Tomorrow I will be changing formats. This is the beginning of the end of The NewYears DayProject as I have started to focus my writing time in a different direction. I will still make playlists and write about songs from time to time. However, I feel like my blog has stagnated and gotten away from my main purpose: enjoying music and exploring how it connects to my life. I will keep posting on this platform until I decide on another. I’m getting a little fed up with how Blogger is stuck in 2014 and the HTML formatting has not been fun. Ultimately, I am starting this new adventure out of envy. I envy the talent of writing and I want to pursue it. Ultimately, I have come to a crossroads: either I continue to pursue research-based “Song a Day” posts which are very time-consuming or I focus on my creative writing. I may settle back on a research-based approach in a different format. But ultimately, I realized that I wasn’t writing very well. All of my posts are so quickly researched and written. I give myself two hours a day to write, but it doesn’t seem like enough to publish quality content. So starting tomorrow, I will go back to the basics: Playlists. I want to work harder on my playlists to capture an ideal year in life. And then, I’ll write about it publically or I’ll write about something else. I hope you have enjoyed my blog so far. It’s not over yet. It’s just realizing its purpose better.
Coming back with an album three-and-a-half years after her 2020 album Positions, Ariana Grande released Eternal Sunshinein March of this year. When she released the album’s first single, “Yes, And?,” the song debuted at number one on Billboard’s Hot 100 in January, becoming one of the first new pop songs of the year. Her next single, “We Can’t Be Friends” (Wait for Your Love) also debuted at number 1, and the album also topped Billboard’s 200 Album Charts. Grande had promised that she wouldn’t enter the studio until after she had finished filming her role as Glinda in Wicked. The film had wrapped production and the film premiered a teaser trailer during the Super Bowl in February with a November release date. Was Ariana Grande set to be the artist of the year?
THE BOY IS DIVINE. In hindsight, with solid releases from Billie Eilish, Sabrina Carpenter, and Charli xcx, Ariana Grande’s Eternal Sunshine risks being overlooked because of its early release date. Grande’s seventh studio record was a departure from the trap influence, steering the singer into dance pop and a classic pop sound. Synths, sparse guitars, and string sections highlight the singer’s voice and glossy production work from Max Martin and company make Eternal Sunshine an album a warm ray of light coming out the dead of winter. Speaking of Martin, with Grande’s lead single, “Yes, And?” Martin became the producer with the most Billboard’s Hot 100 number 1 singles, surpassing The Beatles’ producer George Martin. “Yes, And?” and “We Can’t Be Friends” (Wait for Your Love) both spent one week atop Billboard’s Hot 100, a feat increasingly difficult for even established hitmakers with large fan bases when, in recent years, overnight viral sensations tend to top the charts for longer periods. Grande’s third single, “The Boy Is Mine” peaked at number 16. Grande released the song as a single in June and the album so far hasn’t produced a fourth single.
I TAKE FULL ACCOUNTABILITY FOR ALL THESE TEARS. Taking the name of a 1998 hit by Brandy and Monica, “The Boy Is Mine” sounds like it could also be a ‘90s R&B hit. To celebrate the song’s musical inspiration, Grande invited the ‘90s singers on a remix of her 2024 hit. The song speaks of an unidentified rivalry between the speaker and another woman. The two women both want the same “boy,” but the speaker lays claim to him. Grande’s vocals make the boy seem like a piece of cake to be enjoyed slowly. Perhaps the song wasn’t as big of a hit because of the potential autobiographical nature of the lyrics. When Grande had begun filming Wicked, she began dating co-star Ethan Slater. She had separated from real estate tycoon Dalton Gomez and both Slater and Grande were still married. Slater filed for divorce in July 2023 and Grande’s divorce was finalized in March 2024. Many of Grande’s fans felt that her relationship with Slater was purely selfish as he cheated on his high-school sweetheart to be with the American pop star and given the singer’s list of questionable relationships in the past with Mac Miller and Pete Davidson. As the story unfolded, Grande fired manager Scooter Braun who Grande felt failed to prioritize her artistry. Perhaps the final straw was when Braun was on vacation when the news broke about Grande’s divorce. So, is it the year of Ariana Grande? We’ll have to wait and see when Wicked premieres on November 27th, book-ending the year. But the middle part has been a little silent with other stars outshining Grande.
East West was a Christian hard rock band that released two albums in the early 2000s. The most successful single from their debut album The Light in Guinevere’s Gardenwas the guitar ballad “She Cries,” in which the band didn’t scream the lyrics. East West’s two releases are between two very important releases in Hard Christian Rock: P.O.D.‘s Satellite and Underoath‘s They’re Only Chasing Safety. The band’s follow up, Hope in Anguish was produced much better than TLiGG. The grungy sounds of slow songs and the gut-punching screams of the heavy songs met the drums, effects petals, and truly depressing lyrics–dealing with addiction, child abuse, and the music business. Four of the songs–three of the non-screaming tracks–made their way to Christian Rock radio. East West was a band that showed that they could write a hit and have a heavy album.
I COULD NEVER REALLY FIND THE ANSWERS. Three years after the release of Hope in Anguish, East West dissolved. Lead singer, Mike Tubbs had become disillusioned with modern evangelical Christianity as witnessed both in and outside of the Christian music scene. By 2008, Tubbs converted to Eastern Orthodoxy, rejecting contemporary Christian practices in favor of tradition. In an interview with Ancient Faith Radio, Tubbs talked about how modern Christianity led him to the point nihilism. Hope in Anguish seems to be talking about that faith journey to some extent. In the song “Seven,” the speaker “could never really find the answers” which were “always locked in something so close.” Tubbs sings about “the ones who consume” whom he is “becoming just like them.” When I was growing up, I assumed this song was about drug or alcohol addiction; however, this consumption could be anything from fashion to faith. But the biggest question of the song is: who is you? The speaker can’t find the answer and “just assumed it was you,” but he also fears that this hellish state he is in “will find its way to you.” Is it salvation? Is it nihilism? Is it just utter frustration at failing to solve the mysteries of the universe? Either way, this song encapsulates an inability to see beyond one’s prison cell, a truly relatable topic–but not one that’s left so raw in Christian music.
AND I CAN READ THE STAINS INSIDE YOUR MIND. Joseph Campbell writes this truly horrifying line in his magnum opus, The Hero with a Thousand Faceswhen talking about the difference between comedy and tragedy: “The happy ending is justly scorned as misrepresentation; for the world, as we know it, as we have seen it, yields but one ending: death, disintegration, dismemberment, and the crucifixion of our heart with the passing of the forms that we have loved” (19). Every fiber of my Christian upbringing wants to shout that Campbell is wrong. And yet, he states: “the world, as we know it, as we have seen it.” We have not seen anyone transcend death with our own eyes. We may hold a faith that death is not the end, but on earth, everything ends. At sixteen years old, I felt I had the answer. I could listen to nihilistic music and say, with a childlike faith, “You just need to pray harder and get your mind on other things.” Still, listening to Hope in Anguish in my car on the rare occasion when a girl from school invited him to see a movie with a bunch of people, wasn’t great for my social anxiety. Somehow I believed that this blind faith in God would make him popular among the Christian kids. But as every good tragedy ends with the crucifixion of our hearts, the tragedy of kids who haven’t been socialized and reinforce weird religious piety with nihilistic emo songs is they don’t naturally make friends.
The Seoul Jazz Festival is an annual music event held in Seoul, South Korea, that celebrates jazz and other related genres, such as blues, soul, funk, and R&B. Since its inception in 2007, the festival has grown into one of the country’s premier music events, attracting both local and international artists. It usually takes place in late spring, typically in May, and is hosted at scenic venues like Olympic Park, which provides a relaxed outdoor setting for music lovers. The festival features a diverse lineup of musicians, ranging from jazz legends to contemporary artists across various genres, offering a fusion of styles that appeal to a broad audience. Besides jazz, the Seoul Jazz Festival often includes performances by indie, pop, and crossover artists, making it accessible to a wider range of music fans. This year, Lauv headlined the festival for 2 of the 3 nights.
THERE’S A UNIVERSE WHERE WE BOTH GET HURT.For hisfirst headlining set on Friday, May 31, Lauv performed his debut 2018 compilation album I met you when I was 18. Then on Sunday, June 2, Lauv headlined again but this time the bill said “Lauv w/ Special Guests.” Also performing earlier that day were Jeremy Zucker and Alexander 23. The three artists had been closely associated with each other, touring and collaborating occasionally. Born in 1994, Lauv is the eldest and the most veteran of the three in the music business, beginning his music career on MySpace. Zucker is the youngest, born in 1996, and debuted on a major label in 2015. The singer-songwriter has had modest success in his home country of the United States but has more charting singles in New Zealand and South Korea. Zucker supported Lauv on two tours, the 2018 I Met You When I Was 18 Tour andthe 2020 ~How I’m Feeling ~ Tour, though the tour was canceled after performing in Australia, New Zealand, and Indonesia. Alexander Glantz, known as Alexander 23, began his music career the latest of the three in 2019 but quickly began collecting production and songwriting credits in addition to recording his own songs. He co-produced Olivia Rodrigo’s “good 4 u” and has a Grammy nomination for Album of the Year for his work on Rodrigo’s SOUR.
FELT THE WORLD SLOWING DOWN. OnMay 22, Jeremy Zucker, Lauv, and Alexander 23 released the collaborative single “Cozy.” In the promotion for the laid-back single, the three male singers called themselves “The Girls,” printing T-shirts and tweeting that they were performing for the first time together in Seoul, South Korea. Naming their troop, whether officially or unofficially, The Girls, puts Lauv, Zucker, and Alexander 23 in a comparative category with the singer-songwriters in boygenius. Critics argued that there was no male singer-songwriter equivalent to the likes of Phoebe Bridgers, Lucy Dacus, and Julien Baker. While the two trios may not be comparable, there is an interesting comparison between the so-called “sad girls” and “sad boys” of indie pop. Calling themselves “the girls” a generation ago may have carried a streak of mean-spirited misogyny. The “sad boys” of pop music may not be making as much of a statement on gender and sexuality as boygenius—Lauv is the only out member of the group, identifying as bisexual—but The Girls’ “Cozy” is a nontoxic masculine love song to somebody. The song could be a homoerotic love song, possibly to each other. A decade ago, it would seem that way. The music video of Lauv, Zucker, and Alexander 23 enjoying an innocent sleepover—dancing, playing music, pillow fighting, dressing up—seems more like a stereotypical girls sleep over, hence the name. “Cozy” seems to be three men comfortable with themselves expressing their love for a significant other in an articulate way. It’s refreshing to see that a soft model of masculinity exists.
After “Lunch” and an afternoon in the park observing “Birds of a Feather,” it’s time to spend the rest of the afternoon settled into a small café. The entertainment is provided by a girl singing a song that sounds much older than her years. The song vaguely seems like a popular European jazz song from the 1940s. Perhaps it was a hit on a regional radio station. The young singer croons of a breakup. But then you black out and awaken in a discotheque. It’s the same day but several hours later. People are dancing. You notice on stage the singer looks familiar. She’s the same girl from earlier at the café. But her hair is different. She’s wearing a wig? But she doesn’t sound cool like before. She sounds empowered with her electronic voice and angry. You have just experienced one of the weirdest moments in pop music in 2024. Billie Eilish’s “L’AMOUR DE MA VIE.”
FELT SORRY FOR YOU WHEN I LOOKED INTO YOUR EYES. Many of the songs on Billie Eilish’s HIT ME HARD AND SOFTare rumored to be autobiographical, though, when speaking with Zane Lowe for an Apple Music interview about the album, Eilish complained that pop music is too often straightforward. She said of the songs on HIT ME HARD AND SOFT, “I didn’t want the songs to be like ‘Oh I know what that song’s about.’” She goes on to say, “We live in a world [where] somebody puts a song out and everyone’s like, ‘So this is who this is about and this is the entire story of what happened.’ It doesn’t even give the listener a chance to interpret it how they want to interpret it and how they naturally hear it.” Of course, Eilish’s fans quickly started piecing together the details of her personal life that the songs on her latest album seemed to reference, and there seems to be a love triangle at the center of the album. In “L’AMOUR DE MA VIE,” Eilish writes a send-off song to wish her ex “the best.” The song is dripping with sarcasm which attempts to deflect the pain the speaker feels. In an ultimate blow to the subject’s ego, Eilish confesses, “I lied when I told you . . . were the love of my life.” Eilish gives her bitterest words to frame the speaker of the song as the winner of the breakup.
YOU WERE SO MEDIOCRE. “L’AMOUR DE MA VIE” is rumored either to be about Eilish’s ex Jesse Rutherford, the lead singer of the band The Neighbourhood, or about Eilish’s relationship with fashion influencer Devon Lee Carlson. Rutherford and Eilish were rumored to have dated for seven months between 2022 and 2023. There were rumors of cheating, which both Eilish and Rutherford denied and both claimed to have parted on good terms. The Neighbourhood’s lead singer is ten years older than Eilish and was criticized for releasing a song a year ago in the song “POV,” which talks about someone, allegedly Eilish, listening to his band since she was 13 and that the singer has “daddy issues.” The rumor goes that while dating Rutherford, Eilish realized her bisexuality and became involved with a girl, thought to be Davon Lee Carson. A Daily Mailarticle claims that “insiders” around Jesse Rutherford viewed Eilish’s song “L’AMOUR DE MA VIE” as a “slap in the face” at the end of their relationship and that Eilish. To complicate matters, Rutherford had dated Carson for six years before he dated Eilish, and Eilish and Carson had become friends. Eilish’s relationship with Carson is not as well documented as her relationship with men with the two not appearing as a couple at public events. Of course, the two are entitled to their privacy. But as Eilish is a newly-out bisexual star, lyrics on HIT ME HARD AND SOFT have caused some fans to speculate who are the girls that the singer has been associated with. Visibility is important, but let’s also remember that songs can mean something else to the listener.
In high school, Kim Sung-kyu, the future leader of the boy band Infinite, had to hide his vocal practice from his parents. In high school, he sang with some of his friends in a rock band. When he graduated he left his hometown of Jeonju in hopes of having a career in music in Seoul. After failing an audition for SM Entertainment, he tried out for the label Woolim Entertainment. He hoped to be a rock singer like his future label mate, Nell. On the day of his audition, though, he was suffering from appendicitis. Determined to make it as a singer, he sang through the pain and went to the hospital after the audition finished. Rather than cultivating Kim’s rock talents, the record label placed him as the leader of their first boy band, Infinite. Throughout the group’s tenure, they would flirt with rock music; however, it wasn’t until Sung-Kyu’s debut EP, Another Me, that he would be able to make the kind of music he envisioned.
WHENEVER THIS TIME OF YEAR COMES, I ALWAYS THINK OF THE WORDS YOU USED TO SAY TO ME. Released at the end of 2012, Another Me is a K-pop album for listeners who don’t really care for the genre and was an excellent introduction to Korean music. From the vocal intro/title track that is reminiscent of early ’90s harmonies to the near-epic closing track “41 Days,” which displays Sung-kyu’s passionate vocals, this short album is a refreshing look at a soft-rock album when most Korean musicians, particularly ones with any association with K-pop, had long rejected the genre. Born in 1989, Sung-kyu’s prominence in the music scene corresponded with a rejection of guitars, bass, and drums, in favor of synths and trap beats. And while the songs onAnother Meare much calmer than some of the rock bands who charted on the pop charts in the ‘90s and ‘00s, the EP has an authenticity that the “other” Sung-kyu can sing to the music he believes in. His confidence will make it popular, rather than chasing trends.Another Me was not a very popular release. Apple Music didn’t have it for a long time, and Sung-kyu’s later releases seem to have received more recognition. But fans of the album seem to really love it. The guitar-driven “Shine,” Like “Time Lapse,” was written by Nell’s vocalist Kim Jong-wan. Sung-kyu stated that he auditioned for Woolim Entertainment because of Nell, so the lead singer’s input on the album brings Sung-kyu’s career full circle. Speaking about the seasons of change, a break-up, a longing for the past lover and a longing for the past makes this late ’90s-sounding guitar ballad feel relevant even ten years later.
YOUR VOICE, YOUR EYES, YOUR TOUCH THAT LINGERED ON ME.The ’90s tones of “Shine” make it a nostalgic song, reminding me of the music I would listen to in the afternoon after school, albeit the music was in English. It’s the kind of music you would expect to see in a television drama on the WB, like Dawson’s Creek. Just when the emotional teen drama hits, a ‘90s song blares, disproportionally louder to the show’s dialogue. Maybe for modern audiences, this takes viewers out of the storyline, but for us millennials, the music solidifies the emotion. “Shine” is the Korean pop equivalent of that emotional song may have been 12 years too late and may not have appeared in an emotional K-drama about teenagers skipping out on 학원 (private after-school academies) to make out in the park, but the reflective nature of the song reminds us about the simpler times. It’s a song about love and loss. It’s a song about the time of the year when we get sentimental.
A few years ago, YouTuber Nick Canovas, or Mic the Snare, made a video about the characteristics of meme songs and why some songs go viral. Not all meme songs are created equal. Some annoyingly catchy songs get stuck in enough heads to become a hit. These are so bad that they’re almost good. Then there are old songs that become renewed for the TikTok generation. These songs had a solid presence before taking off on social media. Some of these songs are laughable in a modern context—the swanky sax solo from “Careless Whisper,” Rick Astley’s shoulder dance when he sings “Never Gonna Give You Up.” But some meme songs are what music critics still call legitimately good. A-ha’s “Take On Me,” Simon & Garfunkel’s “The Sound of Silence,” and today’s song can be legitimately enjoyed with an extra dose of irony once it has soundtracked a meme.
YOU DIDN’T HAVE TO CUT ME OFF. In the spring and summer of 2012, I did a lot of driving. I had to get my paperwork together to go to Korea, and I couldn’t hack American bureaucracy by using the mail or courier services. Two trips to Johnson City, Tennessee to get stamps from the state in which I graduated college, two trips to Atlanta, and countless trips to around Western North Carolina to get the paperwork together, I listened to a lot of radio. I listened to the radio mostly because I had an old radio-turner device to play my iPod on the stereo. My 2001 Toyota Corolla came with a CD player, that had died some time before. If I drove a long distance, the radio stations would change, and I would have to find a new frequency to broadcast my iPod. However, this got old, so I just listened to the radio. At that time, I remember a few songs that would play constantly–Carly Rae Jepsen‘s “Call Me Maybe,” “Lights,” by Ellie Goulding, and “Somebody That I Used to Know.” This song will always remind me of those trips in the early summer before my life changed forever.
An old television set with fake wood encasing, popular in the ‘80s source: Flickr, photographer Seth Keen.
YOU CAN GET ADDICTED TO A CERTAIN KIND OF SADNESS. The YouTube channel Middle 8 releaseda videoabout “Somebody That I Used to Know” and a musical breakdown of why it became such an earworm. The Gotye original is built on a 1957 Luis Bonfiá jazz instrumental, “Seville.” Gotye topped both the Alternate chart and the Hot 100, a rare occurrence as the Alternative chart boasts very few pop songs. But while it may have been the elements of “Seville” that got listeners addicted to this art pop song, remixes and covers that take the song in a completely different musical direction may give us the same enduring effect despite only the lyrics staying mostly intact. For example, YouTuber Hildegard von Blingin’s “bardcore” version of the song. Bardcore is a style of music imitating Medieval/Renaissance music, using older instruments and often adapting lyrics to sound more Chaucerian. With the line: “send a wagon for thy minstrel and refuse my letters” the spirit of the song is transformed into an earlier time. It’s witty, but there’s enough homage to the original spirit of a break-up song. Today’s song also loses many elements that made the original great. Instead of the Latin guitar and the xylophone which help to carry the original song listeners are treated to electronic drums, synths, and a raucous guitar solo–all absent from the original tune. Essentially, the Tronicbox remix is a meme of the original song. This song might have you looking through the garage for some old VHS tapes beside the lacquered wooden vacuum-tubed TV set. But before you book that perm and change to bigger rims on your glasses, just consider how ridiculous you’ll look. This song brings to mind everything awful about the ’80s, and that’s why it’s so fun.
I remember writing about Dua Lipa’s collaboration with Elton John“Cold, Cold Heart“ several years ago At the time, I was barely familiar with the singer and found her to be unoriginal. The songs “New Rules” and “Levitating” were inescapable but I never listened to them voluntarily. They just happened to litter the gym stereo and the streets outside the phone stores in the shopping areas. As I’ve become more fluent in pop music over the last ten years, I still argue that the late ‘10s were the nadir of the genre, maybe the music industry in general. I realize that I’m often wrong about new artists and that a bad first impression can be undone with maturity. And sometimes, I was wrong about those early hits and they weren’t as cringey as I thought. I’ve been laying the criticism pretty thick. To be fair, these days when pop music isn’t light and airy, it can get rather dark.
I COME AND I GO. Dua Lipa released her third studio album this year, Radical Optimism. The album’s title contrasts the negativity in pop music and culture in general. A singer who has at times described her sound as “dark pop” for her sultry tones, Duo Lipa’s third record is anything but dark. Building on the ‘80s dance hall template of her previous album Future Nostalgia, Lipa continues to create infectious music. For her third album, Dua Lipa tells Zane Lowe on his Apple Music interview series that she started with the title and began writing songs in a notebook she bought at a CVS drugstore. In total Lipa wrote 97 songs. Eleven of them made the album. In many of her interviews, Dua Lipa talks about writing down her goals to manifest her future success. In the interview cycle for Radical Optimism, the singer talks about two goals that she wrote down at the beginning of her career when thinking about her third album. One was headlining Glastonbury, specifically the Friday night set on the main stage. The other dream was collaborating with the Alternative band Tame Impala. Both of these dreams came true with the Australian band’s lead singer Kevin Parker producing many tracks on Radical Optimism.
CATCH ME OR I GO HOUDINI. Dua Lipa released “Houdini” as the lead single of Radical Optimism. The track was produced by Tame Impala’s Kevin Parkerwho also wrote the intro to the song. The funky electronic grind of the intro and many of the ‘70s sounds on Radical Optimism sound connected to some of the work of Parker’s band. The Hungarian-American illusionist’s namesake was also the name of Emimen’s lead single from his album this summer, though the songs are in no way related. Still, this didn’t stop the citizens of the Internet and even the band Foster the People from mashing up the two songs. The Dua Lipa song is perhaps the simpler of the songs. It’s a club anthem about being free and uses the reputation of the escape artist Harry Houdini as the speaker who has no time for a lackadaisical lover. She hopes “maybe you could be the one who makes a girl change her ways.” And while the song has elements of a dark club, the lyrics are centered on hope. The next move is up to the song’s subject.
Earlier this year, I talked about an episode of Girls5evain which the fictional girl group flew to Orlando to play for a morally compromising concert for a billionaire’s birthday party. This happens in the real world frequently and it’s not without backlash. Whether it’s a sensitive political affiliation like Elton John playing for one of Rush Limbaugh’s weddings to performing from authoritarian leaders like Mariah Carey, Beyoncé, Usher, and Nelly Furtado performing for the Gaddafi family in 2011 to corrupt presidents or Russian oligarchs, less wealthy fans have certainly taken issue with some of these controversial patrons.
THE PASSION’S SO COMPLETE, IT’S NEVER ENDING. There is a growing list of recording artists threatening to sue or in the process of suing Donald Trump’s campaign for unauthorized use of their song at his rallies, from Céline Dion to The White Stripes. In contrast the Democratic Party’s playlist is extensive with many pop, rock, and hip-hop stars even actively campaigning for Democratic candidates. Sometimes musical artists’ political involvement can hinder their career as audiences don’t always want a political sermon and they may not agree with the message the artist is preaching. The two musical acts that Trump was able to secure for his inauguration in 2017, 3 Doors Down and The Piano Guys, faced backlash for their support of Trump. Providing music at fundraisers, rallies, and even inaugurations can be viewed as political acts; however, what about artists who perform for wealthy politicians at private events? As an American billionaire, Donald Trump owns several venues including Mar-a-Lago, a private club in Palm Springs, Florida, which is his primary residence since leaving the White House in 2021. Some of the events at the $200,000 minimum membership buy-in club require entertainment. Before Trump’s political career, A-list celebrities could be seen at various events at the Florida resort. After he announced his presidential candidacy, more and more celebrities began to decline invitations.
BODY TO BODY, SOUL TO SOUL. On December 31, 2021, Mar-a-Lago held a New Year’s Eve Party. Donald and Melania Trump were not in attendance, but Trump’s sons Eric and Donald, Jr., his daughter Tiffany, and his lawyer Rudy Guillani attended the event. Performing that evening were members of The Beach Boys, Vanilla Ice, and Taylor Dayne. Backlash to this “maskless” party was perhaps strongest among Taylor Dayne’s fans. Dayne has been an outspoken advocate for LGBTQ+ rights, playing at many pride events since her debut in 1987. Her iconic “Tell It to My Heart” is a pride anthem with Dayne’s powerful vocals and the dance hall rhythm empowering listeners. Dayne responded to the backlash by saying: “I try to stay non-political and non-judgmental and not preach.” Some fans weren’t convinced. George Orwell said in his 1946 essay “Politics and the English Language”: “In our age there is no such thing as ‘keeping out of politics’. All issues are political issues, and politics itself is a mass of lies, evasions, folly, hatred, and schizophrenia.” If that was true in 1946, it seems that every action today is also a political act, especially when it pays well.
It’s time to check in with NewJeans. On August 27th, Min Hee-Jin was dismissed as the CEO of NewJeans’ label ADOR, a sub-label of Hybe Corporation. The corporate intrigue has left one of Hybe’s most internationally and financially successful acts in limbo. NewJeans is like the victim of a divorce in which the custody lies legally with their father label. NewJeans, however, expressed their loyalty to Min Hee-Jin, who formed the group and managed every step in their process toward global ubiquity. But NewJeans aren’t completely helpless. As one of the biggest K-pop acts, the group has an active fanbase. On September 11, NewJeans hosted a livestream on YouTube and demanded that Min be reinstated as CEO of ADOR by September 25th. This statement by the group was believed to be responsible for Hybe’s 3% dip in value of the company’s shares.
WE ARE BOUND TO EACH OTHER. With the turmoil at ADOR, NewJeans’ releases this year have lagged compared to the last two years. The group has released two singles, each with a B-side. The second pair of songs, “Supernatural” and “Right Now” were released on June 21 and served as the group’s debut in the Japanese music industry. The group hosted a two-day fan meeting in Tokyo on June 26-27. NewJeans also announced that they plan to release a full album by the end of the year. However, it seems that the drama surrounding the group’s former manager has overshadowed the group’s latest efforts. To make matters worse, group member Hanni talked about the environment at their label after their manager was ousted. In the live stream, the 19-year-old singer said that the group’s new manager told another member of another Hybe K-pop girl group to ignore Hanni when she greeted that member. In many ways, NewJeans is a headache for Hybe. A less popular group would be easy to pull promotion and drop. NewJeans, however, has a strong fan base despite Hybe’s attempts to replace NewJeans with ILLIT and Le Sserafim.
IN A MOMENT, WE REUNITE. What’s the future of NewJeans? It’s hard not to think of them as princesses locked in a tower by an exploitative though mostly absent father who favors his other children. Ultimately, K-pop groups are bound by contracts. Each member signs a contract, usually for seven years and often can renew their contracts. It’s rare, though, even after seven years for the group to be able to take their act to another label because the group was established by another label. NewJeans members are nowhere near the end of their contracts. Still, it’s still uncertain whether or not Min Hee-Jin has some ownership of the group’s intellectual property and could sway the future of NewJeans. Still, some K-pop fans blame Min for inciting a coup in Hybe and using NewJeans as leverage. It’s worrisome to think about what the group may sound like without Min’s musical supervision which has made the group one of the most critically-acclaimed new K-pop acts in the last few years. Even more worrisome is NewJeans being shelved due to their label’s pettiness. Maybe the key to NewJeans’ future is their fans. K-pop fans love their groups and ultimately investors will listen to what the music listeners want.
Mixtapemotions 