NewJeans: the Hype, the Attention and the Cookie
Image Credit: The Chosun Ilbo
If you were to ask anyone working in the K-pop industry the question of who the most anticipated act of the next few years would be, they’d most likely respond without hesitation. No, not BTS. Not Blackpink, either. Their answer? NewJeans.
For some context, NewJeans is a five-member girl group launched by ADOR, a newly-formed label under HYBE Corporation (formerly known as Big Hit Entertainment), which houses some of the biggest acts in the industry such as BTS, TXT, Seventeen, and Zico. The mastermind behind NewJeans is HYBE’s Chief Brand Officer (CBO) and CEO of ADOR, Min Hee-Jin. Best known as SM Entertainment’s former Creative Director, Min has consolidated herself as one of the most influential figures in K-pop over the past two decades. During her tenure at SM, she conceived the artistic direction—everything from the concept and fashion choices to the album cover and logo—of almost every album released under the label from 2007 to 2019. It was she who came up with some of the most iconic looks in K-pop history: the white shirt and jeans for Girls’ Generation’s “Gee” and the naval uniforms for their following single “Genie,” as well as the school uniforms for EXO’s “Growl.” But it was her knack for being experimental that set her apart from the average creative director. Prioritizing artistic flair over commercial appeal, she attempted concepts and designs that had been unprecedented in the cookie-cutter K-pop industry, especially with the girl groups f(x) and Red Velvet. Min’s style is often described as a mix of “hipster,” “metaphorical,” and “kitsch,” and avid SM followers are able to recognize her distinctive artistic touch just from one look at the album design. “Min Hee-Jin-esque” has become its own descriptor.
So it should come of no surprise that when Min Hee-Jin’s brand new girl group was announced in March of 2022, K-pop fans around the world were abuzz with excitement. The very first group that an established industry legend would be directly managing and producing? This was going to be groundbreaking.
And groundbreaking it was. After their official debut on August 1st, 2022, NewJeans recorded the most first-week sales of a debut album by a female K-pop act with a whopping number of 310,000 copies. The lead single from that album, “Attention,” became the first debut single by an idol group to top the Melon weekly charts in six years (The last one to do so was Blackpink’s “Whistle”). Lastly, as of writing this article on August 28th, a month after its release, “Attention” continues to sit atop more recent releases by major girl groups with much larger followings such as Blackpink, IVE, and Girls’ Generation on the Melon daily chart. Two other singles from their debut album New Jeans, “Hype boy” and “Cookie,” also sit snugly in the top 10.
To many of you, these impressive numbers may not be as shocking as the fact that all five of the NewJeans members are underage in South Korea, where one is considered legal beginning in the year they turn 19. The oldest member and leader of the group, Minji, was born on May 7th, 2004; she’s barely 18. Meanwhile, the youngest member, Hyein, was born on April 21st, 2008. A 14 year-old. Halfway through middle school. Is a 14 year-old truly ready for the global spotlight and the harsh standards of the K-pop industry? Min Hee-Jin would probably say “yes.” But the events that followed their debut present a different answer.
First came none other than a “Cookie”:
“Cookies I made. It’s so soft (what?) I keep thinking of you (ayy)”; “If you want it, you can get it”; “(Keep) looking at my cookie. The scent is different (taste it), one bite is not enough (uh)”; “Take it, don’t break it, I wanna see you taste it.”
If all you thought of while reading these lyrics was a sweet sugary snack, then perhaps you should leave. I’d hate to taint your innocence. But most people, including myself, have noticed that these can be interpreted as sexual innuendos. “Cookie,” to put it bluntly, is slang for female genitalia, and this definitely seems to be the case in the specific context of these lyrics, in which the NewJeans members are supposedly alluring a boy with a “cookie.” I highly doubt it’s chocolate chip.
These lyrics would be explicit, yes, but acceptable if the members were fully-grown women. Blackpink’s single with Selena Gomez, “Ice Cream,” was in the same vein. But this is a group where the average age is 16. To call it creepy would be an understatement. Of course, the song faced backlash, especially from international fans, who accused Min Hee-Jin and ADOR for promoting pedophilia. The record label responded with a statement blaming the fans for “misinterpreting” the lyrics, and that was that.
Then came the fansign. An image of an overweight, adult man sitting across from Minji, who had a rather rigid expression on her face, began circulating online. International and Korean netizens coalesced in their criticism of this anonymous man, calling him out for being a pedophile and possibly “scarring” the girls, especially since most of the fans at that event were women. There definitely was lookism and misandry imbued in some of those comments, and I initially saw it as an overreaction, but one thing began to bother me: these fansigns require fans to spend thousands of dollars by buying hundreds of albums, just to guarantee a good chance of getting in. It’s basically a lottery. Trying to win a lottery to meet some teenage girls? Who only have four songs in their entire discography? It was hard to believe that this adult man was there simply because he enjoyed their music.
But this man is merely a symptom of an overarching problem: underage idols in K-pop. This is nothing new (Wonder Girls’ Sohee was 14 when she debuted in 2007), but in the past few years there has been a noticeable trend of idols debuting at increasingly younger ages on average. I’ve listed some prominent girl groups below and the average age of their members at the time of their debut:
2NE1 - 20.5 (2009)
EXID - 19.2 (2012)
TWICE - 17.7 (2015)
IZ*ONE - 16.5 (2018)
But why are we seeing this pattern? Perhaps it’s because fans welcome underage idols with open arms. Thanks to their popularity and public appeal, some of these teens have become the biggest moneymakers in the industry. Thus, from the perspective of an entertainment company, debuting their trainees at younger ages doesn’t sound like a bad idea at all; their youth allows for longer careers and oftentimes more attention directed towards them.
NewJeans and the controversies surrounding them have allowed for more people to question the normalcy of having young teens in the tumultuous and cutthroat K-pop industry. Instead of directing our rage toward cookies and fansigns, which wouldn’t have been problematic if the members were older, perhaps it’s time to reflect upon whether the companies, who train these idols to debut at such a young age, or the consumers, who create the demand for underage idols in the first place, are to blame.