The Exhilaratingly Fast Rise of NewJeans
In the short but exhilarating story of NewJeans, there’s one date that stands out above all the rest: July 22, 2022, the day they went from being unknown teens to one of the buzziest groups in the world. “I knew that it would be a date of excitement for the rest of my life,” says Minji, one of NewJeans’ five members. “I was so happy, and nervous, too.” Her fellow member Haerin remembers waiting for the video for their debut single, “Attention,” to drop: “All we could think about was the debut. I remember counting down the actual seconds!”
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Since seemingly appearing out of nowhere that summer, Minji, Hanni, Danielle, Haerin, and Hyein — who are all between ages 15 and 19 — have taken K-pop by storm. Their four-song debut EP made them one of last year’s fastest–rising emerging artists, with more than 83 million global on-demand streams, according to data from Luminate. In less than a year, they’ve scored branding deals with McDonald’s, Levi’s, and Coca-Cola — and that doesn’t even cover the fashion ambassadorships with Gucci, Chanel, Louis Vuitton, and more. “We say this a lot, but it really is hard to believe,” Danielle says in English with a big smile.
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In late February, the members have gathered at a studio in Seongsu-dong, a hip Seoul neighborhood that’s transformed over the years from an industrial area of small factories and auto-body shops to a trendy spot full of cafes, galleries, and fashion pop-ups. There are several huge NewJeans billboards scattered throughout the neighborhood. Just a block away from one of them, NewJeans are there in person, laughing and chatting.
Though they’re disarmingly down-to-earth, NewJeans are part of one of the biggest companies in Seoul’s entertainment industry. Their label, ADOR (an acronym for All Doors One Room), is a subsidiary of the global powerhouse HYBE Corp.; ADOR is led by president Min Hee-Jin, a veteran of the K-pop industry who previously worked with major acts like Girls’ Generation. They’ve worked together to build a strong visual concept for NewJeans that embraces Y2K-era nostalgia, from their music videos and fashion choices down to the fonts used in their marketing materials.
The day we meet in person happens to be the day it’s revealed that their single “Ditto” has broken the record for the daily charts on Melon (think the Spotify of Korea), having been at Number One for 10 consecutive weeks. “Things like that are also just as unbelievable to us: ‘What’s going on? What just happened?’ ” Danielle says. (She and Hanni are both Australian; Minji, who lived in Canada briefly, is also fluent in English.)
The surprise release of the “Attention” video last summer, with almost no advance information about the group, was unconventional: Typically, K-pop labels tease their new acts by revealing members one by one before releasing any music, as a way of generating excitement. But NewJeans’ strategy worked. The next day, July 23, they released their even more addictive single “Hype Boy,” along with four different music videos that told connecting stories, and the world finally learned NewJeans’ names.
“Before debuting, our president would invite us each into her home for a meal, and there was one time she invited us over as a group,” Hyein, the youngest member, recalls. “She asked us, ‘How would you want to roll out teasers for your debut?’ I think she was curious about what we would say. I just said, ‘I think it would be fun to just have no teaser at all,’ and she said ‘Oh? That’s actually what we’re planning on doing!’ ”
The New Jeans EP exceeded 444,000 pre–orders within four days, setting a new record for a debut EP by a Korean girl group at the time. This year, they broke their own record by almost double that with their OMG EP, which spawned TikTok trends that ranged from simple dance-challenge videos to re-creations of the camcorder aesthetic used in the “Ditto” videos to silly memes built around the chorus to “OMG.”
When I meet them, we’re still a few months away from the summer 2023 release of the group’s next mini album, and the members are just as excited about the new music as their fans are. “Everything about our new songs is … fresh,” Hanni says. “Compared to our previous releases, this new mini album definitely has a lot more variety to offer, in not just genre of music and dance style, but what we are striving to express and show to you.” She adds: “I think we are stepping into an area of music that hasn’t been experimented with or tried very often before.”
Amid preparations for the new release, Minji, Hanni, Danielle, Haerin, and Hyein are busier than ever, but they have a cute way of trying to savor each moment. “There were times when we’d bring our Polaroid camera, just because, in the recording booth,” Danielle remembers, laughing. “At the end of our recording session I would take a selfie with the mic just to remember that particular recording session.” (Haerin, who joined in on the fun, recalls, “I also took Polaroid pictures after the recording, but it was difficult to find the right angle. I remember taking more than five pictures.”)
Although NewJeans have only been together officially for about a year, they spent considerably longer than that preparing and practicing together before their debut — and their chemistry is comparable to industry veterans who’ve been together for years. They describe their group dynamic as a sandwich, and while the analogy is partly a joke (and a nod to their routine of squeezing their hands together before each performance), they’re impressively committed to the details.
Teasing one another, they explain that Hanni is the bread; Danielle, who is always smiling and speaks with such enthusiasm, is a mix of crunchy and fresh root vegetables and lettuce; Minji is the egg; Haerin is a soft avocado; and Hyein, who loves to crack jokes and is adored as the youngest one by her members, is the ham and cheese.
While these ingredients might not add up to a traditional sandwich, that’s OK with NewJeans. “We need to have them,” Minji says. “The sandwich would be lacking without these.”
It’s striking the degree to which Minji, Hanni, Danielle, Haerin, and Hyein are in sync with one another. You can see it if you watch any of their performances, and in person, it seems like they can communicate anything they want to say with a glance. “If we’re nervous, we say that through eye contact,” Minji says. Onstage interactions between the members happen to also be a key element of NewJeans’ signature performance style, something that first happened naturally, but then became encouraged by the group’s performance director.
With each release outdoing the last, the members have gotten into a rhythm and have a routine for going into recording sessions. “It’s important for us to be really familiar with the song,” Hanni says. “It’s more comfortable that way. We try to listen to the music a lot together, talk to each other a lot.” Danielle adds with a smile, “We also help each other with things like pronunciation, since there are members who are more comfortable in certain languages.”
At a time when it can seem like everyone is listening to NewJeans, what does NewJeans listen to? “I also listen to NewJeans,” Minji says with a laugh. They’re particularly entertained by remixes of their own work: “Earlier in the greenroom, we listened to an R&B remix of ‘OMG,’ ” Hanni says. “A few days ago, we listened to a city-pop remix of ‘Hype Boy.’ It’s so fun to see those.”
They’re even more into the music on their upcoming release. “Although I’ve loved every song we’ve released to date, the music on our new mini album is exactly the type of music I enjoy,” Hanni gushes. “Being able to call these songs ours makes me feel both incredibly happy and grateful.”
The future holds so much for Minji, Hanni, Danielle, Haerin, and Hyein, and the girls themselves are hoping to exceed expectations with each new release. They get together in their practice room and rewatch past performances for growth and improvement. “It’s easier to see things in retrospect,” Haerin says. (Minji jokingly emphasizes that they don’t do this at home, as “home is for rest!”)
Looking into the rest of the year with much anticipation, the girls share keywords like “unknown,” “emergence,” and “no man’s land” to describe their journey so far. While there’s a lot that NewJeans has already accomplished, there’s still so much that they haven’t done yet, too. “We’ve come a long way in a short amount of time, but we talk amongst ourselves too, like ‘We haven’t done x, y, or z, yet!’ ” Minji says. “There are surprisingly a lot.”
There are bigger things to look forward to, she continues, like an official NewJeans concert: Although the group is on the Lollapalooza lineup this year and has performed at various other events, they have yet to give a full headlining show themselves. But there are also “small things, like going to an amusement park” — the type of things anyone their age might think about.
“I’m really looking forward to things like that, and just the entire future ahead of us as a group,” Minji adds. “I think it’ll be so fun. Everything feels new, which makes it exciting day by day.”
Production Credits
Produced by Jason Lee for Flix Oven. Hair by Ji Hee Park. Makeup by Gil Joo Oh. Styling by Yumi Choi. Set Design: Jongkeun Seo Photography Assistance: Jun Eon Park, Kiyoung Lee. Lighting Assistance by Sangbin Park, Sungchul Kim, Michael Gorey. Line Producer: Daniel Walker. Production Manager: Kim MyoungJun. Production assistance by Kim Min Hwan, Bang Seowon, Lee Min Hyuk.
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