It’s hard to believe many young people remain unaware of Blackpink, the popular K-Pop girl group. Those familiar with their name often roll their eyes, just as I did initially. I found it irritating to see young fans rave about them while struggling to name more than three songs. K-Pop overall can be frustrating.
Author: Ema Konjevod
I doubt there are many young people left that are still living in blissful ignorance of the existence of the Korean girl group Blackpink. I am sure many of those that have heard the name instantly roll their eyes at the mention of it. Trust me – at first, I did too. Little girls telling you how great they are yet being unable to name more than three songs. Ugh. K-Pop in general: Ugh.
Don’t think like this. Sure, everybody has their own music taste, but I still don’t understand why K-Pop is such a hated one. Is it because you dislike the sub-culture that comes with it? But you don’t mind Justin Bieber or One Direction? You don’t like the fact that they are not from the west? Now maybe that’s just xenophobic. Truly, I understand people are sometimes not fond of certain music styles, but why don’t you give K-Pop a shot before labeling it as terrible and cringe. (Side note: I’m not saying that it never is, but please don’t forget this applies to pretty much any artist or genre.)
I believe you don’t have the right to dislike something before properly finding out what it is. So why don’t you read on to find out more about a group that might be good way of exploring the diverse music genre we know as K-Pop.
Blackpink is a girl group with only around 35 songs as a group (excluding different versions of the same song) if we add to this around 15 songs from the members as individual artists and around 5 songs featuring the girls, we get a total of 55 songs. This is a surprisingly small number for a group that headlined Coachella and is the artist with the most subscribers on YouTube. These girls really did a lot and while there are a lot more people behind the success of these four girls, they remain the most relevant.
Now wouldn’t be a bad time to interduce them: Jisoo, the oldest of the members is the visual of the group, holding a special position unique to K-Pop: being pretty. But that beautiful face of hers is not the only thing with which she enriches Blackpink, because she was also blessed with a beautiful voice. She is the oldest of the members, followed by Jennie. She too, like Jisoo is Korean, but partially grew up in New Zealand. She is the main rapper of the group, but also delivers great vocal performances when needed. The next member would then be Rosé. While ethnically Korean, Roseanne Chae-young Park grew up in Australia. There at a young age, she started showing interest in music. She is considered to be the golden voice of Blackpink. The youngest, and perhaps most popular Blackpink member is Lisa. Born in Thailand as Pranpriya Manobal, now Lalisa Manobal, she is the only non-Korean member of Blackpink. She is the group’s main dancer, and for good reason. She is also an excellent rapper, releasing hits like Money and Rockstar. Racking up over 100 million Instagram followers, she is the most followed of the girls.
All the members show great talent, which is appreciated by many. Headlining Coachella and BST Hyde Park in 2023, having multiple sold-out tours and receiving honorary Member of the Order of the British Empire medals from King Charles. They also have multiple billion views on their music videos. The girls as individual artists also achieved great things, like Lisa performing at the recent Victoria’s Secret Show, Rosé having a collaboration with Bruno Mars, Jisoo being the lead in a K-Drama and Jennie having too many brand deals to mention.
So now, knowing more about the girls, how about you take a listen? Popular songs include “Ddu-Du Ddu-Du”, “How You Like That”, “Shut Down”, “Pink Venom” and “Kill This Love”, but I personally think, some of their less popular releases, like “Hard to Love” and “Really” are way better (even though popular songs are popular for a reason) Some of their music videos have billions of views. Of course, this has led to their fanbase growing. It is estimated that there are currently around 50 million Blinks (the official name of their fandom) in the world.
And yes, a part of those 50 million people is cringe little girls. But that should be no reason that completely normal K-Pop fans get treated like they are weird and cringe. Just because a part of a community behaves in a certain way, it doesn’t give you the right to hate it in its entirety. Whether you like Blackpink’s music, I leave up to you. Everyone has the right to their own music taste, but before labeling a genre as cringe and terrible, check for yourself. We as K-Pop fans don’t judge people for not listening to it. You shouldn’t judge either.
Edited by: Leonie Goodchild
