by New Jeans, the so-called ‘Min Hee-jin girl group,’ is attracting attention by debuting not like a K-pop group.
New Jeans is a five-member group under Hive’s label, Adore. It is the first idol introduced by Min Hee-jin, CEO of Adore, who made his name known in SM Entertainment in charge of branding and concept building for Girls’ Generation, f(x), SHINee, and EXO, after moving to Hive.
The members consist of Minji (18), Hani (18, Vietnam), Daniel (17, Korean and Australian nationals), Hyerin (16), and Hyein (14) from Korea, Vietnam, and Australia. The average age is 17. From music videos to group names, albums, music, choreography planning, and global auditions, CEO Min participated as a producer.
The debut album was released on the 1st. The album contains four songs: ‘Attention,’ ‘Hype Boy,’ ‘Cookie,’ and ‘Heart.’ The unique composition with three title songs, excluding ‘Heart,’ stands out.
New Jeans first released the music video for their debut album on the 22nd of last month. It boldly broke the custom that led to the release of the ‘teaser → photo → member → concept’ and released the music video immediately without prior publicity. It is unusual for a rookie group to choose the title song or music video as the first public content for their debut.
Above all, New Jeans appeared while breaking the K-pop formula and approached the public with freshness. The sharp choreography characteristic of K-pop is not visible in the New Jeans music video. The five members dance together, but each member rides their rhythm. Another part of K-pop, the addictive melody, dynamic rhythm, and powerful high notes are hard to find in New Jeans songs. It comes with a teen-pop feel rather than K-pop by naturally removing the virtuosity and singing.
4th generation K-pop idols show a worldview that combines fantasy elements, but New Jeans does not reveal such a worldview. Instead, it tells real stories such as teenage encounters.
The debut album sold 440,000 copies in three days of pre-order. Among the girl group’s debut albums, the first place in the Initial Chodong (album sales in the first week of release) is Le Seraphim’s 1st mini album, which recorded 300,000 copies. Le Seraphim is a group formed by the same hive label, Source Music, in May, with Hive Chairman Bang Si-hyuk and Source Music CEO So Seong-jin at the center. It is rare for a new girl group to appear on the same label simultaneously, and New Jeans and Le Seraphim are expected to compete in good faith.
CEO Min said of the team’s name New Jeans, “It contains the aspiration to become an icon of the times, like jeans (jeans) that you find every day and never get tired of wearing.” This name also includes New Genes, which means ‘new gene.’
Just as CEO Min Hee-jin made a big hit with the skinny jeans worn by the Girls’ Generation when they sang the hit song ‘gee,’ attention is focused on whether New Jeans will make a big hit with the new jeans.
