, praised Lisa, saying, “I was surprised when I first saw the video,” and added, “I used to be a dancer, so I can get a feel for it after just watching it for a few seconds, but this girl’s force was felt even though she was only 14 at the time.” 

As of September, Lisa is the star with the largest number of Instagram followers (380.9 million) among domestic celebrities. Lisa, who boasts an exotic Barbie doll-like appearance, including long arms and legs and an ant waist, has captivated global fans with her chic charm. His stock as a fashion icon is also rising. Last February, she was invited as a Prada Lady and proved her popularity by creating a spectacle of singing along in front of the ‘2020 F/W Prada Collection’ show. 

In particular, the place that fell in love with Lisa’s charm was the luxury brand Celine. Celine’s creative director Hedi Slimane showed his affection by gifting the ‘Sez Bag’, which he first introduced at Celine, to Lisa following Lady Gaga and Angelina Jolie, and releasing the visual of Lisa’s Celine Essentials campaign, which he shot himself, on the brand’s official SNS account. It seemed. As if responding to this, Lisa often shows off matching Celine items. At the ‘How You Like That’ comeback showcase, which was broadcast live around the world online on June 26, she chose Celine’s shirt dress with a striped metallic gold pattern. 

Additionally, another brand recently sent a love call to Lisa. Italian luxury brand Bulgari selected Lisa as its official ambassador after determining that Lisa’s bold performance and trendy image fit well with its brand identity. Bvlgari’s unique bold snake motif design jewelry matches not only Lisa’s gorgeous image but also her confident personality. Lisa revealed that she usually does not care about what other people think. The attention and attention paid to YG’s first foreign member may be burdensome, but “I don’t think everyone should love me. Pay more attention to the good stories, but don’t completely ignore the negative reactions. Cool Lisa responds, “Because it could be advice.”

+ Related search term ‘short hair’ Lisa 

made a comeback this summer with ‘How You Like That’ and transformed into a bob hair style that had not been shown before. When the bangs that he had been sticking to and the ‘straight bob haircut’ came together, his charisma exploded and he emerged as a new cause of ‘short hair disease’. Fans are responding enthusiastically, asking if straight black hair can be this sophisticated and pretty. In addition, Lisa’s cat’s eye makeup, which doubles the chic look like Cleopatra, is also a hot topic. Lee Myeong-sun, director of Woosun, a hair and makeup shop in Cheongdam-dong that handles Blackpink’s makeup, said, “Lisa usually looks like a baby. Her eyes are round, so I add longer eyelashes towards the back to expand them.” Also, because her facial features are so clear, when doing stage makeup, she only uses matte shading and only highlights the point in a charismatic way.

_{Photo provided by YG Entertainment Getty Images}