by If we roughly share the sentiments that the musician evokes, we can say that it is empathy and longing. Each artist will have a different composition, but in Blackpink songs, Lisa seems to be the most prominent member of the latter. He is the one who sharply shoots the famous catchphrase ‘BLACKPINK in your area’ in ‘DDU-DU DDU-DU, and he is the one who spits out Blackpink’s signature pounding rapping. Lisa’s first solo song caused a sensation by surpassing 100 million views in the music video within two days of its release.
The title is ‘LALISA,’ Lisa’s real name. Through solo albums, countless idols claim to be ‘me,’ ‘real me,’ and ‘candid me.’ At first glance, Lisa may seem like an example of that. However, ‘Lisa’ that we often think of is an abbreviation of the English-speaking name Elizabeth. ‘Lalisa’ is the name of Lisa’s hometown Thailand.
The music video features traditional Thai instruments, costumes, and famous tourist destinations. Of course, it’s not worthy of being called ‘Thai Pop.’ At the intersection of stateless streets and medieval corridors, it is unknown exactly what happened. Still, anyway, a police riot squad is urgently dispatched, and Lisa races through the wilderness on a bike wearing luxury goods. Suddenly the song becomes sweet, and the screen turns into a scene that looks like something from a romantic comedy. The lyrics are exceptionally close to the tone and manner of the usual BLACKPINK lyrics, and even in expressions such as ‘black pink crown,’ Lisa is impressively mentioned as ‘that member of BLACKPINK.’ It intersects with the ultra-modern space and uses elements of Asian traditional culture as an enchanting fascination is also typical of K-Pop. However, it is a very nicely made K-pop.
If K-pop has sent some part of Korean culture to the world so far, Lisa is passing through the medium of K-pop as she transmits her own culture. At the same time, he is also sending calls to K-pop. For example, he can dazzle use the elements of traditional Thai culture, a forbidden fruit, in K-pop, which is used up as much as he can use what he is familiar with, without fear of criticism of cultural appropriation. Of course, his value is not limited to just a legitimate excuse for cultural appropriation. Even the cold and arrogant expression and the mischievous face that shows through the gap in the eyes that are more challenging than anyone else is hard to find in Korean artists. The intense stardom revealed in his attitude is also his own. In addition, the fact that K-pop, which has established itself as the courage of minorities abroad, again draws attention to foreign members, who are not mainstream in the K-pop world, is also an advantage given to Lisa in K-pop.
In the past, foreign members were hired to provide familiarity in overseas expansion. Still, that model has already been broken as BTS, all native to Korea, ascended to the top of the world. The era when foreign-born idols were regarded as functional parts for overseas targeting means ‘wrong.’ Although there are many foreign members in K-pop, there are very few solo music activities in Korea. Female artists are even worse, so you can quickly go back to Ayumi’s ‘Cutie Honey’ 15 years ago if you count them. And now, Lisa’s box office performance encourages people to think anew about the potential of foreign-born idols. It is a moral but new proposal to look at them as an artist and pay attention to the vision they can have.
