Breaking the K-pop industry’s success formula, NewJeans has proven themselves as a “never-seen-before” artist
Back in May of 2023, the famous US magazine, Time, wrote, “A year ago, no one knew who NewJeans was. But since it dropped its first music video in August 2022, the nascent K-pop girl group has already reached global milestones even faster than its more senior counterparts in the industry.”
Additionally, the organizer of Japanese music festival “Supersonic” was flabbergasted by NewJeans’ impact, saying, “When NewJeans’ appearance was announced, 40,000 people gathered for the 12 p.m. performance. It’s a phenomenon that hasn’t happened in 22 years.”
Now is undoubtedly the era of NewJeans. Debuting just 1 year and 5 months ago, these girls conquered the world at a pace faster than anyone else, establishing themselves as a trending artist.
Breaking the existing “success formula”
NewJeans was an extraordinary group from the start. The industry’s “success formula” was not important to them. They started spectacularly with a revolutionary shift in thinking, introducing a triple title song strategy with MVs for all these songs.
NewJeans, who rejected the “conventional flow” from the beginning, has since become the new flow and proposition in the Korean mainstream music scene.
NewJeans is the first girl group presented by Min Hee-jin, who, after shaping the concepts of SM Entertainment idols such as Girls’ Generation, SHINee, and f(x), became the head of the label ADOR under HYBE. Producer Min’s approach was “innovative”. Departing from the typical K-pop promotional methods, she unveiled the members through music videos, preserving the identity of “music to watch”. The strategy was successful, as NewJeans members, who were revealed through an MV without any prior introduction, stimulated the curiosity of K-pop fans.
As a leading 4th Gen K-pop girl group, NewJeans concluded their impressive debut with hit songs “Attention” and “Hype Boy”. From January 2023, they embarked on a full-scale global expansion.
The success of “Ditto”, released in December 2022, is symbolic. The song topped the Melon daily chart for a staggering 99 days after its release. Along with “OMG”, released in January 2024, and the debut single “Hype Boy”, NewJeans dominated the domestic music charts in the first half of the year.
According to Melon, the largest music streaming platform in Korea, NewJeans achieved 10 billion streams in just 498 days since their debut on February 2, entering the “Billion Club” in the shortest period. “Ditto” also set a record by topping the Melon weekly chart for 14 consecutive weeks, setting the longest record, and “Hype Boy” also maintained a spot in the top 10 for a long time, surpassing a cumulative 200 million streams.
As a result, NewJeans won a total of 5 awards at the Melon Music Awards (MMA) 2023, starting with the Best New ArtistAwards and culminating in the “double Daesangs” Artist of the Year and Song of the Year.
NewJeans’ songs fully embrace the latest trends in the mainstream pop market. Moving beyond the “girl crush” style emphasized by existing K-pop, they present a new style with natural originality. From debut, NewJeans, free from the constraints of conventional K-pop, ventured into genres like UK garage and Jersey club, leading the “easy listening” trend.
Jersey club, the latest trend in the pop market in the second half of 2022 in the U.S., is, in fact, music born in the 1990s, known as “newtro”. After the success of “Ditto”, the first K-pop song to incorporate this genre, NewJeans showed signs of becoming the “new normal” in the K-pop scene. Following this song, mid-tempo and chill dance became a major trend in the music industry throughout the year.
NewJeans’ second EP, “Get Up”, which was released in July, maintained the group’s existing flow while adding freshness. Starting with the impressive “Super Shy” with choreography, they brought triple title tracks, including “ETA” and “Cool With You” that utilized ‘sing-along points’ and.
“Get Up” entered the Billboard 200, the main album chart of the U.S. Billboard, at No. 1 on August 5, staying on the chart for 22 consecutive weeks, breaking the record for the longest charting period for a 4th generation K-pop group album. It is currently at No. 106. The UK music magazine NME ranked NewJeans’ album as the top Asian album of 2023, stating that it established NewJeans as a trendsetter of the era.
From debut, NewJeans has become the owner of phrases like “first”, “best”, and “shortest”, quickly expanding their share in the domestic and international music markets.
According to K-pop Radar, a data-based K-pop and fandom analysis company, NewJeans ranked 4th in the top 20 K-pop artists based on YouTube video views in 2023. Only BLACKPINK (13.47%), BTS (10.37%), and TWICE (4.21%) surpassed NewJeans (3.89%). Stray Kids (3.43%) took the 5th spot. Among the top 5, NewJeans is the only 4th generation K-pop group. They didn’t even make it into the top ranks last year.
NewJeans’ status was once again confirmed on the global stage. In May, TIME magazine listed them as the only K-pop female artist on the “2023 Next Generation Leaders” list. At the “Billboard Music Awards (BBMAs)”, one of the three major music awards in the U.S., they achieved the feat of winning an award in the shortest time (1 year and 4 months) among K-pop artists. Along with winning in the “Top Global K-pop Artist” category, they proved to be the “Best K-pop Group of the Year”.
NewJeans also entered the Billboard “Hot 100” within six months of their debut and secured the No. 1 spot on the “Billboard 200” before reaching their first anniversary.
This summer was a time when the momentum of NewJeans was keenly felt. From Japan’s “Supersonic” to the U.S.’s “Lollapalooza Chicago”, tens of thousands of audiences sang along to NewJeans’ latest songs. It is known that tickets for NewJeans’ performance time at Supersonic were sold out in an instant as soon as the lineup was announced. Such an artist has never existed before, said the organizer of the video.
NewJeans’ music has set new standards, and the “NewJeans style” has become the “pinnacle” of trends, delving into the daily lives of the masses and kickstarting a “syndrome”.
In particular, NewJeans’ song “Hype Boy” has created a global trend, as basically everyone with headphones on the street was listening to the song, or recreating its choreography point. Even Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon participated in this trend, recording tremendous views.
Meanwhile, “Super Shy” brought a flash mob craze worldwide. The strategy targeting flash mobs in the music video worked perfectly.
Another indicator proving NewJeans’ popularity is how many collaborations they have with global brands. NewJeans appeared on the opening stage of the finals of the “League of Legends World Championship”, the most popular esports event worldwide.
Additionally, all five members are ambassadors for luxury brands, and collectively, they have become symbols of leading companies in various fields such as IT, distribution, fashion, and food and beverage, including Apple, Coca-Cola, and McDonald’s.
Source: Daum
