NewJeans is a K-pop girl group that debuted on July 22, 2022, under HYBE Corporation, which is the same company that produced BTS. The group consists of 5 members, Minji, Hanni, Danielle, Haerin, and Hyein. Right now, they are one of the top girl groups internationally and are still rising in popularity due to their hit songs you have probably seen on social media like “Super Shy” or “OMG.”
Meet the Members
Starting in age order, Korean member Kim Minji is the oldest and the leader at age 19. Her color and animal representation are yellow and a bear and she is an ambassador for Chanel.
Next is Vietnamese-Australian member Hanni Pham at age 18. Her color and animal representation is pink and a rabbit even though the group is represented by bunnies. She is also an ambassador for Gucci and Armani Beauty. She was the first to be announced to be an ambassador for a designer brand starting their chain of ambassadorship with designers.
Burberry and Yves Saint Laurent Beauty.
Next is Korean member Kang Haerin, the second youngest at age 17. She is represented as a hamster even with her cat-like features, her color is white and she is an ambassador for Dior.
Lastly, the youngest member, Lee Hyein at age 15. She was born in South Korea and her representative animal and color is a baby chick and light blue. She is also the youngest ambassador for Louis Vuitton.
Pre Debut
ADOR (HYBE Label branch) announced a new girl group teaser on Twitter on June 30, 2022, with the video name being 22.07.22. In the short clip, it showed 5 bunnies, all different colors, each one representing a member of the group. Although they never revealed the members in their teaser, members Minji and Hanni appeared in BTS’s Permission to Dance Music video released in 2021 where the two members were dressed as high school students.
Debut/NewJeans Era
NewJeans released their first music video on July 21, 2022, named “Attention” about a girl trying to attract attention from the guy she likes. The music video was filmed in Spain and reached a lot of international attention due to its refreshing and stylish concept and ended up reaching over 100 million streams.
After Attention was released, they followed up with an intro on July 22, 2022, with a song named Hype Boy. After the intro, they released 4 different music videos with all of them having different aspects of life like Minji’s love, Danielle and Haerin’s friendship, Hyein’s disappointment, and Hanni’s admiration. Although they all have different aspects the song’s meaning is about being attracted to someone and wanting to start a relationship with them even if people won’t approve. It shows the passion and energy of one’s desire to be with the right person. Even though the song was not the first released, it reached over 400 million streams on Spotify
“Cookie” and “Hurt” were the last two songs to be released on that EP and also had music videos released. Even though they weren’t those songs weren’t the main track, they received lots of love due to Cookie’s catchy lyrics and Hurt’s calming and emotional sound overall completing the album’s balance.
2nd Comeback/ OMG Album
After the Hype Boy era ended a new completely different concept and style of music was coming in.
On December 9, 2022 they released a new teaser with the title “6” where the video shows the five members running around in school uniforms, then from 0:09 to 0:14 you see six legs in the frame running or chasing each other while revealing the first song of the EP, “Ditto”
“Ditto” was released 10 days after the teaser on December 19, 2022, and had two different versions, an A and a B video. In the videos, we see a girl at follows NewJeans around with a camera like a friend. We end up finding out that her name is Ban Heesoo who is played by Park Jihu.
At the end of the A music video, you see NewJeans and Ban Heeson on a couch sleeping and then we fade to a new scene where NewJeans isn’t there like they just didn’t exist. Then we see her recording but there is nothing there where it looks like she is hallucinating that they were there, and that brings us to the next song in the EP
“OMG” was the last song to come out where at the beginning of the video you see the girls in a mental hospital and throughout the music video you see all the girl’s delusions and what they believe they are.
First, we start off with Hanni’s delusion where she believes she is an iPhone. She is dressed as Steve Jobs and she is in a maze of apps just like how you can get lost in technology
Next, we see Minji telling the girls that she is not a patient she’s a doctor who helps cure them and brings them into the mental hospital. You see her follow the other girls around in their delusions and put them in a hospital car, then you see her find herself and also put herself with the others showing that she’s also not perfect and that she also has her own problems that she tries to help.
Then we have Hyein’s delusion featuring Danielle where Hyein believes she is a princess in a Cinderella story in the beginning then ending with a Snow White ending. In her Snow White fantasy, a bear appears which represents the fans which is NewJeans struggle to keep their fans happy all the time to the point of losing themselves leaving Hyein to end up like a ghost being invisible.
Lastly, we have Haerin who thinks she is a cat to where she is literally eating cat food and the cat that she represents is the same cat from the “Ditto” music video.
OMG(the album) was complete and it was a big hit all over the world where “Ditto” hit 464 Million and “OMG” hit 513 Million which ended up being their number one song. “OMG was being played on all social media platforms and ended up reaching No. 3 on Billboard Hot 100 and was on the list for 5 weeks straight, you either knew the song or you heard it on the radio or social media. Everyone had the lyrics stuck in their head at some point. Their catchy lyrics ended up sticking to their next EP.
3rd Comeback/ Get Up
It had been almost 6 months since OMG was announced and now we were getting a new EP Named Get Up. They released two songs named “NewJeans” and “Super Shy,” and even though the full ep had not been released yet, the pre-released songs were blowing up on social media because of “Super Shy’s” trendy and refreshing dance, and “NewJeans’” catchy lyrics and unique music video. After the two songs were released they started teasing another song on TikTok named “ASAP”
13 days after New songs started to be released on YouTube starting with “Cool With You” which featured Jung Ho-yeon known for her role in Squid Games and Shang-Chi actor Tony Leung. In the “A” music video Ho-yeon is shown as Cupid and she wants to fall in love and is willing to throw away her role as Cupid to be with a human who is Psyche. At the start of the “B” music video, you see Ho-yeon also known as Cupid start to have a life with a human also known as Psyche and it seems to be going well till the end of the video where the new Cupid, Tony Leung comes to try to ruin her love with Psyche by shooting an arrow to make him fall in love with another women. What does this have to do with NewJeans? They are Ho-yeon’s thoughts or guardian angels who watch over what she does, trying to make her think about what she wants to do and if it’s right. At the end, they play the EP’s intro song Get Up. Its lyrics are:
“Get up
I don’t wanna fight your shadow
Meet me back in five if I matter to you
like you say, I do”
it is a plea for attention and the lyrics “I don’t wanna fight your shadow” reflect on being overshadowed or ignored by the person you love.
“ETA” was the next music video released where you see NewJeans at a party calling their friend named Eva, telling her that her boyfriend is with another girl and is basically cheating on her.
The name “ETA” also known as “estimate time of arrival” is and it relates to the song by NewJeans who wants to know Eva’s “ETA” is on coming to the party to catch him cheating. At the end of the music video, you see Eva hit her boyfriend and the other girl with her car and then we cut to a scene where Eva drives off with a sleeve hanging out of her trunk which shows us that she killed him out of anger.
The last song that was released was none other than “ASAP” and the music video has sort of a scrapbook theme. The music video has an eerie vibe where it seems NewJeans is hallucinating again but in a different way making it look like their in a cult or in a magical land where they are fairies.
NewJeans U.S. Debut
NewJeans U.S. Debut was at Lollapalooza, a music festival in Chicago that lasted for four days. NewJeans performed on the first day and it was packed with over 70,000 in-person and 137,000 online where NewJeans performed their whole discography.
People went crazy on social media because they said almost 75% of the crowd left after NewJeans performed but NewJeans wasn’t the only group from South Korea, Boy Group Tomorrow x Together, also known as TXT headlined on the third day of the festival. it was their second year performing but first year headlining. Although NewJeans didn’t headline this year, it is rumored that they will headline during the 2024 festival, the same as what TXT did
Collabs and Big Accomplishments
Although NewJeans has individual brand deals, they also have group brand deals differentiating from clothes, food, and even being ambassadors for the city of Seoul. Though being so young they still have a lot of brand deal opportunities, here are the most popular collaborations they had throughout their career.
Apple
NewJeans’ most recent music video “ETA” was shot only on Apple’s iPhone 14 which Apple sponsored. When the music video was first released you had around a 95 percent chance you would get the Apple ad before watching the music video itself. It’s not NewJeans’ first time showing an Apple product in a music video. In “OMG” you see Hanni Saying she’s an iPhone, and when Hyein looks at the time she looks at an Apple Watch.
Coca-Cola
NewJeans’ collaborated with Coke Studios creating their own song with the name “Zero” to promote Coke Zero. It Shows NewJeans’ adventures with a handy refreshing drink to come along. For the album cover, they have the iconic bunny holding a Coke in its hand with Coke’s signature colors. They came out with a performance video and a remix with J.I.D.
McDonald’s
Levi’s
It’s not a surprise that NewJeans collab with Levi’s when their name kind of speaks for itself. The main Levi’s collab was with Levi’s 501 to show people how to express their uniqueness and self-celebration of creativity.
League Of Legends
League of Legends was the most recent collaboration with NewJeans coming out with the song “GODS” for the League of Legends Worlds Championship where it featured an animated version of League of Legends pro-Deft as the focal point of the music video.
It’s not the first time a K-pop group or idols have collaborated with this popular game. K/DA, a K-pop group created by Riot Games had the (G)-idle members Soyeon and Miyeon as the characters Akali and Ahri where they performed on stage with Madison Beer and Jaira Burns for the Opening ceremony at the 2018 Campionships.
Will NewJeans break records like BTS or BLACKPINK? With their refreshing music video, catchy lyrics, and marketing ideas they are sure to rise up to the occasion and be K-Pop’s next international superstar.
