Where do you think NewJeans goes from here musically? Are we ready for a total genre shift?
hi everyone
I’ve been doing a lot of thinking lately about the current landscape of K-pop. It sortof like the general public and kpop fans as a whole are starting to experience a bit of "easy listening fatigue" with the massive amount of 2-minute long tiktokified easy listening tracks that have taken over the 5th gen. House is becoming popular as a thing for groups to do but i’m not sure it’ll be the mark of the generation. sort of like a passing trend similar to how everyone and their mom was doing retro concepts in like 2020.
Since Newjeans kind of was very influential for the blueprint for the current 5th gen of music I sort of feel like their next move has to be a total pivot. If they opt for easy-listening again it has to be really done well or it’s gonna feel similar to what everyone else is releasing.
When you look at the styling shifts we're seeing in recent shoots it feels a lot more mature and slightly guarded. hyein and haerin are adults now and if they’re graduating from the bright, daytime schoolyard nostalgia of the debut era, I have 2 major theories/hopes for where they could take the sound next:
Late 90s / Early 2000s R&B and Soul
i’m thinking back to the covers they did from complexcon. I would absolutely love for them to come back with a fully structured, 3.5-minute R&B or soul track. No tiktokified 2 minute song (although this might be hard for hybe) and i think their tones would really suit it and it would be such a power move to reject the "short song" meta entirely.1980s City Pop / Vaporwave
We all saw how viral it went when Hanni did Blue Coral Reef and Hyein did Plastic Love at the Tokyo Dome. Citypop is like the ultimate genre for "melancholic nostalgia." Transitioning to a late-night, neon-lit sophisticated city aesthetic feels like a good thematic evolution for them. considering their concept is nostalgia, city pop is still nostalgic, but it’s a more grown-up, wistful kind of loneliness that would fit a more mature concept well i think.
obviously, neither of these genres are massive in the K-pop mainstream right now, (red velvet has really good r&b b-sides and the only one doing city pop is soloist yukika) but if anyone has the ability to make them trend, it’s newjeans.
What do you guys think? Do you want them to stick to the electronic/club roots (Jersey Club, UK Garage), or are you hoping for a completely new musical concept